#dreaming

"Mmm. Thy Pearl." Pleased.

Both dressed, they appraise each other. Each of them of a kith that seems a bit less...civilized by some standards, but he does cut a dashing figure in the germanic garb provided, it matches the gothic evirons. And she? She is tantalyzing with only the shear river like threads. He takes her hand "To breakfast then library or do you wish to risk showing up late?"

"Oh, but then we would need to get dressed again..."

"Breakfast first. Have you ever thought, what a sin it is that Autumn has become a curse word to our people? We must needs say 'fall' - as if this is a Fall! To be free and to harvest and to know both the lingering warmth of summer and the first cool winds..."

"Perhaps some part of us will always remember this..." he says "What it is to know the lessons of loss and fear, to know the joys of the harvest and feeding time before the winter. "

"Aye. I am a dream of fear, am I not? And of rivers... it has always been rivers..."

"Were Rusalka still more common a dream, you might have become that instead of sluagh" he says "But yes, fear, its elegant caress has always been on you, and yours to share" And they walk on towards the breakfast chamber.

"Aye. And in Arcadia, were you not watchful stone?"

"I watched thee" He says.

"And you saw me in the river but today." Wickedly. "I swam for thee."

"Temptress..." A smile

As they enter the chamber, Zara is startled by a Kilmoulis! More than one. Enormous noses, no mouths, like ugly brownies they move about but they are sluagh kin to be sure for Zara was caught off guard. Her senses not as sharp

A little start, but delight at the new kith overcomes it. She watches them with her dark eyes. "Think you, Lord Exile could have crafted me thusly, instead of so delightfully."

A hand over heart in a salute that she herself has used so many times. How do they eat without mouths? Is that why they died out save in the Dreaming? the three are here for Breakfast regardless. She might notice them gesture to each other with finger signs. How clever their hands are.

She studies, curiosity unchecked. Perhaps she can decipher the gestures.... oh, of course, a bow in return.

Zara the Rusalka still is a mistress of enigmas, a reader of patterns herself (much as the Varich my grumble) and this is a language, no less than the spoken. She is good at languages. She may not read it all, how could she?? but even without mouths to express, she can see that she, Earl, and Agnethe are the subject of much curiosity and conversation. They welcome them all, but .. they seem to think it is a only matter of time before the three join this magic kingdom ..some thing about some matters cementing... and something about a King of Wonderland? No, a king in wonderland?

"They watch us as we watch them. Is this a wonderland, do you think?"

Earl says "their hands move so fast I can't peace it out." A glance "Some of your sister Rusalka are here."

"Aye!" A smile for them.

Wearing nearly nothing themselves, other Rusalka are at the end of the table. It's clear Zara is meant to sit closer wwith Earl to the master of the castle and the Lady who now is dressed not in hunting garb but a lovely dress.

Zara settles by her Earl, but on the side closer to her sisters.

"Sister, greetings" They kiss her cheek, a sign, she knows of trust for either could take a bit out of the other should one be hostile. Even the river nymphs have their protocals. More and more they seem to be respecting her as not just one of them, but first among them. Lord Exile's favor no doubt.

"Aye, sister, good morrow." Gentle kisses, the touch of hands, palm-to-palm.

And if men should mistake these innocent gestures for more than they are, all the easier to allure them to feast.

"How slept you, Zara and Sir Earl?" Lord Exile asks

"We... slept, a little, yes."

"Comfortably, Lord, very comfortably" the Gargoyle is perhaps the more reserved one at this moment

"Aganthe enjoyed a grand hunt as she may have told you," Lord Exile says "Ah, before Breakfast begins..." He gestures, "Let Fall pass... what season shall it be?"

Indeed, Zara seems much more... open.. with her sensuality than the decorous sluagh would ever be.

"I wonder what Spring would feel like..."

"Though winter is welcome, too. A time to indulge..."

"Yes, one of those, you came to me Summer" Lord Exile says,seeming ready to make up his mind

"We did, Lord Exile."

"Winter then..." He says.

And just like that... Honor is proven to be a lie. Change is good. Passions come before Duty. Glamour runs free

the gothic castle takes on an icier feel

not unpleasant

A breath, and Zara shifts - teeth sharpen, and she seems more haggard - like a hologram, flicking between sexpot and monster by trick of light.

The Gargoyle by her side grows even more sinister seeming, less a willing guardian of the heights and more a dangerous figure that might take what is his from his perch if trusted too lightly

"I feel... oh, I feel free."

"Oooo" Aganthe rarely ever dabbled in her Unseelie side even when she was Agnes. Zara's influence over Clem and Earl mmostly spread to the wilders and just a time a time . She would hide away on Samhain, holding back what she saw as her weaker self

Earl the Rake runs fingers along the Rusalka, "You do it so easily, Lord Exile. "

"I can do anything but leave" The being says, a note of dark amusement, awareness at the irony

She curls her spine, closing her eyes. "Aye, a gilded cage is still a cage."

"But you may have guests, those who can bring you delight. And what matters more than that?"

Aganthe's voile has shifted to be more shear herself, "Ah, Lord. A feast, a dance, a hunt, a dalliance. If one is to be trapped, unable to be free, one should at least enjoy their prison, their station as much as they may." A note of.. bitter resentment mixed with an odd ephinany "If I were to be trapped again, bound to a role, then I think I would feel no shame in taking my pleasures as I deemed fit. "

"Again, lady Agnethe?"

She turns "mmm? did I say again?" She seems ..startled "But there are no...binds on me?" A thought

Then "Wait.. I remember a place, it was.. golden, and growing, and it .." The sidhe purses her lips

Zara nods. "The Farm, aye."