As You Wish, My Lord ~a prose fragment~

* BE MINDFUL - suicidal thoughts and intentions are mentioned immediately, but they are followed by a helper attempting to help *

          “KILL ME!” She screamed into the inky darkness which floated as though intelligently controlled, “DAMN YOU!  JUST END IT NOW!  I'M DONE WITH ALL THE MISDIRECTION & POINTLESSNESS OF . . .” the woman gestures sweepingly around herself in all directions, losing her words in the ugliest of ugly cries.

           A shape forms from the shadow, and a tall young man forms a body near her desperation.  His eyes, glittering yellow this moment, sanguine the next, royal purple the next; the emotional weather blending and shifting them like clouds around the pupil.  Quiet tears depart his eyes, and in a melancholic, regretful, no; mournful, lilting tenor, he whispers,  “And, pray tell, what will I live for when you are gone, Delight?  And is this moment truly the final straw for you?   Please.  Let me HELP YOU.  Let me SUPPORT YOU.”

          “There is no more salvation for me, Beloved.  My spirit is so tainted by the miasma produced by the clung-to evils of the mortals round about me that I am infected.  I am dying now; of human vice and human cruelty and their inevitable consequences.  You are my Treasure.  You are my Why.  I will not allow you to destroy yourself along with me.”  

          Her sobbing had quieted a bit, though breathing made that speech a supreme effort.  Even so, she’d not hiccoughed once, nor gasped, nor broke out in a new freshet of weeping.  Audibly pulling in a deep and centering breath, she continued, “You've fought for me in every lifetime.  You saved me from my trauma-induced amnesia; you protected me even when I did not know your name – when all I knew of you was a vague sense that ‘this person feels like home.’  You are the ONLY BEING who can kill me and prevent the spread of this evil to the worlds.  The balance MUST NOT COMMUNICATE THIS DARKNESS to her children.  No matter the cost.”

          The gentle, color-shifting eyes stop on gold, hardening their expression.  The young man’s shoulders square, he pulls himself to his full three meter height – jaw setting into a preparing for combat sort of posture along with the rest of him. 

          “I will not, Goddess.  I cannot.  I refuse.  I choose to purify your wounds; to heal your heart.  To remind you of your Love which washes over all these mortals so that the balance is maintained.  I am your Protector and I will NEVER abandon you.  Rage all you want, I refuse to begin the Dance of Dissolution while you are unwell.”

           She has collapsed onto the floor, in a pool of Void.  “My Only Beloved.”  He offers a hand.  It is ignored.  “That is how it is today.” 

          He crouches in the pool of Void, gathering the Lady in his arms.  He murmurs sweet gentlenesses into her hair as he strides through a portal to a beautiful old house. Inhaling deeply, he smiles. 

          “Do you smell the gingko fruit, Delight?  And the kimchi?  I have brought you home.”

           Once in the house, he calls the chief of the lady’s maids and entrusts his Joy to her capable ministrations.  “The Mistress is unwell.   Her servants have forgotten themselves and she is a bundle of sadness, disappointment, and nerves.  Please see to her comforts and make sure she is dressed in her favorite and most comfortable clothes for supper.”

           The chief lady’s maid bows, “As you wish, my lord.”

           He wanders through the kitchen, taking a large and intense woman by the arm, “Cook, the Mistress is unwell.  She needs to eat a hearty, but gentle on the body, meal. And possibly a refreshing snack would be in order now.  We dine just after sunset.  That should give everyone ample time to prepare.”

          The Chief Cook bows, “As you wish, my lord.”

          His sharp nose, narrow eyes, delicately angled chin and cheek bones; his ears, so oddly placed and oddly pointed make for an unexpected ~ and unearthly ~ visage.  He shrank in size to fit the house as he brought his distressed Beloved One in moments ago.  His purposeful steps along the corridor of his house startle a chamber maid busy cleaning a room – and she leaps near out of her skin (as she phrased it in her mind).  She had never met the Master of the House.  And she could not take her eyes off him as he passed her place of occupation.

          ‘How beautiful! And cunning!’ she thought.

          “How terrifying would be more accurate, child." He says without having seen her, in spite of her not speaking the though aloud.  "I apologize for frightening you.  Continue your work.  When you have finished, report to the Chief Lady’s Maid and see what companionship or aide you can provide the Mistress.  Go.”

          The Chamber Maid bows, “As you wish, my lord.”