It was almost too easy. Too nice. Too sweet.
Anandi, for all her candied words and honeyed smiles, was not made of or for sweetness. She did not have a taste for it (perhaps literally), and in her blood it simply floated, like oil in water, incompatible with the rest of her hedonistic needs.
She walks and talks and smiles. She marvels to herself “this is so delightfully easy. Being here and now with these two,” and she almost believes it. As her hunger hardens to a fist and her ears tilt seaward, as her kelpie thrashes in yearning for blood or fear or even just a sound of discomfort or surprise-- as the blood-slick monster living beneath her pretty silver skin moans: Easy is Painful. Nice is Boring. Sweet is Bitter.
Anandi smiles, careful (always so tippy-toe careful) to hide the sharp edges of her teeth, and as the pegasus peels away she says graciously “Farewell, Mephisto. We’ll talk again soon, I hope.”
Then it’s just Anandi and the spunky little warrior, and the emissary leans into the sweetness that feels so foreign. “Come on, let’s get you settled first. We’ll put you to work tomorrow, after you’ve had a meal and a good night’s sleep.” Anandi's smile reaches her eyes in a rare expression of genuine warmth, and she leads the way further into the court to where Aoife might eat, and rest, and wake the next morning a full-fledged citizen of Terrastella.
@Mephisto @
some say the loving and the devouring are all the same thing
☾
