Eclipse spent three months with the Bone Carver. Learning everything she needed from him. Three months of traveling to different parts of Prythian to collect the necessary items. Three months of staring into the face of her mother, listening and absorbing everything the Bone Carver had to say. She had asked him once why he was doing this, even with the multitude of bones she had given him as a form of payment.
"Curiosity." Had been his response. She didn't have the nerve to ask him exactly what it was he was curious about.
After the end of his tutelage. When she had learned and done all that she needed to, she left. She returned to the Spring Court as the Suriel had directed, but she did not appear right away to the people in the manor.
She spent two weeks glamoured, watching the group, and all of the fae caretakers, as she built up the courage to enter the estate. She wasn't scared of Tamlin, or Lucien for reasons obvious to only her, the Autumn Court native did not know why he'd never hurt the girl, but he would not. He actually found her company quite pleasurable, companionable any time he had met her in the past. No, she was not building up the courage to face them because she was scared of them, but rather scared that she would not be able to look the High Lord in the eye without attempting to gut him where he stood for all the past pain he had caused her, her father and her Uncle.
She focused her attention on the human, Feyre, the irony of the meaning not lost on her, memories of long ago flitting through her head, her mother reading her fables left over from the humans after they had been set free from the Night Court, long before The War. She was truly a beautiful human, in the different ways that the humans were beautiful. The beauty of something, someone so fragile. Eclipse spent much time in those two weeks contemplating the fragility and beauty in a mortal life, how it must feel to be so close to death, to pack so much living in such a short amount of time. She herself had probably exceeded the average human lifespan at least seven times.
She came to learn that Feyre had killed a sentry named Andras, one Tamlin and turned into a wolf, how drab, a bear would've been more exciting. She had done so with a well placed ash arrow to the eye. It seemed that for her age and hard life, Feyre was quite skilled with a bow and hunting, having been the only source of food and income for her two sisters and crippled father. The only thing keeping them alive.
Eclipse spent a significant amount of time, those two weeks, convincing herself that she was not a child any more and did not need to vomit at the smell of roses every time a breeze carried the smell to her. She did manage to not vomit, that did not mean the smell did not still make her nauseous, to the point of magicking away her own ability to smell.
The rest of her time she spent contemplating how exactly she would worm her way into the Spring Court. That was if Tamlin didn't kill her on sight. Her intuition said it was 50/50 that he would or would not. In the end, her flare for the dramatic won out. She had been raised by her father and uncle, so it was no surprise that she picked the inherent need to make an entrance that shocked, startled or irritated everyone in the room.
And so she winnowed right into the dinning room, directly across from Feyre, who let out a rather humorous yelp, her fork flying from her hand. The fork landed perfectly onto Lucien's plate, splattering buttered potatoes onto the male's face.
He looked stunned at the female sitting before him, never in all his life expecting to see her in the Spring Court. She smirked at him, winking.
"Hello Lucien, Feyre dear." She grinned at the human. And then after she so blatantly disrespected him, in his own estate by not addressing him first she turned toward the High Lord.
"My, my Tamlin, I must say. The mask is quite the improvement. Really brings out the eyes." She reached forward and plucked a chicken leg off the table before taking a bite. Tamlin's claws slid out of his skin digging into the table in front of him, assessing her carefully, he let out a growl.
"Lucien, take Feyre for a walk." The High Lord growled the command. Lucien looked carefully between the two high fae seated at the table.
"Aww what's wrong, beast boy, worried I'll hurt your new friend?" Tamlin let out a ferocious roar, one that would make most flinch, Lucien and Feyre did, but Eclipse did not.
"Now, Lucien." Tamlin ordered again. Lucien listened this time he stood grabbing Feyre's elbow and pulling her up leading her from the room.
"Who is that?" Feyre's voice floated to Eclipse after they had left the room.
"Trouble." Lucien's answer made the Emissary's smirk grow.
"Why are you here?" Tamlin growled out eyes blazing. Eclipse rolled her eyes and pushed the chair she was in back slightly.
"Relax, I'm not here to hurt the human." She said kicking her feet up onto the table. The violet eyed woman was the epitome of unbothered as she used the dining room table of the male who was directly responsible for the deaths of her mother and grandmother as a footrest. Reclining slightly in the chair, adjusting her wings so they did not catch on the back of the chair, she clasped her hands in front of her. "Quite the opposite actually. I'm here to help protect her."
Tamlin scoffed at the response and settled back in his seat, claws still out.
"And why would you do that?" He asked.
"Have you forgotten exactly who that evil wretch has had trapped under the mountain for the last 50 years, or what she's been doing to the people of Prythian?"
"Obviously I have not." Tamlin snarled.
"Well then the answer should be perfectly clear, even to a thick headed prick like you. There is one sure fire way to end this, blight, as you've dubbed it so eloquently for Feyre dear." Tamlin growled.
"It would do you well to remember exactly who's court you're in, Emissary. Perhaps, you should reconsider how you speak to me." Eclipse snorted.
"Oh please, you'll forgive me, High Lord, if I don't give a rat's ass about your station, I'll talk to the male responsible for my mother's death anyway I damn well please. If you don't like it, shove it up your ass." Tamlin stilled and she knew he was startled that she brought it up. She knew he felt terrible, that it was the one regret of his incredibly long life, and he had not even known exactly what his father planned to do with the information he had gotten out of his son. But he hadn't even attempted to stop it. Had stood by and watched as her mother and grandmother were butchered and mutilated. The male recovered quickly, though, and responded.
"Why should I believe you? Your Uncle was quick to jump into her bed, you are his Emissary, how do I know this is not some ploy for him?" Eclipse sneered at the High Lord. She knew of what her Uncle was enduring, and the first time she'd heard those words, unspoken by Tamlin, but spoken by anyone else in regards to the High Lord of the Night Court, that it was not by his own choice. Amarantha's Whore. Even thinking about them left a sour nauseating feeling in her.
"My Uncle has his own agenda, one I am not privy too, as he along with my father, have both been trapped and I have not seen them in 50 years." She said as darkness began to seep out of her.
"And what exactly is your agenda?"
"To slit that bitch's throat."
When Lucien returned to the dining room, after dropping Feyre off at her room, he was surprised to find both of them still alive. No sign of a fight. He knew that, historically, she never went anywhere Tamlin might be without her uncle, father, both of the Illyrian brutes that Rhysand called his brother's, or at least a dozen Day Court soldier's. Someone had the balls to mention it once, too loudly at some event.
"Have you noticed, she always has an entourage for her protection when she must attend to her duties and the High Lord of Spring is near?" The comment had been made with unfortunate timing, as the song died off at that point. All heads turned to the speaker, a young Summer Lord's son. Eclipse seemed content to ignore the comment, casually sipping on her drink and carrying on her conversation with her then fiancé. It was the Night Court General who responded, an unsettling smirk on his face.
"What makes you think we're here for her protection." Eclipse only smirked at the response.
"Ah, Lucien, while being in the gods-forsaken Court, absolutely, disgusts me, I can say I am happy to see a friendly face." Lucien smiled at the other Emissary, over the years he had gotten to know her, he knew there were many sides to the female seated at the table. She was good at adapting her behavior to manipulate those around her for information or action. Her gift gave her an edge to know exactly what to do and say, to put the others around her at her mercy. She was cunning, and bright, and dark all at the same time. Her smile and laugh could light up a room as brightly as the midday sun, her wrath, could darken it, snuff out all of the happiness and set the strongest warriors on edge, nervous for what lurked in her, like a moonless night.
"It pleases me to see you again, Eclipse, as long as you're not here to assassinate my High Lord or our lovely human guest." Eclipse grinned at the male, examining his fox mask.
"I was just telling you High Lord, I'm here to offer my services to protect her, I wouldn't want her getting herself in any unnecessary danger, when things are so close to being ended." Lucien's mechanical eye whirled, Tamlin leaned forward.
"What do you know, intuitive?"
"I know that she is the one to end it." Tamlin and Lucien both stilled.
"I'd like to offer you a bargain." Eclipse spoke to the High Lord. Lucien blinked.
"What kind of bargain?" Tamlin asked.
"I will remain with the human, protect her until my dying breath, until the curse has ended. I will not harm any member of the Spring Court, unless necessary out of self defense, until the curse has ended. And in return, you will tell me what happened to the wings of both my mother and grandmother, and give them to me if they haven't been destroyed. And allow me to reside here to fulfill my end of the bargain. You cannot harm me either of course. The terms of the bargain will hold until the curse is broken."
"You cannot tell her about the curse or anything pertaining to Amarantha. Or about why you hate me. If you can agree to that it's a bargain." Eclipse stared at th High Lord.
"It's a bargain." She spoke firmly. As she spoke a tingling began in the right forearm. She pulled up the sleeve of her tunic to reveal a new tattoo. A shield and dagger with a vine of thorns and roses entwining them together.