PART 3: THE IMAGINARIUM
Tina Lafay was struggling to recall the events of the past week. Everything had happened so fast she hadn't been able to think about her arrest, let alone her imprisonment, her career, the narrowly escaped lesbian gangbang in the jail...or the truth of her family. Mistress Em said she had not been born in the human world and that she may have been tied to an ancient race of Fae.
None of this made any sense. It was like a dream and she felt like everything was moving so fast. Her long bath had helped slow her down somewhat. And After her bath, Tina felt like her skin was made of silk and she smelled as divinely enticing as the very sunset.
"The Faewilde suits you, my dear." Mistress Em's soft and full voice lifted Tina from her trance and the young human smiled her master. Mistress? She wasn't sure who Em was to her yet, but Tina was glad Em had invited her to walk in the garden this afternoon.
"Thank you, Mistress. I have to say it's incredible being here."
"Yes, it has been my home many centuries. And it has never lost its charm on me. It's a sacred place. Which must be protected and filled with as much life as it can hold."
Tina nodded then realized she didn't know what the Fae woman was saying. "Filled with life?"
Along a yellow brick pathway that Tina was pretty sure violated a copyright, the two women walked hand in hand and Mistress Em pointed out some of the more exotic plants growing there to her mortal companion. "Did you know that none of the flowers you see here today existed as they do now a thousand years ago?"
"I don't know much about earth plants let alone these." Tina smiled. "These are gorgeous though."
"Yes, and each one has spent centuries growing into what it is now. Possible only because of the context it finds itself in. Each plant adapts, borrows from, or grows with the others around it. The Hermenlies with the yellow sprouting suns and rising orange puffs, they started sprouting pollen only when they were planted near the Avenda's which in turn grew small berries, the juice of which fed the Hermenlies. No thing that lives lives without context. We are as we are because of our nature, our choices, and because of what we allow to grow around us."
Tina suddenly realized the conversation wasn't just about flowers.
"What does that have to do with me?" The human asked.
"Tell me, have you figured it out yet?" Mistress Em asked with a smile as she took a handful of Avenda berries in her hand and touches their juice tenderly to her lips. "The Core of Desire. I asked you the night we met and have been hoping you would reflect on it."
Tine felt a little embarrassed that she had thought more about Marwolfe's amazing dick and Mae's tiny little body more than she had about her mistress' riddle. "No...um no, Ma'am. I haven't figured that out yet."
Mistress Em nodded, showing her disappointment in her eyes. "I see. Well do give it some thought when you have time to spare. The point I was making about the flowers will help you solve it, I am sure. In the meantime, I shall speak more directly. The flowers have evolved, adapted because of the other flowers. They are made stronger by the variety of the garden. The Faewilde is like a garden. We need diversity if we are to keep growing stronger. And we need to keep growing stronger if we are to survive."
Tina smiled, Em was starting to sound like a liberal snowflake rambling about diversity. But then she remembered...the only ones not welcome in the Faewilde was her kind, Humans. Originally a part of this world called the Low Fae. They had been banished after losing a war to the Ravensfolk. She had been brought here, somewhat against the rules...for her safety. "Oh goddammit, am I some kind of refugee?" She thought to herself.
"The Faewilde has six kingdoms, including ours. Each one has its own culture, characteristic, strength, and purpose. Each one effects the others. We are who we are because of the neighboring kingdoms. We are made stronger by one another. Do you understand?"
"Not really." Tina admitted.
Em led Tine further away from her home, passed the gardens where they approached what actually looked like a road, or like Main Street back home. Gravel that looked soft. Streetlights with odd curving posts and warm pink light at the top, even in midday. There were buildings like small shops, homes, and one large structure at the end of the road.
"We are six kingdoms, when 7 there should be. When the Ravensfolk defeated your ancestors it was within their rights to banish the survivors and create the human race. However, they failed to realize the detriment that would cause to the Faewilde. The Lowfae were not called low because they didn't matter. They were the kingdom of the lower rings of our realm. Your kingdom existed in a relationship with the other six. That network of relationships empowered each of us. As the human race has grown, the Faewilde has lost some of itself. Without the Lowfae, the seventh kingdom...your people, we lack the context to be what we are meant to be."
Tina looked back over her shoulder toward the gardens they had left behind. She didn't know what to say, but she wanted Em to go on so she said, "Do you think we...could the Lowfae ever return?"
Mistress Em raised her brow and gestured to a small table with two chairs in front of a black brick building with lively green mortar lining the walls. Tina took her seat and realized this was not very different from a coffee shop she had been to in Italy once.
"It is possible. Some of us have made it our business to see that it is so. Making connections with those who still carry some of their Fae nature. Artists, singers, some builders. We had hoped to build a community of humans with fae affinity to negotiate a return with the Ravensfolk. But the sixth kingdom...they learned of our efforts and declared us traitors to all Faekind and increased their border patrol of earth. The program had to be shut down of course but the seeds were planted. Some humans had felt our call to them and came looking. People like your mother. Who had been told by her worlds healers that there was nothing they could do for her baby. So she called upon one of us and made a deal. A Fae healer brought your mother here and delivered you, not three days walk from this very property. Your mother loved you, Tina. You must know that. But, she was not allowed to stay under the wording of the deal. You would have been but she insisted you stay with her. Shortly after the two of you returned home, the Ravensfolk discovered what happened and they sought vengeance. It's a miracle you survived. Though they made your mothers death look like an accident, they must have assumed you were dead. Until recently, when they sought to ensure you never came looking for us. So they tried to lock you in a prison. We had kept our eye on you, child. And we felt compelled to intervene, or at least offer. It was still your decision of course. And you chose. You called on me, and thrice you declared yourself mine."
Something happened in Tina then. The way Em said the word "mine" sent a pulse through her that felt warm, quick, and soft. She found herself staring at Mistress Em's neckline. She saw the perfect pale skin, the strong shoulders, and the tops of what she knew were striking breasts. Larger than hers by quite a bit and she wondered if they were firm...or soft to the touch. Were her nipples big or small? She bet they tasted like candy.
"Tina?" Mistress Em said, shaking the human from her thoughts.
"Yes, and...I can't thank you enough. Um...so now that I am here...do I have to leave at some point?"
Em snapped her fingers and soon Mae, wearing a small white apron over fishnets made of black and pink fabric making a delicious showing of her thighs. A tight pink bra that seemed to just barely cover her nipples and her eye make up covered in bright blue. She came with a server's tray and set down two lattes. Tina had not ordered anything and neither had Mistress Em, but clearly they had known to make this.
Mistress sipped her and nodded, "You are a welcome guest on my estate as one who is mine. No one in the six kingdoms could come here and harm any who call me Mistress. However, if you leave the property, you are in the Wilde on your own. Any citizen of every kingdom, could have rights to harm or capture you. As a human, you have no standing place here, even as a Fae's servant."
Tina nodded, "Stay on the property. Got it."
"See that you do. After the other night I would assume the Ravensfolk are looking for a chance to take you. And I wouldn't want to know what they'd do if they could get you. Now then, you are welcome here but you did agree to serve, so we must find a way for you to improve my life."
Tina swallowed. Her throat felt dry and the coffee in her mouth tasted sweet when she licked her lips. She studied mistress Em closer. Tina could smell something sweet when the breeze blew past her mistress. Tina was not gay. She liked men. She was a good Christian woman with traditional family values. But when Em called her "mine" and said she needed to maker her mistress' life better...she found herself hoping it might involve Em naked and Tina's hands and tongue on her body.
Mae reached down and with a sweet and loving finger, lifted Tina's jaw, closing her gaping mouth. With a wink, the pixie girl vanished back inside. Em smiled in amusement and Tina collected herself. "um, what did you have in mind?"
Mistress Em nodded to the building they were sitting outside of. "You will work here, at the café Imaginarium."
Em finished her coffee and led Tina inside. The building was a large industrial sized space with a wide open area in the center. Several walled off rooms, sections hidden by colorful curtains. The floor was black marble. All the furniture was finely crafted and Tina felt like she was in one of those movies where vampires have weird mansions for no reason. There was a large red cushioned area in the middle with various chains and hooks reaching down from the ceiling rafters. The "bed" was at least fifty feet across and had benches along the edges made of black leather where guests could sit and...watch the bed? Tina wasn't sure. To the left of the door was a fairly normal looking bar with one end looking like an espresso bar and the other some nightclub set up with glass bottles filled with glowing colors.
