Where once where roses.... [FxF FxFuta]

Story by Ree-chan

Prelude

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

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

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

~~,~~`{@

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(Eddie, you idiot...) the knight thinks, (...now the girl thinks you're going to kill her, I bet!) She sighs. fills her glass, and picks up her plate, and walks to one far corner of the hall, away from the masses of simpering sycophants and mindless courtiers. She turns her gaze on the crowd and sighs softly, "Every family is represented here today.." she says, not actually talking to anyone, "..and they look worse every cent

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