Enchantment of Sorrow

Chapter 04

"-yourname-." A voice you had come to know as the king's said softly behind you, "Shall we go? The feast is ready."

You turned around looked at him and could not help smiling a little. His outfit matched your own only without the lace. A light blue intricately detailed tunic with golden lace at the ends of his sleeves, and soft cream trousers, only offset with black deer-skin thigh high boots he wore. The cloak lined in gold cloth and the same light blue fabric as his tunic hung at his shoulders. Regal, and you had to admit, exquisite in his bearing he entered and came to you, and offered his arm. Feeling a flush come to your cheeks at the way he seemed to ogle you in a more than friendly way, you looked away and let him lead you out of the room arm in arm.

"You look very beautiful." He said softly as he walked with you down the dizzying sets of walkways and corridors. You could not help grinning like an idiot at that.

Finally you were led to a large room where trees grew about you, leaves still falling from their branches, and everything seemed to glisten with dew. Dominating the center of it was a long, heavy, wooden table of made of oak. A blue and white table cloth covered the top, and it was set with an array of food, each delectable in it's own way. The room was thick with an unspoken energy that you had felt on and off since you had entered the place, and out of nowhere people seemed to file in. Their dresses and suits a glittering display of color and fantasy.

As he led you to the center of the table and sat you down beside him in a wooden chair carved with blossoms and leaves, upholstered with red velvet and golden studs, you noticed them eyeing you and whispering to each other as you passed.The couple seated beside you, a dark haired elf-man accompanied by a pretty strawberry blond resplendent in their brown and gold clothing smiled at you constantly. The king waved a hand over the food, and elves which were clearly serviors came out of nowhere and starting with the king, then you, filled your plates quickly and to the brim.

You noticed throughout the evening that though his conversation was polite, the king's mood became increasingly agitated and fixated on a darkened corner of the room. By the time he gave leave for the dances to start you noticed him unconsciously grinding the tip of a knife into the wood of the table cutting a hole in the tablecloth. He spoke little to you throughout the evening and as a result you were inclined to eavesdrop. There was the usual talk about the food, the finery of the attendants, the king's obvious bad mood, who was sleeping with who, who hated who, who wanted to be with who, and as you knew it would turn to it, yourself. One person described you as sweet and lovely like a delicate cake, another questioned how mad the king had actually become bringing a mortal to their table. Many assumptions were made about his purposes for you - most of which seemed to be of the opinion that he intended to either make you his servant or his concubine. While you didn't seem to care much for the idea of being a servant to a mad elf king, the idea of being his concubine sent a rather shameful wave of excitement through you that pooled between your legs.

It was not until that moment that you realized you actually had a sexual attraction to him - this unpredictable, moody but ethereal and beautiful creature who had saved you from the cold. Perhaps they were right, and he had put a spell on you after all?

The king's preoccupation with the darkened corner forced you to keep looking at it all the time too. While you seen nothing, whether it was his focus on it, your imagination or something intuitive deep down, it made you very uneasy. And whatever mad thought had entered into the king's mind over was even more disconcerting. You couldn't help constantly glancing over at him, especially when he had the knife in hand.

Mid-way through the second dance he turned his attention on you with a soft smile, yet you could still see the dark look in his eyes. "Would you care to dance -yourname-?"