Post by Moira ap Eiluned on Mar 16, 2009 14:49:31 GMT -8
Baroness Rienne let the door to her house slam shut behind her, her fingers already fumbling at her outer robe to remove it. With relief she pulled the long encumbering thing off, revealing a flowing velvet dress of black with scalloped bell sleeves lined in silver and bejeweled along the edges. She paused, then stopped before removing the veil and instead set her coronet back atop it. The door was closed and the window-curtains drawn, but she didn’t want to take any chances.
With hurried and shaking steps she climbed to the second floor and opened the door to the tower-room. She felt the slight tingle across her skin as she passed through the Trod stretched across the doorway and stepped directly into the Dreaming. The Freehold sitting-room she stepped into was warm with the heat from the silver Bale-Fire, and she closed the door behind her firmly before crossing the room to a large and softly padded chair and sinking into it. Basking in the warmth of the fire, she removed her veil and picked up a book to read.
But no matter how she tried she couldn’t relax enough to read a single line. So many people! And the things they wanted from her…she scarcely knew what to do. They talked to her like they expected things from her, hobbies and goals and ambitions. As much as she feared her aunt, she longed for her to be here now, telling her what to do. But the tug from the Bale-Fire spoke more eloquently than any spoken word that her aunt was gone, not to return. Only with her aunt’s death would it have been released from the grand dame’s iron grip and passed on to her.
Baroness of Kevin’s Watch. Baroness of a tall stone tower in the middle of the endless One Forest. No bees buzzed in this forest, no birds sang, no deer with fine light footsteps scattered the fallen needles of the vast ancient pines. There were only the trees, trees and bushes, vines and mosses, mushrooms and reeds. No flowers, no, none at all, just an endless coniferous forest, green and silent and silencing.
She closed the book, stared into the dancing silver flames. No, she was utterly unprepared to rule a proper Barony, and in truth no more suited to it than the chair upon which she sat. She was nothing more than a vessel, a portal, existing only as a thin line between the mortal tapestry and the twisting threads of future weavings. But he was the rightful Count of the region, and whatever he asked of her she was honor-bound to give.
The Count… Listening to him was like listening to the distant hunting horns ringing through the valleys of time, echoing from the eldest ages; it stirred the blood and wakened the Dream within her. If only he didn’t look so…mortal. It was hard to look at him and see her rightful Count. Even the local Eshu outshined him; how could he expect to be taken seriously with such a crude mortal shell? As a Count of House Eiluned, he should be one of the best, the finest, his beauty outshining the commoners, proving his worth. She knew in her heart that the others abandoned him because the true marks of the Sidhe were obscured by the flawed clay of his flesh, and even her own mind was led astray from him by it.
It must not be permitted. She must help him, help him regain the full glory of his birthright, so that he might rule truly as Count, and so that she might kneel to him and know him for her rightful lord.
With hurried and shaking steps she climbed to the second floor and opened the door to the tower-room. She felt the slight tingle across her skin as she passed through the Trod stretched across the doorway and stepped directly into the Dreaming. The Freehold sitting-room she stepped into was warm with the heat from the silver Bale-Fire, and she closed the door behind her firmly before crossing the room to a large and softly padded chair and sinking into it. Basking in the warmth of the fire, she removed her veil and picked up a book to read.
But no matter how she tried she couldn’t relax enough to read a single line. So many people! And the things they wanted from her…she scarcely knew what to do. They talked to her like they expected things from her, hobbies and goals and ambitions. As much as she feared her aunt, she longed for her to be here now, telling her what to do. But the tug from the Bale-Fire spoke more eloquently than any spoken word that her aunt was gone, not to return. Only with her aunt’s death would it have been released from the grand dame’s iron grip and passed on to her.
Baroness of Kevin’s Watch. Baroness of a tall stone tower in the middle of the endless One Forest. No bees buzzed in this forest, no birds sang, no deer with fine light footsteps scattered the fallen needles of the vast ancient pines. There were only the trees, trees and bushes, vines and mosses, mushrooms and reeds. No flowers, no, none at all, just an endless coniferous forest, green and silent and silencing.
She closed the book, stared into the dancing silver flames. No, she was utterly unprepared to rule a proper Barony, and in truth no more suited to it than the chair upon which she sat. She was nothing more than a vessel, a portal, existing only as a thin line between the mortal tapestry and the twisting threads of future weavings. But he was the rightful Count of the region, and whatever he asked of her she was honor-bound to give.
The Count… Listening to him was like listening to the distant hunting horns ringing through the valleys of time, echoing from the eldest ages; it stirred the blood and wakened the Dream within her. If only he didn’t look so…mortal. It was hard to look at him and see her rightful Count. Even the local Eshu outshined him; how could he expect to be taken seriously with such a crude mortal shell? As a Count of House Eiluned, he should be one of the best, the finest, his beauty outshining the commoners, proving his worth. She knew in her heart that the others abandoned him because the true marks of the Sidhe were obscured by the flawed clay of his flesh, and even her own mind was led astray from him by it.
It must not be permitted. She must help him, help him regain the full glory of his birthright, so that he might rule truly as Count, and so that she might kneel to him and know him for her rightful lord.
