Penthesilea
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Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster
Posts: 47422
Location: The Castle.....
Joined: Jun 21 st, 2006
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Re: Penthesilea's Castle... posts 3696 to 3862
Reply #124 - Dec 11th, 2006 at 4:07am
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#3861 Penthesilea The Keyholder's Study
Order had been restored to the room after the battle and Penthesilea had been hard at work all morning. Not only was she working on her list of demands for the marriage negotiations but there were a million and one things that needed her signature after being read, accounts that needed to be checked and just plain stuff that kept her glued to her chair. There was a rap at the door and Penthesilea looked up. The Lady Knight Magda stood in the doorway with a tray that was laden with.... lunch? Penthesilea checked the clock. Past lunch, actually..... way past lunch. Her stomach growled, happy that she'd finally noticed. Magda strode in with the tray and placed it on the desk in front of Penthesilea.*
Magda: Eat. *She commanded.*
Penthesilea: Yes, mam. *Penthesilea replied and did as she was told. Satisfied that the Lady was not going to starve herself to death, Magda returned to her duties. Once hunger was satisfied, Penthesilea was reluctant to return to work. So she took a comfortable chair away from the desk and next to the fireplace and relaxed. It was peaceful, quiet and no one seemed to be trying to kill her at the moment, so she turned her mind to thinking -- specifically about the sudden turn her life had taken.* You really know how to upset the apple cart, don't you? *The thought was directed to her father's twin and Penthesilea heard a faint chuckle in response. Eris was, traditionally, the Goddess of Discord and Strife. In reality, she was a Goddess of Chaos whose only rule was: Thou shalt not stagnate!
Penthesilea had been getting along well. She had found herself and her girls a home that was quiet and relatively peaceful. She had friends and people to look after. Most importantly, she had made peace with the fact that she was going to be celibate for the rest of a very long life. She was not happy about it by any means but she had made peace with it. She could function and did, very well. Then she had become aware that a man was slipping into and out of her Castle. Sometimes he came with others, sometimes he was alone. And he always slipped away before she could catch him. Then, finally, during one of the Castle parties he hadn't been fast enough and she'd caught him and dragged him out into the light. And looked up into his eyes. And was nearly lost. Then he made her laugh and she was lost. In an instant, her life was turned upside down, inside out and shaken violently. Her peace had been shattered by one mischievous grin.... She had tried to fight it. To keep her footing and her peace. She's told herself that they were friends and that was all that she felt -- friendship. It was a lie but she kept telling herself it was the truth as she watched him court other women before settling on one. Told herself again and again that it was useless to love him because he loved someone else. And because she believed that her affection would put him in danger, she had violated her vows never to interfere with the heart and mind of another. The spell worked (or she thought it had) and all the lies she told herself didn't help when, before her eyes, he had asked another to marry him and she knew that, as Keyholder, she would be expected to bless their union if not perform the handfasting ceremony herself. She had lived a very long time and, before being cursed (with her consent, she admitted) she had known many men. Never before had the loss of one, who had not even been a lover, hurt so much. She did not want to think about what had happened after that...the choices that she had made out of pain and guilt.
It was only after she had admitted to herself that she loved him that she was able to find peace, even when he left her and she believed that he did not love her, not even as a friend. She loved him and that alone was enough. She loved him and she would go on until he came back or .... didn't. He had come back -- a lot sooner than anyone expected. And he had asked her to marry him. Stunned, she'd accepted. She couldn't say no or even avoid answering him. She simply could not. It wouldn't be easy. She was by all accounts a hard woman to live with -- strong willed and independent. And she still owed him some payback for letting her believe he didn't love her when, in fact, he was as in love with her as she was with him! Men! Then she laughed. The world would be a poorer place without them. I'm betting you're not done with us, are you, Aunt? In the back of her mind, Eris laughed.
(So everyone knows: this post occurs approximately 24 hours after the attack of the Shadow assassins.)
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