Knightsbane ♘

✡ The Butterfly Duches ❄

       The defiant flags fluttered in the wind, the butterfly sigils imprinted on them seemed to animate and flap their wings.

The frightening host of blank faced nuns marched Knox's 3-man crew down the gates, to the spacious veranda populated by purple leafed trees with white barks.

     The chilly vile frostbite had mysteriously vanished within the confines of the magnetic shield guarding Lakesfrost, Knox could feel his fingers again, the numb pain had eased. And who was that stunning statue, mounted and worshiped by the impeccable twin pillars and all the feminine host within the castle? Her hair was redder than anything Knox had ever seen, wavy and glossy, stretching down below her waist. Those delicate eyes, beaming a bright green in the shimmering white glare of the illuminating snow sun. There was a merciless slit on her black gown that ran down to her helm in a triangular parting, revealing her pale right lap down to her knee and peeping foot.

     Isadora, highly magnified in the extremity of beauty squinted at the approaching company from afar and soon, they met. Nye was stunned by the beauty of the primadonna and gaped in awe but Knox wasn't startled. He hated her at first sight, her dark reputation shrouded the brilliance of her image in Knox's perspective.
      More fuzzy memories flashed through the blank mind of Pandora at the sight of the primadonna. Isadora appeared to be a young maiden, a magnificent idol in her mid 20s, exalted above the earth, atop a steeply rock with the uncanny balance of a bird; spelling out strict rules to the innumerable company of orphaned little girls in the ever snowy field. A voice whispered in Pandora's little ear,
     "Eve,"
It was Goldilocks again, rosy cheeked and pettily fragile. "Are you here with me?"
Pandora realised it sooner. She was a kid again, a sniffling 9 year old and Rina was 10. It suddenly occurred to her, why the Primadonna was a 25 year old girl. Was this a trance or a memory? Or was it a trance of memory?
     "We're safe now, Eve. No one would hurt us here in Lakesfrost. The redlady...she'll keep us safe. She says we're her children, now."
Goldilocks' gentle child-like voice resounded in her mind. The young blonde held Pandora's little chubby cheeks in her palms. "Hey, the rapists are gone. No one would hurt you here." Pandora's little eyes gaped at the great butterfly cresting on walls of the cathedral.
And so abruptly, there came the dark clouds of her phobic childhood, those nasty memories that damaged ones psychology, the demon faced men, about 4 or 5, ripping her skirts apart, and bloodily deflowering her. It made Pandora gasp back to reality. She stared at Rina and then at the colossal butterfly cresting on the walls, now covered in snow.
     "Are you here with me?" Rina's voice was changed, a bit mature, yet unchanged in its gentleness.
Pandora avoided her eyes guiltily. With a long lasting gape, Isadora had transformed into a middle aged woman in the pale eyes of Pandora.
      Nearer and nearer, until both parties met, Knightsbane's half and the Butterfly Duchess' host of killernuns.
     "Knox Vanden, pride of Knightsbane," Isadora smiled graciously.
     "Isadora Cavendish, Primadonna of Devonshire, crime queen of the North."
     "Indeed..." she said sluggishly and then wittily speedily. "You're even more charming than they say you are."
     "And you are wittier than I imagined."
     "I was expecting the word "beautiful"...but... fine...'witty' is good too."
     "I see, Daughter of Devonshire."
     "Son of Knightsbane, your presence is warmly welcome within these walls."
     The observant eyes of Isadora soon caught the violet of Pandora's. Her rose red lips spread in a fishy smile and her cheek bones elevated, it bubbled on ounce of nervousness within Pandora.
     "You finally return, Eve?" Isadora's words caused Pandora's face turn pink. "Abandon every memory you've ever had. No one will hurt you here. Welcome...to Lakesfrost."