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I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


Cressa didn't like the look of the front door. It was too... easy.

So, as the devoted of the Order filed in for their morning sermon, she made her way around to the back of the Temple, searching for another entrance. The sound of crashing and loud, catlike yowling drifted up from an outbuilding down the hill towards the beach. Cressa passed under the walkway, ignoring this and the other entrance. She could feel something much more interesting drawing her towards the side of the building, and needed to get a better look.

Yes... she could feel it. Just beyond the wall, there was a wizard - a very powerful wizard, surrounded by magical artefacts. The whole building emanated a degree of magic, but this was something special. Such a concentration of magic was... Oh, and look. A back door. How incredibly convenient and useful. Smirking, she headed inside and straight to the appropriate door.

Probing at the door with her senses, she was surprised to find that the traps on it had been recently broken down, presumeably by a single, concentrated bolt of energy from the way the patterns of residual energy fluctuated and span. It was enough for her to reach out and try the handle - locked. It clicked at her whim, and she let herself in.

The wizard was at his desk, muttering to himself, round-shouldered over a folder of work. He didn't notice her entrance. Excellent. Spacey nerds were exactly what she liked best. Quietly shutting the door behind her just as a peal of childish laughter rang in the hall behind her, the lock clicked again, trapping them both inside. The windows, as she'd seen from the outside, were blocked over with cabinets that lined the wall above the desk. Perhaps investigating them would be slightly too risky.

Luckily, it seemed the room was divided neatly into two - all of the potions and artefacts she could have needed on one sie, and tomes on the other. She rifled silently through the potion cabinet first, extracting extra-strength healing potions, all-purpose antidotes, energy potions... no, not really necessary for her kind. Let's see - ooh, lust! Always a good one to have lying around. A potion of strength, very useful. For some reason, lots and lots of sleep potions, easily outnumbering all of the other kinds put together. Well, those were no good to her, either. Transfiguration, no point. Oooh, combustibles. But no, those were unrequired. She was quite capable of blowing things up without them.

Then it was onto the treasure trove - a whole drawer full of shift jewels. Glancing round momentarily, she pulled her bag from its hiding place and transferred every last one. They clinked satisfyingly, emanating just the slightest glow as she pulled the strings of the bag shut and slipped the hulking thing back under her robes.

Finally turning her attention to the man, she watched him continue to pore over his work, adjusting the front of her robes. Bending over his shoulder with interest, she was disappointed to see that the language he was working in was unfamiliar to her. Quickly bored, she bent further, allowing her gigantic breasts to press against the back of his shoulders as she lowered her lips to his ear. "Hey."


-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


Cressa raised an eyebrow and mused interestedly, more to herself than anything. "Lorika? The priestess?"

How very intriguing.

Smiling broadly to herself, she let the silence hold for a few moments as the man continued to scribble. Then, like a cat who'd gotten the cream, she leaned further into him, her white-taloned hands finding their way down his sides, as she purred into his neck. "Do I feel like a priestess to you?"



-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


"Ohh, busy, busy, busy," she patronised in her usual low tone, hands probing even lower, "What is it you humans say? 'All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy?'"

Smirking, she took hold. "I'll play with you, Jack, if you'd like."


-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


The drow grinned with satisfaction as she was pushed backwards, and she backed off willingly. All part of the fun.

Then a shift in the man's aura caught her attention. It was... insulting. She frowned, and straightened. How strange. Cressa hadn't been expecting this kind of attitude from a man at the forefront of a peace-preaching religion.

Caught off guard, and her energy levels not what they could be, somehow she found it difficult to put the smile back on her face. Therefore, after a few moments, she gave up. Her expression became stony. "Happy little bunny, aren't we?" she muttered.


-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


A twinge of annoyance continued to n** at her as he made his jibes. She folded her arms and glared at him, reaching out to probe at his essence. She reached past the stifling outer layer - the power that radiated on the surface, the part that allowed him to connect with the elements around him, always a pesky barrier on other mages - and into the part that was him.

And what she found there was very interesting.

"Oh... oho," she chuckled, before throwing her head back to laugh.

Soon enough, her hilarity dispersed itself as suddenly as it had arrived, and she fell to fixing him a familiar hungry, superior, I-know-something-you-don't gaze. Her lips were curved into a broad, nasty smile. "I apologise, magician. I have invaded your home and invaded your person, without reason and certainly without invite. And for that, I am truly sorry."

"Or," she continued, cocking her head, "Maybe not. For as you have concluded to yourself, if I have no business here, I must exist solely to make your life a living hell. And we both know for a fact that incarnations of chaos and the infernal never apologise. Or at least, never mean it."


-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


Cressa's smile only broadened. "I'm sorry to be the one to inform you that I have known that pitiful drow for twenty years before you were born."

"Still, I beg for your forgiveness, even if you choose not to give it," she continued, flourishing with a sweep of her black-clothed arm, "My name is Cressa Usyllt. I am a sorceress."


-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


"There's no such thing as drow magic," she smiled, "Only magic that humans blind themselves to."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Panda. To see such power so young, I'm sure you've been told, is a true curiosity."


-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.

I met a lady in the meads
Full beautiful, a faery's child;
Her hair was long, her foot was light,
And her eyes were wild.

-------------


"Well," she began, stepping towards him, "At this moment I'm wondering why you're not bending me over the desk. However, now that I am here, I can see why."

Her arm came up, palm facing the ceiling, for the woman to run a single snowy nail down the length of his jaw. Her long limb traversed the distance between them like a great, silken bridge - Panda, at only an inch taller than Jessie, was still dwarfed by her. "Perhaps the better question," she whispered, "Is what are you doing here, warlock?"


-------------


I saw pale kings, and princes too,
Pale warriors, death-pale were they all;
Who cry'd--"La belle Dame sans merci
Hath thee in thrall!"

And this is why I sojourn here
Alone and palely loitering,
Though the sedge is wither'd from the lake,
And no birds sing.