The Deal with the Path

La Valtana brushed away the remaining flower petals from the corners of her eyes and whispered " It's certainly not an easy task for them, as the features of Tirahvaalta are constantly moving."
I gave her a quizzical expression. "How can anyone make a map of something that doesn't stay still? Maps by nature are static things. No wonder these poor men are mad."

La Valtana corrected me "Oh no, my dear. Maps are constantly evolving and growing. The features of every place are always changing themselves, especially in your world. The rivers change their path, the cities rise and fall, the forests expand and the coastlines contract. I grant you it happens at a slower pace to your eyes, because of the way you view time, but it is your misunderstanding of these adjustments that leads you to believe a map must be deadlocked. After all, if the world did not reshape itself, you wouldn't have to make any new maps, now would you?"

"I'd never really considered that..."
"Tirahvaalta transforms from second to second. The cities change their position, new places are discovered. A cartographers job is a difficult one."

The men were running up and down a small portion of the room, slapping the papers on the floor with their hats and stomping, and occasionally tripping over each other.

La Valtana called to them "Good day gents."
They immediately stopped their frenzy and with eyes wide as saucers preened themselves and arranged in a line, bowing. Well, all but the man in green who prostrated himself face down on the floor.

"Good day, your Majesty." said the man in gold. The men rose from their bow, except Notus, who needed a sharp kick from the man in red to resume a vertical position.
"I am very sorry to interrupt your work, but I have a guest with me today that I should very much like for you to be acquainted with." La Valtana placed her hand on my shoulder. It felt vaguely like a butterfly had landed there.

"This is Ms. Esteri Gridelin, of Leeds. She will be taking her place as a new Emissary as part of my court."

"My lady." The man in gold stepped gallantly forward with well practiced grace, seized my hand, and kissed it. "I am Zephyros, and these are my brothers; Eurus (blue), Boreas, (red) and Notus (green)." The other men came over to me in turn, each to kiss my hand except for Notus who presented me with his hat (turned inside out) for no discernable reason.

Zephyros continued "We are happy to bid you welcome to our fair Peili, and will serve you in any way you made require."
"Thank you kindly."
Zephyros then plucked Notus's hat from my hand with a sheepish grin and flung it haphazardly at his brother.

La Valtana spoke again "Esteri will most certainly require your guidance, as she has forgotten her cards."
"Cards?" I said, puzzled.
"I had Sir Cuthbert send along a deck of cards to the waiting room along with the book and keys. You've left them behind. "

I immediately searched about in the pockets of my dress to confirm, and indeed I recalled that I hadn't pocketed them.

"Not to worry!" said Boreas cheerfully. "We have another set for the lady." He went to a table close to the window, and removed several layers of paper until he found a wooden box. He brought the box over to me and opened it with a flourish, revealing an indentical set of cards to the ones I had first seen.

"Oh! Let me read them for her." Eurus said excitedly, waving his hands in the air. "If, ahem..the lady would like me to read them for her, of course."

"I, I don't understand." I said.
"The cards are a way to find your path." La Valtana explained as she picked up the deck from out of the box. "If you were to try one of the Cartographers maps at this early stage, you would find yourself terribly lost. Tirahvaalta is a wild place, and because the only constant is change you would never be able to right yourself once lost. You would become a "ghost". I have lost emissaries this way previously." This statement did NOT make me comfortable.

La Valtana glided over to a short table nearby that Eurus politely removed a stack of papers from, and set the deck of cards face down. "I had the brothers devise a tool that was unlike a conventional map, so that no matter where you are, you shall be able to find your path."
Eurus handed me the deck and said "Place one hand on the top, and one on the bottom. Hold them there for the amount of time it takes for a bicycle to become a fish."
"What?!"
"Alright, that's good. I'll take them back now."

Eurus shuffled the deck three times, and dealt out four cards face down in a row. He then turned them over one by one. "Very interesting..." he said squinting at the cards, which were named
Muse, Memoriae, Oubliette, and Never.

"Aaaaah, the great cities." Said Boreas. "That's quite a path indeed."

The Shifting Landscape

"The...voice? So, you...are Tirahvaalta?" I said shakily.

La Valtana's eyes brightened and the fireflies on her necklace pulsed an electric green.
"I am an aspect, not the whole. The whole of Tirahvaalta is something far greater than I. I exist here, in the royal city, to keep ties with those who organize the information on this world. Peili is truly more of a focal point, or a door than anything royal. If it helps you, think of me as a figurehead, although that is not quite my role." She paused. "Do you not like the tea?"

I hadn't touched the seductive liquid swirling in my cup. The smell, now that I noticed it, was maddeningly delicious, and the bubbles were forming tiny scenes of animals frolicking on some sort of hillside. La Valtana smiled in a way that was supposed to assure me that I would not be poisoned or grow an ass's head, so I took a sip.

Caramel, purple, summer winds and calliope music floating across an empty field. This tea certainly made Earl Grey taste like the pompous fool that the name denotes. I slurped unceremoniously as La Valtana took her seat beside me again. I watched as her hair cycled through colors until it had arrived as the deepest cobalt blue I had ever seen. My eyes hurt.

"I know you don't quite grasp why I have chosen you, Esteri, as one of my Ambassadors. It's because of your sight. To give you an example, it's the difference between what Sir Cuthbert sees when he looks at me, and what you see. Everyone views me differently- it's a matter of heightened perspective....a certain keeness. Naturally, two people looking at the same painting will see different worlds, but there is no guarantee that they will see what they artist intended.
You have the ability to see my true form, and as such are one of the best to explore the world of which I am part."

Maybe it was the tea, but I felt finally understood her. Oriel's face changed to a great round window painted with zodiac signs in gold around the border, her dress wriggled itself into becoming a blanket of ivy and purple flowers that echoed soft musical tones. Before I realized what was happening, I felt myself being pulled through the window of her face into a colorful landscape of green and red hills, which then evaporated into a large room. One wall of the room was entirely open to the same hills I had just seen, the sunlight bouncing off the floor tiles which looked like they were made of mother of pearl. Aside from the gilt decorations on the ceiling, the room was fairly plain, although terribly messy.

There were several large wooden tables with papers strewn on them, about them, and under them. There were four youngish looking men in what I would consider a caricature of high renaissance dress (with these enormous floopy hats that looked like lattice topped pies) having a communal hissy fit and throwing push-pins every which way.

"Boreas! It's moving again! Catch it!!!" shouted the man in gold (His hat-pie looked like apple. What was it about palace attendants and this strange identification with desserts? Bother.)

Two men, one wearing pale blue and one wearing crimson were hovering over a pile of papers with push pins pinched tight between their fingers. The fourth man in green was biting his nails behind them and holding a large ceramic cup. The man in blue suddenly pounced on the papers, vicious stabbing away with his push pin.

"YOU'VE GOT IT!!"
"NO! NO! It's getting away...DON'T LOSE IT! It took me a half hour to get it onto this page!"
"AAGHHH!!"
The man in crimson (hat looking like cherry pie) flung himself onto the papers, nearly knocking the man in blue out of the way. Both of them were flailing viciously, smashing their hands down on the pages as if they were playing a game of slapjack upon which one's life depended.

"Don't crush it you moron!" Shouted the man in blue to the man in red. "Oh, a fine example you are Eurus!" the man in red retorted. "Have you nimwits got it?!!" railed the man in gold. The man in green (gooseberry pie hat) shifted back and forth on his very girlish satin slippers, now with half his hand in his mouth.

"Notus, don't just stand there, HELP them! USE THE CUP!!" The man in gold slapped Notus's hand away from his mouth and pushed him towards the other two still writhing on the floor.

There was a scuffle, lots of screaming, a torrent of paper and Notus launching himself at the whole mess, cup aloft and eyes full of madness.

"I think we got it!!!" The man in blue had lost his (current and blueberry pie) hat in the meleu but didn't care as he and Notus (the man in green) both had their hands firmly over the cup atop a striped piece of paper.

"Well done, men!" bellowed the man in gold joyfully, clapping his hands. He walked over to them, triumphant. "Let's have a peak...but carefully now."

All four men bent down around the cup, whispering and nudging each other.
I noticed La Valtana next to me, looking radiant and holding somewhat to her blonde, violet eyed form. She turned to me with an expression of poorly disguised amusement and said quietly "I'd like you to meet the cartographers of Tirahvaalta; Boreas, Notus, Eurus and Zephyros."

No sooner has she finished the quiet introduction than there was a scuffle amongst the men.
"AHHH!!!!"
"NO!!"
"Blasted thing!"
"YOU LET IT GET AWAY!!!"
"His elbow was-"
"It was not! It was your FAT fingers, chummy-"
"Well where is it?"
"OVER THERE!!!"

The entire group of men stumbled to their feet, pushing each other and ran to a far corner of the room.

"Umm, Oriel, what exactly are they doing? Catching a bug?"
La Valtana laughed so hard that flower petals rained down her cheeks.
"No, no my dear." she said trying to regain her composure.
"They are making a map."

(oh bollocks.)

A Cupful of Glamour

I was not prepared for the room I had just entered. It was an enormous space with high ceilings, and at first glance was covered with every ornament an ostentatious palace should possess- carved molded ceilings, wall sconces, elaborate furniture, tall windows and sculptures...but upon blinking I could not decide if I had stepped into a room or a forest. Or maybe a courtyard.

Everything seemed to shimmer and move, even though at the same time it all seemed to be staying still. The pillar colonades wanted very much to be trees. The rugs were doing their best impressions of flowing water and the curtains couldn't decide if resembling flowers or moss best suited them. The ceiling was dizzying. It was painted to look like the sky...or maybe it was the sky, as I swear I saw a flock of birds dart off into a corner. The windows has no glass- or at least they seemed not to. Air flowed freely through the space that looked like leaded windows, but the "glass" behaved more like the ever changing liquid spectrum of soap bubbles.

My reverie was only barely broken by Cuthbert's voice bellowing:
Visitor to the Court of her Chromatic Eminence La Valtana--Lady Esteri Gridelin of Leeds!!!
(Lady? since when?)
There followed a strange chiming chorus which can only be described as a horn trying to mate with a xylophone. Figuring this must have been the fanfare, I summoned my inner royalty and did my best curtsey. Cuthbert was standing stark still besides me, looking annoyingly proper.

I saw a...flickering pattern coming towards me from what had seemed like a grotesque sculpture between the tree colonade, and it did not register as anything tangible until it was within a few feet of me. It approached with slow and deliberate grace, and spoke in a warm, musical sort of tone, like if a viola could speak perfect English.

"Welcome! I am honored that you join me today, Esteri."

My eyes were having trouble making sense of what I was seeing. I had the impression of an inordinately beautiful woman, but she was nearly impossible to look at. Her features were constantly changing- blue eyes, green eyes, violet eyes, pale skin, dark skin, pink hair, indigo hair...I won't even get into how mad her robes were. I felt dizzy, and unsure. This must be what doing drugs felt like.

La Valtana smiled gently, seemingly to acknowledge my predicament and her appearance slowly solidified. A tall fair woman with blonde hair and violet eyes gazed down at me from beneath the spread of a perplexing leafy crown with blue stars orbiting it (literally, they were moving). Her clothing was still writhing slightly in appearance-but at least now it looked like a dress. The fabric seemed restless as a leafy brocade spilled playfully about the purple silk upon which words kept appearing and vanishing. Her jewelry was also moving- being that it was primarily made out of butterflies and other winged insects. Her face was framed by a large Elizabethan style collar across which roman numerals slowly paraded, sometimes followed by occasional astrological symbols.

I'd heard numerous descriptions of faeries before, and I decided right then and there that all of them were hopelessly boring. This, by God, was a bloody faery standing in front of me. There was no other explanation. Even most dreams I had didn't have the knackers to be quite so bizarre, so I couldn't possibly be dreaming after all. I was being kidnapped by faeries, yes. That was it!.... Oh bollocks. Am I ever in trouble.

La Valtana regarded me with amused curiousity, as she was apparently watching my thought process. She smiled kindly and said "I understand this must be a lot for you to take in. Please sit with me. I promise to allay all your worries and answer any questions you most certainly must be having about now." She turned to Cuthbert, who was still maintaining maximum court composure by resembling a bloated, flouncy pinata. "Cuthbert, could you please find a seat for our guest and place it over near my chair?" "YES! YES YOUR EMINENCE!" Cuthbert blurted as if speaking was not unlike being constipated.

He scrabbled off to a near corner and returned with a soft plushy green ottoman covered in tassles. He placed it obseqiously next to what was apparently La Valtana's throne- what I had mistaken for a sculpture. "Thank you, Cuthbert." "YOUR EMINENCE!!" His nose was shifting between a striking cobalt blue and a distressed looking blue paisley pattern. La Valtana bent down to his eye level and addressed him gently. "You are free to go now, Cuthbert. If I need your assistance, I shall certainly call for you." She smiled radiantly. The Steward twitched erratically and could only blurt out "Passfelberry!!" as he awkardly toddled off.

La Valtana turned to me and sat gracefully in her seat. "You'll have to excuse poor Cuthbert. He's...a bit smitten. He's one of my newest palace attendants." She said, producing a twisty looking little pot from out of nowhere. She poured liquid from the pot into her hand, where it formed a cup. She continued to pour until the cup was full and with a smile, she handed it to me.

I regarded the cupful of swirling fuschia liquid with severe caution (remembering all the madness that is caused by eating faery food) and just as much curiousity. The smell was seductive- like flowers and grass and midday sunshine on a glistening pool filled with striped fish.
God help me if I should drink the stuff.

La Valtana poured herself a cup of dubious magic fluid as well, sipped it delicately, and then said "Now then Esteri, I imagine you are wondering what this is all about."