[b]part 7
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I have no idea of how long I was in that place for. It felt like it had been hours. Considering there was no sun I couldn't even tell if it was day or night. All I knew was that they'd spent a lot of time on me. I'd like to say their time was wasted, but really it wasn't. They were good at what they did.
"So hun, what do you think?" Lia spun my chair around to face the mirror. It took everything in me not to gasp.
The creature staring back at me looked as if they belonged here, an enchantress. Her skin was flawless, full of life. Her hair, spun gold, hanging to her waist in elegant spirals. Everything about her was polished to perfection. She'd even give Saber a run for her money. Dark sapphire eyes were rimmed by thick dark lashes, her lips lush and the colour of pale roses. I looked down at my hands, even the nails were buffed and polished. I'd never had nice nails because I trained too much to bother with painting them - it had always chipped off. I'd never bothered with any of these things, it was all new to me. So I found myself staring back at the beauty in my reflection.
"Is that me?" I asked, then realised how stupid I sounded. Of course it was. I raised a hand, watching my reflection copy the action, lightly grazing the skin of her neck. It was smooth and soft. Her skin - my skin.
"Of course it is. You look stunning," she said, beaming with pride at her work. "I must admit though, you were a bit of a disaster when you came in. It was like you've never even had a haircut," she said with a visible shudder. I looked at the ground. I knew I wasn't much to look at. Not exactly as if I had reason to worry about my appearance, I never went anywhere. I probably reminded them of a stray dog, rough around the edges and homeless. While my hair was long, it had been unruly and in bad need of a cut. Not to mention my skin had been lacerated by the branches in the forset, my knee was proof of that. At least I thought it was. 'It hasn't even bothered me these last few....whatever its been since I got here' I reasoned with myself. I bent forward and lifted the hem of dress they'd put me in when I'd arrived. Narrowing my gaze, I lightly touched the skin of my knee, it was completely healed. Not even a scratch was visible on my skin from any of my cuts. "How?" I asked Lia, glancing back up to look at her.
"How what?" she said distractedly, still fussing with my hair arrangement. She was pulling it up and twisting the length of it, trying different styles. "I'm going to leave it down, somehow I think you'll be more comfortable that way."
She motioned to one of her assistants who held up a pair of diamond earrings. "No, the other ones, those are too distracting. She needs something simpler, when will you learn Niami?" The creature huffed and walked away, returning with a small pair of what looked like tear-shaped sapphires on a bed of diamond shards made to look like a delicate web.
"Ooooh perfect!" Lia crooned, giving her assistant a zealous nod of approval. "Here," she said, handing them to me. "Put them in while I find some matching hair clips, I changed my mind about your hair, we'll leave it down but I'll pull back some of the weight and just fasten it around the back."
Most of what she'd said hadn't even registered with me, I was too busy admiring the earrings but more importantly, wondering how to put them in. I'd never gotten my ears pierced.
"Slight problem," I said interrupting her. She looked at me quizzically.
"Yes dear?" I pointed to my ear lobes in response.
She stared, confused for a moment, until realisation spread across her face.
"Oh, well," she pursed her lips thoughtfully, "we'll just have to do something about that. I'm sure you don't mind now do you?" she smiled and straight away one of the creatures, this one was slightly greenish in colour with long strands of seaweed for hair, handed her what looked to me like a gun. I tensed automatically, unsure of what was going on.
"You okay? You can relax, this will only hurt for a moment. Besides, I'm sure you've felt worse before..." She readied herself by a table, picking up random objects then putting them down again. She turned around, obviously having found what she was looking for, and held up both the gun and some kind of cream in a jar. It had a label but it was written in some strange language that used a mixture of cursive symbols and images.
"I take that isn't a real gun right?" I said, I had no idea what was going on but I was unarmed in any case. I liked Lia, but someone that erratic was unpredictable.
"Oh sugar, heavens no! I'm not going to shoot you dear, It's my job to make you flawless, why on Earth would I kill you before anyone had even had the chance to see my work?" she shook her head, laughing at the idea. It made sense. But I still didn't miss the fact that she hadn't said she wouldn't kill me, just that she wouldn't kill me before someone had seen her work. I needed to be more careful, I didn't know these people, any of them. They could all be serial killers, then there was the fact I still didn't know what my purpose was in all of this. Hopefully meeting the Queen would clear things up.
"Okay, so this is what I'm going to use to pierce your ears child. You going to be able to sit still for me? It'll only take a sec," she continued talking while wiping my ear lobes with what I assumed was disinfectant from the smell. It almost stung my eyes with its intensity.
"Yeah whatever, I'll be fine," relieved that it wasn't an actual weapon, I settled back into my chair, closing my eyes to take my mind off the coming pain. She was right, I had been through much worse. Once, a few years ago, I'd been running from a scout through some tiny village in Africa made up of dirt roads and make-shift sheds. Just one scout followed my trail, a newbie who had no idea what he was doing. However, in my over-confidence I'd neglected to see what was straight ahead. I'd been checking over my shoulder when I fell, straight down into a ditch on the side of the road containing the wreckage of some broken-down cart. I had been in a lot of pain, the most of which came from my left arm. Right where I'd landed on part of the cart with a few nails sticking out. I groaned quietly and forced myself to be quiet altogether, the scout was still around somewhere. After what seemed like an age without any sign of the scout, I'd gotten myself out of the ditch to the closest place I could find medical aid. The scout never found me, but I could still remember afresh the pain of that injury and shuddered involuntarily.
"There we go! All done. You alright sweetheart?" I looked in my reflection, surprised at how smoothly she had pierced my ears. I'd barely even felt a twinge of pain.
"Wow, they're so..." I was at a loss for words.
"Shiny? Beautiful? Suit you perfectly?..." she supplied. I laughed, "Yeah, they great. Thank you Lia, for everything."
"Oh that's quite alright, but we aren't done yet. Now to find you something to wear!" She then squealed happily like a girl who had just unwrapped her first barbie at Christmas, and the room shifted. The beautiful were creatures gone, and we were back in what I was calling the 'Red-room' where Saber was still flicking through the same romance novel.
Saber glanced up for a moment automatically, then had to look again. This time her emerald eyes went wide with surprise. She let the book fall to the floor as she stood, appraising me from head to toe, this time without disapproval of any kind.
"My god," she whispered, "how did you do it? She actually looks... decent." I had a feeling Saber wasn't the kind of person who liked being outdone. I wasn't saying I was better than her in any kind of way, just that she didn't like the idea that I could have made such a dramatic transformation. I was a little miffed that she'd put it down to 'decent' though.
"Decent? Saber honey she looks hot," Lia said with a suggestive waggle of her perfectly arched eyebrows. Saber half-smiled, not saying anything, just continuing to shake her head as she circled me. She came to stand in front of me, "Time to get you out of that silly towel. Follow me," with that she headed straight towards the door after promising Lia she would stop by for a real chat the moment she had time free. Lia waved enthusiastically after Saber and even gave me a motherly hug and kiss on the cheek before saying, "Go, have fun my sugar and remember," suddenly her eyes turned serious and she dropped her smile, "whatever happens, not everything is as it seems." I looked at her immediately on guard, completely shocked by this change in her behaviour, but as soon as it came, it was gone. Replaced by another peel of laughter and an apology while she ran off to ready herself for the night's events. I stood, frozen, in the middle of the room trying to understand what she'd meant. Or if she'd really said it at all.
'That woman is a certifiable bucket of crazy,' Carmen supplied for me.
'Well, that did seem rather odd... She was so nice though,' Jane reiterated. I pressed two fingers to my temple and closed my eyes, this chatter was going to drive me crazy.
'Oooh drive you crazy? Like it isn't bad enough I share a conscious with miss good-two-shoes over here, but I also have to deal with your insecurities as well?' her tone was snarky, I figured she was just warming up for an argument.
'Carmen! Enough, without her we wouldn't even be alive. Not everything is about you, you know. I'm really sorry Arielle, she's just having a bad day...' A separate conscious within my mind having its own bad day... sure, why not.
'Whatever guys, listen, I don't really know what this is, or even that you were able to communicate with me until now, so just give me some time to figure it all out yeah? I kind of have a lot on my plate right now...' I heard Carmen huff but thankfully she stayed quiet. Jane was quiet also but I could feel more of an apologetic feel emanating from her. Seriously, what the hell was wrong with me that I would put myself in this kind of situation. Hell, i didn't even want to think about where that road would lead... crazy central, population me.
"Arielle! What the hell are you doing? Let's go!" Saber called out to me from outside the door, annoyance stamped across her beautiful features. I rolled my eyes and began following her through twisting hallways, the heavy question playing on my mind of what would happen to me tonight. What did Lia's words really mean? Whatever the case, I would need to be prepared.
I stood in the centre of Saber's closet, relieved to find it was like any other closet I'd seen. In all honesty, I'd been expecting some kind of grand chandelier or her own personal wait-staff. Instead, she rummaged around through rows of clothes obviously with something in mind.
"Ugh," she said with a cry of frustration, "I know it's here, I only just had it made..." I fidgeted with the hemline of my towel, afraid at what she would pull out. I prayed it wasn't going to be some flouncy, pink monstrosity. Then again, Saber wasn't exactly my greatest fan and it seemed like her style of revenge.
"Finally," she said, exhaling with relief. She carefully unzipped the long black garment bag to reveal a floor-length gown straight out of ancient Greece. Its colour was of the deepest black, complete with matching black shoes so sharply heeled I was sure I could use them as a weapon if needed. The dress was made of the most delicate mixture of chiffon and silk, the type material that seemed to sway even when held still. It reminded me of the shadows that surrounded the hounds. I felt a chill run down my spine at the thought and began feeling anxious. The feeling of entrapment strong in my mind while I tried to fight the urge to flee entirely. I couldn't do this, it was ridiculous. One moment I'm running for my life, the next a ball? No. Something was very wrong here.
My feet slowly stepped back, towards the exit, of their own accord. My heartbeat picking up in pace. Saber was still checking the dress as I turned to run. I reached my hand out, grasping at the air in front of me to get to the door handle, until suddenly she was right there - blocking the exit.
"Where will you run? One step outside the city, the palace even, and you'll be dead." She didn't bother with any pretenses, all the walls between us gone. I stared her down easily but something in her gaze almost made me hesitate. Almost. I struck out, my aim to knock her out of the way so I could escape, but she was far quicker than I realised. In an instant she ducked around me, moving like the wind and shoved me against the wall, a thin blade come from who-knows-where pressed against my jugular.
"Saber, let me go," I struggled against her, surprised by her impossible strength.
"Enough with this foolishness, if I had my way you would already be dead! For whatever reason you are the key to survival for all of us," she hissed between clenched teeth. "If you only knew the things we have sacrificed, the people we have lost-"
"The people you've lost?" I yelled, "And what about my parents? I have nothing because of your people," I spat the word 'people' out, my voice was dripping with anguish and pain at the memory of everything I'd had torn away from me - everything I missed.
"You should not be so quick to judge us. You were a child when that happened, you don't know anything! I knew your parents Serena, I was there that night at the cabin. We are not your enemy - we are the only thing keeping you alive. You've been living in your own selfish dreams for far too long, it's time to wake up," she let me go and I slid to the floor, too stunned by her heated words to think straight. My mind screamed at me to run away, but my body froze, my expression torn. Was she right? I heard truth in her voice, she believed in what she had said.
I looked up at her, the disgust she felt towards me evident on her face as she waited for me to say something, anything. Nothing came, only silence.
"Look, you don't trust me, and lets face it, I hate you. I have too much invested in you to kill you but by god, if I had the choice..." her eyes conveyed how much she meant those words. "You want answers? For everything that's happened? Get a grip. Stand up, put the damn dress on, and prepare yourself for tonight," her voice began to even out as she calmed down, becoming more stern than angry. She rolled her eyes at me as I stood, "I know you think you've had it rough, no one should lose their parents-"
"Saber," I cut her off. "I'll wear the dress, I'll go through all the stupid motions you want me to for tonight, but do not mention them again," I warned her. I couldn't bear the thought that all these years I'd been wrong. I hated these people for what had happened, without that hate, I almost had nothing to keep me going. If it wasn't them, I would find out who it was, and kill them.
"Then we have an understanding?" She met my gaze levelly, seeing the change in my resolve, the strength with which I now stood. I simply nodded in response, unable to wait to hear what this so-called Queen had to say.
"About time." [/b]