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Across the Veil (NornSavant x Strangefate)

Violet flinched as the autumn lady reformed before her eyes, the Fae’s elegant shape suddenly entwined with her own, hands settling atop her slim pale shoulders. The sensation that followed the creature’s touch stole both her words and breath away. It seemed to travel directly through her skin, tingling up her spine and deep into her core. She could only listen as the woman spoke, her warm fragrant breathe enveloping her senses.

The queen had plans for her. That is what she was being told. Plans that protected her from being harmed, plans that involved changing her somehow. She didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, but the thought did very little to calm her nerves. The glimpse of fear that passed through Etain’s expression upon mentioning the Queen’s displeasure was in itself alarming. If something could rattle this sly imposing creature then how terrible must it truly be?

As Etain returned to the matter at hand, finger burning a gentle path from her chin to her chest, Violet bit the inside of her lip, a flush creeping into her cheeks. She was frightened of the woman yet entranced as well. Was it relief she felt when she finally pulled away or disappointment? Could she even trust herself in this strange place? How much of what she experienced was true and how much the result of the Fae’s magics?

“I could probably just…” Violet started to reply then trailed off, knowing the woman was not going to be satisfied until she did as she’d asked. Reaching around she unfastened her bra and shrugged the straps off her shoulders, letting it drop to the floor. Then followed her panties, pushing them down her slim hips, until they fell past her knees and she could step free of them. Crossing her arms over chest, Violet now turned back to Etain, her blush rekindling as she awaited her next instructions.
 
The Lady of Autumn rose from the bed bringing her hands together in front of her in a silent clap.

“There we go, well done. Now we wont have to worry about those...things again.” She said clearly dismissing them with a wave of her hand. They simply stayed where they were on the floor though. Despite the amazing and mystifying powers Violet had witnessed so far, sweaty clothes were going to be dealt with at some other time.

“Now lets have a look shall we.” Etaine said touching her shoulder again, turning her against her own notions. Once again sparks leapt from fingertips into Violet's blood, massaging their way to her core. The single touch radiated warmth and need but Etaine seemed oblivious to the effects. Her black eyes moved over her charge's form.

“Hmmm your coloring is a bit pale for night, and you are too thin for sunset, ocean perhaps or canopy.” She mumbled, deep in thought. She took hold of Violet's other shoulder ramping up the effect. The two sensations mixed somewhere behind Violet's lungs and ran down her spine toward some unsuspected deepness between her hipbones. It was like a glowing core there feeding on the power that flowed from the Fae woman and feeding it back into her nerves like a lover's touch.

“No, submerged I think. Yes submerged and a touch of panic. I think that will do nicely don't you?” She said turning her deep shark black eyes up to Violet.
 
Violet stood transfixed as the Lady Etain took hold of her again, the strange sensual power of her touch blanking her thoughts. Her soft hazel eyes, round and awestruck as a doe caught in headlines, gazed back at the Fae’s sharp features, watching as she took her measure with her own dark pools. She could make little sense of what she saying, knowing only that she was being judge for something, quite possibly something significant given the import she’d seemed to give seasonal words like autumn, sunset, and winter so far.

As the woman’s other hand clapped onto her shoulder, Violet could not surpress a shuddering gasp. Her nerves were jangling with whatever flowed from this creature, burning at her insides, but in a way that was not unpleasant. In fact it was distractingly pleasurable. She understood on some level that she was being enthralled by this women simply as a result of her touch, yet could not bring herself to pull away.

“I, I don’t understand,” she managed to gasp, as Etain’s eyes drifted back up to her face. “What does that all mean? Why am I submerged?” It wasn’t a term she at all liked. It sounded ominous and in truth she had never been a great swimmer or especially liked the water. Surely she meant some coloring or patterning though. Don’t make yourself seem more ridiculous. “...I’m sure you know best…”
 
A look of sweet malice crept across Etain's features like a sunrise, the slow grin, the knowing look in her bottomless eyes.

“Ahh yes, yes I do. I know a great many things.” She said like a snake hissing to its brief pet mouse. He hands softened and roamed up over the smoothness of Violet's bare shoulders and down her arms as the flame haired fae stepped closer. Her warm hands switched to Violet's hips and followed their slight curve up to her ribs all the while sending small gusts of sweet sensations as if from some nearby wildfire into the human's center.

“And we have yet to actually get your dress, leaving you here with me, naked....exposed.” She purred letting one hand ride up the slop of Violet's ribs to the outer curve of her breast, fingertips following it around, sparks of delicious sweetness like hot breaths on her skin from each skipping touch.

“Tell me, what is it you feel, what do you want?” She asked bringing her pink lips close to her charge's cheek, letting the charge arc invisibly there, a brush of her skin on Violet's.
 
Violet noted the malicious glint in the Fae’s eyes, a grin cutting across her face as she drew closer, yet still she could not find the will to break away. A warm flush spread over her normally pale skin as the woman’s hands swept teasingly over her body, leaving smoldering trails of coldfire in their wake. By this time her arms had dropped away from her breasts to hang loosely at her sides, her fingers pressing into the soft flesh of her bare thighs. Violet’s own lips parted slightly as Etain’s came to hover just a hair’s breadth from her blushing cheek.

“I…I don’t know,” she whispered, truthfully, unable to keep from looking into her dark pools, at once caught in their unfathomable depths. It was madness that her body was responding this way, a tightening ball of warmth gathering just below her stomach, all from the light caresses of a woman who in truth terrified her. “…your touch, it’s just…I…” Violet shivered as she felt the woman’s fiery tresses tickling the side of her neck. “…you’re doing something me…please, I…you said I have to get ready…”
 
Etaine smiled, she grinned leaning forward bringing smiling lips to the soft spot just under Violet's ear, quite close to the jugular vein, close to the pulse there.

The room seemed deeply quiet as if the very furniture itself sought to stay out of the way. To the eye it even seemed to withdraw slightly in that strange lensing that sometimes happens when one is afraid for their life. And she was so close. How many humans had ever been so close to an apex predator and lived more than a moment. In all their cruelty, what fae could ever say they allowed a human heart to beat on from this distance. Violet might as well have been climbing into the jaws of a shark.

“I have so many questions for you.” She whispered into the captive woman's flesh. “I know this feels good to you, I can tell.” Her gown pressed against unclothed skin, covered breasts soft and yielding against Violet's own. One fae hand circling fingers inward toward a nipple hidden between them; sensations going off like snapping fireworks down into the dark well of her body.

“But you can't feel like this forever, can you?” Her breath was in Violet's ear, getting lost in her hair, warm and summer field wild; her lips right behind it planting a tiny kiss for punctuation, teeth just grazing the tender spot like a bullet too close.

“It circles up like hunting birds, here, yes?” Etaine asked lightly moving the hand on Violet's hip to the subtle under-curve of her tummy, the falloff beneath her belly button but not yet to her sex. A new volley of sensations sprang to life there, a panic of doves winging across her nerves, threatening her attention, her grip on the moment.

“But it can't last, can it?” Etaine's hair, scented like warm rain, like the fragrant dust of summer's end, seemed to wash across Violet's face. Her fingers followed the decline towards the triangle of the mortal's sex tucked away tightly between frightened thighs.

“It grows and grows, it becomes unbearable...” She whispered as if blowing on the coals set atumble in the envoy's senses.

“But then something happens doesn't it? Tell me dearest creature from far away, what happens then?”
 
Violet’s eyes squeezed shut as Etain's lips brushed at the spot behind her ear, a rush of blood surging through her veins as her body awakened. Fear pricked her every nerve even as searing tendrils wormed their way past her flimsy defenses, creating a mix of raw sensation that made it difficult to think. This was a new kind of a pleasure, one intoxicating in its contrasts, formed from something so subtle as a gust of warm breath or the trace of a nail on soft flesh, yet ferocious in its effects, burning, clawing, beating at her insides. If all the fae could toy with her in this manner, with this ease, she was lost, Violet knew.

Her breath quickened as the woman’s chest pressed into her own, a plaintive whimper emerging from the back of her throat as teasing fingers sent lances of sensual pleasure stabbing into her core. They did not stop there though, did not even pause, moving mercifully down the smooth expanse of her belly and towards the ‘V’ between her thighs. Throughout it all, Etain’s quiet knowing voiced mocked her, warm sweet breath tickling her sweat-beaded face, bringing with it the scents of late summer showers and the onset of autumn decay.

She had no voice to answer the woman's final query but it was not required. The shuddering moan that escaped her lips was answer enough, a tremor rising up her back as her frail body finally surrendered to the inevitable, a wave of primitive pleasure for the moment eclipsing other concerns. Violet was left panting in its wake and when she finally opened her eyes to meet Etain’s once more, a dark blush joined the heated flush on her face. The woman had played her like some crude instrument, touching but a few simple notes, yet drawing the exact sound she had desired from her depths.

“I…” Violet could think of nothing to say though. She did not even know what to desire in truth. That the autumn lady would be content and release her hold, taking her away to her bath or whatever else, or that she might extend the moment and push her even further. For if she could produce such with a touch, what might she produce with more?
 
Etaine pulled back suddenly and raised her hands to look at them, flipping them over and then back. Then she turned her dark gaze up to Violet as anger flooded into her features, twisting them into a hideous mask of their beauty.

“You! How could you!” She said with words that sounded like they were on fire. But the temperature of the room dropped making Violet's next breath come out in a ghost of mist. Gold and red leaves whirled up behind the enraged fae woman.

“I meet you in your peace, I show you through the house...I touched you! And this is what you return me?” She said venomously as the light began to filter out of the room, its corners becoming darker and the flurry of leaves thundering all around them.

One pale hand reached out and snatched back a blade from the maelstrom. It gleamed in the half light, its elegantly curved back seemed made of water, flowing and rippling. But toward its edge it became more and more solid until the razor bend of its blade was a slice of diamond that fulminated with mist as if it murdered the very air through which it passed.

“I am your guide! I am! You will do nothing without asking me, without begging me!” The energy that came from her now was needles and glass, a hard static in Violet's veins like a limb just waking up.

In a sudden motion Etaine reached forward as if to claw out Violet's eyes but instead of slashing her nails across the mortal's face, she just touched it lightly and then pulled back with great force. Violet could hear a tearing sound like fabric being ripped apart and it resonated all up and down her bare form, something being ripped right off of her skin.

In an instant she saw a figure or something very like a figure kneeling at Etaine's feet. It had a faint shape to it but its body was almost entirely empty, nonexistent. Its form was only apparent because of the dust and dirt on its invisible skin, lines of grime and some spots of soil that defined it cowering before the imperious fae with her sunset hair now wild.

The recognition was instant and eerie, those movements, that shoulder stooped form bent in terror. It was Violet herself. And just as swiftly it became apparent that her skin was as smooth and unsullied as a newborn's. All the dirt of travel, of the run and the last few exhausting hours now crouched before Etaine in a fearful simulacrum of Violet herself.

“Can you remember it? Can you remember to ask me before doing anything like you just did?” She said with her jet eyes on the real envoy while her dirt copy seemed to wordlessly gesture and bow, desperation in her every movement.
 
Violet was already embarrassed over what had happened but Etaine’s reaction rendered her mortified. She suddenly felt like a small child again, caught by her mother doing something nasty and wrong. It might not truly be her fault yet she felt it was on some level, for surely this was not why she’d been sent here. She’d come as representation of humanity and this was what she’d done within just the first few hours. Violet shrank away from the fae’s angry accusations, her body language submissive as she drew inward from fear and confusion both.

When the spikes of pleasure turned to pain she cried out and thought for sure Etaine was going to strike her with the wicked blade she produced, slash out her eyes, tear through her throat. “Please,” she murmured, flinching from the woman’s surprisingly gentle touch. What happened next was impossible and she almost wished she might pass out or faint away rather than witness it. Already her mind had been overrun with more strangeness than it could properly filter. Now she was looking at the outline of herself drawn in specks of dust and sweat smeared filth. Somehow she had torn it from her own body and given it shape. The fae had seemed to control Violet from the moment they met, filling her with irresistible pleasure, then sudden terror, and now this strange violation…

“I’m sorry,” was all she could think to say, watching her effigy of filth cringe and debase itself, and realizing she must not look much different as she held her hands up protectively before her bare chest. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know! I don’t know what I’m supposed to do here! I didn’t mean to offend you, truly I didn’t.” Violet felt so foolish begging this cruel creature’s forgiveness for an offense that was barely her own doing at all, but what else could she say? She truly hadn’t meant to offend, that was the last thing she wanted. Now Etaine was demanding she give up further control of herself as way of apology. “I’ll remember… I’m not…. It wasn’t intentional.”
 
Suddenly all the leaves stopped in their whirling paths, the crashing thunder of their storm cutting out like a needle lifting off the record. Their red and gold faces spun slowly in the air as Etaine looked down on Violet, unsure.

“Wasn't intentional…” She repeated warily, processing the idea as if it had never occurred to her before.

“So you are saying that it is because of what I was doing? That you don’t just decide to do that?” She asked waving the misty knife blade around casually. The invisible figure on the floor gestured back to the spotless mortal and then to Etaine before abasing itself once again. So strange to see Violet’s mannerisms in the strange creation; clearly it had only fear and none of the courage or anything else that had gotten the original this far. The fae woman didn’t give her a chance to answer.

“So it really does just happen, all on its own. I mean, certainly at the behest of some feeling or another, but it’s not really up to you. No, that’s not right.” Etain said as the leaves began to fall, slowly tumbling from their menacing positions in midair, drifting down to fade out before landing on the bed and the floor.

“I happen to know that your being can bring it upon yourselves or each other.” She moved toward Violet with a wary look but the insulted malice from before was gone. The Partially visible form crouched before her sunset colored gown and she gave it a vicious kick as she passed it sending its translucent form thudding across the floor like a real body. It bent and clutched at its center seemingly in pain and distress.

“But you’re saying it’s not a cultural act, not a ritual. That is fascinating.” The red haired creature said tossing the knife to one side. It disappeared into a waft of steam as soon as it escaped her pale fingers. The temperature had risen back to its comfortable level once again but coming from the freezing moments before the room now felt hot.

With steady hands she gathered Violet up again making little shushing noises like one might do with a child or a stray cat to keep them calm. Her touch flared with the pleasant feelings again but only touching Violet’s arms and hands it was less likely to take control again.

“Now , now, come, come, let get you back to the center here.” She flashed a brilliant smile. “See how much we are learning already. I am so pleased.”

The figure on the floor tried to reach out but curled into a ball again shuddering with pain and perhaps sobs. Etaine didn’t notice.

“But you do have to remember that I am your guide. So you need my permission to… ahh…to…” She paused in her schoolmarm-ish lecture and set her jaw. Clearly this was a sign of embarrassment among the fae.

“What is your language for what that was.” She asked quietly, leaning in as if to escape notice by some unseen audience.
 
Violet’s breathing began to calm as the fae’s fury abated. Her body language remained guarded though until Etaine swept her back into her arms, soothing the small woman with the renewal of her touch and gentle tones. By this point she truly was exhausted, emotionally and physically drained. All she really wanted was the creature to let her be for awhile so that she could begin to process everything that had happened so far and find herself again. It seemed unlikely that was going to happen though. She still had the queen to meet and that thought was beyond daunting. At the moment, Violet felt unfit to meet anyone or anything, her nerve and self-confidence spent by the constant rush of events.

The fae woman was smiling at her now and it would have been a hard smile to resist if she had not see the same beautiful face contorted in rage just seconds ago. The cringing suffering figure on the floor did not help either. Was it a threat meant to frighten her or did these creatures simply not know or care how their actions were perceived? Violet knew she had to learn, had to figure them out as quickly as she could if she was to survive, but so far it seemed she’d only made errors and discovered very little in the process.

“Orgasm,” she replied in a quiet voice, feeling silly at having to answer such a question. It brought her memory back to Etain’s puzzlement over her clothes though, and she wondered if her host really was being sincere in her responses. Did the fae understand so little about them? Did some of their cruelty perhaps stem from that ignorance? Maybe if I help them understand us…maybe they might change… Or maybe they’ll use that knowledge for evem greater wickedness. “It…it’s not exactly voluntary, but there are ways to cause them, yes. It usually happens when we make love. Ideally.”
 
Etain narrowed her dark eyes at Violet’s words. “Pfft. Orgasm, Make love, that is hiding language. That is clothing language.” She said reaching out to produce a wide brown leaf in the same way she had snagged a knife earlier.

The dirt creature scuttled across the floor pitifully and secreted itself in a corner as far from the fire maned fae as it could.

“When you use hiding language it’s all here.” Etain tapped her on the forehead and then slapped the leafed lightly to the plain of her chest just above her breasts. She tilted her head critically assessing the leaf’s placement holding it there with her fingers.

“When you use real language it comes from somewhere else, here…or here.” She indicated Violet’s chest and then her abdomen. Then with a little nod to herself that dislodged a single red curl, she grabbed up the mortal’s hand and placed it over the leaf. “Hold this.”

With a seamstress’ touch she tugged out the edges of the leaf and it in return stretched and opened as it was pulled until it hung like cloth over Violets’ chest, the softness of the leaf become thin dark velvet. In the operation Etaine’s fingers brushed and touch her skin. It was all very efficient on the fae woman’s part but her skin still sent tiny shooting stars across the nerves there.

“By the by, dear creature. I happen to know that when you meet the queen at the feast you will be granted the freedom of the table. Do you know…” Having tugged the fabric lower and wider, experimentally wrapping it around her middle, she stopped for a small laugh.

“Oh, of course you don’t. It means that you will be able to do or say whatever you want while you are at the table.” She said still distracted by the crafting of the gown. She moved around Violet lithely snagging the edges and pressing them together. Her touch tumbled a few more tiny comets of pleasure into Violet, hot embers looking to blaze up again in her breathing and lower.

“I would suggest that you eat something and drink as well. I know your sort needs to eat and drink.” The fabric was tight around her middle and hung in short pleats just to the level of her thighs where they hid her sex and to the under-curve of her buttock. Etaine appeared from around the other side of her and knelt, pulling the fabric down in under her touch it lengthened and fed out easily until it covered her bare toes with a bit to spare.

“What it really means is that all others are forbidden from finding offense in anything you do. It’s a very rare thing. I hope you can appreciate how very unusual all of this is for us.” Etaine said without a trace of irony in her voice before ducking around behind Violet. Tightening around the knees slightly, tugging at the hips to affix it, fingers rising up the spine to then pull it down exposing Violet’s back and sending flares of pleasure across her skin there.

Then she reached around the envoy’s neck to take hold of the swath she formally held to her chest. “I’ll have that.” Sparking beautiful feelings like snaps of a Tesla coil, Etaine gathered the patch into two strands and crossed them, lengthening them until they met behind her neck.

The effect was an elegant long gown that hugged her form doing nothing to hide any curve. Even Violet’s nipples were on proud display through the thin fabric. It hung backless with a panel that covered her breasts and secured itself around her neck in a choker that then hung down from her bare shoulders like a formal scarf.

From behind, Etaine’s hands slide around her waist, fingers spreading. The surging pleasure leapt through the cloth hardly dampened at all. They rose upward toward her breasts as the Fae breathed in her ear.

“There we go, everything except the color. How do you like it so far?”
 
Violet listened warily as Etain’s dark orbs narrowed and she explained the difference between real and hidden language. She blinked when the fae’s finger tapped her forehead then brushed over her heart, uncertain whether or not she truly understood. She had always considered herself a fairly logical person, not really given to fanciful notions or flights of passion. Violet wasn’t humorless or dour by any means but her work at the hospice was serious and that seriousness had bled into her as well. Very little in her life that had been was exciting was good. In this new world the unusual was almost always bad.

She could not quite conceal a look of wonderment as Etain worked her magic with the leaf though, stretching and tugging at it until it took on the look and texture of real velvet. The little trills of pleasure her occasional touch sent coursing through her body served to keep her teetering on an edge, never quite able to relax or completely focus her thoughts. “It is all very strange for me as well,” she offered in reply to the fae when told about the queen’s table. “I am trying very hard though. I am grateful. For your help, I mean, and the freedom of the table as well.”

The last at least was quite true. If Etain could be trusted, it was a relief to know she would not be judged too harshly for whatever happened tonight. Violet would do her best to make a good impression, to please her hosts, but her experience with Etaine had already led her to believe she could easily offend without knowing it. That was a concern, there were so many concerns, but mainly she found herself hoping the food and drink was not so strange as everything else. Her throat had been parched since the carriage ride and her stomach had started to protest its prolonged emptiness with soft rumbling noises. A proper meal really would be lovely.

“It is very beautiful,” Violet said truthfully as the dress was finished, studying herself in the mirror. She did not quite like how tightly it fitted or the way her nipples poked through the thin fabric, but it was still easily the most elegant thing she’d ever worn in her life. She wondered if she might ask for some modifications, just for decency’s sake, but feeling the fae’s pleasurable warmth clawing up her sides as Etain breathed into her ear, she wasn’t certain if she should risk upsetting her again. “I don’t mind the color…”
 
Etaine smiled against her ear, touching it with her lips, sending a cascade of invisible kisses down the inside of her spine.

“Nonsense, you have terrible taste in colors. But luckily enough for all concerned, I have already decided for you. Now all we have to do is...” She said running her hands up to cup Violet's breasts, squeezing the pert curves upward and sending a growing torrent of sensation inward.

And as she did the fabric changed color in a sweeping wave that was very much like an ocean wave. In the mirror Violet could clearly see the loss of the brown color in a lapping pf foam gray that started around the toe hem and washed upwards in a filmy blue that deepened upwards across the dress. It seemed very much that some sort of submersion video was being played across her dress.

The blue deepened into a dark color, it was the color of abyss, not exactly black but deeper than midnight. And in the movements of the colors there was a hint of something frenzied, something wild. Sharp lines of red cut across the colors of the fabric, swift jagged blood crimson cracks in the deepness as if across the vision of some poor soul in the depths. This was the color of drowning, this dark non-darkness. These red jaggeds, the color of panic.

All the while Etaine held Violet to her, breathing softly against her neck, feeding energy into the dress and into her as well, sending heat back to her middle, sending fire to her hidden furnace.

The fabric itself changed as well, it became wet but not wet. Its texture became smooth and slick, cool to the touch moving from velvet to fine silk. The red lines faded away, drifting off into the dark.

Etaine abruptly let Violet go before the heat could become too much, likely not for that purpose. Just good timing, or perhaps bad timing for anyone seeking release. She stepped back and turned Violet. The dress now carried the dangerous red only on the very tips of its wrinkles. The calling color followed her curves through the darkness of the gown.

“Well you look passable I should think.” She said clearly pleased with herself and the result.
 
Violet sucked in a sharp breath as Etain’s smiling lips brushed her ear, and released it just as suddenly when the woman’s hands encircled her breasts, fresh jets of pleasure gushing into her core. She needed to learn how to control this better, she knew. She could not simply let herself be rendered mute and pliable every time this creature grazed her flesh with her gentle wicked fingers, lost in the instant haze of sensation she created. Remaining fully aware and in control of her own self was perhaps the most important thing in this place, Violet surmised, her only real defense against the strangeness.

That was all easier said than done though. Watching the ominous blues and abrupt slashes of crimson swirling through the brown of her dress, rapidly consuming it, Violet could not help but simply let herself be enveloped within Etain’s arms. Feeling this was so much better than feeling fear, than facing her own nagging worries about what was to come at the dinner. Her breath quickened again as the contact continued, breasts rising to press again the fae’s own, until abruptly it ended as Etain slipped away, leaving her body raggedly disappointed. Her mind, however, counted itself lucky. If it had happened again after she’d given her promise, she did not know how the creature would react.

“The way you did that was amazing.” There was no attempted courtesy or clumsy flattery in this comment. It was simple truth. If she had not been in the middle of the maelstrom, submerged in the warmth of Etain’s embrace, the whole transformation would have been thrilling to watch, beginning with a simple dull brown leaf and ending in this splash of dark subtle beauty. Violet turned, studying her profile curiously in the mirror, examining the gown from various angles. She was not really used to viewing herself as an object of beauty, or a part of one anyways. “Will the other fae like it? Is it appropriate for the dinner?”
 
Etaine blinked her large dark eyes, in s how of patient forbearance. “Well I don’t know what a fay is but I don't suggest you call anyone here something like that.” She motion off to one side and the dirt creature scurried over to the door and crouched against it still holding the middle part of its see-through form.

“I might remind you that every being here, with the exception of you, has a collection of names. Use them if the need arises.” She said punctuating the words pointedly but ending with a pleasant if direct look in Violet's direction.

“As for it appropriateness. Why would you even ask something like that? Why would I dress you to be a fool when it is I who is directly responsible for you? I think your kind think in the wrong direction. Try the other way.”

“Now its time for us to go.” She said reaching out and taking her hand. “Remember to eat some and drink something, remember to use names...” Etaine seemed to think for a moment. “Actually, don't talk to anyone. That would be better. Just nod or bobble or whatever you want to do. Everyone will just assume you answered them.”

She twirled her free fingers in thought. “Ahhh don't touch anyone...don't give anyone anything...” Then she brought her face around to look Violet full in the face. “If you are given the freedom of the table then you cannot give offense at the table but you have to stay at the table? Do you understand? What am I saying, its too late to worry over your mind. Ready or not, its time to meet the queen and remember that it is the queen herself who has made all this possible.”

Etaine turned and started to pull her toward the door to the room before turning once more. “Is there anything you want to ask before we go?”
 
Violet supposed it was a silly question but her experience with Etain had left her off-balance. It was difficult to trust the mercurial fae. Her kindness seemed laced with sudden cruelty, and who was to say that she might not dress her to amuse the others. She desperately wanted to have someone she could depend on here but was not at all sure that was Etain. The worry lingered that if it was not for the queen’s protection this meeting likely would have gone very very differently between them.

As it was everything she said seemed to amuse or annoy the woman. Having already been scolded once, she felt more like a child or a pet as Etain took her hand and led her towards the door. She hoped she was right about being exempt from giving offense though, and listened intently to her other instructions as well. Nod, say nothing, stay at the table. Violet felt fairly certainly she could do that much at least.

“Am I expected to say anything to the queen?” she asked as Etain gave her room for a question. “How should I address her?” Above all it seemed important that the queen herself not find anything amiss in her behavior.

Another thought then struck Violet as she glanced back into the room. “Have you seen…?” Violet realized she had no name for it. “The knock, I think you called it?” She didn’t exactly know why it should matter but the little creature was the first thing she’d met in this place that hadn’t frightened or threatened her. It was likely foolish to consider it a friend or ally exactly but at the very least she felt a little less alone with it around. “I‘m certain it was with us when we entered the house…”
 
Etaine waved a pale hand. “That little creature is likely off causing trouble, you are better off without it although it may find you at some point. Really we should eat it if it shows back up. They aren’t that good but at least it wouldn’t be... Ahh I'm babbling, onward.” She said ushering her toward the door.

“As for speaking to the queen, well if you are given the freedom of the table then... well it doesn’t matter. Not even she can reproach you. That's the way among the named. A promise is real and absolute. That was how she destroyed my king.” She said, her voice wavering at the very end before she buttoned it up in a smile. “Now lets go.”

The dirt creature opened the door for them to pass though hiding behind it as it did. But the hallway Violet might have expected just beyond was nowhere to be found. Instead they tumbled forward into a drop of some five feet. In a moment of falling terror Etaine plucked her deftly from their plummet and deposited her, bare feet first, onto the rug, drifting down beside her.

The walnut wainscoted room was a formal dining room dimly lit with gas lights from the walls. In the center of the room, a long table with a deep green cloth covering it and around its edge a motley assortment of chairs, everything from folding metal chairs to museum pieces with high backs and elaborate lathe work in their pieces.

To her right, at the head of the table was what looked like a throne covered, a tall, high backed chair of great size and girth covered with a white sheet as if in storage.

At the far end of the room two double doors stood open to a white hallway full of... beings. They were slowly making their way into the room. There was a short squat creature with a hideous head that look partially melted down onto its shoulders, its twig-like arms and legs stuck out through a pink gown rudely fitted over its plug like shape. Beside it was another, naked with a floppy little penis between its legs and a silky top hat balance on its awful toad skull.

A series of ferrets had taken up residence at one chair each moving in concert such that the whole of them might have been a single thing if not for the many pairs of ink black eyes peering back across the table cloth. A beautiful man in a red frock-coat and white shirt was sliding into a chair, his cheeks were high and perfect, his eyes almond shaped and tilted but human enough. His long pale hair was wound into elaborate braids that made Violet's eyes swim to look at them too long. He spoke kindly to a savage warrior in paint and leaves plastered to his dark skin who took the chair next to him.

Many others were also moving in and Etaine motioned her toward the simple chair at the end of the table, what looked like a desk chair at the corner by the covered throne. Etain circled around and took the chair opposite her own across the table.

A quick glance behind them revealed no door at all. Up on the wall hung a painting of a door partially open with a lone figure barely visible at its edge. It was a lonely image to be sure.

The moment Violet was seated a sudden commotion sprang up from a series of grasshoppers some three feet long wearing tuxedo jackets. The leapt into the room just ahead of a cloud of thrown dishes, glasses and silver-wear. But in the blink of an eye the insects had snatched the launched flat-wear from their terminal trajectories and set everyone a place. Then they hopped up onto each others shoulders and hoisted the pictures from the walls, toting them out the double doors like a troupe of performing ants.

A large furry creature that resemble a massively overgrown mastiff trundled in the room walking like an ape on heavily muscled forearms. Its smaller back legs gave little hops to keep up. Its face was a huge wall of wrinkles allowing its glittering eyes to peek out as shadowed twinkles in the mass. Its great jaw chomped absently sounding like slabs of meat being slapped together.

The creature moved down the room until it was positioned right behind Violet. It smelled like a barnyard backed with a thick musky odor that was not altogether unappealing. It was the scent of living close to another living thing.

It held a huge gnarled paw-hand up and in its fingers was a small silver bell. Everyone stopped talking and looked at the bell. The big hand tilted carefully so that everyone could see that there was no clapper, nothing with which to ring the bell, it was empty. Then the creature slowly and carefully placed the bell on the table in front of Violet, away from her place setting. The heat of its big body radiated across her bare shoulders.

The it trundled back down the table taking care not to bump into other beings as it did. Everyone looked at the bell but would not make eye contact with Violet. It was as if she were not there at all but that bell was something clearly amazing.
 
Violet might have screamed as she went tumbling out the door into a precarious drop, but her feet were already back on the floor before she quite knew what was happening. She could not help but shoot a glare at Etain’s back though. She might have told her that was going to happen. It was as if she enjoyed springing one surprise on her after another. Violet just wanted something to be normal if only for a moment.

That desire was not about to be granted. As the dining room began to fill up, the young woman could only gape in wonderment, her eyes nearly wide around as the tea saucers spiraling across the room, liveried insects fluttering to catch up. Captivating beauty and monstrous strangeness seemed equally represented, her attention flitting rapidly from the kaleidoscopic braids of a handsome fae in a red jacket to a squat toad creature and its unpleasant nakedness. It was hard to take in so much at once, to concentrate on any one thing, with so many unusual sights vying for her attention.

Violet moved wherever Etain directed her to go, eventually dropping into the chair she indicated. It seemed more suited to an office than a dining chamber, but then all the furnishings were mismatched. With all their peculiar powers, she thought they ought to have been able to muster together a complete set of dining chairs. It was if these creatures enjoyed surrounding themselves with chaos.

The beastly dog creature that came bounding up behind her was more than a little unnerving. His heavy smell quickly permeated the air around her head and it was a testament to how hungry she was that this didn’t end her appetite altogether. Suddenly everyone had turned in her direction and the color drained from her face as she glanced towards Etain, wondering if she’d managed to offend after all. Soon she realized she wasn’t the focus of their gaze though but rather a tiny silver bell the creature had placed on the tabletop nearby.

Naturally Violet looked as well but noted nothing remarkable at all. The thought crossed her mind that maybe she was supposed to do something but she could not think what. Perhaps I should touch it. A mad thought that and one she quickly dismissed. Etain had told her to be remain quiet and do nothing besides eat, and, well, bobble. So she waited, placing her hands on her lap, growing increasingly uneasy as their staring continued and wondering what it all could mean.
 
Just as the great creature was making its exit it lifted a foot and looked down, stepped over something and then the double door shut. No sooner had they latched than Knock hopped up onto the end of the table. Everyone watching it with obvious disdain but she strutted her small brassy naked form down the table stepping on peoples plates and edging their glasses out of the way whenever they grabbed for her.

With a last minute dash she dove forward out of the reach of a heavily muscled dwarf with a shiny red top hat that seemed to eternally drip something dark red from its brim. Rolling like an action hero she came up with the empty bell in hand, open side outward and pointed it around like a weapon. For a whole heartbeat everyone looked at the little creature with tight jawed rage. Then in an instant they went back to their own small conversations.

Knock set the bell down and leaned on it like a conquering hero and issued a generous raspberry to the room in general after the fashion of an award speech then turned to Violet flashing her a cheesy smile and finger-guns before carefully checking the plate for anything there, both onto and underneath.

Then she climbed into Violet’s lap like a housecat
 
Violet watched with mouth slightly ajar as Knock dashed up the table, upsetting glasses and plates, dodging thrust out hands, soon realizing that, yes, she was in fact the creature’s intended finish line. She could see the outrage on the other guest’s faces as she snatched up the bell, flourishing it about, but strangely they did act on their anger. Instead they quickly drifted back into their own conversation as if nothing in particular had happened.

The freedom of the table must extend to it as well. Maybe they think she’s with me. Knock was with her in a manner of speaking, a fact rather hard to deny as she curled up on her lap, but it wasn’t as if Violet had invited her or anything. That she might be held responsible for her actions at some point was an unsettling thought. Knock did not seem to take the other fae nearly as seriously as she did herself, which she knew might have serious repercussions at somewhere down the road.

“I guess you know how to make an entrance, anyways. I would very much appreciate it if you don’t get me in trouble though, alright?” Violet spoke softly as she gazed down at the little creature, her voice dropping even lower as she added, “Lady Etain already seems to want to eat you. I’m not sure how seriously she meant that but…do try to be careful.” She had seen one traveling companion consumed alive in that poor horse, an image still burned on her mind’s eye, and for whatever reason she do not particularly want to see this one suffer a similarly gruesome fate.

“I just wonder when the queen will arrive….” Of all the peculiar fae gathered at the table, she was the one Violet most wished to see. She was the reason she was here, after all. She hoped she might even get the chance to learn something about why. So far all was mystery and veiled suggestion. The sooner she knew the truth of what they wanted, the better.
 
Knock looked up lazily and flashed a wide grin, chirping again pleasantly.

The gaslights began to dim and from the very air a swirl of fireflies materialized, tiny dots pulsing with yellow evening light, whirling lazily around. They drifted around the room slowly and everyone watched them with a respect and even reverence.

When they drifted past Violet she could feel their warm light touch her skin in the same way that Etain’s touch did, sensuous and sweet. As they drifted by they passed the covered throne and the white cloth slipped from its moorings falling off in a sweep of fabric. Knock stuck her little head up over the edge of the table and then dropped down so that only her gem-tone blue eyes were showing.

The throne itself was a heavy affair of carved and curling wood painted gold and lacquered to a thick polish that cracked with age. The backrest was itself a painting, a meadow scene with faint misty hills in the background. A woman in a dusty blue-green long sleeved robe leaned over a spray of flowers while golden sunlight fell over her and the tall yellow stalks around her. This painting had the same mind bending qualities of depth that most of the other paintings had possessed and certainly Violet understood that better now.

The figure of the woman looked slowly toward the assembled room and rose, smoothing her robe as she did. It was such an ordinary gesture that it was easy to imagine her just a mother out gardening, a maiden lost in meditation among the wheat. But the gold light began to leak out of the painting, a warm glow emanating from the surfaceless surface. It reached out to Violet like Etain’s touch, electric with beautiful touches, caresses that cared nothing for the table, the chair, the gown. They stroked across Violet in slow golden waves. Knock gave a peep and disappeared under the table in a flash.

The aura grew and grew as the woman moved closer to the frame of the image, her colors growing more distinct and powerful until the brightness slipped from the confined of the wooden boards and she emerged. Like a vision from some old film she slid up and into the world of the room, a being of light beaming with a blazing radiance, suspended before them. Her golden hair fell past her tipped ears down across robed shoulders to drift like a mermaid’s locks. The robe itself shifted and ran like pale liquid jade. It gave no indication of her form underneath but it was beauty itself with numberless forms flowing in its depths.

Her face was hard to view, perhaps it was beautiful, perhaps it was perfect or the very face of love itself, but the light coming off her was nearly overpowering. It was love and sex and desire all at once. Like liquid opium poured straight into Violets heart. It was being splashed with desperate need again and again. If Etaine was a collection of sparks igniting her nerves, Queen Caoilainn was a burning day star of sexual power bathing Violet in its furious heat commanding response like the tide demands from the shore.

“Welcome all to the Summer Court and this feast. Welcome also my mortal envoy, a gift from the savage wild.” Said the queen and when she spoke three voices came forth, one like a faraway bell, tolling its words as if from across oceans of space, one voice was very present in the room, sonorous and warmly alto. And one voice whispered right into Violet’s ears, it spoke right into her blood and bone; the words thrumming there each one like a heartbeat existing for a glorious moment and then fading, strings of little lives coming and going with every word.

“Know that I welcome her among us as one of us and to give her a place at the court I gift her with a name. To all of the folk she shall be known as Violet, Lady of Hours.” She said gesturing toward Violet and sending waves of sunlight edged power washing across her like a thousand kisses, caressing hands intent of the mortal’s giving core.

“Enjoy that which is before you, let this be the start of a new time, let a new world begin here.” She said regally and maternally all at once.

The glasses and cups began filing from their stems and bottoms with a clear liquid that smelled sweet and tasted light and airy, like the nectar of a flower or the heart of a honeysuckle plant. The plates filled with steaming foods, vegetables and greens, potatoes softened in butter and peas shiny and crisp, carrots with their hearts pulped soft, sweet yams that broke open gasping aromatic steam up into the room.

The contents of each plate stayed only a moment and then fell away into the plate as if it were a hole only to be replaced with some new culinary wonder. No meat made an appearance but the ever shifting collection rolled endlessly beneath Violets gaze and the rest of the room helped themselves with fingers, stone knives, pincers or just leaned forward and let jaws do their happy work.
 
Violet was mesmerized by the sight of the queen slowly rising from the backrest of her throne. The scene itself struck her with its naturalistic beauty, the golden stalks rising over a backdrop of gently rolling, mist laden hills. The woman herself seemed almost normal at first, until she began to emerge, bathing them in the rich glow of her radiance. Violet’s mouth hung slightly agape, a dazed expression covering over her face, the experience like that of gazing into the most perfect sun. The warmth of its rays not only heated her flesh but pierced into her deepest being.

In a peculiar way it was fortunate that Etain had teased her to near exhaustion just moments before as it kept her from making an humiliating spectacle of herself at the table. As it was her breathing rose rapidly, fingers clutching at the edge of the table, awash in the pleasurable glow of the queen's presence. When the queen’s sweet voice trickled into her ear, she somehow managed to find her voice enough to gasp out a response in return, “Thank you your Majesty. I…I hope I can bring some understanding between our people…”

She was then granted a name. Violet did not know what it meant but she had come to understand these things were important among the fae. It came in a cascade of light that caressed her every nerve, forcing her to drop back into her chair, lost for several moments in the pleasant afterglow. By the time it ended, the food had arrived.

Violet’s stomach rumbled softly as she took to admiring a dish of steaming yams. When she blinked, however, it was gone, replaced by a platter of buttered turnips. Like every other experience she’d had here so far, apparently even the meals came and went in a flurry of erratic motion. She did not let that stop her though. She was too hungry. Violet speared at the food as it appeared with her fork, enjoying mouthfuls of succulent carrots and warm buttery potatoes between sips of the sweet bodiless nectar that filled her cup.

As her belly gradually filled, she felt the most content she had since this entire ordeal began. Food had that restorative property, but the queen’s presence served to bolster her confidence as well. For the first time, her grant of protection seemed real, and Violet allowed herself to believe that perhaps she would be safe here after all. She might even prove capable of accomplishing something of importance. At the very least it would not all be fear and misery.

While the dishes rotated and her own hunger abated somewhat, she recalled Knock again and the way it had eagerly examined her plate. Scooping a few of the morsels into an open saucer, she looked down, peeking under the tablecloth to see if she was still about while whispering, “Would you like something?”
 
Peeking under the table she spied the little creature with a handful of broccoli solemnly looking at it while chewing. Her expression was one of awe and wonder as she turned it around in her little hands. In fact everyone at the table seemed to be utterly entranced with their food.

The Queen hung in space over her chair observing the table as constant waves of power rolled off her and over Violet. Their intensity grew and fell caressing her one moment and the building up to a powerful summit before falling off once again only to be replaced by another wave washing into her.

While the Queen had talked to her and even gestured in her direction, she did not otherwise acknowledge the mortal. Her engulfing light made concentration very difficult at any rate. The moments flickered by as warm food became replaced with cool fruits and vegetables and finally sweet confections and deserts.

Then, apropos of nothing, Caoilainn looked down to Violet. Her powers blazed across the table and crashed against the young lady like a tsunami of desire. Her eyes seemed so calm and peaceful, she looked angelic in the emanating light that ran though Violet like a full electric current lighting up her body like a high voltage lover.

“You are very important to use Violet. It is important that you learn how to help us. Remember.” She said in her beautiful and panic inducing tripartite voice. It rand through her body, through her bones, her nipples, her fingers and lips, her clit and toes, bell strikes n her soul.

Then she went out like a great candle flame, a waver in her light and it was gone and her with it. Everyone sat looking at their plates all of which had fallen still with their last meals sitting there static and unchanging. They looked dazed.

Even Etaine, across from her, looked stunned at her sticky fingers, the mauled remnants of some creamy something or other laying defeated on her plate.
 
Whether it was a statement of Violet’s hunger or owing to some strange property of the food itself, she somehow managed to focus on her meal despite the queen’s overpowering presence. Already full by the time the deserts arrived, she did not let that stop her from sampling the flickering array of tarts, mousses, custards, pastries, and crisp pies. They were each delicious. It was all delicious in fact, warm and fresh, as though the vegetables and fruit had all just been picked moments before and the food had arrived fresh from the ovens, yet never so hot as to burn her tongue. It was quite truthfully the first bit of wonder she was able to enjoy without reservations, except perhaps the dress, and even that was slightly tainted by her distrust of Etain.

Violet had assumed the queen was done with her for now or that they might speak later after the feast was over. She unprepared when she bent her head in calm scrutiny, her radiance focusing down on her own small form. The fork instantly slipped from her fingers, clattering noisily on her plate, her every nerve suddenly thrumming with an unnatural and irresistible desire. You are very important to use Violet. It is important that you learn how to help us. Remember.

‘Me help you?’ is what she wanted to ask but her mouth like the rest of her body felt rooted in place, as though her hand was clutched to a live wire. Then at once the queen was gone and her light with her. In its aftermath, Violet’s toes had curled up beneath her bare feet and nipples hardened visibly through her thin dress, a state which would have embarrassed her had the other guests seemed aware. Most were still staring numbly at their half-empty plates though.

With a shaky hand, Violet reached out for her cup, draining the rest of the sweet liquid before turning to Etain. “Does that mean the dinner is over now? If so I should really like to have use of a restroom and return to my room. I am very tired.” She paused. “I’d hoped to thank the queen before she left but… Did I do alright?”
 
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