Author's Note: This chapter contains some dark discussions, but obviously they're intended to be reflections of these characters.
The weeks trundled by, and the Queen continued to keep a watchful eye on the girl. Ravenna was judicious with her interactions with Faolin. Only a small smile in the courtyard and an occasional garden walk together. After their afternoon among the peach trees, Ravenna carefully rationed her attention on Faolin. It seemed she had cast a spell on the child. She could see in the way that Faolin's face brightened at the Queen's approach that something had changed. But the Queen still chose to tread lightly. If it was Ravenna's attention the child desired, she would administer it sparingly, reserving it for use as a reward.
As weeks turned into months Ravenna knew that she couldn't continue to treat Faolin as a child if she was to grow a more intimate understanding of the ageling. Not only that but Faolin was growing smaller. The Queen decided it was time to advance her relationship with her pet.
That evening, she had Faolin brought to her chambers and she beckoned the girl to her as she sat sipping wine in a luxurious armchair.
The little one's bright eyes lifted with a smile as she knelt at the Queen's feet, resting her head on Ravenna's thigh. Ravenna gently stroked the dark tresses with a jeweled hand.
"Faolin, have you enjoyed your childhood here?" the Queen hummed quietly.
"Yes, my Queen," Faolin replied. "I'm grateful for all you have given me."
"I'm glad," Ravenna said. "How would you like to restart another chapter of your life now?"
Faolin's head jerked up and her eyes widened as a smile stretched across her face.
"Yes, I'm ready," the child said. Ravenna placed a hand gently against Faolin's beaming countenance.
"This will not be a pleasant experience, but you must trust that I will end it quickly," the Queen explained as she stood before the glowing embers in the fireplace. "Stand with me, and try not to struggle."
As the child stood before the Queen, Ravenna reached down, gripping the child's slim jaw and tilting Faolin's face to meet her own.
"Wait," Faolin said hurriedly, suddenly slipping out of her clothes.
Appalled, the Queen stepped back quickly. "Faolin, what are you doing?"
"When you take my years, I will grow," she replied. "I don't want to be stuck in this child's clothing."
Ravenna nodded in understanding and approached the bare child with furrowed brows, taking hold of the small jaw once again.
"Don't resist," the Queen whispered.
Faolin nodded silently, meeting Ravenna's eyes in resolution. The Queen's magic seeped into Faolin's limbs, seeking her lifeforce, and began gathering it like a cloth absorbing water. For a moment, Ravenna felt Faolin's intense terror spreading through her nerves, but as Faolin's life began flowing from her little body, Faolin accepted a state of tremulous resolve. And surely, when Ravenna's body began filling with Faolin's lifeforce, the child's body began changing. Her stature increased and her childish features developed into those of a woman. And suddenly Ravenna was holding not the pudgy cheeks of a wide-eyed child but the chiseled jaw of a formidably beautiful woman. The Queen quickly released the woman, cutting off the flow of lifeforce, and Faolin collapsed to the floor, gasping.
Ravenna surveyed the astonishing woman she had brought into existence. As Faolin recovered and rose to face Ravenna once more, the new woman stood just shorter than the Queen, her pale, chilling eyes her only feature left untouched. Her face had slimmed, and definition had reshaped her cheeks. Her now full lips slightly parted as her chest heaved for breath, a chest that was certainly no longer a child's. Faolin's waist now curved gently, and her strong hips now cradled her newly matured flower.
"You like what you see, my Queen?" Faolin rasped breathlessly, her voice no longer carrying the high pitch of a child, but the low silky tones of a woman.
Ravenna brought her fingers to Faolin's new face, young like her own, but still possessing wisdom beyond her years. The Queen tilted the woman's jaw, examining her beautiful features. Although a few scars still riddled her skin, her eyes shone brightly from under her thick lashes and her cheeks curved elegantly under the shade of her shadowy waves.
"Yes, I do," Ravenna replied with a grin. "And so too will many others. But for now you mustn't oblige anyone without my consent."
"Is that jealousy I hear, my Queen?" Faolin responded insolently.
Anger flared in Ravenna's chest and suddenly she drove a jeweled hand across that face which she had held so gently a moment before.
"You have yet to earn my trust, child," Ravenna growled deliberately. "I believe you have the potential to be a powerful weapon. But until that time, I will not have you compromise my court to satisfy base desire."
"As your brother does?" Foalin replied lowly, her insolence clearly undeterred by the Queen's outburst. "I've seen what he does with the women. You know."
"Finn has proven himself time and again to me," Ravenna explained calmly. "I know that he won't betray me for foolish infatuation."
"I see," Faolin responded, her gaze dropping as a shiver racked her bare limbs.
Ravenna sauntered to her expansive wardrobe and retrieved a thick, regal robe, dyed red and fringed with gold. When Faolin had dawned the robe, the Queen gestured to a couple lushly padded chairs near the fireplace saying "Come sit. Let us talk for a while."
As the women sat, Ravenna conjured a flame in the fireplace.
"Faolin, tell me: have you ever loved someone?" the Queen began softly, assessing Faolin's dark face carefully.
"I loved my mother," Faolin responded readily, seemingly unperturbed by the intimate question. "But truly, she didn't love me. She wanted a child, and as you can imagine, I was something of an abomination. Old body and a young mind—an unsettling combination, I'm sure."
"Well, then answer me this: have you ever been in love?" Ravenna probed intentionally, sipping her wine. These were the questions she had refrained from when Faolin was a child, not wanting to break the careful spell she had woven. Now she could attempt to further uncover Faolin's true nature.
"I've thought I was before," Faolin answered, quiet anger simmering in her carefully toned voice. "When I was in the prime of life before my childhood—a few decades ago—building relationships with people my age became much easier than it had been in my beginning years. I didn't stand out since my physical age and maturity matched those around me. I grew friendships with the women in my town and even fell into an intimate relationship with a man. For years everything was so good, I just couldn't bear to ruin the spell and risk divulging my secret. I loved those women and that man, and they loved me. And I loved the feeling of normalcy. But over the course of a decade or so, my secret became physically apparent as I aged in one direction, and they in the other. Nothing happened suddenly, but my relationships began becoming distant and strained. People began pulling away from me, and when I finally admitted to my closest friends my curse, they didn't understand. They thought I was practicing dark magic or some other forbidden art. I then told the man with whom I lived, the man I loved, and he seemed to accept it. But I realized the finality of it all when a few months later, that same man left me, claiming a life with me to be too 'unsettling' and 'unnatural.' In the next few months, I had nobody. Not only was I an outcast, but soon, the atmosphere became hostile. People began harassing me, and when I feared for my life, I fled. So to answer your question, yes and no. At one time when everything was good, I would say yes. And now, after I realized none of it was real, I would say no. That wasn't love. I'd like to believe love doesn't hurt like that."
Ravenna had suspected something like this. No one with a condition like Faolin's could have escaped hatred. But at least Ravenna had her brother and her sister. It seemed Faolin truly had no one. But because of this Faolin wouldn't fall for a man's loveless façade that many other women would. She had learned her lesson long ago.
"And what of lust? What of your experiences with it?" Ravenna pried further. Almost as potent as love, lust drove men and, sometimes, women to great lengths. But that balance of power lies in control—whether lust controls one or one controls lust. She needed to know where along that spectrum Faolin lay.
"What a boldly intimate question, my Queen," Faolin replied with a mischievous smile.
"And I would like a shamelessly frank answer," Ravenna returned curtly.
"I've looked like this once before," Faolin sighed, gesturing to her young body. "And as you said, many were interested in what they saw. After fleeing the town I had once loved, I began taking what I could get from the world, seeing as it was loath to give anything willingly. I found that life's simple pleasures should be indulged. And lust is the most simply satiated of all, when both parties maintain the same mindset. From my experience it's a simple need like food or shelter; it just takes another person to satisfy it. And many endeavored to have me satisfy their needs, both men and women, some of which I obliged, some I didn't."
Faolin shrugged with an arch grin resting on her lips.
"But never was I a slave to it," she continued earnestly. "I saw how it ruthlessly enslaved men, how it drove them to betray and kill. And I knew to always keep myself from the edge of its unrelenting pull. But that didn't mean I couldn't make use of it, as both a weapon to wield and a source to satisfy my own desires."
Ravenna rested her forearms on the lush arms of the chair in satisfaction. The child, the woman, was perfect. She had already learned all the lessons Ravenna dreaded to teach her.
"Tell me, Faolin," Ravenna began mischievously. "Which do you prefer, men or women?"
Faolin's lips curved in an amused grin.
"Well, from my experience, each has their strengths," Faolin began coyly. "I find that men satisfy more deeply when they do the job right. But they rarely do the job right. However, a woman always knows what a woman wants."
Ravenna scoffed with a huff as she sank back into the chair. She had found that women weren't as susceptible as men to that relentless physical ensnarement that was lust. However, women were so eager to lose themselves for something which might satisfy that bottomless yearning they all seem to have for appreciation, for acceptance. Love. It renders the female creature more susceptible to manipulation of another kind. When they believe they are truly cherished and wanted, they become clay in the hand, tender for sculpting into any form. And yet they too are subject to the throes of lust, though not in entirety as are men. In a sense, they are doubly as malleable as men.
"Quite true," the Queen replied with a nod. While she prided herself on her seduction of men, women had always been just as easily within her reach. Ravenna never endeavored to maintain close relationships with anyone other than her siblings. As such she didn't interact with others, particularly other women, very often. However, the Queen reserved an intimate understanding of women's minds, a thorough perception of words which they would like to hear. And when the need arose, Ravenna simply translated that knowledge into a working verbal and physical manipulation of those women's minds.
A quiet fell between the two as Faolin assessed the Queen intently. "And you, my Queen?" the dark woman ventured softly.
Ravenna hummed in amusement at her pet's forwardness once more.
"Our minds and bodies are weak. Those that don't learn to control both become slaves to those of us who do," Ravenna replied. "Balancing life's pleasures allows dominion over those who allow themselves to be ruled by base desire. It has its time and place—how well I know—but otherwise it is simply a tool for manipulation."
"My Queen, as stimulating as this exchange is, I fail to perceive the intention of the interview…" Faolin ventured curiously.
Ravenna's lips arched in a slight grin.
"You have become closer to my workings in such a shorter time than any other person. At this point I have two options to deal with you: keep you close as a trusted confidant or eliminate any threat you may pose by disposing of you completely. I need to know the inner facets of your mind so that I can decide which course of action to follow."
At this Ravenna watched Faolin's cheeks pale as the woman remembered her complete powerlessness in the presence of the queen.
"I've given you my word of good faith, but command me how you will and allow me to demonstrate my devotion, my Queen," Faolin said, a frantic twinge distorting her words. "Because of the nature of our agreement, my life is quite literally in your hands. But this aside, I desire to please you. Please, let me prove my worth."
Ravenna's chest roiled with warm contentment at the profession of absolute devotion to her. She controlled the creature completely.
"You shall have your opportunity, child," Ravenna reassured the woman. "I have a delivery for my sister in the northern kingdom. It is fortnight's journey from here. I shall send you and a battalion of guards to make the delivery. While you are there, I would like you to discreetly take an inventory of her grounds. I want to know what kind of forces she trains, what supply lines she receives, what courtiers she entertains, what funds she maintains. Everything you can gather. I have reason to believe she may be deceiving me as of late."
Ravenna watched carefully as Faolin's tense face suddenly relaxed.
"Yes, your majesty," she replied. "When do I leave?"
"I can arrange everything by tomorrow morning," Ravenna said as she stood, Faolin following suit. "But you'll need some different clothing…"
The queen turned to face Faolin, fingering the gold fringe on the lapel of the robe. "I don't believe this garb is best suited for traveling," the queen hummed, retrieving an old set of traveling robes from the wardrobe and laying them across the bed before approaching Faolin once more.
Ravenna deftly unknotted the tie at Faolin's waist and slipped her hands under the robe at Faolin's shoulders as the woman eyed her curiously. Ravenna's palms slid down Faolin's muscled arms as she freed the woman from the robe, shamelessly assessing her work.
"My Queen, would you not preserve a woman's decency?" Faolin whispered with a sly grin.
Ravenna met Faolin's gray eyes intently.
"Don't you understand, child?" Ravenna breathed, intoxicating power flooding her mind as she cupped a hand around Faolin's cheek. "You are mine. Wholly mine."