by Dulcie » Sat Aug 31, 2013 2:46 am
"Fine. And then after this I'm done with you."
She decided on a story easily enough and sat down on a tree stump, a long enough tale to necessitate such a thing.
"If you weren't so weak already I'd be able to give you a glamour for the effect of it, but I'm not about to waste my power on entertaining what's left of you."
She took a deep breath and began to tell her story.
"Many years ago I lived in a desert land. I was attracted to the place, full of myths and tales about the ancient ones who had lived in the harsh climate in the far distant past. It was a good place for collecting stories, perhaps a little like here. Full of it's own rich cast of characters to watch and mimic."
She began to sink into the story then, her magic taking hold and if Glenn was open to it he'd begin to see in his mind the picture of this desert city and a palace that shone at the end of it.
"In this town there was a King. He had been betrayed by his lady wife and had sentenced her to death, and each night after that he would claim another virgin bride from the town and have her killed the next morning before she had a chance to injure his heart as his first wife had once done.
After months of this the town was beginning to run short of young women, and I found myself rather intrigued by the story itself and in the midst of the folly of youth, wanting to test my talents in the most dangerous of manners. I elected a glamour of a young desert woman, the daughter of a poor merchant, and I volunteered to be the King's bride."
He would see then, the beautiful image of her wedding day, the dark skinned beauty that looked nothing like Grawnya's true self adorned with gold jewelry and red silks as she held the hands of the much older King.
"That night before the King was ready to retire I told him the story of a pauper who found a lamp, which granted him three wishes, and though the King begged me to tell him the end of the story, I refused, telling him I would only finish it the next night. The King agreed to let me live another day, and so the next night I finished the story and began another, and so this continued from one day to the next. A thousand and one nights my stories continued, until the King passed from old age, believing that he his life had ended with a loving and devoted wife.
It'd be impossible to deny of course that I enjoyed my time with the King, I rather did. It wasn't as you said a matter of love, but one of convenience. I had an audience and he had a young bride who would never betray him and who kept him entertained night after night. The people already had such open minds to magic and myth, they never thought to question the things that happened in their world, never thought to ask the King if stories had been told to match their events. Of course, the King was quite distracted in those years anyhow. I was quite disappointed when he died, I had so many more stories I could have told.
I had hoped perhaps, that Gloria might have been like my King. We could have lived quite happily together you know, had she not looked so hard to see the truth of the matter. That's the problem with some people, they don't know how to enjoy what they have."