Across the Veil (NornSavant x Strangefate)

The diners looked around slowly, slipping from their collective stupor. Beady ferret eyes sought out almond eyes smeared round with woad, dark eyes found insect globes. Knock climbed halfway up to peek over in the table again. She clung to Violet’s gown with tiny potato encrusted hands.

Etaine too was shaking off the effects of the meal and her gaze slowly rose to take in her charge, perhaps taking in what she had said. The Violet could see the viscous thoughts speed up suddenly as the Fea woman’s eyes widened. She looked down the table quickly. Other people were watching Violet now as well, the beautiful man with his perfect hair, the warrior, the hulking creature with the red hat.

“No, no , no…” muttered Etaine as she stood quickly knocking her Victorian desk chair back in a clatter. She leapt up onto the table her red dress swirling around her, a flurry of leaves around its hem. With one hand she hauled the mortal up onto the table as the other were standing. She was fearfully strong and it was all Violet could do to hang on. Being dragged along by a horse might have been smoother.

“No.” She said to the room in general. Making her way down the table carrying her along like an errant ragdoll. Knock still clung to her skirts whistling alerts and making muted “wheeee” sounds, waving her little hand like a riding cowboy.

The beautiful man reached out as if to halt them but Etaine hefted Violet by her hips into a terrifying throw that arced her closer to the paneled ceiling that she should ever have been. The table and its occupants slid past as the moments stretched into heart racing minutes of mid-air flailing.

And just as quickly, the Lady of Autumn appeared beside her in a rustle of leaves, wrapped her arms around the falling mortal and glided to a soft step right before the closed double doors. She snatched knock from the tangle of gown on Violet’s front and pressed her against the double doors. Her little golden face was squished into a wrinkled Rorschach before the doors flew open like a shot.

The occupants of the table were out of their chairs now and moving toward the doors. Etaine carried Violet with one arm around her. Tossing knock to one side she gave a snap that sounded like a gunshot and the doors closed once again. Then they were on the move zipping along the halls. Etaine ran like a gazelle in huge bounding strides that took them from the corner of one hall to the end before touching the ground again. She held the mortal to her like a child and her wild hair made it hard to see where they were going.

Then, after just a few moments of the thrilling chase, the lights went out and the air grew cooler and fresh. Violet could smell grass, the woods and dust. They were outside, the main house disappearing past a tree line behind them. In an instant more they were deep in the woods.

When Etaine stopped finally and set Violet down carefully, the songs of crickets and cicadas came back to her. The soft rushing of wind in the trees ran over them both like a brook. The clearing was a grassy area in a ring of trees that reached up majestically into a star-filled night. The moon certainly hid somewhere in those boughs.

The night air felt strange on her bare legs under the dress. The grass on her bare ankles was surreal.

“I had no idea.” Said Etaine softly. “I didn’t realize about you but now I do, now I see it. She promised I would understand and now I do.”

For the second time today Violet found herself scooped up in another woman’s arms and carried along like an unruly toddler. At first she didn’t understand why, assuming this was just another of Etain’s mad fancies designed to keep her disoriented and obedient. It wasn’t until they reached they great doors and she looked back to see the other fae following behind them that she realized the woman might be saving her life. Maybe.

When at last they reached the edge of the woods, the house already but a strange and fleeting memory behind them, Violet again felt firm ground come under her feet. That relief seemed secondary to the sudden swirling in her stomach though. Clutching her abdomen, she leaned over, thinking for certain she was going to retch up a soup of fluffy creams and sweet peas and God knows what else. By some good fortune she managed to tamp the urge down though, but not without looking a little drained of color.

“What was that?” she demanded, still panting as she looked up at Etain. “I thought I was under the queen’s protection. Why did we have to run? They weren’t allowed to do anything to me…“ She paused, memories of the monstrous toad creatures and the twisted canine footman and all the rest flashing before her eyes. “…were they?”

Violet then looked up at the stars above, feeling a slight chill as the grasses tickled and pricked her bare feet. Just when things had started to come under some semblance of order again, something she might grasp unto and begin to understand, here she was back in the woods again. It felt like starting over almost. “And understand what? What do you understand? I wish I understood! None of this makes any sense. Why can’t someone just explain things to me? Is that so hard for you people?”

Exhaustion lent an angry hysterical quality to her voice, the fact that Etain was perhaps not someone she wanted to annoy momentarily forgotten in her frustration.

Etaine stepped closer, put a finger to Violet's lips and then moved it right away placing her hands n the mortal's arms. It was a familiar touch, a gentle and kind touch.

“Shhh, shh... yes it is very hard for us. I know language as do some others but we are not like you. We are nothing like you at all. We don't even exist like you. Can you explain the color red to a tree? Can you explain falling to a fish? How can I tell you about what you are to us. I need time to reach a place where you can understand me.” the fae woman said quietly between them. She was very close to Violet now and the wind swirled around and past them to rush off into the dark woods.

“The others cannot harm your body, that is true. But they can twist your self, your mind and whatever else makes you. I knew I was to be your owner but I didn't care about you, not really, not until you did... that.” She said inclining her mane of wild red hair toward the treeline and presumably the house somewhere beyond. The sensations poured in through her hands, down Violet's arms, up into her shoulders. It was like the soothing touch of warm water on her skin.

“And you don't understand. You don't know us like you think you do. I didn't understand how precious you are and now that I do... well I had to get you away from them for a little while. We should be quite safe here. Even if they know where you are, none of them will come here after you. Their greed is not greater than their desire to exist.” Etaine looked thoughtful. She held Violet possessively, like something she was afraid might be swept away from her.

“But still, you should definitely stay with me. Don't wander. And when you...” She twisted her lip reaching for the words.

“...ahhh what is it? When you, think of it? No. Think, know...umm feel. When you feel like it. Yes that's it. When you feel like it. I have some questions that you must answer and some things for you to do. But I know you become more fragile with the passing hours, is there anything you need to do. You mentioned rest.” She let go of Violet but didn't step back. A strange look passed over her pale face even paler in the bright starlight.

“I should also mention that I promised I would answer anything you asked me truthfully. And as I said before, among our people, promises are real. But if you want to ask something, ask it plainly and directly. You just throw questions around like salt. I don't know what you mean to ask or not. ”

Violet was surprised. She had not really expected Etain to answer her directly or do much more than sweep her along into another mad tableaux. Instead her response was surprisingly gentle. Combined with her soothing touch, it robbed the young woman of her anger for the moment. The tension seemed to quickly drain from her body as the fae’s presence washed over it, the sudden spike of adrenaline their flight brought on dissipating just as quickly as it came.

She was left feeling bone tired. A full stomach and an even fuller day had started to weigh most heavily, like leaden shot-puts strapped to her arms and legs. “I am exhausted,” she admitted. “As much as I’d like to get to this place where you can make things clearer for me, I don’t think I can go much further.” Unless the woman carried her there of course, but Violet was not especially fond of being slung around like a sack of flour. Twice in one day was really enough. “I just need a few hours sleep is all…”

Finding an old hollow log, Violet sat down, lifting up her feet to check the bottoms of them. “I could also use some shoes. You forgot to make me shoes. It’s not safe for me to run around the woods barefoot…” The thought struck her that she’d now lost her real clothes and everything she possessed along with them. The baggy fatigues were still back in what she had thought was going to be her room. The boots especially might have been nice, but even the picture of her family was lost to her now. Somehow that stung the most.

“Just a few hours sleep and I can answer your questions. Hopefully.” Something else Etain had said ran through her thoughts, something she wasn’t so certain she liked, and her brow furrowed slightly. “Why did you just say you were my owner? You’re supposed to be my guide or chaperone or something, I thought. ‘Owner’ doesn’t mean the same thing to us…”

“Everyone is owned by someone, and in turn owns someone else. The only thing that matters is why.” Etaine said as she gestured to one side and the trees seemed to swirl by gently leaning to one side, closing their canopies over Violet as a done leaving a single oculus admitting the starlight from the clear sky. The leaves beneath her feet surged up lifting her into a reclining position then flattening out into…what, a bed, an altar? It was soft enough. Woody vined coiled like tentacles of eth earth to form and elaborately curled head and footboard.

“There we are, a place to rest while I do a bit of sorting out. Don’t worry, your person will be perfectly fine here and upon the morrow we can return to the house.” She whispered leaning close to Violet. Her breath held secrets from some far off forest and her hair smelled of the loam all around.

“Don’t worry about your feet. I’ll have a talk with the briars. I don’t think they will give you any trouble. The sticks will be more truculent but I can bring them around.” Etaine touched the gown and it split down the back spreading out like a cover.

“Rest now Lady of Hours. Rest.” She hummed hypnotically bringing down sleep like a veil with only the harmony of crickets and the lullaby of the soft wind in the branches to follow her into exhausted darkness.


Part 3 – The Blood of the Wicked

The darkness of the grove hummed with purpose. There was something about the air, a vibration that made Violet look to one side. The weariness was gone; she was as light as a feather. It seemed that a jump could launch her into the boughs above.

Those boughs were lit with thousands of specks of light as well, like tiny stars burning on every leaf and across each bole. It gave the whole clearing the feel of a ballroom.

Violet realized that she was standing. The bed was gone, the leaves gone. Below her feet, now clad in slippers, a white marble floor that flowed out to the trees where it broke up among the roots.

She wore a ball gown of light blue satin, long gloves and a tiara sparkled in her hair. From somewhere out in the woods a song, a lilting melody in three four time, woodwinds and strings, drifted through the space.

A man stood opposite her across the marble. His long dark hair flowed back from a minimal opera mask that covered just his eyes leaving his light cheeks, mouth and chin free. His outfit made him look like some old fashioned Prussian guardsman, dark blue with deep red panels, brass buttons and a stiff high neck. He stepped forward and offered a bow.

“Violet, Lady of Hours, Savage from the green world. I am Leander, Council of Dreams and Seneschal of Moonlight. It is an honor to meet you. May I have this dance?”

Violet blinked the sleep from her eyes, rubbing at them with the back of her hand. The induced rest had done her a deal of good. She awoke feeling herself again, or better even. There was a buoyancy to her now as if someone had reached in and scooped out all the fear and worry that had been dragging her down. Violet found she did feel less anxious this morning. She had survived a night among these people and Etain had promised to help her understand her purpose here soon enough. Things were progressing, if slowly. Perhaps she was even doing a good job, or as at least as well as anyone could have in these circumstances.

Yawning, she stretched her arms wide, and opened her eyes. That’s when Violet realized she was standing. She froze in that position, immediately taking in her changed surroundings, the twinkling lights, the impossible marble flooring covering the forest’s ground. Lifting her hands up, she started in puzzlement at the shoulder high gloves and then the satin ball gown and slippers.

Finally there was the man in his fanciful uniform and black opera mask. Oh, no… He was clearly one of them, one of the other fae. She did not recall him from the table last night but she did vividly remember their hurried flight through the crisp evening air. Etain had said none would dare follow them out here. Yet her guide was nowhere in sight and here he was instead, hand outstretched expectantly.

“I…” Violet swallowed, glancing quickly around the clearing, hoping the autumn lady might somehow reappear. “Thank you. I am pleased to meet you, but… Do you know where Lady Etain has gone? Perhaps…perhaps I should wait for her to return…” Despite her misgivings, she felt compelled to offer her hand though, rather than leave him standing there mid-bow. “Did she send you here?”

The fae took her hand gently and stepped closer twirling her into a step that led to another and another. His smile was genteel with something predatory lurking in its depths.

“Oh no no my dearest Lady. I am very much an interloper, an insurgent, an uninvited raconteur to be sure.” he said in the most pleasant fashion. His hands, holding her in the style of a waltz, seemed to bleed the same excitement as Etaine's except that his had a rawer edge, a slightly violent tinge to its voltage, as if he might take her at any moment.

“But if it helps at all, you are still sleeping quite soundly and safely in the grove while Etaine the Body Breaker frets over her duty and your future. And this...” He said with an extra turn in their dance. “is all a dream.”

The lights sparkled overhead and his arms were strong holding her.

“Does that make you feel very much better?”

Violet was no experienced ballroom dancer yet with the fae confidently leading, her feet somehow seemed to find their proper place. He twirled and spun her with practiced ease, her skirts fluttering loosely about her ankles. She had difficulty believing this was a dream. It had all felt so real. The soft crinkle of the satin, the hard marble floor beneath them, even the sensation she'd had of just waking up and stretching contently.

"Not really…"

The most realistic thing of all of course was his electric touch which sped up her nerves as his arm encircled her small waist and the other clasped her fingers. It also answered her question about the fae. They would all have this effect on her apparently, not just Etain or the Queen. It didn't seem to matter what she wore, the gloves may as well have been tissue paper for all the protection they provided from him. It did not apparently even matter if the touch was real or merely a dream.

"What is it you want? I'm under the queen's protection, you know," she said, presenting him with her only line of defense. No doubt he already knew, but it might be wise to remind him just the same.

The dancing man twirled her out and then back into his arms. “Oh yes, we all know. Which is why it is curious that you should be in the hands of the Lady of Autumn. She is a killer of great renown, a destroyer of your kind. She has hunted savages all over the green hills and there are very few who know quite so much about devouring your sort as does she.”

He spoke as if the subject were the weather or some passing event of sports. The music lilted along with their steps so closely that it was difficult to discern if it was leading them or vice-verse.

“As for my motive, well, I am generous and kind. My auspice is that of the sleeper, the dreamer. And I offer in my humble way whatever your heart desires. What thing would you like to have?” Her pulled her close and there was the scent of mint and coolness like a person coming in from some frosty evening.

“But I am also a thing of dream myself, and you can never trust dreams. They always lie to the dreamer. And so too do I.” he shrugged in her arms with a careless expression, a carefree smile.

“What do you want then, what gift shall be yours? Truth? Power? Magic? Speak its name and I will make it bend knee to you.”

Even before he confessed to being a liar Violet knew better than to trust Leander. She didn't trust any of these creatures. She knew what they did to humans like herself under normal circumstances. The things she’d seen since coming here had hardly changed her opinion. As individuals and as a whole they seemed mercurial, elusive, and willfully chaotic. Violet knew it would be foolish to trust any of them at face value. Unfortunately, her present situation was such that she was also dependent upon them for most everything, and that included information.

Violet listened intently as the dream weaver described Etain. Killer. Destroyer. Hunter. Few know so much about devouring your sort as she does. She vividly recalled her malicious smiles and flashing white teeth, the ethereal blade she produced when angered, and found herself believing him.

She stiffened slightly as he pulled her closer to his body, his fresh wintergreen smells wafting over her senses. He called himself generous and kind, and offered up her heart’s desire. It sounded like a terrible con to Violet, the sort of offer the villain of the story might make to the innocent fool. A genie's lamp was always bad news for the owner in the end, wasn't it? Still…

“I don’t know,” she answered slowly, as they glided across the marble, “The truth about why I’m here, maybe? I should like to know. But only if you promise that what you show me is the truth and not simply meant to deceive me.” Violet was asking an avowed liar for his word she knew, but Etain had claimed the fae all honored their promises, for whatever that was worth.

The gentleman chuckled at her request turning her into a dizzying spin back to the center of the floor before letting her spin out to the tips of his fingers, then drawing her back to him.

“Ahh my dear, what a request. How can a liar not lie? Named so soon and already you place me before the flame.” He said these things but never let up his secret smile, the promise of something he knew but did not tell, the maddening smugness of a game wherein only he knew the rules.

“Very well my dear Lady of Hours. I shall lie to you and not lie to you at all and in so doing give without taking for such is the meat of the request you are making.” He said making a few more steps turn her once again then spoke again n a chanting voice.

“So tell me, what do we, the named people, eat?
Is it fruits or sticks or the robin's breast meat,
or the products of barley or corn or of wheat?
Have you given a thought to what the named people eat?”

He drew her close and whispered directly into her ear.

“What burns without a flame,
arrives with out a name
treats everyone the same
and slinks away when it is tamed?”

And then just like that, in a blinking instant he was gone leaving Violet to stumble through the last step alone on the dance floor. A floor which began to become fuzzy like bath bubbles. The lights in the trees grew indistinct and distant as the whole scene drifted out of focus. Violet's middle clutched around something, some discomfort that nagged at her, pushed for her attention. Of course she had forgotten about going to the bathroom and now it reached into her dream to remind her with some urgency.

The whole episode took on the aspect of a memory only half saved except for the words of the riddles which blazed still in her mind even as she slid from the cottony sleep back to the strange reality of her bed of leaves, the gown made a bed-cover still keeping its amazing colors. Above her the leaden morning hovered just past daybreak with a distinct lack of cold.

Etaine stood nearby looking pensive, looking at her fingers as if counting but nothing moved, not her, not the fingers. In her red gown and mane of red hair she looked eternal, a goddess among the leaves. She did not seem to notice that Violet was stirring.

Violet lurched forward, stumbling over her own feet, suddenly every bit as clumsy as she would have normally been on a dance floor now that her graceful partner was gone. Leander’s rhymes still echoed in her head though, even as the scene itself rapidly dissolved before her eyes. They could still be heard as she awoke back in the clearing, once again surrounded by Etain’s soft canopy of leaves. Violet did not feel quite as amazingly refreshed this time around, for her legs were stiff from yesterday’s running, but at least the weather seemed unusually clement for early morning.

Gathering her dress-turned-bedspread around her chest, Violet started to rise, noting Etain as soon she did so. Leander’s description of her so-called guardian came back in a whirl and the idea of trying to slip away unseen struck her with a powerful urgency. If only there was someplace to slip away to. Unfortunately, nowhere could truly be considered safe. She was at least forewarned though, twice now in fact. Etain was not to be trusted, and she was no friend of mortals like herself.

And yet, humiliatingly, the very first thing Violet had to do was ask her assistance and leave both. Clearing her throat, she sat upright, the bright blue coverlet held tight above her small breasts. “Excuse me, but I…I need to find a spot to relieve myself. Anywhere halfway private would be fine, behind some bushes or a tree or whatever, it won’t take but a moment. I won’t wander off.” She felt foolishly like a child asking her parent for permission, but she did not want to start the day by angering the woman and the truth was she could not likely wait much longer. “I’m also thirsty again…”

Etaine snapped out of her reverie and looked around as if just noticing that day was creeping through the woods around them.

“Oh my, you are back already.” She said,flexing her fingers. “Your time just slides by doesn't it.”

The morning birds were already starting to make their tentative first chords, the night bugs were packing up their instruments with only a few crickets and cicadas singing them off to their rests.

“I’m not certain what you mean by private. Language is very watery and the terms spread all over each other.” Said Etaine as a column of leaves and vines rose up to form a rest for her. She sat on it without a thought.

“If by private you mean hidden from others then we are certainly that right now. If by private you mean hidden from me then that will never happen.” He casual look darkened into a most serious scowl, chin down and dark eyes lowered. “I have many thing to learn from you and I cannot do that if you are off traipsing the varied paths.”

Then she took a breath and dispelled the former mood as if it had never existed. “But I think I understand what you want to do. Here, come here, you must teach me about it.” The fae woman gestured to the space in front of her and spoke as if class were in session. She sounded excite to learn this new and strange custom of the mortal world.

“Is there a posture for this? Or a position to adopt? Is it called relief, is that the language for it? Here get into... whatever placement you are to use and do nothing further. Let me get am idea of how this works.” Etaine said happily flapping her hands toward the ground before her clearly pleased.

At first Violet wasn’t certain if Etaine was actually serious. She stared up at the fae woman as she was ushered from the bed, clutching the bedclothes around herself, the train dragging through the dewy grass. The dark look that had passed over her face when she’d spoke of privacy had not gone unnoticed, but this seemed crazy. She had a mind to refuse altogether only that really wasn’t a possibility at this point. Violet had gone most of the previous day holding it back and the need had grown physically uncomfortable.

Standing in front of Etaine as the fae eagerly waved her hands about left Violet’s face and neck ablaze with embarrassment. She felt like some kind of performing animal. “I don’t…we don’t do it in front of others. That’s not how it works.” She felt her frustration bubbling over again, the knuckles of her hand growing white as she clenched the cover around herself. “Why are you pretending you don’t know what I’m talking about? I saw you all eating last night! It has to…you have to…that doesn’t make any sense! And this is not how it’s done!”

It was not that Violet was especially proud but this seemed a step too far for the young woman. Etaine had already taken her clothes while manipulating her body’s desires like it was her own plaything yesterday. She was not going to perform for her in this way too. “Look, we just…” Blushing fiercely, Violet let the cover fall away and squatted down gingerly, staring up at the fae with a miserable expression. “…like that, unless we have a toilet or something… And then it just happens, okay? But I’m not doing it with you watching. It’s too weird. I‘ve tried to respect all your rules, why can‘t you do the same with me?”

“Why cant I?” Etaine repeated incredulously. “Is that a question? I did entreat you to be plain and that sounded like a question to me.” Her voice simmered.

In a rustle of leaves she shifted forward off the sitting rest, which fell away behind her, to kneel before the mortal. The leaves gathered under her knees like a cushion.

“Because at any moment I can have your skin for my servant. I can march it around while you watch and scream. And that is precisely what we have been doing since the named people returned. But you are here to make a bridge through all of that.” She took Violets face in her pale hands, her touch was gentle and her voice gathered a hushing tenderness. The sweet sensations love and need dripped from her touch into the squatting woman's face and neck. Her lips came alive with the moments after a kiss that was in her blood alone.

“You understand absolutely nothing about us but I am going to change that. I am going to find a way for you to become the key and you in turn are going to do everything I ask so that you can be that key.” Her face drifted closer to Violet's, her pale visage with the deep darkness for eyes in a nest of wild red hair. The sensations, ran down the inside of her neck like heroin honey to blossom into mortals body, flowering spreads of desire, growing crystal shapes of need.

“You don't understand yet, and I don't have the language for what you are to us. But when your secret is unlocked, then there may be peace between our people.” One hand drifted down from Violet's cheek to her neck and then her shoulder, internal fountains of touch followed it, each pulse like to moment a lovers lips leave her skin, the memory of passion there under her fingertips on Violet.

The exposed position combined with the touch of the fae was having an effect. The breezes that slipped through the trees brushed by them, skirting around her naked skin, flowing over her naked flanks, her thighs, the bared lips of her pussy and even the tight whorl so often hidden.

“So until you know what to do and when to do it, you will do nothing without my leave. Do not disappoint me a second time.” Etaine said softly, her voice a caress of its own on Violet's cheek.

“Now tell me what you need to do, tell me what you feel.”

It was rather difficult to be brave while squatting naked and defenseless on the ground. When Etain came gliding forward, voice tinged with anger as she regaled her with the terrors she might inflict on disobedient mortals, Violet felt herself shrinking back. She had yet to truly push the fae very hard and had no idea what she may or may not be willing to do. It was a frightful thing to consider though. It was easy to imagine calling her bluff and standing strong so to speak but much harder to do in reality. Her kind killed mortals for sport, Violet knew that, that was the natural order of things now. This was not.

Even if she had decided to stick to her guns, it likely wouldn’t have mattered. As Etaine’s hands reached out, part of Violet wanted to scream and pull away, while another traitorous half welcomed it eagerly. The pleasurable warmth that swam through the creature’s fingertips robbed the young woman of her willpower and her ability to form complex thoughts. In the last few hours her body had experienced more raw sensation than the rest of her life combined. It was likely addicting, she suspected. At the very least it was hard to resist.

Violet held her breath as Etaine’s fingers drifted down to her shoulder, listening while she explained that she was the potential key to peace between their people. All she had to do was whatever the woman said, of course. “Okay,” she answered, her voice coming out in a sudden rush as she released the air from her lungs. “Okay. I need to…to make water, alright? To urinate, to pee…” Her face flushed again and she felt so ridiculous. A bowel movement would be required sooner or later as well, but she thought she might hold that back for now. She had ate very little yesterday, except at the feast, and that was only a few hours ago. “When we drink we have to get rid of the waste…so can’t I just…” Violet looked away from her dark pools and down at the ground, doubting she could hold it back much longer as the wind nipped around her exposed body. “May I do it now, please, Lady Etaine?”

Etaine leaned in as if to kiss Violet, her lips hovered just a breath away, the heady scent of rain fill her senses as shuddering sensations dove into the squatting woman like a pool, rippling her nerves. Still on her knees Etaine drew the mortal forward slightly, just a little off balance, leaning on the red haired wildling just a little.

“Yes dearest one, do so now. Tell me when you start.” She whispered making the trees seem to close in, the word to shrink until it felt like just the two of them, the fae and the mortal, in all the world. Her request so odd but this close to Violet, she could not possible see her, could not watch the proceeding like a lecherous voyeur.

Her pink lips just touched Violet's, just the faintest brushing, like butterflies just touching flowers as they pass. Still it ignited little confusing flashes of need that fenced with the embarrassment of the situation before tumbling down into her like falling stars, streaking toward her exposed self.

Violet felt herself being drawn closer to Etaine until her weight had shifted into her arms. The woman’s lips hovered inches before her own, each whispered breath carrying with it promise of irresistible pleasurable. She quivered as permission was finally granted and for a moment she forgot permission for what exactly. For this or for the other thing? Both of them now required the lady’s leave after all.

Closing her eyes, she felt the first trickle release. “I…I am…right now…” It did not stay a trickle of course as she had been holding it far too long for that. They could both hear it striking the soft ground damply and whiff the faintly acrid smell. At the moment when her embarrassment was at its height, she felt the gentle touch of Etaine’s lips, the crackles of heat streaking downward through her body until they centered directly in her sex. Violet’s toes curled in the wet morning grass, the young woman both distracted by the intense feelings and ashamed that her guardian should be making this happen to her now of all times.

With her body strangely relaxed by Etaine’s touch, even as her nerves were afire and her pussy tingling, it was not long before the other need arose. Violet had intended to hold it back until later but she before could control herself, it had slipped free of her puckered opening and onto the wet grass. Her face burned even more brightly, a hint of fear registering in her eyes as she looked at Etaine. “I’m sorry. It just happened…I couldn’t…I’m sorry.” That she felt she had to apologize only made it that much worse, and the fact she was starting to grow wet seemed only the shameful topper on the whole bizarre moment.

Etaine smiled against Violet's mouth, the energy blazing across with each brush of their lips.

“Yes, yes...” She said but the voice was almost a whisper and the sound of it was not for the mortal whom she touched. The grass around their feet waved in a phantom breeze and the Lady of Autumn pressed her lips to her charge. Softly at first and them harder, pressing them into the softness of Violet's, forcing her head to one side.

The power dumped inward through the kiss flowing down Violet's open mouth, arcing through her like a lightning strike. The Fae made a sound into the girl, into her mouth and it seemed to echo in the moment, a butterfly storm of desire rushing across her skin.

“Look what you have done.” She said in a breathing moment. But Violet could not look, could not move from Etaine's grasp. The next kiss brought another gong strike of power that drove down into her body rushing like a released river straight to her sex. Its waves caressed the mortal's nipples, her breasts, her back, the under-swell of her ass and flared explosively in the exposed area of her pussy lighting up the nerves like a shock.

Everything caught a kind of fire that demands attention but can't be touched. The lips, the clit, the hidden opening and the clenching whorl, caught in a punishing current.

“You must learn.” Etaine said breathlessly. Was this effecting her? Was she feeling this? Another kiss to command forth another set of spasms, even harder this time, clutching, her diaphragm contracting on its own making her grunt into the sensuous assault. And within her it felt like she was coming apart, like her pieces were separate things and the “her” the held everything together was made thin by this blinding pleasure.

“I warned you not to disobey me.” She said dripping with a venom of hot emotion in her voice. The next kiss pounded her again with power and something changed inside Violet. There was no way to know for sure what exactly it was but Etaine had made an alteration to her somewhere and it echoed through her like a hammer shot, a bell strike of need that spiraled upwards fearfully, terrifyingly delightful, dragging at her sanity, pulling her from the real of what humans are meant to experience.

A shudder passed back up through Violet’s body as Etaine’s lips pressed into her own, an aftershock from the torrent of electric sensation that had flowed past her stomach and deep into her sex. She felt her herself falling forward, her hands forced to clutch at the fae’s strong upper arms, digging at the soft fabric that covered them. There are very few who know quite so much about devouring your sort. A killer, a destroyer, a hunter… Violet tried to repeat these warnings like a mantra, something to keep her from spiraling into the moment, but the words soon blurred and dripped and lost their meaning, washed away by the torrential sensations rushing through her nerves.

Another insistent kiss and she wanted to shriek aloud from the sudden punishing need that flooded her body. If the touches were like rocks tossed in a lake, the warm ripples flowing outward, these were something far more violent, enormous impacts that sent waves crashing against her senses. Her own sense of self seemed washed away in the torrent, survived only by a burning desire and some vague recollection of the woman hovering above, the one pressing her lips and body into her own.

“Please,” were the first words that escaped her mouth when Etaine at last let her draw breath again. Even Violet did not know for certain what she meant. Please more, please let me come, but certainly not please stop, not at this point, not with her nipples hardening and lances of need pricking at her warm wet sex. Her soft hazel eyes peered into the dark depthless pools of the fae, voice a strained whisper as she felt something rearrange itself from within. “What…what did you just do to me…?”

Etaine drew back rising to her full height over the crouching mortal. “What a failure.” She said looking at her own fingers, turning her pale hands over to examine their smooth backs.

“Certainly I felt something, but I put in as much came back. That cannot be the secret. How did it happen before? How did you do it?” She said speaking as if she alone existed in the whole of the wood, haughty, arrogant.

“Why does she not just tell me, why must I stumble around like this, in the dark, in the mist like some savage. Am I mean to suffer? Am I meant to be punished before some revelation? It is infuriating.” She huffed before turning on Violet with a whip like finger leveled at her.

“And as for you. I suppose you find my consternation a jest to be sure. I have made a change that will yield some benefits to our mutual goal I have...” She considered her words.

“I have made a change to you that will produce pleasure when you next do this.” She said indicating her leavings. “Perhaps it is possible to...”

Etaine suddenly stopped talking when an arrow appeared from her chest. The ash wood shaft was white and smooth with a white fletching. She looked down at it incredulously where it protruded from her red gown.

The next two came in rapid succession, heavy thunks as one slammed in just below a collarbone and the next slid into her pretty swan's neck whipping her backwards with its force, tumbling her to the ground like a sack of bones.

In the wood line crouched a woman no older then Violet herself, a cape of leaves woven together and around her shoulders. A collection of shirts and pieces of a black rain slicker cut down into a tabard, denim pants legs cut down to chaps like Native American breeches. Her wild black hair tangled around her terrified face, a human face, a mortal face doped on the sudden high of a proximity to death.

Her brown eyes found Violet's and her chapped lips made a word that had no sound but it was as clear as if she had shouted.

“Run!”

Violet stared blankly at the woman, having only just been released from Etain's intense hold. Once again events were soaring past her at a maddening pace and her brain scrambled in an effort to catch up. The fae had been acting peculiar, addressing herself in puzzled tones, seemingly almost disappointed somehow. Violet had worried she'd done something wrong somehow, but no explanation followed. Instead it all changed in a single instant as an arrow pierced Etain's chest, followed rapidly by another then a third, until she fell gracelessly to the earth.

As her mind caught up and realization dawned, Violet was still left staring, now in utter disbelief. This was the first human she'd seen since Quiet Company's scouts had left and her first instinct was to comply with her order. Run! She rose up quickly, still naked, for last night's gown remained a bed sheet and that was far too cumbersome to go racing off into the woods clutching between her hands. Run! Violet took a step towards the edge of the clearing, towards the savage-looking woman, wanting to reach out and grab her just to confirm that she was in fact real. One more step, ready to go racing off again to God knows where, but then suddenly she stopped.

Violet glanced down at Etain and wondered if she was actually dead. Can they be killed like that? It was never entirely clear to her. Some people made it sound as though they only died when they wished it. She had been her guide, assigned by the Queen, and possibly the only reason she was still alive after last night. She didn't trust her yet it felt strange to simply leave her behind now, to not even check if she was alive first.

"Who are you?" Violet asked the woman, trying to speak calmly, and not let the other's evident fear bleed into herself. It would be so much easier to simply run. "I'm from Halifax Bend. They sent me here as an envoy…" It was this as much as any concern for Etain that made her hesitate, despite how badly one part of her wished to join this woman and flee. She was frightened and uncertain and regretful of ever volunteering but another small part of her remained devoted to completing her mission. "I…I think you just killed my guide…"

The brown eyes of the forest girl stared out in a a horror verging on despair she gazed at Violet as if the world had just fallen away and they were the only two left in some insane frame. He lips moved slightly as if searching for some word to cover the occasion, some word to express her sorrow. The very light in her eyes changed. Instead of seeing Violet as a target, a victim that could be saved, the huntress saw her as a casualty, a broken thing, one of so very many left in the wake of yet another murderous creature spilled from the past sky onto an undeserving world.

She brought her bow up, another arrow nocked and ready, its dark metal tip gleaming along its razor edge. Clearly she meant to put the mortal woman out of her supposed misery, or perhaps to rob the Fae of a plaything. The muscles along her arms and shoulders held the bow like iron and the string creaked in the swift draw. There was no where to go, no way to get away from that deadly action.

The fingers moved a shade and the string loosed with a swish, a scrape of arrow on bow staff. The arrow was so much faster that one might imagine. And the lashing vines that whipped up were even faster.

Several vines snatched the arrow out of the air while a web of vines and limbs caught the shooter from all directions. It was the space of a blink and she was suspended at the edge of the tree line like a moth in a web. And not a kind web either, or a patient one, its strands pulled the ark haired woman hard forcing her spread eagle in the air, tension filling her limbs immediately trying to keep the joints together.

“Oh well done little creature, well done. I didn't even see you there.” Said Etaine. She stood off to one side naked. Her dress lay on the ground filled with leaves, pinioned with the shafts. Her body was as pale and smooth as her face. The swells of her breasts rising from her form as classically perfect as and sculptor might make with pink tips blushing in the new day. The curves of her hips parenthesized the juncture of her thighs where there hung a perfectly formed male organ. There was no sign of a scrotum or any such normalcy as that. A light dusting of golden fuzz crested where the shaft met her pale body, its flaring tip slightly darker and as pink as her nipples.

“Did you really think this was going to go any other way my little wood mouse?” She asked moving toward the caught woman, the steps making her bottom switch back and forth. The bow, caught in its own set of vines, popped as the string gave way, the vines began twisting it slowly so that the wood made a tortured cracking sound, traitor to its Autumn mistress.

“I am going to eat your pain, wicked little savage. I am gong to wear your screams like jewels in the dawn.” Etain said with the beginning of a joyous laugh lurking in her tone, drawing closer as the woman struggled to keep her shoulders in their sockets.

Violet saw the change coming over the woman's face and realized too late her intention. Her hands came out, palms open, as though she might ward off death that way. Had she really come so far and gone through all of this to be killed by one of her one kind? "Wait, wait!" she yelled as the drawstring stretched back and the arrow head glinted with deadly promise. Then like that it was loosed leaving Violet without so much as time to blink.

What saved her life happened so quickly she could barely make sense of it. One moment the arrow was leaving the bow, the next it was twisted in a mess of vines inches from her chest. Violet watched her would-be murderer rise from the ground, carried aloft by the same, her features now contorted with pain as the coils nearly wrenched her limbs from their sockets.

It was Etain of course, Violet knew that before she even saw her sauntering into view, mocking the human for her brave if hopeless efforts. For a brief moment Violet felt conflicted. This woman had tried to kill her just seconds ago and very nearly succeeded. No one had ever done such a thing and the emotions that bubbled to the surface were primitive and raw. That part of her would have been perfectly satisfied to see Etain slay her in return. The other part, the part that in a rational moment she might have said made her human, made her take a step towards the fae.

"Please," she said, and for a moment her voice caught as she saw the appendage hanging between Etain's legs. It was the same as with knock. Were all the fae this way? It might explain why she'd found her so fascinating in the bedroom the other day and seemed so ignorant of how her body worked. She wasn't certain what it meant beyond that, but there were more important things to deal with right now. "Lady Etain, don't kill her! I know what she did…but…" Violet took another step then stopped, afraid to approach the fae with the look of murderous rage -- no, joy -- flashing through her dark eyes. "I… I'm begging you, please. For the woman's life. Please!”

Etaine opened her mouth and then stopped in mid breath as Violet spoke. She looked back as if suddenly realizing the mortal was there.

“What did you say? What did you say to me?” She said gathering her might like a storm, the leaves rising up around her slowly, twirling slowly in the air.

“You are telling me to spare this creature? Did you see what it did? Do you not understand it malice?” She said with a rising tone gesturing back at the woman hanging in the vines.

“You say not to kill her but that wasteful vermin tried to kill me did she not? She wanted to destroy me and she cannot even feed! She cannot even comprehend what she would be destroying!” The vines gave a tug tighter and the woman called out, an animal's pain cry pushed through clenched teeth.

She advanced on Violet as she spoke, her naked body lithe and smooth, pale and perfect right down to the odd addition between her thighs.

“What possible reason would I have for denying myself this...” She raged before the spark of an answer glimmered in her deep dark eyes. She noted Violet's stance, her place in the grove, the fact that she had not run when the chance was upon her. Etaine's teeth clicked closed on that comment to start another.

“Fine, you have shown...surprising restraint. But a price must be paid. What price for three arrows and killing intent? Your first act of diplomacy Envoy, how exciting.” She said once again taken with a psychopathic glee while the woman loosed another cry of pain. Surely her time was almost up.