fantasy of manners

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 21 of 22

Then they were on a vast field, with scattered bodies and parts of bodies lying everywhere, and ravens and vultures fluttering from one choice morsel to another. Only one human figure was moving on that field; Kazmina ran towards him.

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 19 of 22

“I do need you,” she said, beginning to tremble. “I said — I said I didn't want to change back, and I don't, but I want even more to be with you, to make you happy. If the only way I can do that is to change —”

“Shh,” he said. “No, you don't have to change for me.”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 18 of 22

She undressed in the dark and stashed her clothes and shoes on the shelves, then looked inward at her structure, deciding what form she wanted for this purpose. She started making changes, reducing her size and altering her structure. Twitching her whiskers and sniffing gingerly at the door, she slipped quietly into the corridor and scurried down it towards the front parlor.

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 17 of 22

“Come,” she said playfully, “I have no romantic illusions about my own brother — I know perfectly well she loves you a hundred times better than you deserve. If it were any other woman, I would try to discourage her by telling her embarrassing stories about you, but Launuru already knows them all, so I'll just have to accept your good fortune.”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 15 of 22

“You said you were not betrothed to any man back home; do you hope that Verentsu will ask you to be his bride?”

“Yes,” Launuru said shyly. “But I am afraid...” The geas wouldn't let her complete the sentence.

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 14 of 22

“What's your custom here in Niluri?” Kazmina asked. “Is a woman normally allowed to ask a man to marry her? It's hard to judge from Tsavila or you what women are normally expected to act like here; even in Setuaznu, enchantresses are allowed more privileges than mundane women, and as for you...”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 12 of 22

Hadn't Tsavila said that he should be kind to her, for she'd suffered enough already? If she was compelled to act this part against her will, further probing could do no good; he had already learned enough to be sure she was no Vetuatsenu. Various moments of their conversations the day before came back to him: she had repeatedly changed the subject when someone brought up recent events in Netuatsenu, or asked more than a few questions about her family.

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 11 of 22

“You're probably not related to her, either.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean I don't know who my mother was. She was a wizard, and probably not from Setuaznu or Niluri or anywhere in between, but my father never talks about her.”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 9 of 22

“Maybe he did as the servant said, maybe not. Either way, I fear he did meet with some misfortune, for the last I heard his family had not heard from him either. But wine can't be pressed into grapes. I met Itsulanu when I was angry and sad, and he comforted me. Now in less than three days he is to be my husband, and that makes me happier than I can say. I wish my sometime lover may be happy wherever he is; I forgive him.”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 8 of 22

“Love is a thing holy to Kalotse, and...” Just then she heard a wailing, which got momentarily louder; one of the servants came in holding a fussy, just-woken Miretsi. “A thing with unexpected consequences,” she concluded.

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 7 of 22

Launuru said little in the carriage on the way back to the wizard's house. She was thinking about her reaction when Kazmina had suggested that she change back into the man she'd been when she hired the room. It had been as appalling to her just now as the idea of becoming a woman had been when Kazmina suggested it two days ago. If that were so, how could she ask Tsavila to marry her, promising to become a man again soon?

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 5 of 22

“Kazmina,” she said, gently shaking the wizard, “you've got to change me back now... Or tell me what's going on.”

Kazmina wasn't fully awake. “What's wrong?” she mumbled, propping up on her left arm.

“This doesn't feel wrong, that's what's wrong! I'm forgetting what I'm supposed to be, just like when we were geese. By the time we go to see Psavian, I'm afraid I'll have forgotten why I came back to find Tsavila!”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 4 of 22

“We need something better,” she said. “We need to make a good impression, as a pair of fine ladies — ”

“What?” he exclaimed.

“I'll explain in a little bit; I've figured out how to disguise you when we meet Psavian and Tsavila.”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 3 of 22

“There's a haunt; do you make away with it, you'll have sweet supper and soft bed.”

“A haunt?” Kazmina asked, dismayed.

“A phantasm, a ghost?” the woman said. “In the barn yonder.”

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 2 of 22

“I'll be lucky if my father even attends. He doesn't have much time for those of us who didn't inherit his power. But my brothers and my cousins on my mother's side will be there, they're fun to be with, and some of our neighbors I know well... and my sister. You'll like her; she's pretty.”

She was, and he did.

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes, part 1 of 22

Wine Can't be Pressed into Grapes

by Trismegistus Shandy

Part 1 of 22

The man had evidently been traveling on foot for a long time. His clothes were rags that barely covered his nakedness, and his cheekbones, ribs, and hips stood out against flesh from which all the fat and too much of the muscle had been burned off some time ago.

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