"You're quite sure this is what you'd like to bring to Her Lordship, Mr.Armistead?" A woman of a pale complexion would ask as she turned slightly greyed eyes down to the man who sat kneeled at her feet. His own eyes were turned to the floor as he knelt upon the crimson carpet below. Only the toes of the woman's boots were visible to him in his current position, peeking out from the hem of her lengthy black dress.

"Do you think she'd like it?" The kneeling man would ask, his hands held firmly at his sides, fists clenched shut with tensity and his body - donning a black suit tailored to his form seeming to quiver beneath the woman's scrutinous yet gentle gaze.

The woman would reach out with one free hand that was gloved in black lace from the tips of her fingers to her elbow and pat the man whom appeared no older than his mid-thirties upon his head in a reassuring fashion. Slightly matting his short cut brown hair.

"It would be presumptuous of me to assume anything of what might sate her enough to grant you what you seek, Mr.Armistead," The woman explained as she turned her eyes from the kneeling man and back to the object he'd placed in her hands upon his arrival.

Removing her hand from his head she'd take the object into both hands and lift it before her, eyeing it over. A solid yellow gold locket encrusted in miniscule accent diamonds with a central round cut blue sapphire. The locket swayed between her fingers as it hung from her grips in a thin gold link chain.

"And what will Her Lordship discover to be held inside?" The woman asked as she took to leaning herself against an oak desk at her backside.

The man would quiver a bit and go to lift his head, but the woman's hand would swiftly parry his advance before his gaze could lift beyond her thighs. The palm of her hand pressed into the top of his head, forcing his eyes back toward the floor. Obscuring his view from her - and the surrounding room.

He'd breathe deep, the scent of incense lingering in the air and intermingling with the wafting, comforting smell of old wood and old books. He'd been here before, in this windowless room laden in a crimson carpet. Its walls lined in towering hand-carved oak bookshelves and its gabled roof propped up by solid core wooden columns.

He'd been here before indeed... And he knew better than to try to look upon Drusilla now.

"Sorry..." He'd murmur as the woman's hand lifted away from his head; satisfied he'd not attempt to look upon her again.

"It's... It's a mirror. I thought maybe when she opened it and saw herself she'd see how beautiful she is to me," The man offered. His voice wavering with the nervousness he felt and his cheeks coming to blush with his words.

"How very sweet of you," Drusilla said as she began to coil the slender chain around the locket that hung from it and soon lowered it toward the man's face. "If you're quite sure then I will permit you audience with her. She is accepting visitors all day today... You're quite lucky to be her first."

"Am I her first?" The man asked with brewing excitement as he held his head low to the floor but peered forward to see the locket extended down to him. He'd reach up and take it into his hands, tightening his fingers around the locket protectively and thrusting his hands back to his sides. The nervousness and even the anticipation now bubbling away inside of him.

Drusilla nodded, "Indeed. Now come," The woman beckoned, patting the side of her thigh as though she were calling along a dog as she pulled herself from the oaken desk and began to walk around it. The heavy soles of her leather boots thudding against the carpeted floor and causing the wooden floorboards beneath her to creak as she began to the area behind the desk which extended into a lengthy hall lined on either side in wooden columns.

Slowly, as Drusilla made her way toward the back of the room where two double doors awaited them, Mr.Armistead would begin to stand. Holding his eyes low to the floor and walking after the woman.

Drusilla would pause upon reaching the door, one hand extended out and grasping a brass handle moulded in the shape of a serpentine fang baring dragon and she'd wait for him to catch up. He'd come to stand at her side, his breathing noticeably heavier now as his heart pounded away in his chest.

She smiled and with her free hand she'd begin to knock on the wood paneled door.

"Enter!" Rang out a high-pitched and youthful feminine voice that didn't seem to take it self too seriously from the opposing side of the double doors.

Mr.Armistead would shudder. "Turia..." He'd think to himself as he imagined the petite and youthful servant girl whom could almost always be found at Her Lordship's side. How he wished it could just be him and Antistia to be alone this day.

"Entering," Drusilla would respond in comparative monotone as she took both handles into her grasp and pushed upon them, swinging the doors open at a slow, revealing and dramatic pace where beyond a large oval office lay. Its domed ceiling hanging nearly twenty - perhaps even thirty feet high. The wood above was carved in intricate baroque designs and hung every few feet with thick chains that extended downward and lay tipped in hooks and even the odd cage far too small to fit anything larger than a common rat or hamster.

Like the main room behind them this one lacked even a single window and was lined in bookshelves that towered from the carpet all the way up to the base of the domed roof. The furniture that filled the expansive room was primarily made of dark leather and solid wood.

As the doors opened into the room that appeared lit by a mixture of candle fire and oil lanterns Drusilla would step aside. Taking her place to the left of the doorframe so that Mr.Armistead might be permitted entry.

And he would enter... Nervously stepping forward toward the center of the room and looking forward along the floor to the base of a wooden staircase that led up in four or five steps to where Her Lordship's throne was seated and where the other Handmaiden, Turia, was surely standing loyally at her Mistress' side.

Just as had happened in his past visits the doors would soon shut behind him - and he'd know that Drusilla had left to return to her post in the main hall where she weighed up new visitors for admittance. A shiver ran down his spine, his anxiety building as he stood there with his head lowered to the floor... The silence in the room deafening and the tensity of the moment palpable.

But finally, after what seemed like forever, she spoke.

Her near two-tone and otherworldly voice causing the fluids in his stomach to rumble with the power that she emanated, and his hairs to stand on end.

"Liam Armistead..." She began, "You were here only just last month, were you not? Yet you've returned to me already. So soon, in fact, that I wonder if the last wish I granted you was not enough to save your failing joke of a business," She grated; her voice enough to cause his body to ripple in goosebumps and her words to make him whince with humiliation. Turia giggled.

"What brings you to me now, Liam?" The woman would ask. He could feel her piercing gaze upon him and picture those enrapturing Amethyst shaded eyes, the beautiful blackened locks of hair which hung over her shoulders. He'd quiver, unable to lift his pitiful gaze to face her for fear of the effect looking into her eyes might have upon him.

"Look upon me and tell me what it is you've come for, Liam!" She'd boom, her voice filling the room and the mild irritation it carried causing his head to throb with a rapidly spawning headache.

He'd lift his eyes, tracing his meek gaze up the steps that led to the pedestal her throne was seated upon. To her barefeet, the nails of which were painted in an immaculate high gloss amethyst finish that matched her fingernails and her gaze alike. He'd follow her leather donning legs and corset wearing chest into her eyes, beset into a face of perfection and otherworldly beauty framed in lengthy black hair and he'd shiver. His mouth opening to speak but no words seeming to come out as the mere locking of their eyes seemed to send shivers rushing down his spine. Synapses firing that sent wave after wave of tingles popping and bubbling throughout his body.

He'd tremble and feel his knees weaken, causing the woman's crimson lips to curl into a grin. Revealing fangs that had previously been hidden in her maw.

"I..." Liam began, his eyes nervously panning to the right where Antistia's loyal little servant girl, Turia, stood. She was grinning widely herself, a look of excitement splayed over her youthful features as she stood there donning her usual attire - a black maid's outfit frilled in white and thigh high black leather boots. Her blonde hair was curled today, framing the glaciel blue eyes she used to stare at him nicely.

"You? You?" Turia asked, giggling once more. "Poor boy can't even find his words, Mistress. Look at how nervous he is," She'd tease - causing Liam's cheeks to redden with embarrasment.

"Business is going smoother now..." Liam trailed off, " S-So I thought I'd bring you a gift... Something t-to thank you with, your Grace," He'd explain as he began to pre-emptively lower himself to his knees.

"Oh... A gift?" Antistia would ask, cocking an eyebrow as she panned to Turia and nodded her head. "Go and fetch it from him. Bring it to me so we might decide if it's worthy of our attention," She explained.

The petite servant girl would nod her head vigorously up and down and say, "Yes, Mistress!" as she dutifully stepped forward and hopped her way down the steps to come and stand before Liam - where she'd extend her hands toward him with expectance.

He'd hesitate before placing the locket into the girl's hands.

Without thanks she'd turn and hop up the stairs again, bowing at the waist as she held out the gift for her Mistress to accept.

"Thank you, Turia," The woman, whom looked no older than perhaps twenty-five or twenty-six would say as she took the locket from Turia's hands and waved her away; beckoning the girl to return to her position at her side as the woman began to turn the gold over in her bare palm and scanned it over.

"Hmm..." She'd murmur as she began to gently uncoil the chain that Drusilla had wrapped around it before lifting it up and allowing it to hang in front of her face. Liam's heart was pounding now and his mind swimming with thoughts. What did she think of it? Would she like it? -Did- she like it? The anticipation and her silence was killing him. How he wanted to blurt out and beg in question of her thoughts.

With a free hand the woman would reach out and pop the locket open and come to stare into the reflective glass that lay inside. "A mirror..." She'd trail off; her tone betraying just how unmoved she really was by the gesture.

"Tell me something, Liam," She began as she extended her locket baring hand out before herself, the fingers that had been pinching its chain loosening their grip and allowing the object to fall to the floor at her feet. The thudding of it - no... The cracking of it against the ground causing Liam's heart to skip a beat. His stomach churned and he'd clench his eyes shut and quickly lower them to the floor as the woman began to rise from her handcarved wooden throne.

"In all the years that you have been coming to me... Asking - no, begging me to aid you in becoming a successful Human being... What is the one thing that I told you never to bring me? Hmm?" She'd ask as she turned an expectant gaze upon the man. Her piercing eyes causing him to tremble as he struggled to stammer out a suitable response,

"J-Jewelry..." He'd say, his heart sinking with admittance.

"Jewelry. That's correct," Antistia nodded. "Now it would seem to me, Liam, that you've forgotten not only what I told you - but also your place in all of this," She'd say as came to rest her hands upon her hips.

"You aren't and never will be someone worthy of my affection, Liam," She'd say. "You're no one special... You're just another businessman - No... No, you aren't even that. Because your business and whatever wealth you've come to have wasn't built or gained by your own efforts or personal tact. Everything you have was given to you by me. Your success... Your home... Even that cheap suit you're wearing now," She'd grate. "Everything you've ever acquired since we first met really belongs to me - and you know something, Liam?" She'd ask as the man struggled to bumble out some kind of acknowledgement of her question. His eyes wrought with building tears now and his chest gripped with the heavy set pain of rejection.

"I think that means you belong to me too," She'd say as she lowered her hands to her sides and extended one finger to point to the locket on the floor at her feet.

"Look to my feet, Liam... Look and watch as I erase this insult you've brought to me from existence," She'd say, her otherworldly tone coming to hiss with an irritation that seemed palpable in the air. To the point of which her words alone seemed to redden and irritate the sclera of his eyes and sting the very surface layers of his exposed skin. Causing more tears to form as he tentatively lifted his eyes to look upon the pedestal that now sat at eye level with his kneeling form.

He'd look onward and he'd gaze to her feet. Perfect and shapely as they were - yet cruel, as one began to lift, her sole wrinkling with anticipation as it came to hover over the locket. He couldn't see it, but he could feel Turia's hungry gaze upon him as well as she stood upon the sidelines. Seeming to soak up every drop of suffering that leaked down his cheeks.

"You will feel this... And you -will- weep for me, Liam," Antistia decreed as she plunged her foot to the floor. Crushing the locket beneath the pad of her soft yet unyielding and unforgiving sole. The act sent spikes of pain ricocheting throughout Liam's body, causing him to whimper out with pain as he clutched his chest; the agony only becoming greater as Antistia ground the locket beneath her foot and grinned with satisfaction as tears began to stream from the man's eyes.

She'd lift her foot then, shards of glass adhering and lifting away with her sole and soon dislodging, falling to the carpet below as she batted the object to the side with her toes.

"Wh-...Why are you doing this, Antistia? Wh-Why?!" Liam cried out as the woman began to make her way down the steps.

"You dare express the audacity of calling me by name and not title now? Oh... Oh..." She began to chuckle and shake her head with disbelief. The man cowered back as one of her palms extended outward, a blackened smoke of an energy beginning to encircle her outstretched hand.

"You really do deserve this, don't you?" Would be the last words to reach his ears as Turia clapped with excitement in the background and a ring of black smoke came to surround Liam's cowering form. Rising from the ground in a sudden, violent waft and enclosing around him. Suffocating him and tightening around his body as Antistia's magic began to take effect.

All would turn black as her energies seeped their tendrils into his body, causing him to lose consciousness.