Fantasy Under Your Spell

[redroseknight]

How long had it been since she had last settled into this place, she wondered as she carefully stepped into the mansion that had been a gift from Countess Erzebet. Blue eyes swept over the interior that had certainly seen better days, and she shut the door behind her with a little more force than was strictly necessary. She was still getting used to the power in her body, a physical strength rather than the magic she had once wielded with such skill. At least she was getting used to balancing upright for the most part, her claws clicking on the wooden floor as she began making her ascent toward her bedroom.

The room was lit by the brilliant rays of the sun shining in through a window, and she took a moment to appreciate the soothing blue theme of the room. While most had associated Sayviel with the flames that seemed to always leap to her command when her temper flared, Sayviel had always favored blue. It reminded her of simpler times, learning to contain her magic with the sea as a backdrop. Better for a woman with an affinity for the elements, especially fire, to practice near a body of water should things spiral out of control. Especially one with such a flair for the dramatic as Sayviel Tempeste.

The cloak that she had used to hide her form while she made her way by car to her estate fell away, and she reached out a clawed paw to touch the items on her dresser. Everything was exactly as she had left it. That was both comforting and heartbreaking. Though nothing had really prepared Sayviel for when she lifted her head to allow her azure eyes to meet her reflection. Rather than a beautiful young woman with alabaster skin and a confident smirk on her petal pink lips, she was greeted with the sight of the monster she had become. Thick fur the color of a moonless night covered her body from the tip of her slightly pointed canid ears to the end of her long, fluffy tail. The only mark of color on her form was a silver star pattern on her chest in the same placement as her sorceress mark. Her features had been shifted so her aristocratic human features were replaced by the long snout of a fox. She bared her teeth at the image in front of her, sharp incisors taking the place of her previously dull teeth. Anger welled up in Sayviel. She couldn't lash out with her magic any longer, so she did the only thing that she could.

Her claws cracked the mirror, a shard of it stabbing into her clawed hand. Pain lanced through her as crimson dribbled down from her wound, but she didn't stop her destruction. Drapes, sheets, furniture, nothing was safe from Sayviel's wrath. Once she had expended all of her energy, the woman collapsed on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chest. Sayviel had never been one to feel helpless. She had always been able to use her wits and magic to get out of any situation placed before her. Yet here she was with everything she held dear taken from her in one fell swoop. It was tempting to give in to Catrin in order to regain her previous glory. But Sayviel was defiant if anything. To give Catrin that victory was a fate worse than death for Sayviel. But then again, so was being so disconnected from her magic and humanity. Perhaps time would tell which was truly worse.

So the woman closed her eyes and let herself have this moment of grieving. After this, she would need to start strategizing a plan. If she was going to go down in flames, she was going to take that sorceress with her. After her discussion with Celeste, she had arranged for a maid to come take care of the house while she focused on her options and devised some manner of entrapping Catrin so that she would be forced to return Sayviel to her former glory. Unfortunately, she had assumed that there was going to be plenty of time between the present and this maid of Celeste's arrival. Too bad that this woman was exceptionally punctual!

SolitaryCryptid

 

[SolitaryCryptid]

Celeste stood before her giving her her final run down on how to treat her new master like she did for every maid she sent out.
"Behave, do as your told, dont question your master and remember everything ive taught you"
But at the end of her sentence she sighed and gently held Aine by her shoulders with her head bowed slightly, when did she become so much shorter than her? She remembered having to look up at this strong vibrant woman tugging at the hem of her dress to get her attention. She smiled and gently brushed her hand against the aging womens cheek.
"Celeste...I will be sure to never smear your good name by my own fault as a maid. I will do everything you taught me to the perfection from which is expected of me. Thank you for caring for me all these years and giving me a chance at a life I would not have had."
The womans eyes fogged with the threat of tears but they did not come instead she cleared her throat and blinked a few times before sitting up straight and smiling her usual big enthusiastic smile.
"Thats my girl Aine..now be on your way dear the cars pulling up"

Aine looked over her shoulder to the small sleek car that was pulling up, a man in sunglasses sitting sternly behind the wheel. She turned to start walking towards it, her small luggage bag all she had besides the clothes on her back which is all she needed for a new start in her masters home where she would work on obtaining a few necessities from there. A small breeze blew by and sent her hair flurrying around her face as she clenched her eyes shut just in time to avoid giving away her bright crystalline purple eye to anyone in the vicinity all while tucking her glinting short hair behind her left ear and fixing the rest of her bangs back over her right eye. Suddenly she heard celeste shout from behind.
"You watch that pretty face of yours in public dear! Dont let me hear from Sayviel that you up and vanished!"
She knew full well she would only ever leave her work if she had been kidnapped or killed. She flashed a bright smile and waved before opening the door to the car and slipping in. She rolled her window down from the back passenger seat as the car began to move away from the only home she ever really cherished.
"Dont worry you taught me well..until next time, mother!"
Celeste went from smiling and waving to blushing and then followed by tears that she assumed she told herself she would dare not shed today but Aine knew what a softy she was and how much they loved each other. She never said it in front of the other maids though they came and went as often as they did but their endearing mother and daughter relationships and terms for each other were almost always said when they were alone.

Not much longer and Aine had arrived to the spot she was told to get to before telling the driver to stop. Night was falling and she paid no heed to the man behind the wheel who kept saying he didnt mind taking her all the way to her destination even though he had only been paid to get her to this spot.
"Very kind of you sir but unneeded..I shall continue my trip from here"
She turned, her dress curling around her knees before unfolding again as she walked in the direction of Sayviels home. She told Celeste she wanted upmost security and discretion and that was exactly what she was going to get, and despite having to walk the rest of the distance she had no doubt she would be there right on time.
Just as she thought she wandered up to the front door exactly when celeste had wanted her to be there, using her pocket watch that had been a gift from celeste to check the time. She smiled happily to herself feeling confident in her promptness and not even a lick out of breathe though that might have had to do with how light the fae were, they were intended to fly after all...but not her. But the advantage was she could walk for miles and not get tired. She cleared her throat as she raised her small hand to the door and gently knocked three times.

 

[redroseknight]

No one should have even known the estate existed, so for there to be a knock at the door roused the woman from where she had been sitting back against the door to her bedroom. Her ears laid back against her head as the large beast rose slowly while debating her options. While part of her wished to ignore the world that might be knocking at her door, Sayviel hadn't arrived at her position in life by ignoring her instincts or ignoring unpleasant possibilities. There was a chance that Catrin had followed her to her estate by use of tracking magic, and if that was the case then this was an opportunity to see if she could either convince the woman to return her to her original state or throttle her enough to force the return. Of course, there was also the chance that this was someone who had been made aware of her presence only as a bestial creature. Humans were just as mired in their hubris as Sayviel, and so they often wished to see the end to those that they deemed dangerous.

Slowly she made her way down the grand staircase, her claws tapping on the once beautiful wood since she decided to not take a chance and moved on all fours like a fox would. Pain shot up from her injured paw with each step, but she needed to see who was there. Normally she would have used an incantation, but magic was no longer answering her call. For once Sayviel was truly alone. So now she needed to handle things the way that mundane humans might, as much as it irritated the sorceress to do so. Well, to a degree she would behave as a human. There were perks to her current form, and two of them were enhanced hearing and smell.

No gunpowder from what she could smell, so that was starting off to a good start. She also didn't smell Catrin's perfume, something she could pick out of a room in an instant despite there having been so many years of the pair not speaking. Now safely at the foot of the stairs, she pricked her ears and canted her head to the side. She didn't hear anything heavy or nefarious out there, nor was she hearing voices. So maybe it was just one person? The idea of it being Catrin sparked both rage and trepidation. Could Catrin do something now to make this worse?

"Who dares to tread upon these grounds?" she questioned with an imperious tone to her mezzo-soprano voice. No matter how hideous she appeared now, Sayviel hadn't been divorced from her pride. Pride made her lean into her innate haughty nature even if self-doubt was now dogging her heels. So what if she felt more monster than woman? She wasn't about to let Catrin know how deeply she had wounded the sorceress.

 

[SolitaryCryptid]

Aine wiated patiently by the front door, her leather boots digging gently into the outside soil and she looked around and enjoyed the sounds of the nearby woods and took a deep calm breath in as she waited for the door to be opened. But from the inside she could feel something approaching as the small bits of magic she had managed to become in tune with started buzzing under her skin almost like when your nerves twitch uncontrollably. She did know that her master was a sorceress so could that be it? She had never been around someone with powerful magic before all the people who came under Celeste's care were usually humans or very low level magic users like pixies or brownies and the occasional elf but they never warranted a bodily response such as this.

She was pulled from her thoughts at the sound of a voice on the other side of the door.
"Hello madam, my name is Aine Weber..I was sent by Celeste do your personal maid. I do hope i'm not running late and causing you trouble"
She knew she wasnt late but it was the wise thing to do on her end to make for good conversation, or at least what conversation could be said through a door. She hoped her tone was appropriate as well, she had worked hard on developing a proper and clear tone of speech since she had noticed that small small distinctions would come through that could give her fairy heritage away and there was something with fairies that made their speech sound..off..to others besides other fae even if they were speaking the language perfectly.

 

[redroseknight]

Aine Weber...yes, that name did sound familiar. She recalled her conversation with Celeste regarding the young woman being sent to tend to the estate while Sayviel was trapped in this form, but she didn't place a date on her arrival. Never had she been annoyed by someone being too punctual, but perhaps there was a first time for everything. At first she reached for the door to open it, but then she winced the moment her injured paw made contact with the metal of the knob. Never mind, she didn't need to open it for the girl. Surely she could manage a door by herself as long as it was left unlocked. Celeste wouldn't send her a complete dullard, and that was the reason she had contacted the woman in the first place.

"Enter then shut and lock the door behind you. This place gets drafty enough as it is," she stated before stepping back away from the door. Part of her considered simply hiding in the shadows until Aine was finished cleaning. It would preserve some of her ego if no one else saw her in this current state. Alas, that would also make it more difficult to ensure that Aine knew exactly what she would be working on and what rooms to avoid since she hadn't laid out those specifics with Celeste. Besides, it might be better to just make the girl aware of who she was working for rather than her being startled out of her wits one day if she turned a corner to find the hulking fox woman staring her in the face.

So she kept back enough from the door so that anyone else that could potentially have been with Aine wouldn't be able to see her inside. Despite her shifted features, Sayviel maintained most of her human tendencies. Arms folded over her chest with claws of her left paw lightly resting on her bicep as she assumed her usual stance when dealing with others. Everyone was beneath Sayviel in her eyes, so she treated even the leaders of nations with the same barely contained disdain. If it weren't for her gifts in magic, she likely wouldn't have held the important positions that she did. Fortunately for her, she had been a prodigy with elemental magic and respected for that alone even if her personality left some things to be desired.

"Celeste recommended you for your diligence and ability to maintain secrecy, so I expect you to meet her rare praise. The master bedroom is to remain untouched. I don't need you to do anything in there at all nor is there anything that would be of interest to you there. The first room under the staircase where my piano is may be cleaned, but only if there is nothing on the door denoting otherwise. Disrupting anything mystical including causing a misalignment of objects empowering a circle can cause disaster. This will be the one opportunity I will give you to make your inquiries, so you had better make those questions both pertinent and count."

Regardless of if she hadn't already been in a poor mood, this was a general view as to how Sayviel tended to interact with others. She was surly even on what others would consider a good day, and even a compliment usually had a back handed insult hidden somewhere.

 

[SolitaryCryptid]

Aine was quick to follow the order but was cautious at the same time as she reached for the doorknob. The door creaked open as she entered slowly, not wanting to hit her master if she was too close to the door. Once she was inside she was more quick to close the door behind her to avoid having it open for too long, the breeze behind her being closed off as she stood in the dark somewhat stale room. "Thank you for having me madam, whatever rules you have in place I promise to follow strictly. I am well aware of your profession and what I can do to be sure to keep from bothering you while you work, I have no needs of my own at this time save for maybe where you wish for me to rest. Any room or space will do you will hear no complaints from me" She spoke neatly and efficiently as she placed her one bag on the floor beside her, her clear blue eye scanning the room to where Sayviel had been standing. When she looked upon her shadowy form the feeling of prickles on her skin intensified and the desire to get closer nagged at her. Thankfully for her she had been trained well enough to stand by and ignore such things.

Were her eyes tricking her by chance? The women before her was meant to be, well, a woman after all but she was pretty sure what stood before her anything but. She could see glistening fur and sharp narrowed eyes that glimmered in the darkness of the room. A shiver went up her spine but she kept her mouth closed for the most part. "If there is anything you require of me, anything at all please do not hesitate to ask me or call for me when needed. I am here for you as your tool." Oh how Celeste would be wiping tears of joy right about now if she could see her hard work getting some good use. Aine was however curious why Celeste didnt mention a magical creature being who she would serve, or was it something else more complicated than that? Much like her own circumstances she knew not everything was black and white and that is probably why she of all people was picked for this job.