Where Once Where Roses

It was a scream of heart wrenching loss that woke Eddie from her sleep, bolting upright she stares blindly about her room with sleep shadowed eyes. (What...) she thought to herself, (...was that?) she reaches up to scrub the sleep from her eyes and finds them moist, she explores her face then, finding trails of wetness that lead from her eyes and across her cheeks, over her lips even, those lips part and she touches her tongue to one finger and tastes the bitter salt of tears of sorrow.

"Again?" she asks the quiet of the room, her voice slightly hoarse, the realization that the sound which woke her, came from her own mouth, the wetness on her face, her own tears. The loss, her own, still as fresh a wound as it ever was.

Eddie slips from between her silken sheets and parts the curtains that surround her bed in velvet darkness, a zephyr plays about the room, over her hair, fallen in sleep tousled waves of mid-night purple down her back. She stands and walks to the open window that let the fresh spring air into her room and looks out it, gazing up at the brilliant moon, full, as always in this portion of the Land of Night, her eyes drift down as her mind falls back into memory long past....

~~,~~`{@

"I announce Her Majesty's Knight, Lady Edwina lys Farsalas and present her to the Winter Court!" cried the Court Herald, an ugly, toad like being with far too many eyes and tongues for something of it's size and overall shape.

"Allow her entrance to the Winter Court," murmured Her Majesty Baal'el sul Ren, Queen of the Winter Court and the Lands of Night, the noble lady's power making even those soft words echo around the vast hall.

Eddie gave a well concealed sigh of relief as her position was acknowledged by her Queen, who's sense of humor was more than slightly -off- at times. She presents herself at the throne, is given a cursory nod, then excused to join the general revelry of the Queen's party, the Queen herself being much distracted by her consorts' whispered conversation. Eddie makes her first destination the main buffet table, a plate of thinly sliced meats, cheeses, and breads soon taking form as she listens to the chatter around the table. "Oh ho!" one of the courtiers says in response to another's boast, "That's nothing, the Fifth Drakkengard, under -MY- command, destroyed the army of Lx'vk the Red and...." She tunes the boasting court soldiers out as she makes her path around to the other side of the table, a drink being in order, she thinks.

"Pardon Great Lady" comes a soft, hesitant voice from behind the knight, who turns and steps aside in instinctual response to the polite request. What is revealed to her eyes is a woman, or perhaps a young lady, no younger than eighteen, but no older than twenty, dressed in the livery of the Winter Court's servants, and carrying a bowl of blood-gem cherries in sweet liquor. Eddie pauses in filling her glass from the punch bowl to look over the girl closer, opening her overeyes she sees the serving girl's aura, human, pure and simple, and surprisingly enough, untouched.

Eddie, after waiting for the serving girl to finish with her task, touches the girl's shoulder, getting the girl's attention she smiles and asks, "Your name, little one?" The response, a blush and stammered "Mine?" later is, "Alyse, Great Lady, please forgive my rudeness!" The knight just smiles again, nibbling at her lower lip with one little fang as she continues looking the girl over, a -long- looking over, Eddie being no hater of things of beauty like some of her kind, drinks in the serving girl's figure, which is delightfully feminine under the skin-tight outfit she wears, every curve and soft line being in perfect proportion.

Eddie looks upwards at the girl's eyes, taking in the wide, soft pools of liquid blue that make up the windows to Alyse's soul, and feels.... a sharp -tug- deep in her chest. This feeling leaves the knight at a loss for words for a moment, though she does recover quickly, her next words come out brusque, "When your shift is done, report to my quarters."

"Yes Great Lady!" Alyse gasps, her eyes suddenly filling with fear, the tone seeming to promise pain for some imagined slight, bowing once Alyse flees back to the kitchens.

(Eddie, you idiot...) the knight thinks, (...now the girl thinks you're going to kill her, I bet!) She sighs. fills her glass, and picks up her plate, and walks to one far corner of the hall, away from the masses of simpering sycophants and mindless courtiers. She turns her gaze on the crowd and sighs softly, "Every family is represented here today.." she says, not actually talking to anyone, "..and they look worse every century, the oldest grow older, and stronger, while the youngest simply revel in the debauchery that their family power allows them to drown in..."

"Careful," comes a soft, hissing laugh, from just behind her, "Those words could end you expelled from the Winter Court, exiled, and even perhaps killed."

Eddie turns her head to look and spots Reth al Gur, a Theren Drakken, a slightly taller than man sized intelligent humanoid reptile with black scales and a reputation of being fast and loose with any thing that'll get them an advantage, Reth being a spy for the Queen's Consort. "Hello Reth," she says blandly, "I didn't notice you there, if I had I would have brought my sword..." Reth chuckles and remarks, "You almost make it too easy Edwina, do draw your sword here at this revel, and see how fast the Queen's guard, who you ARE supposed to be one of, burns your worthless corpse to ash." The Drakken makes a spitting sound of disdain then continues in a much quieter tone, "Don't even think of crossing me, or even speaking anything about me but in the fondest of tones, half-breed, you're being watched, everywhere, all the time, just ONE wrong move and the Consort's Grey Inquisition will have you staked out before the Light in a heartbeat, oh, and don't touch that girl you where talking to at the buffet, she's my meal, and I'll have her untainted by your touch."

Eddie clenches the hand at her side, pressing four sharp claws through the fingertips of her glove, into her palm, breaking flesh as al Gur throws her impure bloodline back in her face. (You're going to -die- for that,) she thinks as she plasters an emotionless expression across her face. "Really..." she drawls out loud, "...I hope your spies like watching me ride my patrol." turning her head back to look at the Drakken, she finds him to be gone, silent as a ghost, coming and going.

Time passes and the Revel ends, Eddie returns to her quarters to find Alyse there, waiting for her, kneeling and atremble with thoughts of what may be soon to come. The knight looks at the servant as she murmurs, "Please, look at me Alyse," sky blue eyes lift they gaze from the floor to meet Eddie's golden orbs, "Ma'am...?" Alyse whispers, utterly and completely shocked at the breach in formality and class stricture.

"You don't have to stay," Eddie says softly as she walks past the still kneeling Alyse, "Though I would like you to." The purple haired woman turns then and walks to the bath, a whispered WORD and a motion sending her finery to a pile on the other side of the room. The door to the bath opens, letting the lithe form of the half-blood knight through, then closes after she passes, the sound of flowing water soon filling the room.

Alyse looks around the room, taking in the knight's spartan personal decorations, a suit of armor in this corner, a pair of swords on a stand by the bed, a sylrath whip coiled asleep in a small glass tank on the desk. A second circuit about the room reveals nothing else new but the cessation of the sound of running water in the bath. Alyse bites her lower lip, for a moment, still at a loss as to what to do, finally, she makes a choice and peels the servants uniform from her body folding it neatly she sets it on the floor where she was kneeling and goes to the door of the bath, her hand touches the handle and it opens a bit, a crack of a window into the other room, the baths done in shades of pink, from tiled floor to the hue of the wall stones, even small orbs of witchlight which float about illuminating the chamber, revealing the occupant to be lounged in the large tub, eyes closed.

Alyse stops there for a moment, caught between choices again, then following the impetuous heart that is both the blessing and curse of humankind, she slips into the room and closes the door behind her, the latch finally catching with a soft -click- Alyse looks down at Edwina and says softly, "Great Lady.... I choose to stay, if you'll have me.." To this, Eddie replies, "Then, it would please me, if you'd join me in the bath." only opening one eye for a moment as Alyse slips into the water opposite her, giving the human girl a slower examination, taking in every nuance of her body, as if to commit them to memory, this look, so intense even from a single eye, causes Alyse to blush fiercely, till she too is concealed in the water of the bath, the shimmering pink light making the surface of the water opaque.