-Break-
Φ Standing in front of the two large doors, I hear Nutman say, "You shouldn't do this, Captivant; she can still be a little testy," as he points down the hall, where our eyes land on the butler who stands a good distance away from us.
"Urgh, go outside, Nutman. I don't have time for this?"
"Bu-u."
"GO OUTSIDE!"
Squealing, he says, "OKAY!" and rushes away with the cat in hand.
Placing my hands against the door, I push it open, and entering inside, I see a large room covered in furniture, rather beautifully made, but in the centre of the room kneeling down as she works on a chair is the same woman from the picture, and hearing me enter she stands up and turns to face me.
She is as light and as delicate as the picture made her seem. Her hair is straight, her clothes are clean, her eyes as soft, focused and precise, moving to meet my own, her posture is controlled as if every single movement done by her has a direct intention to be sent to the viewer. Her clothes look like a combination of a sleeveless nightgown and a black dress, with the skirt having a translucent layer and a normal one; it has open slits across the sides and back.
With one footstep after the other, she walks towards me with a cold expression, as I take it all in. And throughout my body, a feeling of disgust floods my throat, causing my hand to move towards my mouth before a smile appears, hiding behind it.
Φ With standing in front of Captivant, she instantly brings her hands to his face, shocking him as her speed goes beyond his own, causing him to squeal before he composes himself and says, "Yes?"
The bones on her head point to closed fists in front of him, which open up at the same time, and his eyes move from one to the other, rapidly yet as they move his eyes eventually freeze on one for 4 more seconds than the other, bringing a smile to her face and turning around she shoos him away as she says, "That's all I needed goodbye."
Captivant stands still, as he says, "Huh?"
Snapping back into reality, he reaches out, almost tripping forward and grabs her by the shoulder, and says, "WAIT!"
Her motion stops as he uses her to balance and turns around; she extends the bones in her hair to gently pierce his clothes, sustaining him in mid-air, then says under her breath, "It seems the principles of etiquette escaped me for a moment."
As Captivant regains his footing, she retracts her bones and grabs the edges of her skirt, and takes a bow as she says, "Hello, my name is Draga Istoria Bunatații Frumos. The current head of the Frumos family and the one who invited you into my home, I thank you for bringing the eyes of the great farmer lineage to my home today, and I ask that you relax far away from her until you have the strength to return to your home." She raises her head, then smiles, before turning away and returning to the wooden chair in front of her.
His hands shake as a crooked smile appears on his face, and he takes a single step forward, yet bones rush from her back and pierce his clothes, sending him flying out the door, before turning him around and landing him gently on the floor as they pat his back, before moving to shut the door.
Yet as the door is closed, the bones try to spin the doorknob, yet they cannot feel it, and pulling up the door, Captivant walks in, spinning it on his finger, causing Draga to say, "Is this what God means when he says do not leave open doors to the devil. It seems I still have much to learn."
Spinning the doorknob clockwise, Captivant places it on the centre of her bones, spine throughout her hair, then lies on his side beside her with a smile pasted across his face.
Her hands move elegantly across the chair, shaping and carving it to reach her goal. Her eyes move from the parts she is focusing on to the next with no interruption in her vision, with anything outside of the chair in front of her being clothly faded out.
Staring at her, Captivant eyes move towards her petite hands with callouses all over them, her face that weaponises the creativity within the human mind to enhance her beauty, her posture which constantly shifts from slouched to upright in direct correlation to the intensity of the focus within her eyes.
And with those gentle movements, her looks as the breath that flows from her supple lips, the little movements of her legs and posterior, the small shaking of the chest as she expands and contracts it, and even the little drops of sweat that move down her skin.
"Please keep your heart rate in check."
"You interested in my insides that much?"
"The existence of you has very little to do with it; any little variation in sound can cause negativity to flow into the wood, and my heart sending my craft off rhythm."
"What a foolish fear to have; it's not like you can control all the minor stray sounds within this room. Knowing and overcoming nonseical cognitive biases is a true path to mastering the arts."
Shifting the bones on her body to her left side, she says, "Art is the reformation of the natural. I simply try to reform all I can into a state that depicts me. There are only people who feel fear, and liars. The honesty to weaponise your weakness will always allow you to express something others cannot. I relish in my fear."
Sitting upright and staring down at her, he says, "So does that fear extend to the Queen, misses slave?"
"Of course, yet she wields that fear to great effect, bringing to life the girl you see before you."
"Limiting and destroying you mean. What was once soaring throughout the sky has been deformed, left as nothing more than a prisoner to the land it once dominated. The free spirit that rejected the injustice of the world and tried to capture it."
Stopping her work, she says, "Why do you still persist in these exchanges? State your purpose."
Grabbing her chin, he gently moves her face and says, "I am here to save you. The world has cast a spell on you as it does with everyone else, asking you to bow down towards it, granting you excuses to do it all the while framed in logic. I reject, it has no right to tame what was once free, and I wish for you to remember the you who captivated the world, and reforge her into a tool of freedom and liberation for your people."
Standing up, he slams his fist against his heart and says, "I am Captivant, the one who has sent the world into an upheaval, he who has exposed the darkest of truths, and has begun the legends of many heroes, and I can see you have the makings of one. So let me free you, let me grant you the ability to stand above all others, and there you will shine as you've never done before, eclipsing even the legacy of Dumitra herself."
Moving till he is directing in front of her chair, he says, "So don't waste your time with these lowly activities and captivate the world with me at your side, Draga."
He moves to sit down, yet as his butt is mere moments away from touching the seat, it is quickly moved away by Draga as she stands up and grabs him, stopping his body from smashing off the floor.
They stare at each other, and she slowly pulls him up as she says, "To what end for you, Captivant? A man who can Captivate the world, move nations, end wars, destroy legacies sees something so bright in me? Something so amazing that even the greatest of humans to ever have lived will pale in comparison, or-."
Bringing him close, she brings his leg and places it between her own, as her face moves towards her neck. Grabbing his arm, she hovers it across her body as she says, "Maybe the flesh has overtaken you. The feeling of superiority that guides all men towards their inevitable doom has captured your mind completely to the point were your unable to function without it. To dominate the queen, to take hold of her actions for your own pleasure, to feel the congratulations of the mental dominance it shall give you, so that when you walk by someone whose name makes the legs of heroes quiver you can take it all in. And at the end of it all, you congratulate yourself, with my lips, my bust, my posterior, even my hair, all aspects of myself that shall reaffirm the superiority of your existence. As you lie with a woman, defiling her, only thinking of the words and thoughts of other men. Yet you are handsome, so I would oblige. I would bring my face close just like this, and."
Her face approaches his own as their lips hover over one another, and they continue to move closer as they prepare to touch, yet from both corners of her cheekbones protrude out, slamming in the corners of Captivant's, both stitching it closed as blood spurts out.
He roars in pain as she drops him to the ground, before quickly moving past him as she says, "Still you forget one thing, I do not sleep with children. The courtesy that my title and lineage beg me to give to an ingrate like you has hit its end; leave or I will escort you out in a less-than-flattering manner, child."
Returning to the same stance she had before, without a beat she returns to her work, as Captivant rips the bones out and yells, "THE HELL IS WRONG WITH ALL OF YOU PEOPLE! DO YOU NOT KNOW WHO I AM? I AM CAPTIVANT NIGHTFALL, I CAN CALL ALL TYPES OF FAVOURS TO RUIN YOU, YOU HEAR THAT I CAN RUIN YOU! APOLOGISE TO ME NOW, YOU WHORE, OR I SHALL MAKE IT SO THAT YOUR PEOPLE WILL NEVER EAT ANOTHER BITE OF MY COUNTRY'S PRODU-."
A blow from her fist slams into his stomach, yet before it blows right through him, he focuses all his Spirit Energy in that point, stopping the blow, before he glares at her and says, "Is that all you go-."
A kick smashes into the side of his head, knocking him down, and staring at him on the floor, she says, "Use caution with the words you say, as the Queen has ears everywhere and doesn't take nicely to declaration of war."
Slamming his fist against the ground, Captivant says, "Yet she takes well to defilement of the free. Look at you, NOTHING in comparison to who you once were, NOTHING!"
"You speak of who I was, as if it is greater than who I am? Still it's what one expects from a child."
"You make furniture all day; do you think that's in any way important?"
Laughing, she says, "What small-minded man you are. Besides, you should stop talking as if you could do the same thing?"
"Of course I could!"
"Then let's make a bet." Grabbing the chair behind her, she places it in front of me, and says, "Make something that, when you sit on it, feels the same as this, and if you do, I'll let you request any one action of me that I will fulfil without question."
"Is that a promise?"
"Of course, even if it is to ask for the Frumos family itself."
"Then I will crush you and everything you are."
Holding her hand in front of me, with the doorknob spinning counterclockwise, and placing it on Captivant's nose, she says, "Looking forward to it."