Rinessa stared at the woman in stunned silence. The Woman gave her a gorgeous half-smile and walked around her, eying every inch of Rinessa from head to heels. Normally Rinessa might have lashed out but this place seemed to moving at a disconcertingly slow speed. Instead she merely said, "Where are we?"
The Woman paused in front of Rinessa. "That's a good question." Her voice was unlike any she had ever heard, falling somewhere in between a songbird and the sharp sound of a cracking whip. A mix of beauty and pain. "Your mind? My world? A limbo? Who knows? It does not matter."
The Woman got closer, gently putting her hand on Rinessa's shoulder. The odd fragrance of burning roses and filled Rinessa nostrils. "What does matter is that you're here at long last." She pressed her body against Rinessa's own. Her hands rested on Rinessa's hips.
Rinessa felt her heart beat faster, whether due to fear or lust she didn't know. The scourge. It had to be. "Who are you? What's your name?" she snarled. "Whoever you are, you've possessed the scourge I can guess that much."
The Woman looked at Rinessa lustfully as her hands traveled down past the rukuvu and began to gently caress Rinessa's bare legs. "Why I am the scourge, my love. As to my name? Well, I've had many over the years but you can call me the Crimson Lady. That's a good name for any century wouldn't you say? " she said. "I'm an instrument of fate, just like you, my love."
She moved her face to Rinessa's until their lips were inches apart. "We were meant to find each other! Meant to cut a swath of destruction so grand that the gods themselves will marvel at the sight!"
Before Rinessa could respond the Crimson Lady grabbed her in an iron grip and kissed her deeply. At first Rinessa was filled with revulsion as the taste of coal, ash, and burning flesh consumed her mouth. A river of molten fire flowed through her body until she felt she would burst. Then the foul taste turned to cinnamon and sugar, baked bread, and warm cream. The fire turned to a snug warmth that enveloped her in its safe embrace. Only then was she aware that the Crimson Lady's tongue was pushed deeply into her mouth and that her hands gripped Rinessa's ass tightly.
Rinessa felt herself pushing her own tongue back at the Crimson Lady, clutching at the perfect bosom barely contained by the vermillion velvet. Finally the Crimson Lady broke their embrace and threw her head back and laughed. It was like the sound of an inferno's angry crackling through the inky darkness of a moonlesss night.
The instant her laughter faded, the Crimson Lady took Rinessa's hand and began to dance with her in the light. Their dance together was a dervish of pandemonium and madness. Rinessa saw the faces of so many people she had known as she was spun around. The face of her nanny, of the handsome merchant's son who had been her first, of her master-at-arms, the only person at her father's castle that ever showed her kindness, of slaves she had tormented, of slaves she had been merciful to, of Umbroze, of Seva, of her mother with her delicate and sad beauty, and of her father. Her father most of all.
