Monster Party Book Six: When Darkness falls, pain is all.
Chapter Six: I don't blame you, for being you, but you can't blame me, for hating it!
"We've just been keeping him safe. Come a little closer and you can see for yourself..." Alexander promised her while keeping a hand on Kian's shoulder to keep him from running over to his sister..
Kian tried to speak up, but Alexander shoved a his other black gloved hand firmly over the boy's lips and refused to allow him to get a word in edgewise.
The young girl looked askance for a moment and then Arla slowly took a few tentative steps forward out from under the tree, her shadow trailing after her.
The twin facts that she was able to walk out in the daylight and still had a shadow caused Alexander to relax immensely and removed both of his hands from Kian.
The young boy raced to his sister and the pair embraced in a tight hug while the rest of the group ambled over at a more sedate pace.
"Sis, how did you manage to get here?" Kian couldn't help but ask, wondering how she could have gotten through the magical fog or crossed the wide brook without risking whatever magical powers it had.
"Well, while I was looking for the White Lady in the woods I come to the attention o' the goblins. Hideous creatures they was, all twisted an' ugly. I run from 'em, but they had snares set. I got caught in one and hurt my leg real bad I did. Wanna see?
Anyway, a dozen o' the beasties closed in 'round me. I guessed they were gonna eat me or sumptin. One of 'em raised up a bent ol' knife. I remember screamin' an' backin' away. When it stabbed down wit' the knife, sumptin stopped it!
I didn't know why they wasn't followin', but I din't hang aroun' ta ask either. I took off runnin'. All of a sudden there was a big wall o' smoke aroun' me.
I 'member seein' a bea-u-ti-ful lady, all in white. Next thing I know I woke up in her cottage and my leg was all better! She saved me, she did! Then she said I was free to go anywhere I liked so long as I didn't cross the brook or make too much of a nuisance of myself. So I don' care what you grown-ups say, she ain't no evil old witch!" Arla explained.
"Can you take us to see the White Lady?" Alexander asked her at once.
Arla slowly let go of her brother and then began to size up the tall man slowly.
"Not if you want to hurt her..." She huffed in irritation, clearly still not ready to trust these strange people she'd never seen before.
"Lay off it sis! They helped save me more than once, and the bald mistress is another spirit of the forest!" Kian insisted.
"Really?" Arla gasped.
Now it was Florence's turn to be very slowly and carefully examined by the orange haired girl. The dryad responded by calmly walking over to the tree in whose shade the young girl had originally been standing in.
She whispered a few soothing words to it, and then slowly the tree began to sway, as if it alone was in the grip of a powerful storm, no one else could feel. That, or as if it was bowing to the woman who had just introduced herself to it.
She turned back to face Arla and offered her a quick curtsey of sorts.
"My name is Florence Bastien, but if it helps you can think of me as the Green Lady." She offered.
Very slowly Arla's face broke into a smile.
"All right, I'll take you to see the White Lady! Just don't be surprised if she needs some time to wake up first…. She likes to sleep during the day." She warned the group.
Following Arla the group pushed their way through a dense layer of foliage and finally beheld the source of the smoke, the chimney of a quaint little cottage. The building was surrounded by a wide garden of herbs, flowers, vegetables and other plants.
Strangely, none of the flowers seemed to be in bloom at the moment. The air instead was thick with the bitter aroma of various herbs. Apart from the great diversity of flora, there seemed to be nothing unusual or threatening about the garden, although the essence of various plants was capable of making one's head spin a bit.
"Those things aren't poisonous, but they will cause disorientation and then unconsciousness if you breath too deeply." Florence warned the others as soon as she caught sight of them.
Arla quickly lead them past the garden to the cottage itself. It was a simple pleasant-looking half-timbered structure with pristine white stucco walls and a thatch roof and the large chimney at one end poured a meandering plume of gray smoke into the air.
The door swung open to Arla's touch, and inside this simple ordinary looking house was a mansion.
Callan Wright blinked several times, examining an upward leading spiral staircase that was easily visible through the now open door and took a step back. Next he held up his hands and took a rough estimate of the size of the cottage itself, before returning his attention to the staircase.
The staircase which by the always greased gears of the great clockwork should slam straight into the ceiling.
It was one thing to be able to dig skillfully enough into the earth to create a hidden basement. This house had been built skillfully enough into the sky to create a hidden second floor. A second floor that which was only visible when you were inside the house.
"Owe, my brain." The alchemist eventually admitted at the blatant impossibility of what he was seeing.
"I don't know what you're so worked up over, it is just one of those standard magical mansions that fits inside a cottage. They show up in stories all the time!" James Firecat was completely unperturbed by the architectural impossibility that lay before him.
"Yeah but, still…!" Cal exclaimed. unable to find the words with which to properly object.
"It is the same principle my bag of holding you realize?" Devi pointed out, trying to give him a familiar frame of reference.
"Yeah, but there's a good reason sentient beings don't try to go inside bags of holding. The lucky ones don't come out again. The last unlucky one who did still has a room in Dr. Gregorian Illhousen's Clinic for the Mentally Distressed, screaming his head off about how they have beheld the horrific truth of reality and we all but the insubstantial dreams of some ancient unknowable creature more powerful than the gods themselves that weaves all our fates with the rapid movements of its fingers. Just because this place is bigger than a bag doesn't mean it is safe to go inside." Cal worried.
"Arla has clearly been spending time in there without going insane." Alexander pointed out as he headed inside.
"Would you feel better if you had a blindfold?" Devi offered smirking.
"You know what… sure." Cal admitted after a moment's hesitation.
After removing a black blindfold from her bag of holding Devi tied it tightly around Cal's eyes. Then she took his right hand and began to lead him further into the magical mansion.
Once you managed to get past the spacial anomaly the place represented, there was nothing else overtly magical to be seen inside, the doors didn't mystically open at their approach nor did candles ignite at their very presence.
"Stay back… I'm the one who is supposed to talk with the White Lady's servants if something important happens during the day!" Arla insisted, puffing up her chest mightily.
Alexander saw no particular reason to pick a fight over this issue and so seated himself in one of the mansion's many (many) opulent pieces of upholstery beckoning for the rest of the group to do likewise.
Eventually a gracefully woman breezed into the room. Her every movement was precise and delicate, but there was something disconcerting about her. She didn't so much walk as dance, and while she did so with great skill, there was no passion in her amber colored eyes. Which left aside the entire issue of how the black black haired woman was missing her shadow.
"Queen Maeve will see you now." She informed them in measured tones before leaving as gracefully as she has entered.
With no other real alternatives, the group did as they had been beckoned to and followed the servant. On the other side of the doors they found a formal looking dining room whose long wooden table was laden with fruits and sweetbreads.
At the end of the table stood a woman more beautiful than most could ever imagine.
Even James Firecat (who always tried to always tell the truth other than on the subject of his lycanthropy) would have had to say this woman was prettier than Mirri Catwarrior, though of course he would have promptly added that he liked Mirri for reasons beyond her looks...
The woman stood a full six feet tall and had long white hair, but still looked youthful. There was no flaw to be found in her features, no matter how closely they were examined; even her pale skin and pointed ears only added to an exotic allure.
She wore a silky blue gown which shimmered with her every movement, sparkling like the surface of a mountain lake on a sunny day. Her perfume was sweeter than any bouquet of flowers.
"I am Maeve." She said in a textured voice that might have been issued by some delicate woodwind.
"I bid you welcome to my home, simple as it is. Please join me." She instructed them, motioning to a decanter of some pale wine.
"I am sorry if my barriers were an inconvenience to you, but they are necessary for my safety." She explained.
Alexander motioned for the others to stay back, but seated himself. Then he very casually tugged at his eye-patch, and twisted it around so that it covered his left eye instead of his right.
Alexander Diamondclaw's right eye was a strange deep yellow color, which seemed to reflect rather than absorb the light that struck it. As this unnatural orb gazed out over the table, he picked up one of the sweetbreads, and crushed it into miniscule crumbs.
"Tell me, my lady, do you always serve your guests food that has been enchanted to look more appetizing than it really is?" He inquired in an ominously calm voice.
"Mortals experience life so differently than we do. They can be granted such great joy from something so simple as ingesting a certain kind of nourishment. I've had my servants be very careful with their spell-work to insure the food tastes as good as it looks, that's entire point after all. To bring pleasure. Isn't pleasure better than the alternative?" She asked, her held tilted to the side slightly as if she wasn't quite sure of the answer.
"The 'woman' who brought us in. Are you responsible for making her the way she is? How much 'pleasure' does she experience?" Alexander pressed.
Maeve simply shrugged her shoulders prettily.
"Yes, I bestowed the transcendence upon Jocelyn two, three, oh my it must have been four centuries ago.
The poor dear could dance so beautifully, except she didn't want to anymore. Inside one year both of her parents died of illness, her husband was murdered by goblins, and the shock of it all cost her the child which might have been.
She was so sad that she couldn't bring herself to share the wonders of her dancing anymore, and I couldn't bear to let the world be denied such beauty. So I made her an offer and she accepted. Is the glory of transcendence not preferable to a lifetime of sorrow and suffering? Especially when her dancing can bring so much joy to others?" Maeve explained.
"By 'others' you mean yourself." Florence Bastien interjected, gripping her staff so tightly her knuckles were becoming nearly as white as Maeve's skin.
"For myself, and for my guests, even uninvited ones." Maeve answered, her voice betraying no emotion.
"Monster." Spat Florence flatly.
"Hmpph! Cold hearted as a proper waff. I thought that Arla was simply being childish when she told me what horrible people you were. It seems that she was far more perceptive than I gave her credit for. You barge through my wards, force me to try and create a small feast on the spur of the moment, and still see fit to insult me. If you continue to do so I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave." Maeve replied, somehow managing to sound extremely refined all the while.
"You didn't… 'bestow the transcendence' upon Arla McCollin, why?" Alexander tried to steer the conversation onto a slightly safer topic.
Maeve huffed, and still looked offended, though now more on general principle than personal insult.
"As my alven kin would say, what's the point of plucking a flower before it blooms? Transcendence can perfectly capture a mortal's skills, but they must first be given first to acquire them. Maybe she'll be a beautiful dancer, maybe she'll have a lovely singing voice, maybe she'll have some other great talent. Whatever becomes of her, it will be at least a decade until I can be sure." She reflected.
Maeve tossed out the word "decade" without any great weight behind it, much like a human might refer to "next week" when talking of the future.
"So if you don't have any great use for her, why did you take her in and heal her wound?" The blond haired man couldn't help but ask.
"Well, my servants found the poor thing trapped between my first and second barrier. It has been a very long time since I've talked with a mortal child so I decided to do so again. You mortals and your fickle flighty emotions are so interesting, and in children they're even more pronounced." Maeve explained.
"I wonder how many spells it would take to break open the ceiling, and how many others I'd have to go through before I got to the roof..." Florence muttered under her breath.
Luckily she did it softly enough that Maeve didn't hear. Alexander did however and he suddenly stood up.
"Excuse me a moment Lady Maeve, I had a few things I need to discuss. Everyone follow me." Alexander insisted not wanting to leave any of his companions alone in Maeve's presence.
He waited until they were through the door again and it was safely shut behind him before he started speaking.
"Alpha Female, I really need you to get a hold of yourself. You're making a bad situation worse." Alexander warned her.
"This entire cottage is a bad situation, made worse for every second it is allowed to exist. I can feel the darkness within Maeve even when we're in different rooms. You've already got your eye-patch shifted, you should jump across that table and tear her throat out." Florence suggested eagerly.
This earned her a series of estranged looks from everyone present.
"Don't we normally have to wait for the inevitable betrayal before we're allowed to kill people we don't like? I mean our fearless leader never got around to killing Prince Othmar but you don't see me constantly complaining about it." Mirri Catwarrior pointed out.
"You were able to keep your emotions in check while we were dealing with the Three Sisters." Devi pointed out.
"This isn't the same. There's evil, and then there's corruption. When I look a Maeve, it is so easy for me to to see the darkness that has perverted her into being such a horrific monster! The food she set out would have probably left us all shadow-reft if we ate it, that should be reason enough!" Florence insisted.
"Given that it was already enchanted in other ways, I'm not going to say you're wrong about what eating the food might have done to us. That said, I don't feel righteous enough to start killing people over our appetizers. If the fairy food had been the prelude to an ambush I'd be with you, but Maeve doesn't seem to have any intention to force us to eat the stuff if we refuse it." Alexander pointed out.
"Then make her prove that she's really good for something. She's admitted that she has personally 'transcended' people, force her to help us restore shadows to the people of Briggdarrow." Florence suggested.
"That's not a horrible idea." Alexander admitted.
With this conclusion reached the group returned to the other room and Alexander once again took his seat opposite Maeve.
"So tell me Lady Maeve, do you know why Arla was wandering through your woods?" He began.
"Hasn't come up, children, adults, humans of many different types wander through these woods. Most of them don't make it past the first barrier though." The pale skinned woman reflected.
"It is because someone 'bestowed the transcendence' upon both of their parents, leaving the two to fend for themselves." Alexander provided her with the answer.
"Truly? What marvelous news! If both of her parents were worth of the honor then I'll have to make sure to keep a closer eye on her and see what talents she develops. Do you know what breed took them?" Maeve responded, completley misreading Alexander's intent.
Florence Bastien's began to mouth the words "I will..." before shifting her staff to cover her mouth and make it impossible to read her lips.
"They were just ordinary farmers, and they were taking by the dancing men. Long haired fey who lust for battle." Alexander answered.
Maeve was very still for a moment.
The sense of vaguely bemused and detached calmness which had constantly surrounded her shattered like a mirror beneath a bolder.
"The muryan you mean? That… that can't be!" Maeve all but screamed, yet somehow her voice still remained eerily beautiful.
"If that is what you care to call them. You can ask either Arla or her brother to confirm what I've told you, the… muyran attacked a human village, and they seem to have 'bestowed the gift of transcendence' on every single villager they could find." The blond haired man insisted.
Maeve stood up and began to pace wearily.
"The muryan devote their lives to battle, they care nothing for good or evil, only the wild frenzy of combat. Yet surely an entire village cannot possibly be made of only master craftsmen and warriors worthy of becoming our servants. Whatever can Loht be up to?" She muttered more to herself than her guests.
"How do you know the name 'Loht' exactly?" Alexander couldn't help but ask.
"Loht, the Prince of Shadows is my brother." Maeve admitted as if she was commenting on how it was raining outside.
Florence began to work her teeth back and forth across her lower lip until trickles of a strange golden substance began to leak from it.
If Maeve noticed this fact she chose not to comment on it, instead simply continuing her tale.
"Before we came to this land, my father passed the crown of Arak to me and the Sword of Arak to my brother, decreeing that we would rule equally. Shortly after that event however, our people who had been one began to divide themselves according to their nature.
Still, ever since we came here from our old home, the power of the my brother's Unseelie Court has waxed and that of my Seelie Court has waned. During the great convulsions that shook this land not so long ago even by mortal standards, Loht's sword was lost. Long he sort it in mortal lands, and if he has recovered it, he would surely put in motion plans he has long pondered." Maeve worried.
"What sort of plans do you mean? At the moment I think it is all too likely he's gotten his sword back" Alexander informed Maeve, recalling the blade Mirri had described Loht escaping with back in Keening.
Maeve slowly returned to her seat and took a long drink from a fancy goblet before she could bring herself to answered.
"I believe that my brother must have managed to assemble almost all the pieces of the Regalia of Arak, my father's greatest treasures. The only possible reason to bring these items together however would be to open the Obsidian Gate, and I cannot imagine why he would want to do that!" Maeve exclaimed, something like genuine fear starting to creep into her voice now.
"What is the Obsidian Gate and why can't it allowed to be opened?" The blond haired man inquired, finally feeling like he was making some headway towards understanding this bizarre situation.
"To understand the Obsidian Gate, you must understand our history.
Once there was a mage whose mystical power was so great that the only thing which could possibly rival it was his cruelty. My people call him the Twilight… for to voice his true name is to risk drawing his attention, even today.
First, he used his arcane arts to craft an invincible body for himself, a form which no warrior would ever be able to slay. That was not enough for him though, for next the Twilight captured us.
Once we were spirits of the land, sea, air, forest, and all other forms of nature. Once, but not after the Twilight took us to his horrific homeland, forever linking us to the shadows which filled it, remaking us in his own image.
Nor was that enough to sate his endless lust for power, next the Twilight wished for us to invade other lands so that he might dominate them as well. So we built the Obsidian Gate, and the Twilight crafted a powerful magical ritual that would also ensure the creation of its perfect double on another world.
Except my father, Arak the Earlking, who the Twilight had taken as his seneschal deceived the cruel tyrant! While the Twilight planned to send only a small company of us through the gate, Arak lead the entirety of our people into a new land where we could be truly free!
When the Twilight realized he had been deceived his wrath was without equal. He pursued us through the Obsidian Gate, but Arak choose to stand firm against him. He went forth into a battle that he knew he could not possibly win. Yet he sold his life dearly, delaying Twilight long enough for the rest of us to escape.
As we first entered into this world, Loht was paralyzed with fear at the sound of our father's suffering. Just as it seemed the Twilight might recapture us all, I raised my voice and completed the long planned ritual alone, sealing the Obsidian Gate.
The only other things to pass through it once I began to chant were the mystical items my father had chosen to wear while facing the Twilight, the Regalia of Arak.
Since his own magic had been used to craft the Obsidian Gate the Twilight could not best simply destroy it or force it open while trapped within it. In honor of my father's sacrifice all of us took his name upon ourselves and we became the Arak.
Even with all the years that have passed… I am still utterly certain that should the Obsidian Gate be opened, the Twilight would seize upon the opportunity to subjugate us again." Maeve explained, her voice quivering every time she was forced to use the word "Twilight" as if she could not stop herself of thinking about what (or say better 'whom') it represented.
"Most likely turning his attention to the rest of us next?" Alexander prompted her.
Once again Maeve simply gave a pretty, emotionless, shrug.
"The Twilight's lust for conquest can never be satisfied. That he would eventually seek to control this entire world should go without saying." She replied.
Very slowly Florence Bastien tightly clenched hands began to loosen, and she forced herself to look Maeve squarely in the eye.
"I am sorry for the suffering of your people. I know how slavery before the lash of a tyrant darkens the soul. How such beings seek to remake all they touch into passive puppets, or worse yet into reflections of themselves. Still, this past suffering does not excuse the torments you pass along to other demi-humans, who are not lesser beings simply because of their shorter lifespan though." She insisted.
Maeve simply cocked her head to one side and stared at Florence for a while, saying nothing.
Then she returned her attention to Alexander and the subject at hand.
"You can see how opening the Obsidian Gate would be a disaster for all of us, even my brother himself. If you can stop him from doing it then it would mean a great deal to me." She admitted reluctantly.
"Enough to 'untranscend' the people of Briggdarrow? Keeping in mind I do not mean bring back their 'shadows' as in place the transcended bodies back besides the ones who lost their shadows in the first place. I do not mean to simply use magic to gift them with illusionary shadows. You should understand Lady Maeve, I am going to be as absolutely clear on the subject as I possibly can to avoid latter strife between us.
So, I am talking about restoring these people's shadows, mental facilities, their zest for life, their personalities, and their full range of emotions. You will return to them every single possible piece of who they were. You will as my mother's tales on the subject say, order your servants to temporarily sacrifice a piece of their own being if that is what is necessary to fully restore them.
You will refrain from no effort, you will forgo no approach, you will not cease to toil towards the completion of this task until I tell you in no uncertain terms I am completely satisfied with your efforts. THAT is what I expect you to do for the people of Briggdarrow if you want me to help you." Alexander explained, his right eye blazing all the while.
"Did I not previously explain how the Twilight will inevitably seek to enslave every mortal outside the Shadow Rift and not just my own people?" Maeve asked, sounding generally confused and bewildered that Alexander would wish to set terms on the matter.
"That's the problem with being mortal Queen Maeve, we don't live as long as you do. The Twilight will live forever, and so might you. He will 'inevitably' turn his attention away from those who originally betrayed him, but on what time scale can we expect such a being to act?
If he spends so much as a single short century extracting his vengeance, then I and all the humans I ever knew will be dead of old age before the Twilight could begin to try and enslave us.
So you see Lady Maeve, when you consider the proper matters of scale, while the Twilight might be a matter for mortals to be worried about… not this mortal, not this generation of mortals. This mortal, at this particular moment is concerned with the people Briggdarrow's plight, because that is a problem on a mortal scale. The Twilight is a problem you are concerned about because it is on an immortal scale.
Thus, why it is necessary for you to bargain with me on the matter. Well, either bargain with me, or order your subjects to try and force-feed me faery food..." As Alexander point out that particular option to Maeve, he flashed her a 'smile' showing off a mouth filled with ominously sharp teeth.
"You're using your own shortcomings and weaknesses against me as a bargaining tool…. Well played mortal. I've never considered such an approach, I will simply have to try it myself when next I negotiate. I knew you must have been clever to work your way past all three of my barriers, but never expected you to be clever enough to surprise me!" Maeve openly admitted.
"You wouldn't be the first immortal I've surprised." Alexander reflected calmly.
"Just as well all things considered. Your weakness may very well be your greatest strength in this endeavor. My brother has his agents out in the woods spying on me even now, which is why I require my barriers.
I can't possibly hope to recover the Crown of Arak on my own, Loht would know where I was and what I was trying to do as soon as I stepped beyond my protection. You on the other hand, Loht will doubtlessly consider you beneath his notice and hence you might be able to retrieve the crown without drawing his attention.
It has been hidden within the eternal fire in the Malachite Palace from which Loht now rules. That crown is my most prized possession, the last thing I have to remember my father by… but now it must be destroyed.
Take it to the Obsidian Gate, and cast it in; it will be like locking a door and slipping the key beneath it. As soon as the crown is returned to the realm of shadows from which it came, the magical energies of the place will destroy it. Then it will be completely impossible to reverse the ritual which closed the Obsidian Gate. I never imagined it would be necessary to sacrifice such an important part of our history, but there is no other choice." Maeve sighed.
"The Obsidian Gate, which is in the Shadow Rift, and for that mater so probably is that Malachite Palace you talked about. So, we are going to have to go into the Shadow Rift! Always expect the worse thing possible and you're bound to be right..." Cal moaned, pressing a hand to his face, even though he still had his blindfold on.
"But if there's a palace there then it is probably not just shadow with nothing to stand on, nothing to eat, and nothing to breath!" James contributed helpfully.
"Since none of us have ever been to the Shadow Rift before but you're doubtlessly quite familiar with it, I would appreciate the best map you can draw me. That, and also a map of how exactly you got out of the Shadow Rift and thus how we can get into it.
I've heard rumors that people who just try to walk straight into the Shadow Rift start to feel as if they're fading away, leading to them wisely deciding to turn back and never try it again. Finally, I must ask, once we go inside it, are all the… Arak we encounter going to be servants of your brother?" Alexander pressed.
Maeve slowly began to remove a ring she she wore on her right hand. It bore a strange gem which seemed to be made of onyx, except it was dark to the point that it absorbed all the light that fell upon it.
"I am not without friends in my homeland, it is true. My brother is dominant at the moment, but many there still respect my authority. Take this ring and show them to any of my supporters and they will offer you whatever assistance they can." Maeve explained, and then she got to work slowly, silently, and exquisitely drawing out a pair of maps.
As the group looked over the maps, Devi began to move her hand from Cal's shoulder to his waist.
"Can I borrow your timepiece?" She inquired.
"Go nuts." The alchemist acquiesced.
Devi took the timepiece form him, and gently lead him over to the table, keeping one hand on his body all the while. She then placed the timepiece down on the table and flipped it open.
"Does this twelve hand point north?" Devi Skye wanted to know, after carefully examining the map of of how they were to enter the Shadow Rift.
"East." Maeve answered with another shrug.
Devi grabbed the exquisite feathered pen Maeve had been using and sketched a large "E" near the "top" of the map.
"Thanks for letting us know." She replied with an emotionless smile.
End Chapter.
AN: It is a really, REALLY good thing that Florence /the group don't know the names of various Shadow Fey "Breeds" going into this chapter, especially the more obscure ones. Waff is one of the more obscure ones, they exist only to consume life and light, if anything they are even worse that Powries because Powries honestly enjoy what they do, Waffs just simply flat out hate life.
They are also known as "Shadow Dryads" because while normal Shadow Fey can be fine so long as they find some shelter when the sun goes up, a Waff needs to always return to the shadow of the same tree, which will usually be a tree with a bad history (lots of people being hanged/committing suicide from it) in the first place. If Florence knew what Maeve was saying she probably would have just started busting out the Sunbeam spell and never looked back.
Maeve could as you might guess teach a class on the subject of "not helping your case" because while she's not evil, she is true neutral. She's also an especially self absorbed sort of true neutral (more so than even Cal!), and doesn't care to recognize mortal human emotions as having any worth other than what she decides to give them, and the same goes for mortal lives. She's not intentionally cruel, but she's cold and callous as all get out.
In short, having a meal with her, is like having a meal with a well meaning and friendly person who is completely devoted to Slaanesh, the food may taste great, and the conversation may be interesting, but they're just not operating on the same moral system you are. They'll also probably invite you to take part in an orgy and don't be surprised if they slipped powerful aphrodisiacs into the food, pleasure is desirable after all…
Also the way that Alex negotiates with Maeve is pretty much the only way to effectively negotiate with Shadow Fey, you have to spell things out in exquisite detail, they do not believe in "the spirit of an agreement" and so you must leave them no possible weasel word ways out of doing what you agreed to.
Oh and as established in the last book, Alex's right eye can see through illusions, just reiterating in case it slipped anyone's mind.