Type username to filter posts in this community
I watched as the door was closed behind the last customer left my office. It was about time for if I had to stand another minute longer in her company I couldn’t guarantee that my hands would not have found a spot around her neck. I sighed and unlocked the upper most drawer of my desk.
I’d have a few more moments before my next customer would be entering. They wouldn’t mind the smell of alcohol on my breath. I took a few large swallows to steady my nerves.
I haven’t had a good nights rest since leaving the prison a few weeks back. Every dark corner has me nervous when I pass. I’m afraid of shadows. I’m tired of being afraid. I’m tired of being watched. I’m tired of not knowing who all is watching me.
I closed the lid on my flask and tucked it back in its private compartment. A warm smile covered my face when I went to the door and called in my next customer.
Lady Faeti Morning Glory was always a sight and today was no different. Her golden locks were pulled back demurely from her face into a small braid that went down to the small of her back. There was a faint dusting of black and blue beneath her almond shaped eyes. The gods knew she used powers to try to cover and conceal the blemishes.
The smile she extended was just as real as my own, but it just didn’t reach the usual radiance she always had for people. I didn’t blame her and embraced her as if she was family.
“Good afternoon Lady Morning Glory” I murmured politely.
Her whispered greeting was spoken in the dialect of the trolls.
I scanned the hall and informed my secretary to cancel my next appointment; I’d be out of the office. By the time I turned around to go into my office Fae had already made herself at home in the chaise lounge near the fire place. There was something rigid in her posture that upset me. She wasn’t the same woman she was a few months ago. What all had changed I didn’t know and I wanted to ask.
Instead I closed and locked the door then moved over to take a seat across from her.
“I know what you have to talk to me about isn’t private or you’d have told it to me over drinks last night. What brings you here of all places, today Fae-Fae?”
She lifted her head to stare at me eye to eye. The tears were forming already and I bit my lip. I hated to see a woman or child crying. It was raw emotions best endured in the privacy of home. Seeing her cry could almost make sympathy tears form on my face.
“Shush.. Don’t start that now” I continued leaning forward. We were dressed so differently. She was wearing a dress that showed more skin than even I am comfortable displaying in a shower. Yet she never moved shy or hesitantly, it was always with the grace and confidence of a woman in charge. Whereas I was wearing a pair of solid black slacks, matching dress shoes, a spotless white blouse, with a dark grey vest over it all.
“The sooner you tell me what is wrong Fae-Fae, the sooner I can fix it” I promised and waited to see if she could get control of her emotions.
“I’m not sure you can” she said before hiccupping. Her nails were pristine and painted a soft pastel pink. The color most resembling the inside of a large shell upon the beach. She took out an old stack of parchment that had been folded a few times.
“I found this when cleaning out her personal things...” was all Faeti could tell me before she broke down into large gut wrenching sobs.
I took the papers from her and began reading them immediately. By the sixth line I had an idea of the problem. It was a large problem and I’d probably need to go get some help to flush out all the necessary paperwork. It would only be complicated a bit because the woman this was all in reference to had been literally gun downed in front of a large audience.
I hadn’t been there at the time but the news of it all had run like a wild fire in a dry forest. The wreckage of the Morning Glory house began with the appearance of an outcast from the family. My customer’s aunt, Lady Rhaeclya had entered the grand house within the city and paid the last visit to the head of the house. He was murdered as some said in front of the wait staff.
In my opinion, he had justice served.
He wasn’t the only one to have died that night. I wasn’t there for when his wife met a similar fate by a different family member. The old woman’s fate wasn’t as easy. Instead she spent hours in agony as her grand-daughter took shots at her systematically between the swipes of a few hostile lionesses. Only to be brought back to life by the youngest grand-daughter to go through it all over again.
It was only when the Mistress Eroti was too exhausted to restore life once more to the grandmother did the old woman receive a final rest. Now weeks later, the old woman’s belongings were being gone through and this letter she wrote to explain it all was being read by me.
I couldn’t believe what I was reading. I could only imagine what the warm hearted Fae had to have thought to know the things being said in this letter directed to her. I scanned the pages to look for a date but none was found. I wondered how many years ago this had been penned in such calm and steady hands.
I looked up to Faeti’s tear stained face and spoke softly, “Weren’t you the one who told Dio that families can be made from anything? We do not have to share the same blood to know and experience the strong connection of love and trust?”
I watched her nod her head to agree before I continued on, “What she wrote won’t change the things that happened in the past. You didn’t cause them and it wasn’t your fault. You were a product of it. You don’t have to do what she asked of you. You can let that secret rest in the grave it’s been in for the last sixty odd years”
Her lower lip quivered as she thought over what I was suggesting.
“I can not lie like that to take over what the family acquired” was all she said to me.
I had so much I wanted to say to her. So much I wanted to point out to her. Instead I sighed deeply and leaned back in my chair to a think it over for a few before finally speaking.
“You were the one who started most of those projects. It’s your kind and gentle heart that led you to create those groups to assist the children’s orphanage, to make those refuges, to provide aid for those in need. You are not lying to gain ill begotten gains or for greed. You are continuing the perceptions created by your grandfather to preserve the rest of the families honor and to spread assistance to more people than just your family. Accept it, so you can provide a promising future to your nieces and their children to come”
I could tell that the prospect of taking care of the family was having the desired effect. A small smile touched her lips when I had mentioned that part.
“Think it over Fae. You have a few more days as the rest of the maters are still being figured out…”
Tonight, Sanctum of the Nether will be hosting a celebration to introduce their new students. Shortly after that ceremony around 7:00 pm there will be an open ball inside the Silvermoon Bazaar for anyone to come to in attendance. For further information regarding dress code and behavior please contact the hostess misses Azahira.
A devious smile spread across her lips from either his words of promise that everything would be okay or because she really didn’t have to share her tasty treat. Without hesitation she lifted the morsel to put it inside her mouth and that was when she heard the loudest, most annoying sound ever; the raptor’s screeching.
The food item forgotten even as it fell to the ground, Tikitiki spun around with two hands on her hips to glare at the raptor. It still may be the most marvelous specimen of its kind but Tikitiki seemed to see it already roasted and steaming fresh over a pile of apples on a really large plate. And it was oh so close within hands reach!!!
Tikitiki even had the recipe for sautéed raptor bookmarked in the exotic cookbook acquired from some ogres somewhere just for this raptor. Every month or four she would even get rid of the moldy cooking ingredients she kept hidden in her little tiki hut just to be prepared for the occasion when she did get her hands on this raptor. Because one day she WOULD get her hands on this raptor, there was no doubt about that in Tikitiki’s mind.
One shy glance back at Zikiziki and quick peek to the crowd of other trolls, Tikitiki was off chasing the raptor before her. Tikitiki couldn’t control her little inner troll voice of wisdom, it was screaming at her to go get her hands on the raptor as it did just put it self right within arms reach! The raptor was asking to be cooked.
With each step closer, Tikitiki was muttering something about the cooking directions as if she memorized those by heart. “Step one. Tikitiki catch raptor… Step two, Tikitiki put apples in mouth. Step three. Tikitiki clean meat”
