"If you want something said, ask a man. If you want something done, ask a woman."
- Margaret Thatcher
-x-
Calla's skin was bare with the dress she had made from her powers, powers that now tinged with Derek's blood had made it as easy as breathing. Collared around her neck it clung to her chest and left her back bare, the skirt flowed out to a normal length and flowed just barely enough when she walked. Iit had been made in a simple sky blue fabric. Curls coming down to cover her back she had never felt the warmth of many things let alone the sun and now that it was on her skin she never wanted it to end. Especially now that she was finding a place within the peoples she was living with; some of the men and elders still gave her odd looks when she passed, they made whispers but for the most part they were kind enough that they never made her feel like she didn't belong.
Even though she had drank the blood of one of their leaders and felt more than a blood rush from being with him. If they knew the impure thoughts that she wanted alone? Shaking her head and smiling, Calla was weaving some baskets with the ladies. Her patterns were tighter and more intricate looking like a spider's web with glistening drops of morning dew. All at once she heard the talking of the women cease and she looked up her lashes had been nearly at her cheekbones from how comforting this process was.
Like she was perfectly at peace doing tasks made for 'servants' in her old home.
"What is that?!" They exclaimed looking at her pattern, the one who had smiled at Derek before and made her jealous nature slip out was at her side touching her hand with fluttering brushes in awe.
"Calla oh it's just so beautiful." She said and smiled so brightly at her Calla couldn't help but smile as well.
Swallowing she gently took Freja's hand and began to help her perform the weave that she had learned as a child, they were good for trapping enemies and catching prey than anything useful like the Dŭrvos used them for.
"It's called the Păianjen weave because we use them for trapping enemies to kill. My father always said, 'Come in said…'"
~
"... the spider to the fly." Nora whispered as she stared at the journal on the ornate vanity of her chambers. It had been a few moons since she had last made her presence known in the castle. She had complained of feeling drained and tired and Jaxon had allowed her to rest.
However, tonight was back to the lion's den.
She ran her fingers down the pages of Calla's diary. Perhaps it was invasive but Nora felt she knew the woman though they'd barely talked at the line. Maybe in some form she could relate to the former queen. Current queen? Would Nora remain here? Would she be a queen?
Questions reeled in her mind and she had to place her fingers on her temples to get it to stop. She needed to relax and take it one day at a time. Her surroundings seemed to be giving her a literal brain freeze, the term making her smile as she thought of her human lover she had all those years ago. A hand flitting over her heart.
As she scooped the journal into her hands she just put it inside of a keepsake again and then got up from her seated position. Soon she would be forced to bathe and prepped for Jaxon's sake and her jaw set at the thought. At the thought that she was even readied for the likes of a man. Her culture called for all natural attraction. Being addicted to someone's scent, to the way their skin looked honey dipped in the sun. And yet the Prim's seemed to run on nothing but lust and the desire of the opposite sex, or the desire of the same. There was no discretion from either side, but to do it for anything other than your own wants… It seemed pointless. Why did she need to try so hard? Did he not enjoy her natural state?
Why did she care?
Her bare feet padding across the stone she stared at the walls and she swore she could see claw marks dragging down the stone. Tortured perhaps, maybe a beast once locked to its feat… maybe it was a Prim's excitement. It really was an entirely different world they existed in and Nora had to continue to constantly remind herself of such.
"Baa Baa black sheep…" She whispered in a lulling sing-song tune and she closed her eyes, resting her head against the cool castle walls. Despite the frigid air her skin was overheating. She felt overwhelmed and ill prepared no matter how much she kept going over the situation in her mind.
"Have you any wool…" Her voice crackled softly and she rocked her body in a gentle motion, keeping her hips in a rolling dance as she soothed her mind and her actions.
"Yes sir, yes sir. Three bags full. One for the Master…" Jax's face in mind.
"One for the Dame…" Calla.
"And one for the little boy…"
~
"...Who lives down the lane." Calla heard in her mind as she looked up with sly glances for Derek, in the apple grove where they sat weaving she hadn't seen him ever since the night before when she had slipped up behind him her hand on his stomach for comfort and warmth that she had so desperately sought out after having his blood hit her tongue. Sighing she knew that she was being ridiculous about everything because they had no bond between them. Nothing to make her feel the way that she did but every time he wasn't around it was like he would propose marriage to her or anything.
He was her donor at this point, she would see him with another woman. A family. Children that would never come from her barren body; Prims did not have children because they became colder, carved out of pure ice and hatred.
'But what if you can now?' A feminine voice that wasn't hers seemed to flitter behind her ear as the breeze shifted the tree above her. Blood that changed her so far from just one feeding, what would more do? What would a year do? Parting her lips as she heard her name she slammed out of her own thoughts and locked the door firmly shut. As she checked the weaves she told the women about natural products that could dye fabrics like hers. Even the ones touched by their magic. Madder root for red, Irises for purple and so on. Smirking to herself as she pictured the elders being swathed in sudden color from their women due to her sent a wave of lovely spite through her.
Sighing she set aside her basket to stretch and adjust.
"Where is Derek? I haven't seen him all morning. Should I worry?" Calla asked casually her longer legs stretched up to help reach towards an apple and she went to look at them once she had obtained it. After so casually mentioning killing, Calla had told them that though their worlds were different they had things in common and she had given up every ideal and forced thing from her world for their treaty that Nora would be doing the same yet neither would ever ruin their core values to change for those worlds.
Taking the giant bite of the apple, moaning as the delicious flavor hit her tongue. Nearly as good as Derek but nothing would ever taste that good. Ever.
"He takes long walks often when he seems to feel lonely, our kind mates for life and most women in the village who are unmated have tried to make that bond with him." Calla felt that jealousy that the women she sat with now would be with him and that Freja was reminding Calla of that cruelly, but there in her innocent face full of outstretched friendship Calla no longer saw her as competition. Amongst a feeling she hadn't yet named, she felt that this woman was honestly just trying to help her, so when she continued her speaking Calla had settled down her storm of emotions to listen.
"I know you have been rather close in getting to know each other but I don't want you to get hurt if he rejects your feelings like most of us have, he can't pick for just him he has to pick for the whole tribe."
Just like that as her newfound friend spoke those words she realized all the things that she was feeling. The reason that it stung so much was because he would pick a Durvos because it was for his people and their futures, that she would never be one of their kind and it eliminated their own future should they ever feel that way. Last of all, Calla indeed did feel that way about him. It was no longer about lust, she was falling for Derek.
"Don't let rejection…"
~
"... create self doubt." The words lingered. A quote from a wise woman she had once thought was careless. Why would she have ever worried about doubting herself because of someone else's distaste? And now she was smack in the middle of a frozen wasteland speaking that same quote as a whisper when she looked out the window.
Perhaps she had been too strong in rejecting Jaxon's forward nibble at attempting to sway her into a bed. Perhaps she had been too abrupt shutting the crested door in his face. Nora somehow internally knew that it wasn't. Jaxon had always gotten his way, a spoiled child from birth chewing on gold to grow his teeth in - and now he was a sodden toddler with his toys gone. Or rather his women. Ideally, she knew he could knock on any chambers and command one of his kind to bend to his will… but he hadn't. At least not yet in her presence.
As the snowflakes flurried past the window she just blinked and then she saw the figure of the King against the sill, the glittering skin of the Prim glinting in what little light was offered. Almost as if caught by beads of sweat. But it wasn't the strange beauty that struck her in awe this time, no. It was the little beings running at his backside. She saw pale long and short hair alike. Eyes wide with curiosity and a thirst for knowledge. Nora ached in wonderment. Were their souls pure despite their inevitable doom when they reached the age to be as destructive as their elder counterparts?
Her hand settled over the hollow of her heart and she sighed with content.
He was tackling them, as they tackled him in return. Rolling in inches of snow and ice as they played. A weakness, as he would see it, that she wasn't meant to witness but all the same - she was glad she had.
Hearing an abrupt banging on the door she just whipped her head to the side and called out.
"Hold on just…"
~
"... A minute."
Her day had started out with one single minute taking her through the village looking through the tasks trying to pick one for the day seeing so many different ways of life all threaded together perfectly. Unlike her own people that had practically made it so that every time you got close to somebody you bled.
The women with their weaving and singing, the doctors who had been tending to the injured people who needed help a range of dying to the ill all being treated the same regardless of who it was being treated. Teachers who lovingly taught the saplings with utter love and devotion to the ones that required the most without singling the others. It brought her chest to her knees and everything sank with it in a wave of emotions. Everyone grouped together like flowers all sprouting from one huge branch of life.
As she had gotten food from those who prepared it she had seen saplings being born to tender midwives who cradled them with dirt covered hands to bring them to full life. Everything was made with Spring in mind, everything was purposefully full of the life that the Prims took with force. Crushing the spirit of these people.
Jax had made Calla wear a coat out of a peace offering just to see the shock on everyone's face when she walked to the line with it.
Calla had settled on weaving because it was the only form of creation that she could give without breaking her natural sense of self to do it without worry. Everything else would be false and it would show and she needed to show these people that through all her violence all her pain she could offer something to them to show she at least belonged enough to help out.
A minute changed so much in her life.
One to have her father's life taken from her, one to be Jaxon's slave another thousand or more minutes had drained her soul bringing her to this moment. Realizing that she had fallen or started to fall for Derek and that he would never love her enough to truly give her anything because men like him were all or nothing unlike the King of the Prims. He took all and gave nothing that was his simple and unhidden truth, you fell to kiss his sword or you died by it.
Breathing in that apple smell she caught on the wind something else came to her forefront like it had rained recently and it was the life that it brought that Calla had left her spot that so many people had welcomed her to join when she had asked in that morning minute, they were welcoming and sweet and now she was tracing down a new form of welcoming and sweet feeling. Shaking out her skirts Calla just began to walk her feet often now was just covered by a series of light covering again more akin to the silk of a spiderweb. Danger in her every being shaded away with each new day of life.
"Desire creates…'
~
"...The power." Alice's voice was weak, and the girl's around her stared. Nora recognized her from the celebration with Jax. She was the dancer that Nora had more or less put in her place and now Nora's defenses were down as her bath was run and she stood bare amongst the four women.
"I hold no power, Alice." Nora said simply and then she stepped into the steaming bath that was run and provided for her, the women instantly surrounding her with petals of roses and lavender. How they'd even come across such things… They must have been considered rare in the waste lands.
Flecks of gold were peppered into the steaming tub and Nora almost wanted to call out that it was entirely unnecessary but her thoughts came flooding back into her mind about Jax. About the rejection he had suffered at her hands - her qualms with its humiliation. Or lack thereof. She hadn't decided yet. Amidst her reeling thoughts she had felt the hands on her from every direction. Ones in her hair washing and hydrating, another on her toes and hands, another set pouring water down her body.
It was never ending.
She saw Alice grab for her hands, to begin massaging one of the most intimate pieces of her body. One would think the hands had nothing. No intimacy, no importance. But the hands told the story of one's life. The aged lines along their center, the fingerprints and their unique code to the world. Only one pair could exist in an entire infinite space. Nora felt her lips flicker to smile and then she saw one of the women shove Alice off of her hands, taking control instead.
The shift of power was imminent.
She could see the disgrace and disgust on the faces of the women and at first Nora couldn't figure why it would be such a way. Why would they cast her out when she was the most bold, and certainly the most aesthetically beautiful. Wasn't that top tier to the Prims? Physical attributes ran their world and yet…
And yet.
Nora recalled she had stepped on her pride. Alice had literally been demoted due to Nora's actions. A leveling of hierarchy. Nora's alpha female status shoved Alice to the bottom and now these girls were going to eat her alive. So in return, Nora snatched her hand away from the newest one that had taken her hand and sat straight up in her bath.
"No one touches my hands but Alice. Is that understood?" She stared at them all and the silence echoed over them. So much fear and hesitation from their pale bodies, radiating like daggers of ice on the sill of a warm cottage. Daring to fall and poke the next person that shuffled by.
Alice slowly rose from her pushed over position and took Nora's hand again, her fingers going back to work like she hadn't missed a beat. A thank you lingered in the woman's eyes and though Nora knew she would never receive it verbally, she nodded in returning silence and then closed her eyes and leaned back. Attempting to enjoy the foreign feeling of being waited on.
Once it was all over she was dressed in a regal red and gold gown. One of intricately woven silk and she shivered once it was put on her skin. It felt like a shell. It wasn't her earthy vines on her skin or her moss covered feet. It was man-made. Or rather, Prim-made.
"You are so…"
~
"... beautiful."
If anything had ever been ugly in this world it would be beautiful in hers. That thought stung her so badly that she felt something shift in her like the cracking of ice when too much pressure was added to it just a small shift of weight was enough to send everything crashing down furiously among her. Swallowing, she put her hands down feeling the small claws that sharpened there and with a steadying breath she tore her dress to shreds so that two long slits freed her legs.
"Easy if you walk through that path you'll get those pretty legs torn up." Swearing Calla heard Jaxon's twisted voice crooning to her she just tore off through another path that was sinking silt covered ground and lovely open sky when she strode with purpose Calla realized every gorgeous thing in this world was created from life there was nothing beautiful created in death. The wind picked up that jasmine scent became stronger and her legs began to hurry her pace, the wind picking up her hair and clothes and she instantly felt like she was being guided.
By what she did not know what but she was being guided just like she had guided herself into finding this new life.
Calla…
Turning her head towards the open waters that she saw ahead, Calla felt sudden earth beneath her feet and there was the looming rain storm that made the air charged thick with emotion and anticipation.
Calla…
Running from the voice, Calla headed into a blackberry patch and felt her breath being taken away literally this time, her hands curled into the soft linen covered strong chest of a male. Hands that were matched by hands covering her own body though these were just at her ribs.
Jasmine.
Looking up at him, Calla saw Derek the very person she had been looking for and as if she had been led to him she swallowed the nerves away.
"I was looking for you-" They both said at the same time and Calla smiled just winding her arms over his shoulders and then laid her cheek against his chest to hear his heart.
There was something that made her feel like though her mind told her otherwise this was where she belonged. Calla breathed a few soft words.
""Be clearly aware of the…"
~
"...Stars and infinity on high." Nora's words came out rushed after she heard the exclamation in regards to her beauty. A Jaxon standing there in the doorway of her chambers, ready to take her dinner for just the two of them.
Into the belly of the beast.