Welcome to Valerian Night, where the story comes to you in snippets and snatches, snapshots and slivers of 300 words every week. Your input is valued and needed, for what you say may drive the story into a totally different direction. Follow the meandering coils of story that take Alyxa Fairchild onto a direct collision course with Nightmares, Dreams, Old Deities and New Heroes as her world collides with that of Réveille, the land of Waking Dreams and Dead Gods. Trail after Morpheus as he discovers the foibles and confusions of the human world and finds himself strangely enamoured thereof all the while trying to keep his Dreamer safe and ensure the continued peace of the Real World. Let the young Jazzy open your eyes and show you that the world you see is not necessarily the world you know...

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

XXVI: Empress

The singing was soft, barely audible, soft and rhythmic, slightly off-key as though a child were humming along with a music box. There two people in the room; one a tall woman, dark curling hair falling around her shoulders, the other was a man, cowering. The magics in the room were so heavy that the air was like syrup with it. It weighed on the man’s shoulders like anvils draped over his shoulders; she wore it like a mantle. The singing was hers, timed to the strings she held stretched between her hands. Red, white, then black flashed between her fingers, given a life of its own as she wove it to her will.

Suddenly, she halted, smiling over the coils at her guest.

“Are you alright there, sweet?”

Her voice was full, like her figure, wrapped in the crimson silks.

“Cat got your tongue perhaps? This is what you wanted, sweet.”

The man blinked several times.

“I-I…” he swallowed nervously.

“Yes, sweet?”

“I-I…I’m fine!”

“Are you sure? You don’t look so good, my sweet. Are you sure you want me to break up that marriage just so you can have your dear, dear Julia?”

Something primal flashed over his face.

“Yes! I want her back! Give her back to me!”

Her smile was brilliant, a sunset in full splendor.

“Of course, all I need is your right hand.”

Without thinking, blinded with the lust that drove all these primitive males to her, he slipped it into the offered gap between the strings. She pulled. He screamed as his hand fell to the floor between them.

“Bitch!”

“I told you my price. It’s not my fault you didn’t listen. Go home, your Julia is waiting.”

He swore at her again, but she was no longer listening. Someone was calling her.

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