I got a good night’s sleep. In  the Treehouse, I’m protected from a lot of the things that go on down in the Great Seelie Forest and farther away in the Fae Realm, but still sometimes my dreams are plagued, whether by my busy mind trying to wind itself down, some portent or other, or memories of Gwythyr, I do not know. But last night, everything was fine.

“I can make my own coffee, thank you,” I said to the ever-present Bran, my long-standing friend and the Steward of my House. He actually seemed a little disappointed. “It’s all good,” I said. “I promise you can make it tomorrow; it’s just that today I do not have very much to do, and I’m planning on a long, lazy morning.”

He smiled then, made his own cup, and sat down to enjoy the morning sunlight in our beautiful kitchen with me. We talked of nothing much; topics seem to ebb and flow when I talk with my old friends, even if they seem to be servants to the outside world, they’re my household, my roots, the branches upon which I build my world.

Once the mist had burned off and the day became warm, I thought I’d go down into the ballroom and do some dancing in the sun: Kern’s timely words have reminded me of the joy I take in dancing, and so this morning I took full advantage of my time and stole away down into the forest, into our beautiful dancing grove.

I don’t remember being a dancer in my old life. I mean, there were dances at LARPs, called dances with a band and sets of four or six or eight, usually bumbling twenty-somethings who’d had too much to drink. Ah, listen to the way I talk about them now, as if they’re children. I was a child then, too. And of course there are those here who say I am still a child and not fit to rule this Realm I made with Janus, My King. How I miss him. How I miss the energy between us. When I am dancing, that’s when I think of him most. How we danced, that night that seems a lifetime ago. How we moved with the earth and the earth moved with us. How the trees sprang up around us to create our forests and fields and rivers. Yes, I miss him. So much.

“You’re a fine sight.” And there was Clutie, interrupting my reverie.

I stopped in mid-twirl. “What do you mean by that?” I admit that I am not always the kindest person when interrupted.

“Here you are, dressed up like one of us, dancing your feet off in the middle of the morning,” she replied with no little touch of scorn. “I think you long for a simpler life. I think you want to give up the crown sometimes, stop being a Sidhe, and come into the True Magic.”

The True Magic is how the demifae sometimes describe their world. It’s true, they are the most powerful glamourers of all of us: the way they can twist and change things with mere thought or touch has always fascinated me, and I wish I had that level of magic. “But how,” I said, “would I do such a thing?”

“You couldn’t,” she said dismissively. “But you want to. Sometimes I think you just want to play all the time.”

“Doesn’t everyone?” I started into another stretch.

“No,” she said flatly. “Most of your kind, they take their responsibilities seriously. You just hand it all off to Wulfrich, or Bran, or even me. So you can play.”

I was, I admit, affronted. “Fine,” I said. “I’m irresponsible. Got any other sage advice for me, Miss Clutie?”

She was quick to apologise. “I did not mean to offend, My Queen. It’s just that sometimes…” she sighed. “Sometimes I miss Saone’s brilliance, her implacability. You have so much growing to do yet.”

I suppose it is an illustration of my immaturity that I didn’t take her words very well. “Fine,” I said again, and it was one of those woman-style ‘fine’s, the sort of word that dismisses everything. “Fine, I’ll go do something grownup.”

I heard her giggling after me. It felt like a reproach.

In fact, I didn’t do something grownup. Well, not very grownup. I glamoured myself into a human shape and went to New York City. Because walking around the City makes me feel free and untethered. Yeah, not very grownup at all.

And where did I end up? Well, it’s a place I always go, eventually. There is a gallery in New York where many glamoured Fae show their artwork, and sometimes they even sell a few pictures to the people. I stood outside the gallery, as i always do, wondering if I”d have the courage to go in today, speak to the docent, see what I’d have to do to maybe get one of my pictures onto one of those walls.

Everyone says I should do it. Would today be the day I’d finally go in?

I mean, what am I really afraid of? That someone will say ‘no’ and I’ll realise my pictures are just pictures and not really art at all? Or that someone will say ‘yes’ and then there’ll be that terrible waiting feeling, wondering if anyone will buy a picture, wondering if anyone will review my work and find it wonderful or wanting? In the greater scheme of things, how can it affect me, a rejection or an acceptance, from my protected Treehouse all the way in the Wylds, the heart and soul and back forty of Faerie?

No, not today. I sighed as I turned, looked into the gallery’s bright window one more time, spent an hour or so dithering over jewellery and buying nothing; the necklace and earrings I was wearing garnered more interest from the sales clerk than anything I ran my hands over in this or that 5th Avenue shop.

By the time I got home, it was early evening and the servants were preparing for the now-traditional evening meal that Nathaniel and I take with all four of the children.

But I called him home early, sent a will o’ the wisp to Mysthaven, said I needed him, could he please come? I knew he would.

“No, no, Bran; I’ll get the door when he arrives.”

Bran lifted a brow at my outfit. “I see Her Majesty has some plans for the early evening. Shall I tell the children that dinner’s a little late this evening?”

I smiled; Bran always knows what I’m thinking even when I don’t take the time to make it obvious as I did today. “Yes; tell them eight o’clock,” I said as I checked the big hallway clock; it was barely four. “I think that’ll give us plenty of time. And don’t let Eilian at the wine, please.”

“Goes without saying, Your Majesty,” Bran replied smoothly. “Ah—I hear footsteps on the bridge. Shall I leave you to it?”

“Yes, please,” I replied. And there, the sound of the door opening and my beloved’s booted footsteps in the foyer. “Hello, my love.”

Style Cards:

Making Coffee:
Skin: 7 Deadly s{K}ins, August Group Gift in Marshmellow (Available at the 7 Deadly s{K}ins Main Store!)
Body: Maitreya Lara
Hair: No Match, No Trouble
Lingerie: Morea Style, Adley White
Kitchen: DDD, Olde Cottage Hearth

Dancing Fae:
Skin: 7 Deadly s{K}ins, August Group Gift in Marshmellow (Available at the 7 Deadly s{K}ins Main Store!)
Body: Maitreya Lara
Hair: No Match, No Trouble
Dress, Wings, Circlet: Posh Pixels, Moondance Fae, Lexi Project Exclusive (Available at The Lexi Project—100% of purchase price goes to a very good cause!)
Ballroom: The Looking Glass, Enchanted Ballroom

New York City:
Skin: 7 Deadly s{K}ins, August Group Gift in Marshmellow (Available at the 7 Deadly s{K}ins Main Store!)
Body: Maitreya Lara
Hair: Doe, Summer, Seed of Inspiration (Available at the Gacha Garden Event!)
Shirt: Milk Tea, Love Bunnies (the dark touch) (Available at The Lexi Project—100% of purchase price goes to a very good cause!)
Jewellery: Glint, Sleeping Love, Arctic (Available at Sneak Peek!)
Jeans: Like Design, LaLa Cuffed Jeans, Black
Location: Hotel Chelsea Sim, New York Cit

Burlesque Queen:
Skin: 7 Deadly s{K}ins, August Group Gift in Marshmellow (Available at the 7 Deadly s{K}ins Main Store!)
Body: Maitreya Lara
Hair: Analog Dog (natch!), K’leesish
Clothes, Shoes, Posh Pixels, Burlesque Collection, Amore (Available at Sneak Peek)

Spiffy photos taken with the indispensible aid of my LumiPro. I never leave home without it!

This is my first post for We Love To Blog! I’m excited and honoured to be included in this group, and I look forward to bringing you many, many beautiful looks and styles from the great creators who are part of We Love To Blog!