The Talewinder's End

The visitors had kept coming.  Chloe and the Talewinder hadn't spoken since Elizabeth had left.  She didn't trust him anymore, and he was waiting.

--

There was a knock and the door-demons stirred.  Storms were frequent - indeed, the castle seemed to breed them - but tonight, the stones shook with every hit of thunder.

Chloe began to get up, but the Talewinder put his hand on her arm.  "I'll get it."  He got up and left her sitting in her throne, completely amazed.  He walked to the door, feeling her puzzled gaze on his back.

"You never walk when there's no one here..."  she whispered to herself.  "You never get the door..."

Ten minutes later, the Talewinder came forth with a well-groomed, umbrella-clad young man.  The Talewinder's clothes had turned white, simple and clean cut.

"Hello, Talewinder." The man said to Chloe.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she yelled, standing up from her throne.  The guest tried to apologise, but she froze him in mid-breath with a small gesture.  The entire castle was thrown into a state of immobility and silence.   Only the storm resisted her and thundered on outside.

"What do you mean, my darling?"

"What's going on?"  she asked, staring into his eyes.

"It's my turn...  Maybe I was a bit premature to let you know, but I'm so tired, my love.  So very very tired."

"Tired of what?"  Chloe heard herself say.  The whole dialogue seemed familiar, like she'd heard it said a hundred times before.

"Tired of doing nothing; tired of making decisions that affect people's lives; tired of being important."

"Who are you?"

"My name is Poe, and I have one wish, Talewinder: I want to be nine, I want to serve you, I want to run around the castle while you sleep; most of all, I want to forget all about this for the next 16 years.  Please."

The last word sent all the memories she'd been forced to forget rushing back to her.  They had been switching back and forth since man was man, making sure the Talewinder was always sharp, always strong, and never tired.  It made the Talewinder have a young, almost naive outlook on the visitors.  It made the servant have a youth.  It made sure the tales about the Talewinder were varied and contradictory, since each of them chose different methods to test the worthiness of the applicants.

It was the perfect system.  She remembered now.  As the images of the ages flowed through her head, her dress exploded in black and red lace, the train of her dress extending for a hundred meters across the hall, spiders and scorpions nesting in it and into her hair which styled itself in shades of red and white.  Her silver coronet melted into the hair and grew to a full crown, made of wire, skulls and bones.  Her makeup, black, white, and constantly tended by invisible fairies was perfect.

"Ah, you're so beautiful." Poe said, with delight.  "You always were more morbid than me.  Let this time be your darkest, Talewinder."

"Of course, Poe."  She stood up, in a flutter of moths and dragonflies.  Unhooking the pouch from her belt, she passed it to him, and with a final, passionate kiss, he was nine, frozen with the rest of the castle.

She sat back into place as the fairies toyed with her dress, and with a wave of her hand, the castle came alive again.

"Hello, stranger." She said, to the man who looked a bit confused at her instant change in dress.  "Welcome to my castle.  What brings you here?  Fame?  Fortune?  Revenge?  I can deal with it all!!"