This part of the Nevernever is a dull gray, soot-stained Victorian Era counting house, a seemingly neverending labyrinth of hallways, doors, and narrow staircases. Everything is shades of gray, and smells strongly of sulfur. There are no windows, only countless faces frozen in expressions of horror gazing out from ornate frames.
The ashy damask wallpaper seems to slightly undulate, the patterns giving the walls the appearance of growing and shrinking at random.
Volya came rolling out of the rift, sliding to halt on the hardwood floor. Reaching back to hold her hair back, her eyes scanned the place slowly. "Huh... This doesn't look like any part of Faerie that I've been in before." Leaning against a wall, she took a deep breath through her nose to draw in the scent of soot, ash, and sulfur, coughing immediately and holding her sleeve against her face. "Alright... And the walls are trippy." She groaned and just started yelling, "Your door didn't close quickly enough! You're not alone, trippy scientist!"
Only faint echoes and then silence greet Volya's yell. The hallways stretch out in four directions from here, north, south, east, and west. Each hallway looks identical to the others save for the faces on the walls. Each turns a corner about 10 feet down.
Volya was still rubbing her nose with her sleeve to notice anything. Hell, as far as she was concerned there may have been only one hallway, so she started walking down the hallway that was in front of her. Her steps were slow as she tried to time the sway of her body with the movement of the walls. "We can do this the hard way if you want, but I really liked your choice in music. The autotune was a bit much... Artists are just getting lazy these days, you know?"
A voice echoes through the hallways, sounding as if it's being broadcast over giant concert-worthy speakers. "It's rude to enter someone's home uninvited, young lady. I would advise you to find the door you followed me through and use it to leave my demesne. I am Queen of this particular castle, and the House always wins, as they say."
Volya hummed a worried note as she listened. "You make a good point... But uhh..." She looked back down the hallway and frowned. "The door seems to have closed, so it far less an option to go back the way that I can. Uhh..." She giggled nervously, "May I beg for a name of which to call you? I feel I may be wondering your halls for a time on way to finding a way out." Her feets slowed to a stop, "Or the zombies were yours? There were turtles, right? Are the turtles okay?"
The walls shift again, and behind the sooty velveteen damask flower print, the woman's face appears, massive and repeating, like a tesselation of the woman herself from all directions. "Poor lamb," she coos. "You have lost yourself in the lion's den. I will put you back if you agree to leave now. You may beg for names all you like, but I have already shared my hospitality with you, with nothing offered in return. You are now in my debt and I am not obliged to give something so precious as a name to a debtor. Though, I will give you this...the turtles are fine. The nest is 500 yards away. If your friends don't trample it, the babies will hatch and scramble to the sea tonight, and the circle of life will continue as it always has. I await your answer. If you accept my offer of a door, all you need do is stand where you are and close your eyes. I will send you home. Otherwise, feel free to wander." Her cackle is worthy of a Disney stepmother.
Volya leaned back away from the talking wall and pressed herself slowly to the opposite wall as she was listen or debating if she had mixed up her scooby snack once again. "Opening your door to me, endebts me as your guest as you are endebted as my host. And it is a fair... It's a thing... With stuff." She waved her sleeve covered hand. "And I'm free to skip around? Yay!" She shook the sleeve from her hand and ran her index finger along the wall and examined the soot. "I may end up cleaning a bit if you don't mind." If we were going all Disney, Volya started skipping down the hallway, singing 'Hakuna Matata'.
The face grins unsettlingly and then vanishes from the walls. The hallway takes a sharp turn to a staircase that rises exactly 33 steps. The final stair abruptly stops at a precipice over a pit that, for all intents and purposes, appears bottomless. It's dark down there. And smells like rotten eggs.
Volya had elected to stare down the stairs, taking a seat there as she stared at the empty abyss with her nose scrunched. "You really need to clean up... I may as well start, right?" Volya got to her feet and sighed dramatically. "No broom, so I'm just going to burn your garbage!" Her eyes flared with a green light like the morning light off the petals of rose and green veins darkened through her skin and with a wave of her wave, fire erupted from her hand, showering into the pit. She stood up and walked back to the 'V', a hot and summery wind curling around her as she looked from door to door. "Are doors garbage too? They're a bit soot covered."
"You are a very rude houseguest," comes the voice of the sing-songy scientist. "But you're right, I should have cleaned up before you arrived. Allow me to do so now." The sound of rushing water fills the hallways, and dark water begins streaming like waterfalls down the now V-shaped hallways. The water table of the floor begins rising, inch by inch.
Volya growled at the accusation that she was rude. "And you should be mindful of your guest's sensitive nose! How many hundreds of fucking eggs did you spoil in the basement!?!" The rush of water coming from both sides was met with a howl of primal rage and emotion as the Summer breeze spun round her like a tornado, whipping her hair and tearing at the wall paper. The wind started buckling under the pressure of the water and Volya let out another scream as she added more strength to the wind until it was tearing past the wall paper and pulling off chunks of wall paper. "YOU NEED TO REDECORATE!"
Water streams back up the stairs and over the precipice, into the black abyss. As sheets of wallpaper rip off and join the maelstrom, the voice muses, "Now, you are something more than you appear, aren't you?" The staircases flatten and shrink, folding into a neat, tidy box around Volya. "Let me have a look at you." The box shrinks and shrinks down to the size of your average wardrobe shipping box, and the woman's face appears on all surfaces. "You know, fiesty child, we don't need to be your enemies. In fact, perhaps we should be friends. You have talent. I have skill. I can teach you to harness that, to be able to move mountains."
"Well..." Volya song a long note and fluttered through her words, following the notes of the voice. "I am indeed more and less than I A-ppearrrr... In a spooky house that has an A-meerrrr... Mountains move and fall only to rise again... And you seem to be looking for a-friend... Why try to sufficate me with rotten eggs? A question I must beg? Where are you hiding? Because I plan a finding." The woman sung and the notes were pleasing to the ear, "You unleased zombies, I wonder if you work for Abercrombie..."
The little box expands rapidly into a pleasant, if entirely gray and sooty, parlour, complete with a tray of piping hot tea. "Be a dear and get the door, would you? We have a guest," The older woman's sing-songy voice echoes through the house. "And have a seat, since you are, less than inclined to leave. But we have much to talk about."
Not waiting on Volya but somewhat relieved to hear her voice, Isaac pulls the door open, ducking his head around quickly and using the door for cover before stepping in properly. "Hello?" Seeing Volya, he smiles, the relief showing on his face. "You. You are a hard person to find. Are you okay?" Swapping his torch to his left hand, he reaches behind his back for a pouch that rests there. "I think we'll need to be going soon, the bloke said the blessing wouldn't last for long. Truth be told, I'm not sure what the blessing was but he mentioned it would stop at sundown."
"Still a bit upset about the zombies when I was waiting on turtles." Volya interjected in response, the fact of the matter, her eyes were glowing green orbs and darkened green veins spidered through her skin, her blonde hair had taken on pink and purple highlights. She was feeling particular nymph at the moment. "Well hello to you... You have been blessed with a lovely set of breasts and lovely raven hair, and you're positively glowing? Pray tell why a damsel seeks another?" The woman broke out into giggles and shook her head at the tea. "NeverNever food rarely misses well with stomach, it's sensitive. But thank you for the offer of rehydrated leaves stolen from a tree..." Her eyebrows came together as the rage bubbled up and the Summery Breeze to spun around her built by a few knots.
"Welcome to my home, Vassal of Summer," comes the sing-songy scientist's voice. "Your pretty friend has just shared her rather...remarkable talent with me. It has made me entirely forget about drowning her. In fact, I think we have gotten off to the wrong foot. We are not your enemies. We are your friends. We would like to be your friends. Would you like to be friends with us?" The velveteen damask on the walls undulates slightly, the walls growing and shrinking. The ambient scent of sulfur is mostly covered by lavender and chamomile. Mostly. "And the tea is my own recipe, of my own making. As is /everything/ in this place." The latent menace in that statement is kept quite subtle indeed. "None of your tree friends were harmed in the making of this tea. I regret having to use the Koa warriors. But it is too complicated to explain in the moment, and I couldn't risk interference. The Koa, I sense, are at rest now. So be at ease." The woman's face appeared on the walls behind the damask pattern.
"Wait...WHAT!" Isaac just stands there, in the midst of an existential crisis as he slowly pats himself down with his hands. "Okay, so that what the pulling was." He says after finally noticing his breast. As his hands go further south, another realisation hits him. "And...that'll be why my shorts felt roomier. Gosh. That really was quite the kiss." Another thought comes to him, one that gives him pause. "Since when did I talk to myself so much?" Shaking his head, he looks over to Volya. "It's Isaac, although I guess that much is obvious. I may have called your name too many times when searching for you. Then there was a Sidhe and it all got...moist. Anyway, we're all caught up, lets go shall we?" He directs his attention to the house in general now, "Thank you for your kind offer but it is rather difficult to accept when I can not see you. Please, to whom am I speaking?"
Volya listened to the house, the breeze still blowing until the 'lacking of trees being harmed in the making of this tea' was given and it trimmed down to a warm and pleasant breeze. "You had rotten eggs in your basement, it's not good for tea eith--" The woman gasped as she turned to Isaac, "You made out with a faerie! Can you feel your toes? I couldn't feel my toes for like three days." She shook back her sleeves and dotted her fingers together. "It sort of helps with walking." She grinned and waved, "Hi again, Isaac. And guest introduced himself." She shook her head, looking at the ceiling, then floor then anywhere really. "Hint. Hint." A giggle rolled out of her.
"Names are a precious gift, Vassal of Summer. Titles are safer. It's why the old rules of courtesy exist. You may call my your hostess, for that is what I am. You wear your blessing beautifully." The wrinkled woman's face smiles enormously from all four walls, in every direction. "Your friend came into my home without an invitation. Hint, hint. But we are being civil, now." She tilts her head and looks rather like Mrs. Claus. "Would you like to learn what we can teach you? We can teach you how to better harness your magic, to do extraordinary things with it. And I would love to teach you, as my pupil, young lady."
"Hint hint?" A look of utter confusion crosses over Isaac's face, the young Nymphobus starting to flail mentally. "Oh and no, I don't think I can feel my toes. It was...it was so good and I hate that I missed it." His voice cracks at the end, Isaac having to take a moment to compose himself before looking to the faces on the wall. "Thank you Hostess for your kind invitation, I confess to being a litle rusty in matters of etiquette so I will tread carefully. Please don't think I am being obtuse in my unwillingness to offend." Stepping softly, Isaac steps over to a settee, one near the tea. "Shall I be mother?" He asks of Volya as she continues to do her thing.
Volya clicked her tongue and hummed, "She is particularly touched that I cleaned her basement. It needed cleaning. I'm calling you Isaaca for the remainer of your blessing, because it's cute as a thimble." The nymph, or one of the nymphs elected to dance in place rather than sit, and humming and vocalizing as she went through the steps of a waltz with no partner. It didn't seem to mind her in the least. "See... We are at an impass. On one side, you unleashed zombies are some unsuspecting and some suspecting public. They are going to be angry. They are going to come knocking and I suspect blow your house in. It will be messy." She stepped and turned, continuing to move through the steps without pause. "Dearest Hostess? Do you see the problem that I see? Also, will your plan and Summer's plan conflict? It seems important with two vassals hanging around." She head leaned back gracefully and she winked at Isaac.
"You have very darling manners, Isaaca," the grandmotherly face on the wall says sweetly from behind her velveteen damask pattern. "It does you credit, and perhaps you should teach your fellow vassal to mind whose houses she invades. If I were one of my brethren, she would be dead now. But I, I have an eye for talent. And I do so hate to see potential go to waste. We are called Symbiote. We have...several smaller ventures beneath our umbrella organization. But we have a mission to protect this island, and that is what we are taking such extreme measures to fulfill." Her blue eyes slant towards Volya, from all angles. "If they are fool enough to come to my demesne and attempt to huff and puff and blow my house down, I fear those darling little pigs will find that the big bad wolf lives in this house, and it is not made of twigs. But that happens because people are too quick to react, too quick to judge. Just like you were, I think. But we /are/ on your side. We are protecting you from some very powerful people, who have little regard for who they hurt. We have /every/ regard for who we hurt. I assure you, this isn't some hapless driveby."
Isaac settles on the settee and then leans forward to look over the tea service. "Isaaca? Okay, I guess that works. Volya would you like some tea?" Dipping her head forward, Isaaca takes a sniff at the pot. "Smells like an Oolong blend, very well done." Slowly and carefully, Isaaca pours out a cup of tea, not putting in the milk first as she isn't a barbarian. "You'll have to excuse my confusion Vee, I've been doing my best to get away from all this for many years and I may have lost my touch." Setting the pot back down, Isaac turns to address one of the faces. "Hostess, if I understand you correctly, you're looking to protect the island? I don't understand how summoning zombies would help that goal, I saw only a scientist, some turtle eggs and happless bystanders on the beach. To what end did the zombie attack further your goals? There is perhaps an element to this that we're not seeing?"
Volya spun and happy laughter poured out of her as she stopped and curtseyed to her invisible and non-existent partner. "Dearest hostess, invasion is such a strong word. The door was open and inviting into your warm home. As your guest, I disposed of the foul smell in the basement, dried your floor, and started you on the road to renovation." She shook her head politely to Isaaca, "No thank you on the tea, and all fair points." She waved her hand and rolled it in the air. "Zombies and Island helping do seem to be in counter-purposes."
"What you saw today was only a small part of something larger, something that we already set in motion," the Hostess explains, and then grins. "But I was the scientist you met. Again, I regret using the Koa warriors so rudely. But I had to be sure my work wasn't disturbed. There are big things in the works, and they can't be interrupted." She wrinkles her nose and then laughs, looking to Volya with her enormous, close up eyes. "I apologize for the foul smell. We have...pungeant neighbors. Faerie only exists on one side of us, one of the others is less pleasant." She sighs heavily. "There is someone at the back door. Would either of you please open the door for our next guest?" The face disappears in a wall to the west, and an ornate mahogany door appears in its place. "All I can say in regards to the raising of the Koa Warriors is that the ends justify the means, I can't reveal any more than that to you. To be blunt, my charming young guests, you have given me no reason to trust you. But there is so much potential in you. My last apprentice let me down. I have room for another."
Leaving her tea for the moment, Isaaca nods gracefully and then gets up from the settee, silently marveling at the need to not adjust when standing up before making her way towards the door that has just appeared. "My education fails me once more, I thought the Never Never was all Faerie, at least that was my understanding. I'll admit that I never ventured further than the Court I was in..." Taking care not to get in the way of the dancing Volya, Isaaca heads over to the door and opens it, a warm smile showing on her face, her eyes belying a little of her confusion though. "Hello?"
Through the door, Wren's voice trickles in. ""Aloha, Miss. I don't suppose you've seen a lovely blonde woman about yay tall? And a gentleman with green eyes and brown hair? They went that way not long ago."
The Summer breeze around Volya was still spinning about her pleasantly. The woman had apparently took a couple tokes off the Summer pipe, because there were streaks of purple and pink through her blonde hair, her eyes were glowing orbs of emerald, and her veins had darkened leaving spidery green lines throughout her skin. She grinned and waved to Wren, "Hey Wren! I'm still going to build that bee hive, the girls aren't ready to swarming just yet!" The woman hopped and waved to the man, then spun her way back into the room. "In or out, dude! Think of the AC!" She spun again and stopped herself with a stomp. "Me thinks me magic may not bend towards the way of zombies! Blondebeard has questions, so..." She cleared her throat and talking normally, "I swear upon my power, the fickle mistress she is, that I will not knowing come in conflict with my Hostess's plan in so long as it does not run counter to the purpose of my court." She smiled pleasantly, "And now we have something to put our trust upon."
"Thank you, Isaaca. I see the young gentleman has been waiting. It would be rude of me to keep him in limbo while I have your company all to myself." The grandmotherly giant faces behind the damask patterned wallpaper smile. "And that is a fair promise, Summer's Vassal and one I'll return with a one of my own. I will meet with you and answer what questions I can at the bay where the turtles hatched, in one week's time. For now, thank you so much for your visit, both of you. Do enjoy your tea, but I have to dash. See you in a week, my dears!" And with that, the four walls are sooty gray again...but the back wall begins closing in. Quickly.
"That would seem like our que to exit?" Isaaca says, alarm in her voice as she gets up from the dematerialising settee. "Please can we get away from this place now? I get how you're coping and all that but I'm really, really not!" Not quite waiting for a response from Volya, Isaaca diverts her course to collect her as she heads for the door, wrapping an arm around the multi coloured nymph and heading to the exit. "Thank you for your hospitality Hostess, till we meet again!" With that, Isaaca exits the house, gently guiding Volya ahead of her as she leaves, doing her best not to cling to the other nymph as they make their exit.
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