Holly makes an offer

Lux stands frozen for a moment, struck wordless. Holly, with folds her arms, regards her in equal silence. Her expression is different from yesterday. Gone any trace of suspicion or hostility, her eyes are set with purpose and authority.

“Good – good morning,” Lux finally manages.

“And to you,” Holly says, evenly. No trace of the archaic floweriness Lux has come to expect here. “Care to tell me why you’re looking so guilty?”

“What? I’m not—” Lux finds herself blurting out the denial even as she realises how suspicious it sounds. “I’m not here to seduce your husband!”

“In fact,” Holly says, still perfectly calm, “that is precisely why you are here.”

Her mouth agape as she struggles for words, Lux backs away. Running up against the wall – except she can feel the prickle of leaves against her back. The hedge of red-berried vines, fencing her in. The boundary of the illusion.

“You know, don’t you?” she asks, slowly raising her hands in front of herself. “You know none of this is real.”

“Not real, you say?” Holly shakes her head. “You think your idea of ‘real’ is better? In your world, every river eventually runs to the sea. It may race at first, meander later, but it must always come to an end. In your world, this house would crumble, the garden wither, the trees themselves would topple. Here, it will stand forever. And my Lord will be happy. Forever.”

He eyes shine as she speaks of her lord. For the first time, Lux properly notices their colour. They’re red, the red of a brilliant berry…

“You’re a dryad,” Lux says. “I met some of your sisters. Willow and Juniper. They told me about the Hamadryad, I – I tried to help them.”

“Correct, in part,” Holly says. “But Willow and Juniper are my nieces, not my sisters.”

“Oh.” Lux pauses. “Then – the Hamadryad is your sister? What does that make you?”

“Something you have no word for.”

“Oh.” A cold sensation tickles Lux’s spine. “Then— please, please listen. You – all of this, the whole Valley – all of it’s in danger. A naga named Athisz is coming here, she wants to make this her kingdom.”

“She will not threaten my home,” Holly says, matter-of-factly. “She will not even find it if I do not wish her to.”

“I was able to get here,” Lux points out.

“Yes.” Holly tilts her head slightly. “Why do you think that is?”

Lux feels another stab of fear. “I don’t know why any of this is!” she cries. “What is it for? Why have you trapped Vernus here?”

“Trapped?” A flash of anger crosses Holly’s aristocratic face. “You silly cow, are you incapable of listening? Vernus is under my protection.”

Despite herself, Lux can only cower away from that look of hostility. But it quickly fades, the arch-dryad composing herself.

“As for why? He saved me. Rescued me, when no other could or would. Casting aside his princely rank and title in the process. And he did it without the expectation of any reward or favour.” Holly’s eyes sparkle. “For an immortal and a mortal to be soul-mates should be the stuff of tragedy. A love doomed by time. I will not permit it be so. I will let nothing ruin what we have built here.”

“I didn’t come here to make trouble for you,” Lux says desperately. “I came here because – I was told there was a way home. Back to my world.”

“There is,” Holly says carefully, “in principle. Vernus knows of it, though he has forgotten what side he ended up on. It will open only for one of his royal blood.”

“So—?”

“So you could only leave that way if he went with you.”

There is no need for her to add: And I will not allow that.

“What if that’s what he wants?” Lux whispers. “What if he’d like to go back home?”

“His old home no longer exists,” Holly says, in level tones. “Crumbled to dust, gone the way of all mortal things. The kingdom he might have inherited is fallen and forgotten. His bloodline, extinct. Dear sweet Cousin Maude included. All of it happened thousands of your years past.” She sighs. “There is nowhere for him to go back to, no place left for him on the plane of his birth. This is home for him, now.”

That’s why he talks the way he does, Lux realises. Everyone spoke like that in his day…

“He really doesn’t know?” she asks. “All this time, he hasn’t realised he’s still in the Valley? The house, i-it’s bigger on the inside!”

“He suspects nothing,” Holly says. “I’ve take pains to be sure of that, to keep him comfortable. This simple life is really all he ever wanted. Almost. And, well.” Her mouth twists in the tiniest of cheeky smirks. “Out of all his many merits, I suppose I didn’t fall in love with him for his towering intellect.”

“It doesn’t seem…sustainable,” Lux mumbles.

“We’ve got along just fine thus far, thank you,” Holly says, unfazed. “I am not concerned about you ruining anything. But there is a reason I let you in.”

“What are you going to do to me?” Lux whispers.

“Do to—?” Holly freezes a moment. Then she draws back, her expression softening. “Oh, my dear, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…I did not want to ****…”

Lux feels some of the pressure lift from her mind, the all-encompassing glamour drawing back to give some her breathing room. She lets out a sigh.

Holly shakes her head. “No threats, no. I’ll do nothing to you, not unless you want me to. You are free to leave if you so choose. I’m merely making you an offer.”

“I still don’t understand,” Lux mumbles.

“My husband, you see,” Holly says, glancing back towards the cottage, “he has – he has needs that I cannot fulfil alone. Desires that he will not admit, and cannot indulge with his lawfully wedded wife. Dreams of forbidden pleasure with someone who should be off-limits. I think you’ve begun to sense it.”

Lux’s lips move silently as she works it out. “Your husband – Vernus – his deepest fantasy is to cheat on you with a servant?”

“In a nutshell, yes.”

“And you’re not upset about that?”

“Upset? Why would I—? Ah, I see.” Holly nods slowly. “Jealousy. Mistrust. Rest assured, I am not so insecure. I know well my Lord’s heart, the depth of his love. These things are in no doubt. I wish only for him to be happy and fulfilled.” She smiles enigmatically. “Besides – maybe I like the idea of sharing him like that.”

“With me.” Lux shakes her head in confusion. “You’re offering me a job. As – as a sex fantasy?”

“Not a bad way of putting it.” Holly shrugs. “You get to live here, warm and safe and comfortable, play at being a housemaid as much as you feel like, go for walks in the woods if it takes your fancy – and fornicate passionately with my husband at every available opportunity. You could even bear him a child or two, if that appeals.” She looks away. “That, I cannot do for him. He understands.”

“How would that even work – ? If time doesn’t pass here…”

“Time here will do exactly as I say.”

“How long would I have to stay?” Lux whispers.

“For as long as you choose. You won’t be a prisoner.”

But I’d forget, Lux realises. The real world would just fade away. In timeless pleasure…

That can’t be what I want…

…is it?