When she came to, she found she had been sitting on the floor, a blanket around her shoulders and the lich beside her, silent and pensive, with eyes still focused entirely on her.
"Welcome back," he said dryly. It seemed he made an effort to blink after that, as though his eyes had not been shut that entire time.
"How long?" Her voice was a croak, unused or perhaps overused.
"A few hours," he replied, still staring at her.
She met his gaze for a moment and then stretched out her arms before her, flexing the muscles that at first felt tired, and then flooded with energy.
She sucked in a breath as she stood, the sound hissing past her teeth. She could feel the strength returning to her, feel herself healing rapidly.
The lich stood too, staring with rapt attention as her body seemed to fill before his eyes, her skin glowing with life and her hair becoming shiny and smooth once more.
"Interesting..." he murmured as he moved away, finally daring to take his eyes off his prized toy.
"You are eating the essence, the soul. Aren't you." It was not a question so much as his wanting confirmation of fact.
She considered lying, but decided there was no point.
"Yes. I eat their soul," she responded finally, turning to look at him.
"Soul eater…" he whispered, as though that were some great wonder to him.
There was no such creature, though the humans believed otherwise. The creatures they thought to be soul eaters were little more than her own people, but she was not going to tell him that. So, she shrugged, turning away from him and looking to where the human man had fallen. He was gone now, nothing left of him at all. Now that she looked, she found that nothing remained of the lich's fun with her. The blood gone, the tools gone, the room spotlessly clean once more and when she glanced back to him, she found him observing her.
"There is no point in studying you for now. There are only so many soul eating species in this world."
She quirked an eyebrow at him, amused that he would assume she was from this world. But she would not enlighten him to the truth.
"What now?" she asked, bending to pick up a blanket that she wrapped around her body and tucked into itself, making herself a makeshift dress.
"You sound remarkably calm for someone who has been… experimented on," he said calmly, eyes hooded in suspicion.
She tilted her head slightly, meeting his dead gaze with her own.
"There will come a day, lich, where it will be your soul that I consume," she replied, not a hint of bravado in her tone. She too was stating nothing more than a fact.
Something akin to fear flickered across his face for only a second. "Yes, about that…" With that he strode towards her, reaching for her.
She moved in an instant to leap backwards, landing crouched against the wall to ensure he could not get behind her, and allowing her plenty of time to escape him when he came for her.
"There is only so far you can run, soul eater. There is no escaping this room," he sneered, turning to approach her again, and she bared her teeth at him, ready.
He lunged, his long arms reaching for her and she spun, dancing out of his reach. She did not want him to get his hands on her, she did not want to know what would happen if he got a grip on her now.
After a few minutes of their game of cat and mouse, he had managed to back her to the far side of the room, and they were at a stalemate. She could not get out, but he was not able to catch her and so he decided to change tactics, his grin wide.
"Guards!" he bellowed, and the two men piled in. Taking in the situation in an instant, the taller of the two closed the door quickly, locking it and slipping his key into his pocket.
Glancing between the two, she noted dryly that one of the two guards was the vomiter, his mouth agape at the sight of her intact and moving freely.
The lich swiped for her and she curved her spine backwards, avoiding the grab and she took advantage of the opening, ducking out to the side but she knew she was in trouble, three would be much harder to get past than one and she had to get that key off the tall guard.
Turning to them, she paced slowly around the edge of the room, the three of them spreading out in an effort to cut her off.
She could see their silent planning, catching the hint of a movement of the lich's hand as he directed the men, and she watched as the two guards stepped sideways, cutting off her escape to the left and right. She was trapped, and they all knew it, it was just a matter of how much damage she could cause before they managed to get her down.
She had no intention of going down without a fight and when they lunged for her, she moved with them. Hands closed on her arm and she used that to yank the man closer to her, gripping his head and guiding it into the wall with a thud, the man staggering away as she turned on the other but the lich was on her as well and his long fingers clamped onto her arm, clenching painfully tight.
Turning on him, she brought her knee up but before she could connect with his ribs, her legs were unceremoniously yanked out from under her and she shrieked as she went down.
The guard she had introduced to the wall jumped on her bodily, knocking the wind out of her but even so, she drove her foot into the face of the guard who had caught her feet.
The guard straddled her stomach, her arms pinned under his knees. When the lich released her, the guard yelled in fear as she jerked herself up, her teeth closing on the fabric of his pants, right at his groin, but she missed his flesh and to ensure she could not do it again, he gripped her hair and forced her head down.
With the other guard taking the same measure and sitting on her knees, she found herself very effectively pinned.
"Hold her down! Don't let her go!" the lich said excitedly, moved to her side and lowering himself slowly to his knees. Leaning over her, he smiled widely even as she wriggled and squirmed, desperate for freedom.
"Stay still, lass!" the guard on her chest cried, his face pale as he struggled to keep her down; even with both of them sitting on her, they were barely containing her.
The lich reached down and placed all five fingertips against her chest, around the spot he had touched when she had agreed to his deal and, reaching with his free hand, he grasped the shoulder of the guard who was sitting on her legs.
The lich began to speak, the words unintelligible, and the guard went suddenly rigid, his back arching and mouth wide in a silent scream but it was her voice that filled the room in a terrible scream as a cruel, savage and biting cold dug itself into her skin and flooded through her system until she could feel nothing else.
"Should I die, you too will die. For as long as I live, so shall you," the lich called, and the guard slumped. The coldness retreated from the rest of her body and into her heart, leaving it burning.
The second guard rushed to help his fallen companion, and she rolled onto her side, curling into a ball around her heart that felt as though it had been doused in ice and shoved into her chest. She did not flinch or try to move away as the lich slowly bent down over her and a new chill went through her as his lips brushed her ear.
"And now, you truly are mine. Forever," he whispered, pushing himself up, and he swept from the room.
She did not move at all, her clenched fists pushing into her chest over her heart in a vain attempt to try to warm it up again, but it was not working, and it was burning like iron, constant and terrible.
He had cursed her, cursed a member of the Fae. She had never heard of a Fae being cursed before, it simply was not done and yet there she was, whimpering on the floor as she tried to push even a shred of warmth into herself.
Soon after the lich had left, the remaining guard dragged his dead companion from the room and she was locked in again, unable to move for the pain.
***
It was sometime later that she finally pulled herself upright and sat huddled against the wall, her arms wrapped tightly around her knees. The burning of her heart did not ease and first one day, then another passed with her simply trying to remain calm, to exist while her heart burned on and on without reprieve.
What would the point be of taking all that effort to contain her and then just leaving her there? She did not think he had forgotten about her and yet the days had ticked by with no changes.
It was on the third day, however, when she picked up the faint sound of footsteps in the distance, something she had not heard since the guard had left.
Lifting her head slowly from her knees, she looked in the direction of the door and listened, the footsteps growing steadily louder and then louder still. Those were not the footsteps of a lich, or even the footsteps of a normal man. Those were the steps of a large being, a massive being and her eyes widened as she pictured the creature, some great monstrosity come to destroy her.
Those steps belonged to a giant, fifteen or twenty feet tall and they crashed down on the stone, making her think they should be cracking the floor with every fall.
The footsteps slowed and she could almost see the enormous figure as it stopped outside her door. Could it smell her? Was it going to hurt her or just kill her? She did not know, and she shrank back, making herself as small as possible.
The door slammed open with such force that it bounced off the wall and crashed to the floor, knocked clean off its hinges to send dust flying around her, her hair tickling her face and she squinted, trying to see what it was that had disturbed her peace.
The cloud of billowing dust revealed an enormous form, wide and tall, though not quite as big as she had imagined and with a head that was surprisingly small.
He stepped into the room slowly and she found herself face to face with the biggest man she had ever seen. Just shy of seven feet tall and easily four feet wide, with massive shoulders and arms, but then the image began to change in her mind as the scent of him hit her.
He reeked of metal, sweat, and man. That was the only word she had to describe that odour, 'man,' all testosterone and anger with his cloak billowing around him, silent as he looked around the room.
Lifting her chin slowly, she took him in through the strands of her lank hair and she was utterly confused by the sight of him.
He was just so very chunky looking and his head was almost square, but after a moment the confusion clicked, the shape of him and the smell of metal coming together to tell her that the man was entirely encased in armour from head to toe.
The dust settled, and she saw his head turning, his eyes scanning the room, and then he found her. She felt an odd sensation inside her chest, an almost-twitch of her heart and a feeling as though he were pulling her towards him. His eyes were the colour of liquid gold but not the gold of the coins the humans worshipped, but the gold of the setting sun on clouds, shining and almost glowing with a radiant warmth that sucked her in so completely, captivating her.
He was silent as he looked at her in return, contemplating the tiny creature huddled against the wall and, after a moment, he came towards her. She realised then why it had sounded like he should have been so much taller; that armour would be so incredibly heavy that it dragged his feet down and she had to wonder what the man inside looked like. How strong was he to be able to move in all that metal?
He knelt slowly down before her, his armour clanking and rattling as his hands lifted, not for her but to himself, pulling the helmet off over his head.
He was not at all what she was expecting. His skin was a deep olive tan with deep blonde hair that was streaked liberally with golden brown, those eyes that looked as though he had stolen the sun and was keeping it inside him, wide and glowing. Full lips and a nose that had been broken at least once and scars… scars everywhere. She tried her best to look at the whole of his face, but she could not keep her attention from returning to those eyes, they were just so… beautiful.
***
When he reached for her, his movements were slow and gentle, tender almost, and he scooped her up off the floor. She tensed in anticipation of the pain but there was no burning as she expected and as she leant against his body, she lifted her hand and pressed her index finger lightly against his chest, fascinated by the dark grey metal that was not iron though it looked exactly like it.
"Silver alloy." His voice was booming, deep and resonating and her eyes flicked up to him. He watched her as he carried her from the cell and down the corridor that she had not seen before.
"Is that normal?" she asked, curious all the more for this odd, giant man.
"My brother told me you did not tolerate iron," he said simply.
That was such an odd thing to say, that she was left stumped for a moment. It was not until he had carried her from the dungeons of the building that she got an inkling of what was going on. Those they passed paused, bowed and murmured something she did not catch over the clanking and ringing of the man carrying her.
She was dumbfounded, unsure of his intentions. The man carried her through the halls of what she suspected to be a castle, stopping outside a door that seemed to be tailor-made specifically for him.
"Inside you will find a bath and clothing. A servant will bring you to me when you are ready, do not rush." With that, he set her down and turned, stomping his way back down the hall to leave her standing by the door, utterly confused and alone in her blanket.
She had not paid much attention to the castle itself and as she looked around, she frowned.
It was an old castle, ancient even. Large narrow windows and heavy, enormous stones stacked neatly to form a shell. The ceiling was high above her, shrouded in darkness. The place was lit by little bunches of candles all along the walls and when she looked down, she found she was standing on a thick crimson rug though the floor itself was made of stone.
Around twenty feet from her stood a suit of armour, and a little way beyond that was a pretty statue of a woman carrying a large pot with a plant growing out of it.
Turning slowly, she found that only a few feet from her was another statue, a man this time with a proud face and when she looked down, she blushed to find that he was entirely naked. The woman statue was naked too, but that had not bothered her like the man's nudity did.
Turning back to the door, she considered it and her situation. It was so very strange that he had gone all the way down to the dungeons only to dump her by the door and leave. But the promise of a bath drew her in, and she stepped forward slowly, pressing the door open and was immediately hit with a blast of warm air that smelt deliciously of lavender.
There was no resisting that, and she hurried inside, inhaling the addictive scent, her hand lingering on the door as she pulled it shut.
Her muscles immediately began to relax as she took in the large room, a huge bath sunken into the floor that was full of steaming water, strewn with sprigs of lavender that wonderfully perfumed the air.
Dropping the blanket where she stood, she hurried forward towards the bath only to jerk as something moved in the corner of her vision. Whipping around in alarm, she caught sight of the thing. It looked like a bog witch, dirty and stained with a mass of matted hair. But when the witch moved with her, she frowned. The witch frowned too, mirroring her perfectly.
It took her way too long to realise that the thing in the mirror was her and she looked the thing over slowly, utterly horrified at the sight of herself.
Her hair was tangled and lank, matted with blood and dirt to form a revolting cloud around her head with long strips hanging down around her face. She was covered in old blood that had turned brown and cracked, adding to the dirt and grime that had built up on her skin over the days of sitting on the ground. Her stomach had healed, a long pink line running down the length of her torso and she inched closer, staring at the thing.
She had only ever seen herself once before, when she had given her baby sister a mirror in celebration of her birth. Her twin had given a lovely silver hairpin to go with it and they had been delighted to see the joy on her face.
***
She had been delighted to shock them both when she had then turned the mirror on them. Etani had always assumed that because she and her twin had been twins, that they would be exactly the same, but they weren't. Her twin had deep green eyes, and she had been startled to see that hers were in fact blue. Their faces were similar, remarkably so, and yet she had a spattering of little spots on her skin, only five or six on her face, while her twin had none. Similar lips, similar noses, the same ears. But she had felt a stab of disappointment when she had learnt that she did not have those green eyes. She had wanted the green eyes, the blue of her eyes was… eerie.
The memory was a little sad, but she was simply glad they were safe, and after a moment, she hissed angrily at the creature in the mirror and turned away. She would look more like herself once she bathed.
Exploring the room, she found an odd handle on a wall towards the back of the room, hidden behind a short wall. Looking at it, she gave the handle a turn and then shrieked as water sudden pounded down on her head, soaking her and flooding dirty water and hair into her eyes.
Staggering back from the thing, she pulled up her hair and watched as water poured out of a little slit in the stone, cascading out like a waterfall. She had never seen anything like it before and after she tested the water, it was frigid and yet remarkably good at getting rid of the vast majority of dirt and blood on her. When she turned it off again, she decided to finish cleaning in the bath that had been prepared for her. She did not want to waste all that hot water.
Still, the waterfall was a curiosity, and she spent the hour of peace wondering how that sort of thing could possibly work. She had to suppose that it was much like the water that came out of the taps in the bath, only set up higher, but she did not know how the baths worked either.
It was a relatively new thing to her, having only learnt about it ten or fifteen years previously. She had spent most of her life needing to fill a bath using buckets, and the first time she had learnt that one could simply turn a tap to get hot water, she had immediately fallen in love.
It seemed that the humans had outdone themselves in the invention of the waterfall.
Scrubbing herself clean and then again, washing her hair three times and then applying a sweet smelling oil to the entirety of her person that left her smelling very faintly of some unknown flower, her skin and hair so incredibly soft she could not stop running her hands over her arms or through her hair.
She had never in her life felt so absolutely pampered, and she took full advantage.
Evidently, she had taken too long, as the door opened and a tiny little grey-haired human woman came bustling into the room and looked down at her disapprovingly like she was a naughty child.
The woman was wearing a pressed and starched black and white dress, her hair pulled up into a neat bun with a little cap on top, an apron, and smart little black shoes that peeked just out from under the hem of her dress. She looked incredibly formal and smart, leaving Etani to think that she might be looking at a royal servant. It made sense, given they were in a castle and she had an inkling that the armoured giant might be someone important.
"If you stay in there much longer, you'll get pruney," the woman said in a matronly voice that she immediately liked. "Your clothes are on the bench here. Hurry along or you'll leave the king waiting. A lady does not leave a king waiting."
The woman bustled from the room before she got a chance to even open her mouth and she scowled after the woman. She did not want to get out, but the woman's business-like tone suggested that it would be impolite to do otherwise, and she sighed, dragging herself reluctantly from the water.
Picking up a large white sheet of fabric, she looked it over and touched it, finding it to be oddly fluffy with a dryness that immediately stripped the moisture from her finger. Deciding that it must be the whole point of the thing, she used it to dry herself off, looking around at the room to find the clothes that had been left out. She did not much like the look of them, but it was better than going around naked.
Turning to the little table with the mirror, she dried her hair quickly and combed it out, the sheer length of it making this almost impossible. It had grown almost entirely back to her knees, and she dug through the drawers until she found a pair of scissors, lopping it off so that it hung to just above her backside and she smiled as she looked at it. She had always found it amusing, something she and her twin had found out at a very early age, that if they did not want their hair cut and it was, it grew back within hours. But if they wanted it cut, it did not grow back until the natural passage of time. It had driven their parents crazy.
The thought of her parents brought a slightly sad smile pulling at her lips and she shook her head, not wanting to think about that.
***
Picking up the dress, she pulled it on and turned back to the mirror, somewhat more satisfied with her appearance. The dress had been designed for someone with less hips and bust than her, but it was an overall acceptable fit, tight without being revealing with narrow sleeves and a modest neckline that dipped in just slightly at the front. Flowing down to the floor to just brush the ground though the little black shoes had a heel she was not overly fond of were skipped; she opted to go barefoot as was her preference and really, what were they going to do? Make her wear shoes?
Moving silently across the bathroom on her bare feet, she paused as she considered her appearance.
She was a Fae in a human city, she needed to dull things down a bit if she did not want to draw attention. With that in mind, she returned to the mirror and leant close, squinting at herself.
The magic they called a 'glamour' was fairly simple and most of her kind had it. It was simply taking what was there, and changing it to match what she wanted to be there.
People saw only what they wanted to see, and she wanted them to see a human. Well, human-ish. Tilting her head, she studied her ear and imagined it to be rounder, shorter and more curved and as the image changed in her mind, the image in the mirror shifted as well. It was reality bending to her will, to the will of those trying to bend it.
Next came her eyes, making them just a shade smaller and her perfect skin less so, giving her the hints of human imperfections that her kind lacked. It was hard to remove the inhuman aura, but she could dull the shine a bit.
Deciding it was good enough, she studied her face and frowned, wishing for the millionth time that she could at least be half as pretty as her twin, but it was not to be and she turned from the mirror, crossing the room and slipping out of the door.
The woman was sitting patiently on a small bench that Etani was sure had not been there before, neither had the guard who was eyeing her suspiciously.
"Hello…" she said cautiously to the woman who nodded and stood, hustling her along the corridor.
"Come along, dear, we have a meeting with the king," the woman said in a harried voice.
Hurrying to keep up, she almost needed to jog, which was surprising, given her legs were longer than the human's.
"Why?" she asked bluntly, not sure what some human king could possibly want to talk to her for but her companion did not reply; instead, she simply quickened her pace and Etani sighed, hurrying to keep up with her while ignoring the stares of those they passed.
Finally, they reached a large set of doors, easily fifteen feet tall and ten wide. Why anyone needed doors, that big was beyond her.
"Go!" the servant woman hissed and gave her a little push at the small of her back.
Stepping through the doorway slowly, she looked around at the mass of people, humans and mythicals mixed together with such a calm that she was momentarily stunned. She had never once in her life seen the two together without fighting.
As she made her way slowly across the room, the crowd grew silent, moving apart to allow her to approach the throne on the far side of the room. They were watching her, studying and gauging her to the point that it made her a little nervous.
Forcing her eyes from those around her, she saw the throne and as the last few courtiers moved aside, she stopped dead in her tracks, staring at him sitting on the throne.
It was the same man who had taken her from the dungeon.