All That Glitters

From the stone steps that lead to this magnificent structure.. stripped of my shirt by a thief.. the Great Theatre is not at all the way I have remembered it.

Nor the way I wish to again.

Lady In Black

"Very well. I shall stay, but I must warn you. Should you become suddenly tempted to take advantage of my person, I am armed with pins, needles and other weapons all over my body."

I had met the lady on one of Ar's many streets that intersect the market where I've been staying. She was dressed all in black, as if she meant to keep from drawing any unwanted attention to herself. But I could not help but notice this, as if it stood out like a sore thumb. From across the street, I could not be certain if she were being robbed, or merely cajoled by one of the friendlier hoodlums that prowl the streets of the Metellan District after dark... but when she asked whether I meant to stand there or come and save her, I assured her it was the latter.

I was most glad when she'd not required my assistance in fending off a street thug afterall. And yet she seemed rather pleased with my company at any rate as we walked several blocks, arm in arm. Along the way I learned she stayed at one of the Inns as a guest, having no real home of her own. And several times I did ask her to accompany me to the Magician's house. I had been alone there for some time, afterall.

I think that oftentimes it is proper for a lady in strange company, to announce she is well-armed and quite dangerous. Although at first it confused me, merely because I wondered how she slept at all knowing that with one wrong move, she might become a human pin cushion, injected with her own poisons and whatnot.

But this was when the lady all in black broke down and confessed that she had no weapons upon her person whatsoever. And in that regard, I was not required to be so careful when I curled myself around her the very first night she slept with me.

Fiona

She was a pretty woman in my arms, timid at first and later with her courage laid bare. I led her in our secret revolt against all things lawful and right as we crossed our hearts and vowed our propoganda would spurn none but those of Ko-ro-ba.

Halfway across the clearing and back, the patterns of a star-crossed dance lay imbedded in the flattened sod, for proof that we had been there. It was the next best thing sans the lost glass slipper.

And just like that, she slipped from my grasp and was gone.

Lourdes Fleur

It was none other than the Taurentian, Agamemnon Sarce that I had crossed paths with again. He asked me whether I was familiar with Ka-la-na, though I had to admit to him my experience was scarce. Also, I refrained from filling him in on some of Marius' more colorful expletives regarding the staple wine of Ar, for I feared to hurt Agamemnon's feelings. Instead I mentioned only a rumor to him that I had heard of Ka-la-na's most potent ability to reduce a free woman to a slave for the space of an ahn. It was only when I speculated what such a drink must do to men, that he insisted we imbibe.

I recall being almost immediately dizzied by the drink, and I think for one fleeting moment I had the innate desire to silence his copious monologue on the various qualities of Ka-la-na via a more intimate transgression of my mouth than mere words alone. Yet not two seconds after curling my arms around his neck and leaning much too close, Agamemnon rose abruptly and accused me of being drunk. His laughter was not the genuine sort, but bore upon it an aggitation.. as if he fought against his own natural desire to taste my mouth upon his own.

"Let's go to a party," he said instead as he lept up from the bench we two had occupied, side by side for the better part of the day. "I will intoduce you to all the hags I know so well."

Once we passed the gates and I was introduced by my escort, I played my Kalika at the insistence of Lourdes Fleur with such an infectious tandem of melodies, that she.. full of Ka-la-na herself.. danced before me like a woman abandoned to the very throes of sensuality. I wondered if she were aware for the ahn, how like a kajira she seemed.

"I have never, in all my life, danced the way I did just now." She had a tiny dot of perspiration beading the small crinkle in her brow, and I longed so to take her into my embrace and kiss her. Just like her namesake, she was soft and fragile like the furled petals of a flower.

And so with all my heart I made my silent supplication that she allow me to love her whilst I blurted a thing I probably should not have said aloud: "I am glad I have inspired you then, my Lady. And you are certainly the most beautiful hag in whose company I have ever been graced with."

I am not sure at which juncture Lourdes' sudden burst of tears combusted into a veritable war. I had no idea I would hurt her so, yet before I could even think to beg the Lady's forgiveness.. her brother Leander was suddenly in my face, confronting me. I am not sure what infraction, whether mine own or another's, brought about Nemesis' divine retribution.. for I never saw it coming until justice was already much passed.

Leander's attention was suddenly elsewhere, as was my own. Yet mine did not linger, not after a man named Flavius entered House Fleur and entered into an altercation with Agamemnon. Their fists flew only moments before the parry of heavy steel crossed back and forth, yet by then I had already hidden myself behind Lourdes, who was curled upon one of the divans. From there I laid upon my belly on the floor and hid beneath the furniture.. until it and the lovely Lady Fleur were overturned and spilled to the middle of the floor and I was once more exposed.

In one fell swoop of steel, Lourdes was separated from all her hair and the man Flavius lay slain in his own sanguine pool of blood. I could bear no more as my own bile threatened to rise up inside my throat.. and I crawled upon my hands and knees to escape the violence. Once again I am convinced it is Nemesis and her scales of justice that have sought me out. Yet twice now I have escaped her scathing punishment.