lady_moon | (no subject)

"Woooow. So um... where is everybody? How many of you live here?" He holds Dart's leash to keep him from flying off to investigate. Miniver is not so brave.

"There's only twenty-four of us who have woken or been created. There's room for all seventy-eight of us, plus guests, but the castle sort of adjusts its size as we need it to," she explains. "Skill is in the kitchen and Sorrow is in her room. Star is here somewhere. She's come visiting for a bit. Fortune's also here, as is Choice. But Choice almost never leaves the castle. He's the one who has the power to make the other cards."

"Oooh. Wow. Sorrow. Sorrow's... Ruin's daughter? Right? Draco told me..."

He keeps following Moon, awed by everything.

She walks up the stairs.

Up and up.

"Yes. Her dallied with a peasant girl shortly after he was made into a card. Seven years later, she dumped the child on him. Hadn't even bothered to name the little girl, thinking she was nothing more than a curse. Ruin named her Reue. Raised her with help, of course, and when she was seventeen, she became Sorrow."

"Can I meet her?" he asks breathlessly. He's not used to exercise.

Moon slows down, pausing to give him a break.

"Would you like to?"

"She's not... like him.. is she?"

She giggles and shakes her head.

"No. Sorrow's... well, she's very quiet. Thoughtful. No one in our family is quite like Ruin. And he has his reasons for why he is what he is. Too much bad when he was a human, and then the burden of being Ruin. It broke him. But Sorrow has the best of him in her, I think."

"I'd like to meet her, then," Miniver says, and something of an echo of Gorlim is in his voice, and his blind belief in the good in others.

Moon looks down at him from her perch and smiles.

"I wish you could meet Gorlim," she says suddenly. "Maybe I like you so much because you remind me of him in a way... but not."

Another giggle and she starts up the stairs again.

Just a few more.

He scampers.

"Really? He was a warrior, right? I mean... am I really like him?"

She nods and comes out on a landing filled with more tapestries and some scultures of mythical animals.

"He was a warrior. His story was sad. Gorlim betrayed his Captain and brought about the end of his people, his lands, and so much more in the hopes of gaining his love back from the bowels of Angband, but who only met with a cold death. A traitor who was betrayed."

"Whoooa."

He follows, paying now only half attention to his surroundings. He'll be lost as soon as he tries to get anywhere, no doubt. This place seems HUGE to him.

"And, he's the one Ruin... fixed, right?"

She walks down the lines of doors.

"Fixed... well. He provided the opportunity for the god who was Gorlim's lover then to fix him. Ruin killed his spirit... sort of... so that the god could receive the spirit and create it anew in flesh. Just... someone forgot to fill the god in on that part of the plan and he went through some terrible heartache over it all."

"Ruin... hurt a god?" Miniver breathes, terror flickering in his eyes.

Moon stops in front of a door and turns to Miniver.

"Ruin did a lot to him, and some of it had nothing to with his direct hand and everything to do with what he did to Gorlim. But, it took all of Gorlim's patience where the worst was concerned, because while Gorlim seemed to be able to easily shed the sexual aspects of what Ruin did to him once he left the room, when Ruin had Námo... Námo didn't get over it as easily."

She opens the door and nods for Miniver to enter.

Inside is a lush bedroom done in many shades of green and cream. A large, four poster bed with white and pine hangings dominates the room, with a plush rug covering the cold floor in a pattern of leaves and berries. Books line several shelves, a desk sits in the corner with pens, inks, and paper, and there are several chairs and a sofa scattered about.

He steps in, and lets go of the leash so Dart can flutter off to some perch somewhere.

"Oh... it looks like Draco's room." He smiles a little. This is not so bad. "I mean, the kidnapping stories I read, usually only girls get kidnapped like this, because some rich lord wants to marry them. But in the end, the pauper lad manages to free her and she goes to live with him anyway. This is pretty..."

He wanders around, pawing at things.

"Sure you won't reconsider?"

"You aren't my hostage... you're just a reluctant guest. Big difference. You're also special to me, and I would've brought you here to visit eventually..."

Moon takes great joy in watching him look around.

"Would you like to see Sorrow now or would you like me to show you the kitchen and dining hall?"

And should Miniver turn and look to the left of the bed, there is a door leading into his own bathroom with a deep tub and all the necessities he would need.

He'd find that eventually. This is a LOT like his room back in Milliways. It's comforting, at least.

"Oh--anything." He doesn't know. Can't decide.

Moon giggles.

"Or I can leave you here to gawk and send Sorrow to show you where the food is."

"Um... whatever. Will Dart be okay? Can I get food for him, and maybe a nice place to sleep? He has a little leather satchel back home. He'll miss it and get homesick."

Or Miniver will. The bird looks perfectly happy.

"I'll go and let Sorrow know you're here... and then I'll go find something suitable for Dart, all right?"

She gives him a peck on the cheek and disappears out the door, leaving him alone for a bit.

Maybe alone is a good thing for Miniver?

It is.

He flops down on the bed, lying on his back. It's comfortable, and this is all very novel and lovely, but... eventually it;s all going to hit him that he can't go home. Eventually. For now, he just admires the curtains.

She knocks.

Peeks her head in.

"Comfortable?" she says, hovering near the door. "You look comfortable."

Miniver sits up with a tiny squeak and looks over at her.

"Um, are you Sorrow?"