Prismatic Pt. 02

Buzzing heat swallowed up my hand as the plants vanished, too quick for me to tell if they turned to ash or air. I pulled my hand out of the warmth and spun around to Ichor for answers. Only to see him stepping out with me onto the other side of the stone, which was now behind us. Before I could ask any questions, I heard the distant sounds of mingling voices.

"Have you never come that way before?" Ichor asked, smiling and pulling me closer to him.

I shook my head, too overwhelmed to understand the question.

He laced his fingers through mine with one hand again and we rushed on again. The voices separated as we drew closer. Some of them sang. Instruments I didn't recognize played in an exotic, untamed melody. A song I was sure the tendrils would have loved to dance to.

A grand manor, so covered in vines and roses I could not see the color of its stones, appeared as we crested a hill. A carriage drawn by horses that appeared more made of whispers and seaweed than flesh was whisked away from the entrance, its fae occupants laughing and hurrying inside, holding up the hem of exquisite gowns as they climbed the steps. I felt wholly, immediately inadequate for the event. Whatever it was. I looked back down at the dress. Reassuring myself that I was at least dressed for it.

Whatever calm it gifted me fell apart when we entered. More fae than I could have named. Some like beasts with cat-like faces. Beautiful, sharp-featured beings like Ichor. Some that seemed constructed entirely of trees and other greenery. Wispy, near translucent fae whose ankles tapered off into sparkling mist. Some with antlers and the legs of stags. Shining wings in various colors jutting from some of their backs. The array of their beauty left me dizzy.

Some greeted Ichor and seemed surprised to see him. I was grateful that his hand never left my own. No one seemed bewildered by my presence beside him. I wondered if he often had a new woman hanging off of him when he came here, and desperately tried to ignore the sinking feeling in my gut at the thought.

"Oh," Ichor explained suddenly, "There they are. Deidre!"

He reached up his free hand and waved through the crowd. I could not tell who he approached. We pushed gently through the crowd, parts of it folding in on a dance I could not follow. Finally, we reached a table overflowing with libations. Crystal bowls of punch surrounded by glasses and filled with bobbling, unrecognizable fruits. Hooks from which hang bundles of shining grapes in all shades of green and violet. Silver apples, one sliced open and showing the oozing, blood-red insides shining in the light of a high above chandelier of the ballroom.

"Ichor, long time, no see!"

I looked toward the voice. A woman with short horns and the brown-furred legs of a doe, holding a cup of punch with one hand and waving to Ichor with the other. Her fern-green dress draped around her like a languorously wrapped length of silk, managed to look perfect and goddess-like on her form.

Beside her, a beautiful fae woman plucked a grape from a hook and popped it into her mouth before perking up on her toes and waving to Ichor and I. Her hair, falling in waves around her long, pointed ears, appeared white as we approached. As the light shined on it from different angles, I realized it housed pearlescent pinks and lavenders. Even her fair skin reflected the shining, colorful hues. The dress she wore matched her like a second skin; an opalescent silk draped scandalously low front and back.

"I take it you'll be needing this?" The doe-legged woman asked as she reached back and filled a stout glass with punch.

"Ugh," Ichor rolled his eyes, "Most likely."

He tugged me forward more to stand beside him.

"Tiffany, this Deidre and Faina."

I greeted them, suddenly feeling even more awkward.

"I guess we have you to thank," Deidre said into my uncomfortable silence, "No matter how much we beg, Ichor never comes to any of these parties. How did you convince him?"

"He convinced me," I shrugged.

"My desire to spoil a beautiful woman overwhelmed my common sense. That's the secret."

Faina gasped and I flinched.

"That dress," she squeaked, "Where did you get it?"

I flicked my eyes to Ichor and back to her.

"Ugh," she huffed jokingly, "All this time you waste being an apothecary and clearly your calling is to be a stylist! It's perfect for her!"

Deidre laughed. Ichor offered me his glass of punch and I sipped at it for something to do. The sugary berry taste tickled my throat all the way down. It occurred to me I had no idea the strength of fae liquors, and had never even had those of the human-world, and I abruptly stopped drinking.

"She noticed you," Deidre said under her breath to Ichor who turned and groaned quietly.

Ichor's hands went over my shoulders and he nudged me a bit closer to the elegant duo.

"I like this very much," he said with a tension in his voice that his humor couldn't quite cover, "Take good care of her while I'm gone."

Ichor took a deep gulp of drink and left us. A chorus of greetings erupted around him as he entered a circle of beautiful beings. They were somehow more expertly dressed than the others here. Shards of diamond and various colored gems dripped from their outfits, some like gowns, some like armor, others a dreamlike mix. Ichor smiled as he reached them, but it was a tenser expression than it had been.

"Who are th-'' I began.

Deidre and Faina each took one of my hands and pulled me toward the disorienting dance. No one seemed to notice how lost I was or, if they did, they said nothing. The dance clearly had some form of steps and routine, but I could not parse the chaos of it. Deidre and Faina gave me someone to mirror as I stumbled through it. The few sips of liquor I had had reached my blood, making me warm and loose. I laughed as I followed them as best I could. The material of the dress tinkled around me like a distant wind chime.

Strong familiar hands smoothed over my waist. I sucked in a breath and turned to find Ichor pressing behind me.

"Thank you for taking care of her for me," he said above the cacophony.

I let his hands unfold me from the others and wondered if I would've been able to escape the dance without a fae extracting me. The beginnings of exhaustion throbbed in my legs as we exited the music. Ichor led me down a quiet hall. I rubbed at the arm he had around my waist, trying to ease the tension from it. He sighed out a breath and finally smiled down at me.

"I probably should have asked first if you wanted to stop dancing."

"It's alright. I didn't know what I was doing anyway. "

Ichor bent down and pressed a kiss onto the top of my head. Self consciously, I wondered if my hair was sweaty.

"Who were those people?"

"I'm an apothecary," he explained, "I have some very affluent clients that like to throw these kinds of parties. Every now and then, I have to attend one. Let them know I'm still alive. Still in business."

"You don't like coming to them?"

"No, not really. Deidre and Faina are lovely people. But they rarely attend for the same reasons. This whole place. I just," he sighed and combed a free hand through his hair, "Some people are so insincere. They'll smile at your face and sneer at your back. I can't enjoy that kind of company. It feels like. Like..."

"Like dancing on glass," I finished sadly, thinking of the way I had never quite belonged with the other priestesses. Or with anyone, for that matter.

Ichor's arm pulled me closer against his side.

"Like dancing on glass," he repeated against my hair, "But I'm having a much better time now that you're here with me."

I pulled away just enough to look back up at him. His mouth made the usual feline smirk, but his eyes carried a nervous weight. The sad, self-conscious look pulled down on my own feelings.

I glanced down at the beautiful dress, the dress he had said I deserved and was chosen just for me. Fae were capricious things, stories always said. But even if he was, he had been so kind and lovely to me. To a human nobody. Even my name was a randomly chosen moniker tossed onto me as an orphaned infant.

I wanted to bring a warm, fluttering into his chest like had brought into mine. Ichor looked down at my hands as I smoothed them over his chest. The rising and lowering of his breaths pushed at my palms. A door gave way behind him. I yelped as we fell in and Ichor's arms caught me. We stumbled backward into a closet. He looked around and laughed. A few coats and stoles hung on either side of us. I snickered a little despite myself and swallowed hard to steady my resolve.

Actually, this is better, I told myself.

The heels put me high enough that I only had to put one hand on the back of Ichor's head to pull him down to me a little. I felt the tense shock in his lips for an instant before he softened against my own. I kept one hand on his chest, feeling the unspoken power in his muscles as I mussed my other hand deeper into his hair.

The stress in his body melted as he relaxed and pressed seamlessly against me. The summer taste of him mingled perfectly with the remnant sweetness of the fae liquor. I spread my legs slightly so he could slot against me easier, gasping when his hardness settled against my sex through the otherworldly texture of the dress. He took advantage of my gasp and covered my throat in breathy kisses. Relying on the gifted confidence from the liquor, I slid one hand down his chest and to the edge of his trousers. Ichor gasped and tensed under my touch as my hand slipped under the waistband.

He turned us both and pressed my back against the back wall of the closet, leading his kisses back up to my mouth ravenously. I nipped at his lips and caught the lower between my teeth as my hand found the hot steel of his erection. I glanced up in time to see him purse his lips as he failed to hold in a moan.

"You should learn to be quieter," I said teasingly as I tightened my grip.

He tried to grin at me slyly, the look devolving into another moan as I moved my hand up and down. His silver eyes rolled up under the lids as I tried to move my hand the way he had moved himself against me the night he had found me nude in his cottage. It was my turn to take the opportunity to lavish his throat and chest with my lips. The burning silk of his skin shook through me at each point of contact like the rumble of thunder under us during the storm that had led to our meeting.

I had no idea what I was doing. But I knew I wanted to clear the anxiety and melancholy from him. I knew I wanted to flood him with the same level of pleasure he had gifted me. I toed at the strap of the glass-like shoes until each slid from my feet, and nudged them to the side of the closet. A bereft sound slipped from Ichor's lips when I pulled my own away from him, replaced by silent tension as I kneeled.

"Shh," I said mockingly as I opened the closure at the front of his slacks.

I have no idea what I'm doing, I thought again self-consciously.

He glanced down for a moment, his expression suggesting he was uncertain I knew what I was suggesting. Ichor's head fell back and his eyes pressed shut as I finally freed him. One hand wrapped around his erection that somehow grew harder under my touch, the other gripping his thigh and feeling how the rest of his body melted to warm butter.

I had no idea if his body was like that of a human man. I shooed away the sweltering, pestering thought of whether the thick member could even fit inside me as I pulled back the silky skin that covered it. The outer skin had only a fragment of the reflective iridescence Ichor's hair and irises had as I moved it. A droplet of fluid trickled from the hole as I slowly worked my hand back and forth.

Curiously, I leaned forward, the very tip of my tongue outstretched. His loud moan turned muffled as his teeth sank into his lip. The honeysuckle and summer heat taste of him exploded in my mouth, down to the root of my tongue. The flavor of the same magic that had turned the battering of rain and the inside of a dark cottage into a sunny glade. I kept one hand on his thigh, reaching the other deeper into his trousers to cup the base of him hidden there. I let my eyes drift closed as I took the head of his erection between my lips and swirled the flat of my tongue around it.

The sounds escaping Ichor comforted me, told me that maybe I knew more about what I was doing than I thought. Flattered by the idea that I could enrapture a fae, a creature made for debauchery and pleasure, I took more of him into my mouth. The feel of his skin slicking back and forth under the movements of my tongue, made me moan around the flesh filling my mouth. I adjusted my stance, letting the heel of one foot grind against the soaked fabric of my undergarments as I took more of him.

The movements felt more natural, more ravenous, as I moved and Ichor moaned above me. I wrapped a hand around him again, squeezing tighter than before, and found a matched rhythm for my hand and my mouth. A loud groan barked out of Ichor as his hands found the back of my head and mussed into my hair. Our movements found equilibrium as we thrusted my mouth on him together. More of the syrupy sweetness oozed onto my tongue as I moved.

As Ichor's breath caught half way through another sound of pleasure, his fingers adjusted in my hair. Not shoving me harder onto him, but pushing me back. Somewhere faraway, he said my name. I tightened my grip and continued to voraciously devour him, needing more of the sugary, wild taste. One of the hands left my hair, I glanced up in time to see him bite onto his fist, barely hiding his growl as he came. I whimpered happily around him as more of the vinous syrup splashed over my tongue and drifted down my throat. I pulled away, returning instantly to languishingly lick him clean. Ichor's chest rose and fell hard as his breathing returned to normal.

Both of us froze and paused in our indulgence when the muddle sounds of partying voices turned louder, closer to the closet we had commandeered. We both smirked and held in our laughs. Ichor helped me stand and resituated the dress, which had fallen and exposed my chest without my noticing. He kneeled down and shoed my feet again. As soon as he stood, I tucked in his shirt and buttoned his pants.

"Come on," he said breathlessly, taking my hand.

We glanced in one direction as we exited, seeing a drunken group of fae stumbling around each other, before we turned and ran the other way. After a few turns in opulent halls, we found ourselves outside, walking through trails of blossoming vines, old stone pillars, and thorny berry bushes.

The warmth of arousal gave way to the heat of the embarrassment. What had I done? Why? I barely knew him. He wasn't even human. Mercifully, I was distracted when Ichor leaned his back against a tree and pulled me against him. He pressed a fresh kiss to the top of my head, his breath tickling my hair.

"Hey," he said quietly, "Can I ask you something?"

I nodded, still against his chest. Asking me a question seemed like a small request compared to what I had just done of my own accord.

"How long have you been doing this whole priestess thing?"

"What?" I pulled away, just enough to look at him while still keeping my arms around him, "My whole life."

Something flickered through his gaze at that, but it quickly turned to the casual smirk again.

"Right," he said with a conspiratorial tone I didn't understand, "But, how long do you intend to spend on this?"

At my blank stare, he continued.

"I like you, Tiffy. Whatever curiosity you have about this whole priestess thing, it must be satisfied soon. In a mortal lifetime at most. I'd like to be with you then. I mean," he stammered out a correction, "Only if you want to be with me, obviously."

"I," I fumbled through his words, not understanding any of it, "What do you mean?"

"You don't have to say yes," he amended sadly, "But if you want me in all the ways I want you, when you're done with this make-believe-"

I pulled my hands out of his grip, "What are you saying to me?"

Hurt flashed across his eyes, "I know people that have done this before, it's okay. I would wait. I just... want to know how long that would be. Human masquerade is only novel for so long. You don't intend to spend much longer on them, do you?"

Sickness danced through my stomach as I took a couple steps back from him. Ichor reached a hand out towards me, confusion making his gaze tremble over me.

"This is my life," I said sternly.

A muscle ticked in his jaw as it set tight. Ichor's eyes went wide at some realization.

"Tiffy," he said softly, reaching out toward me again, "You know..."

I flinched back from his touch, the exchange creeping along my spine like a predatory gaze.

"You know you're not human?" He asked delicately, "Don't you?"

The words sent my mind careening off a cliff. The stomach lurching sensation of being shoved from a precipice with no warning or tether. Distantly, I saw the fae's hands reaching out for me again. I swatted them away viciously with my nails.

"Get away from me!" I screamed.

"Tiffany," his arms snapped to his sides as he spoke, "I- I swear I thought you knew. I just-"

"Liar!" I snapped.

"No, I wasn't! I thought," his fingers flexed at his sides as if he had to resist the urge to reach out and grab me, "I thought we were playing. Together."

I turned my back on him and felt at the greenery around me, fishing for the doorway that would bring me back to the real world. Thorns cut at my hands as I frantically swung my hands through the flora.

"Take me back!" I commanded.

"Please," he pleaded, "just talk to me. I swear I thought you knew this whole time. I thought we were pla-"

"Liar! Capricious thing! That's what your kind do! You trick and lie!"

He shook his head, his widened eyes still roaming over me helplessly.

"Take me back now!"

Sadness and confusion muddled in his expression. I didn't have the energy to worry over him as my own mind spun violently through his words. Ichor hand felt cold as it gripped mine and guided me through the forest, until we reached the same flat stone as before. He turned to hand me limp blossoms, until he flinched away and held them all in his own free hand instead.

We stepped through the stone, and I dropped his hand in an instant. Not even knowing the way back to the temple, I stormed away.

"Tiffany!" He called as he followed me.

"No!" I said as I spun around, "Leave me alone! Don't ever come searching for me again!"

My heart broke at my own words. Something in the wild sugar of his being had filled an empty space in me I hadn't known was there, even as I denied it.

Ichor let out a weary breath, his eyes staring forward with a sadness that matched my own. He held out a hand and gestured limply toward me. A single glowing tendril appeared from the trees, twisted around his finger, and zipped across the space between us to twirl around my own.

I wanted to flick the shining worm off of my hand. I didn't want any more magic, any more glistening fairytale lies, touching my skin. My lips twitched with a repulsed sneer as I let the tendril lead me home. The silver gaze of the fae pressed against my back all the way through the dark.