While the annual event at the Midnight Gardens was hosted by The Wicked Lady, other houses were invited, too. Invitations were based on whether they reached a quota set by The Wicked Lady. Tibby wondered why Daniel's house wanted the completion to thrive but knowing Daniel, their success probably meant his too. The Gardens were located on a small island near France, on what used to be England. In order to salvage the dying land after the Fourth World War, the large mass had been whittled down to a small island privately owned by the leader of the Sky Landers, Neil Portman. Every year, Neil invited his friends and colleagues to the island to enjoy a much needed vacation.
Tibby stepped off the ship, arm in arm with her brother. The woman and men of their house were clothed in shapeless black garbs and veils; they were closely followed and guarded by one of Daniel's personal crew.
A suited woman was there to greet them at the entrance of the portal. She led them to their personal suites on the islands only palace, The Buckingham Palace. There was a small village a few miles from the palace but it was sectioned off for the occasion. As she was being led to her apartments, Tibby only got a glimpse of the numerous people who were decorating the grounds around the Palace and the new arrivals. They were a week early from the opening date, when the Halloween ball would begin with an introductory ceremony for the upper echelon of Psychs. The following day would be the Virgin Auctions, which meant four days for the revelers to enjoy their purchases, with random parties and events. The next few days were filled with various games, ending with the final grand event, a large ball before everyone's departure.
After Daniel saw her into her room, which was connected to his own private suite, he locked her in to prevent any of the guests to happen upon her before he had the chance to put a warning out about her. He still had to purchase the upgrade on her protection barrier so he was waiting for Zerxes Novos himself, the inventor of the transferable barrier.
Ever since the Psych's had gone from a minority to a majority, Psych's had been required by law to project a mind barrier so they couldn't invade each other's minds. The higher a Pysch's level was, the easier it would be to break through the barrier but those few minutes needed to break through would give the other Pysch enough time to run or cause a distraction. Xerxes Novos had created a program that allowed relatives to transfer a barrier they created to their own blood. It became popular among families who had a high level Psych; a 3.5 Psych could have the barrier of a 4.6 level Psych.
It was said that Xerxes had come up with it because of his own situation. He was born a 1.2, while the rest of his siblings were above the 4.0 mark, while his youngest brother was in the top ten of the highest level of Psych's at a 6.8. Tibby had very few interests but the story of Xerxes greatly interested her. He had been a black sheep, supposed to be thrown out into the Low Lands, but his oldest sibling had taken him under his wings. Stephen Novos was one of the High Six, a group of world leaders who suggested rules for society. Tibby was suitably impressed by all of Zerxes Novos' achievements but what interested her was how he had been loved and protected by his own family, a totally foreign thing to her.
Tibby locked the door on her end, and both the hallway her brother's room. Deciding that she might as well enjoy this little trip, she pushed aside the light white curtains to the balcony door and took in the beautiful view of a real ocean. Over three quarters of the world's oceans were still being cleaned up of the toxic waste. This was one of the places that had clean, crystal blue oceans. This was also the only ocean that Tibby had ever seen. She found that she liked the ocean; the rhythmic waves soothed her and the occasional seagull squawking made she smile. At least one good thing came out of this trip.
A knock came at her door and Tibby started up from her chair and looked at the clock inside her room. She had dozed for about an hour or so. When she opened the door, two women quietly came in, one pushing in a rack of glittery new clothes and the other was carrying a large, black box.
"Did my brother send you?" Tibby asked of the women. They wore the insignia of the palace on their biceps and the white and gold colors that seemed to be the theme of the palace.
The brunette that came in with the clothes smiled and shook her head.
"You must be new here. The Palace provides clothes and accessories for all of their guests here. I'm Mina by the way. Have you had time to check out your closet?" Mina chattered as she led Tibby to sit in front of a vanity mirror.
"I have a closet?"
"Of course you do honey. But those are just normal wear." The other woman chirped up.
Mina chuckled. "Cass, one of those normal clothes cost more than what we make in a month."
Cass continued on as if Mina hadn't spoken. "These clothes are for the ball tonight and the other special occasions in the next two weeks."
"And we're here to dress you and get you ready." Mina finished.
Tibby looked at the clock again, which read four o'clock.
"I thought that the party doesn't start until nine."
"Oh, you sweet, naive girl, it takes that long to get you ready," Cass shook her head despairingly.
"So, what color do you like?" Mina asked without looking at her, already rifling through the rack of clothes.
Before Tibby could answer, Cass spoke up for her.
"Go with the gold. We'll dress her up as the color gold. It's original and simple. It's brilliant!"
"Hmm, she would look lovely in gold. Simple makeup and red lipstick?"
"Yeah, and heavy eyelashes with the tear drops."
"What about jewelry?"
Cass looked away from her black box and looked at Tibby's chest. "I'm guessing you're a thirty four C, honey?"
Tibby could only nod, too fascinated by the two women who seemed to work in tandem. Mina had isolated four dresses, all in black, that she laid out on the bed. Mina took out a small microchip from each of the dresses, put in some code, almost magically, the clothes changes colors to varying shades of gold. Tibby had heard of such material, but never seen it on any of the girls she dressed for the brothel, in her house. Cass meanwhile had littered small, crystal bottles onto the vanity in front of her.
"No jewelry, Mina, so I'm expecting to see some cleavage."
"What?!" Tibby started to get up but Cass held her down and began slathering some flowery cream on her face with a blunt bristled brush. It was disconcerting to be on the other end of the brush, being primped instead of primping.
"I-I don't show a lot of skin. I don't like to."
"How would you know, sweetie? I'll bet you have a hundred pairs of clothes that are all cookie cut like that the outfit you have on here," Cass flicked at the lapel of her cotton shirt with disgust. Tibby looked at Cass's own uniform of a low cut, silk white top and a flowing, gauzy gold skirt. Mina wore a match top but paired it with shiny, metallic gold pants.
"Just a little hint, go with Cass, she knows her stuff. And you'll be saving some time. She always wins arguments." Mina advised.
"Yep, listen to Momma Cass." Cass smirked as she slathered the cream away with an eraser wand.
Tibby took the warning to heart, after many years of being under her brother's foot; it was ingrained in her not to do much protesting. She didn't care one way or the other what she looked like, so whatever she did or did not show mattered nothing to her. But no matter how much she told herself she didn't care, she could not help herself from looking into the mirror with a small thrill of pleasure when she saw what the two ladies had done.
It had taken then three hours to finish with her. Mina had squeezed her into a glittery gold evening gown with a sweetheart bodice and mermaid skirt. It looked like the sequins were minutely rearranging themselves on her body. Cass had decided to forgo the lash tears and instead drew a thick line over her eye lids that that extended into fanciful swirls to her temples. Her lips were the only part of her that wasn't an endless gold; it was a bright red that almost made her lips look bloody and bruised. She wore matching red shoes but they only peeped out when she walked. Mina assured her she looked perfect, ravishing and elegant.
Tibby's hair had been zapped into loose curls that hung down her back and elongated so that it almost hung to her butt. Tibby almost asked how she was supposed to get back her shoulder length hair but she discovered that her hidden vanity actually wanted to keep the long locks. Highlights and lowlights had been added to the golden mass and the lash tears had been intermittently added to the ends of her hair.
During the long and arduous process, Tibby had felt like a Christmas tree, not that she had ever decorated one. The ones she saw on the holograms looked so beautiful but her brother never celebrated Christmas the way people did in the movies. Instead, he had the women in the brothel pose and men would decorate them women instead of a tree. Of course, for the occasion, there was twenty foot plastic tree in the great room already decorated that he had delivered every year.
Mina had wanted to spray her bare arms and chest with a gold glitter, but Cass had scoffed at the idea, complaining that it would be too much glitter. Instead, she had rubbed some pearl lotion all over her, including her face so that she gleamed like the color of a pearl, then attached small champagne colored diamonds in a line from just behind her ears on both sides, going down her neck and across her shoulders to stretch out on her arms and landed at her middle finger.
For the first time in her life, Tibby felt beautiful as she slowly surveyed herself in the mirror. But she didn't want to feel this way; she had no reason to look pretty. The other women that she helped to look pretty did that for the men who would purchase them. Was that what she was doing? After all, her brother had said that he wanted her to represent the face of the Cross family. She was looking pretty for all of his future clients. She was just putting on a golden, glittery front to their dark, dirty business.
