The Earthly Queen: The Woman of Worlds Apart

Chapter 19: (Eris)

It's really unfortunate how I've actually gotten used to blacking out and waking up in some new foreign location. The feeling of being in the deep dark depths of unconsciousness to then be pulled back from the void to consciousness is becoming a norm for me and it really pisses me off.

My eyes are heavy and refuse to open. My other senses have to kick in and compensate to give my groggy mind a sense of location. Feel weightless as a force similar to the tractor beams holds me up in midair. Whatever it is, it feels pleasantly warm against my skin, like a bright summer day - minus the solar radiation. I hear a pleasant yet unfamiliar futuristic humming. I breathe deep and smell cool fresh air; night air. There is another scent of perfume so thick I can taste it. My eyes finally open and see the top of a highly embroidered canopy. I'm floating in some kind of huge bed, ornate posts going from floor to ceiling. The force that holds me up makes my hair billow around me as though I'm underwater. I'm wearing some kind of dress I've never seen before; a flowing purplish-pink dress with gold spun bees in flight embroidered all over in immaculately realistic detail. Whatever parts aren't depicting bees are encrusted with thousands and thousands of tiny rubies. The dress licks my legs as I float.

I try sitting up and find I'm unable. Sensing my panic a server appears next to me, that of a scantily clad woman with the most beautiful face and body I have ever seen. She's so beautiful she can't possibly be real.

"Having trouble, majesty?" the server asks.

"I want out of this thing!" I demand.

The server nods politely. "The button is to your left my lady."

I reach out and press said button and the bed switches off, lowering me feet first to a cushy pad beneath.

I look about the room I'm in and am stunned. It is such a mashup, like the ancient and the futuristic collided to create an elegant and intricately etched steampunk style such as this.

"Welcome to my Lady's Alcazar," the server says. "I do hope you enjoy your stay!" she says before bowing and taking her leave.

Greek style columns line the room from floor to ceiling, paintings and tapestries on the walls depict gorgeous renditions of places completely new to my earthling eyes. The furniture all floats in zero gravity.

Several hollow egg shaped bronze chairs float in the room, just as etched as everything else. There is a little key at the back of each. It twist it and a high pitched tinkly music box tune starts playing and little puffs of sweep perfume emit.

Between the two chairs upon a glass table as thin as paper sits a chess board. The pieces are all in human form and move about as though alive, milling aimlessly. They see me watching and take formation should I desire a quick game.

"Maybe next time, guys," I say.

A vestibule sits by the bed that resembles a vending machine more than a place to store clothes what with all the buttons and levers on it.

A cool night breeze blows from an open balcony into the room. I step out onto the white marble surface, the heels I woke up in clicking with every step. The view looks out upon a jungle, a jungle that looks utterly unlike anything I have ever seen. All the plants and tres twist and extend out in odd ways. The leaves and foliage are bright red and the trunks an orangy yellow; the five moons hanging in the sky give off enough light I can only just tell.

I must be catching flies what with how far my jaw has dropped.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" a proper and accented voice says behind me.

I jump and nearly fall backwards - damn shoes - and whirl around to see a woman standing in the doorway to my room.

Whoever she is, she's extravagantly dressed. A gold dress even more detailed than mine that is partially translucent, like thin ice, and flows about her like a vapor. On her head she wears an absurd tiara on her head. From the band sprout smooth gold blades that bend backwards over her greying bunn of hair like grass in the wind. Though considerably older than myself she has aged quite gracefully.