Maerchentic Eternity
#6 of Maerchentic
"Maerchentic Eternity"
by K.M. Hirosaki ([email protected])
AUTHOR'S NOTES: This story and all characters therein are copyright (c) 2004 K.M. Hirosaki.
This story is the sixth installment in my 'Maerchentic' series. It is highly recommended that you read the preceding parts before reading this, but it's not necessarily required.
WARNING: This story might be disturbing. Proceed at your own risk if you are among the easily-squicked.
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Svetlana Chernysheva could look back, but she couldn't go back. Part of her was in pain over the fact that her legacy would go on, while she herself would be forgotten. In that case, she wondered, would it even have mattered that it had been her? It could very well have been someone else to do what she had. And if that were true, then she wouldn't even have a past to look back on, now, at the end.
The disease inside of her body had a name, but Svetlana could neither remember it, nor care to be bothered to do so. Even if she had sold everything that she owned, all of the money from her assets still wasn't enough to buy a cure. It was a rare syndrome, one that doctors were only just beginning to understand the workings thereof. A few years down the line, there would probably be hope. Svetlana didn't have a few years, though. At most, she had a few months. The cruel irony was that there was no way to know for sure. She wouldn't wither away, weaken, and die. She'd just be dead. And that would be that.
So, the cougar had decided to take steps to help things along. Why go on living, knowing that you might just drop dead at any moment? If it was bound to happen, have it happen then and there, and keep control. There were just two problems with that, though. The first was simply that Svetlana was afraid to die. Second, but perhaps just as important, was that she didn't have anyone that she trusted to inherit her collection. There was never a husband, never any children, and no close friends. Art had been her entire life. And after she died, it would be all that was left of her.
Twice, she had managed to gather up the nerve to do herself in. Twice, she had failed. The first time, she had been willing to chalk it up to coincidence. It was possible, however unlikely, that the firing mechanism on her revolver could break the first time she had ever tried to fire it. A week later, she had gotten her resolve once more, and decided that a more spectacular death would leave a lasting impression of her life where nothing else would.
A crowd had been assembled in the town square below her. The building was only four stories tall, but it was tall enough for a fatal drop. All eyes were on the cougar as she spread her arms wide, leaned forward, and fell off the edge. While she was falling, her eyes spotted a single face, distinct in the crowd of horrified onlookers. That was when she was smacked with déjà vu. The eyes looking back at her were familiar ones.
He was a linsang, young and handsome, with a look to his eyes that made them look marvelously blue. The art collector in Svetlana was struck in that very instant with the notion that they were lovelier than any jewel in her collection. Suddenly, her brain began to race. She didn't know who this person was, and, moreover, she didn't want to die.
And she didn't.
Death appeared to not be in the cards for her. Her body fell against something partway down, and she hadn't seen what it was. The light impact broke her speed for a moment, and she rolled down on one side, only to jerk to a halt again as whatever it was caught on the back of her blouse. She was suspended in the air for a handful of seconds, just long enough to get out a frantic prayer, before the fabric tore and she began to fall once more. And when she did, she was just in time to collapse into the awning of a passing street cart as an oblivious fruit vendor wheeled his wares on by.
Svetlana didn't believe for one second that all of that could have been an accident. Both of her suicide attempts had been botched via incredulous means. Then and there, she knew that her time had been determined, and it wasn't for her to decide.
After the initial shock, she hopped to her feet, and tore off into the crowd, looking for the linsang. She needed to see him up close. But even as she searched, she knew that she would not find him. She wasn't at all surprised when her efforts were indeed in vain, for she had finally remembered where she had seen that face: in her dreams. The memories themselves were subtle, but she felt a surreal contentment from them. And then, finally, Svetlana understood.
He was her guardian angel.
So now, in one of the countless rooms of her mansion, Svetlana sat, taking up brush and palette herself, attempting to put that sublime countenance to the easel. Perhaps this was her final duty. She would render her savior into a painting that would be the final piece in the collection of Svetlana Chernysheva. Then, maybe, she would have the peace she needed to pass on.
The idea was far better than the practice. Svetlana wasn't a bad painter, in her own estimates, but she also wasn't nearly as good as those whose works she so treasured in her collection. Perhaps that was why she refused to be satisfied with her results. Already, she had burned three uncompleted attempts at a painting, and as a blank slate stared at her for a fourth time, she felt herself losing nerve. This painting wouldn't be ?right' until she could find a way to better capture the look of him. And the more she thought about that, the more it became evident that there was only one thing that could make that happen.
Svetlana needed to find this linsang, in person, and make him pose for her. She needed to see him with her own eyes, study his lovely form, and paint him while he smiled at her. The problem with that, though, was that she had no way to track down an angel. He had only ever appeared to her when her thoughts turned their darkest, and when she moved to take her own life.
That thought shook Svetlana to the core. She couldn't possibly! After all, an angel wouldn't find it the least bit funny to have his charge fake a suicide attempt to draw him into the open. Surely, he would know that it was a sham, and perhaps he would decide that it was her just reward to succeed where she didn't want to.
The cougar shivered, and dropped her freshly cleaned paintbrush onto the marble floor of the sunroom, causing a sharp clack to resound through the emptiness. What if these thoughts where damning her at the very moment? It was not her place to outsmart the divine! She would simply need to find another way?a better way!?to find her guardian and...
"You don't need to be so afraid, you know," a voice suddenly said. It was rich yet subtle, and carried a sense of handsomeness with it. The cougar's head snapped up from her daze, and she scanned the room, trying to see where the words had come from.
She was beginning to grow steadily more panicked when she heard footsteps rounding the corner, and a slim figure darkened the doorway. The lighting created a partial silhouette, but Svetlana needed to see only the outline of that impressive tail to know that it was her linsang?her angel?come to see her.
"Am I... am I already dead?" was the first thing that she asked.
The linsang chuckled, and stepped pointedly as he approached her, his footfalls echoing through the room with a quiet sharpness. That drew the cougar's attention to his feet. He was wearing loafers that shone so brightly with their polish that she refused to believe that he could have ever been outside with them. From there, Svetlana's eyes scanned up over his body, getting a good look at him in person for the first time.
He was dressed like some young scion to a financial empire, and carried himself like he neither wanted such good fortune nor was willing to refute his happy birth. His eyes were directly on her and her alone, and yet his ears?and indeed, every bit about the way he moved?indicated that was completely alert to the entirety of his surroundings, like an intent predator, or perhaps a steadfast bodyguard. Svetlana could do nothing but hold still as the linsang came nearer and nearer, and before she knew it, they were nearly face-to-face.
The linsang reached out with one hand and cupped it at her check, and as if on instinct, the cougar nuzzled herself back into his palm. It was warm and calming, and it made her feel more relaxed than she ever had since she first heard the news about her awful diagnosis. "Do you feel dead?" the linsang whispered, his fingers lingering there at the side of her face.
Svetlana didn't speak; she just shook her head in response, bearing back against that hand for just one more precious moment. The linsang's mouth turned up in a smile that reached his eyes, and that was when she noticed that those eyes were different from those that she knew for sure were his. Right now, she found herself looking into a pair of irises that were hazel, and though undoubtedly still lovely and quite becoming to his face, they weren't the unearthly blue that she felt ?ought' to be there.
After what seemed like it might have just as well been forever, Svetlana finally registered the linsang's words. She wasn't dead. That begged a question. "Why... why are you here?" she asked, voice reverently quiet as she spoke to him.
The linsang's fingers brushed at the collar of her blouse. "I'm here to help you, Lana," he replied. The cougar's eyes widened at the use of her nickname that he should have no way of knowing. He held his smile from before, but something in his eyes changed. They were showing the faintest touch of melancholy.
Lana finally just broke down and asked. "Are you my guardian angel?" Her voice quavered as if her hope were hanging from a single string.
With a slight shake of his head and a soft sigh, the linsang replied, "No." There was time for Lana's heart to skip a single beat before he went on. "Some people might accuse me of being antithetical to such an ideal." The way he said those words, while sounding so formal, also sounded so casual and disconnected.
The cougar felt surprised at how little that notion disheartened her. She knew that her idea couldn't have been true from the moment he first touched her. That still didn't tell her what he was, though, or how he got into her house?hell, she didn't even know how he knew her name or who she was!
As if reading her mind, he spoke her concerns aloud. "I've had my eye on you for a while now, Miss Chernysheva. I know how much you're suffering, waiting for the end... for the disease to just run its course." That response managed to surprise her, all right. Certainly, her doctors wouldn't have disclosed such information to anyone, and she hadn't even told the aides on her own staff!
"You can help me?" Lana asked, forgetting any sort of segue. For some reason, she wasn't afraid. This man was a total mystery. He had gotten into her home, knew things about her that he couldn't possibly know, and had been appearing in her dreams for nights. But she wasn't afraid. Something felt... right.
The linsang nodded. "I can. If you'll let me." He squatted down next to the cougar's blank easel and looked up at her. Perhaps he wanted to look less threatening from such a diminutive height, and perhaps it even worked. "My name is Auri," he said, as his long tail curled down around his ankles in a loose figure eight.
"Auri," Lana repeated back, and it made the linsang smile again. "Auri, what have you come here to do?" she asked, remaining calm as she forced herself from coming across as too expectant.
One of Auri's hands went to her knee, and the touch carried a surreal, platonic intimacy. "You're lost and despairing," he said, speaking in a monotone that nevertheless was heavy with emotion and concern. "You need closure before your fear of moving on will pass, and I want to give that to you."
A pair of tears formed in Lana's eyes, though she didn't even feel them welling up beforehand. How was it that this linsang?this ?Auri'?knew things about her that she herself didn't! It was wonderful and it was magical, and for the first time in too long, she felt thankful for something.
"How do you know all of this?" she asked, putting her hand atop his. "It's like you're not real..."
Auri's smile became more of a smirk. "Don't worry. You're not insane, if that's what you're wondering," he said, and it made her chuckle a little. "And knowing exactly how I know what I know doesn't matter, as long as you know that I know it, right?" He capped that off with a giggle of his own, and it brought a legitimate smile to Lana's face.
Lana looked down into Auri's eyes, studying their color, before she pulled her focus back to examine the rest of his face. Here it was, alive and in perfection, for her to study and admire at her leisure. Without intending to speak, she found herself saying, "You're here for my painting, aren't you?" When the linsang nodded, she didn't question it.
"You have longer left than you realize," Auri said, rising to his full height again. "Take your time, and don't rush yourself." He turned, and looked at Svetlana's bare canvas. "I know that you want to put time and care into this, Lana," he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "I promise that you'll have both."
The cougar's tail wrapped itself around one of the legs of her stool. There was suddenly an edge to everything, and it was something that felt almost sinister and cruel to have to hear from Auri at a time like this. She might have her happiness and her sense of completion, but she was still going to die, and that still terrified her. The thought pulsed in her head like a spike through her consciousness, and it was broken only by the sudden sniff and gasp that she heard come from Auri.
Fur stood on end as the svelte linsang shivered. It looked almost like he'd been shaken from some daydreamed sexual fantasy, or perhaps like he had just downed a heavy gulp of whiskey. His eyelids blinked down a few times before Svetlana could tell that his gaze had been refocused. "Shall I send for my things, Miss Chernysheva?" the linsang asked.
"Your things?" Lana asked, still a bit shaken for reasons she didn't fully comprehend.
Auri grinned, and it wasn't forced. "Of course," he said. "After all, I know that you have no desire to rush the creative process, so I may as well make sure that I'm readily available to you when the urge strikes."
* * *
Svetlana had showed Auri around her manor after he had sent his driver away, for it was still a touch early to be considering dinner. She brought him from room to room, pointing out the favorite pieces of her vast collection of statuary, paintings, tapestries, jewelry, adornments, weaponry, regalia, and scrolls. Auri seemed to show a keen interest in the wide selection of works she had for display, and the linsang was as polite as he was mysterious... and handsome.
Under different circumstances, Lana realized, she'd probably be thinking a lot differently about him. Auri wasn't just another man that was willing to hear her ramble about the subtle artistic nuances of a period fresco; he was also subtly charming and downright pleasing to the eye, like a work of art himself. His not-entirely-androgynous body frame was made even more handsome by the way his body seemed to move as a single, perfectly coordinated entity, and his bearing and demeanor were neither overbearing nor soft-spoken.
As it was, though, any physical attraction to Auri was meaningless to her. Her last job would be to be a gracious hostess to him, and to put his image to canvas to the best of her ability. Lana didn't realize how much shock she was in until after dinner, when he discovered that she was still far too nervous and shaky to even consider painting anything just yet.
Auri hadn't minded, though, and he hadn't pressed anything. They spent the evening after dinner in the drawing room, chatting over a few light drinks before both of them retired fairly early. The cougar surrendered herself to an ultimately dreamless sleep, and when she awoke with the dawn, she found herself imbued with the new purpose that she had been expecting.
To her surprise, though, she didn't find Auri at the dining room table when she went out for the breakfast she had made sure to request the night before. Thinking perhaps that he may have been a heavy sleeper, she checked the guest bedroom, but he wasn't there, either. Brief panic snapped up inside of her, and she wondered if all of the previous afternoon had been a bizarre and cruel dream. Her own sanity was again pulled into a cloud of doubt, and she tore through the hallways, poking her head into every room along the way, not daring to call out his name on the possibility that her servants would think her mad.
Svetlana stopped dead in her tracks as she passed the sunroom, and saw Auri standing there, nigh motionless, clad in a pure white terrycloth bathrobe.
The cougar felt like she was in a motion picture, as he movements became a crawl, and she was marked with trepidation as she went to approach him. Silently, the linsang raised his head and looked back at her, neither expecting nor judging... merely watching. Lana nodded, and he nodded in turn.
"You want to get started. I can tell." Auri's words were like Lana's very own thoughts, and he gave him another wordless nod in response. Yes. Breakfast could wait. She wanted to get to work, and she wanted to do it right now.
Still recovering from the previous shock of thinking Auri had disappeared, Lana was suddenly startled anew when he let the bathrobe fall off of him. The thick folds of fabric fell from his body without a sound, and after that lingering instant, Lana could see every perfect curve and trace of his naked body.
Lana put a hand up to cover her mouth in reflex. She hadn't dreamed of requesting that he pose for her in the nude! But he showed not one iota of shame or embarrassment, even when they made eye contact, both of them knowing full well that she liked what she saw.
As the feeling built up inside of her, Lana wanted very much to believe that she was merely appreciating something of such stark and obvious beauty, but the way she soon began to breathe betrayed to her that at least part of what she felt was sexual. It was difficult to not feel that way, though, she thought to console herself. She took a moment to steady her nerves, seeing that Auri obviously had no qualms with her looking.
Her eyes followed from the end of his ringed tail, over to his legs. There, she began to let her gaze shift upward, following the trail of spotted fur until she got to the soft creamy-colored fur that covered the insides of his thighs and then up his underside. It was impossible to not check out his more-than-decent, partially erect endowment as she kept taking the sight of him in, and she knew that she was just shy of being extremely turned on herself. The linsang's abdomen and chest came next, and Lana continued her leisurely, relishing gaze. Finally, she locked eyes with Auri again, and he had an innocent smile on his face.
"Shall we?" he asked, stepping back with one foot. The painting materials were still in the sunroom from yesterday. With a tight throat and no words, Svetlana took her seat upon the stool, and began to set her paints up. The process was fairly automatic for her, and she took the time to deliberate on Auri's physique and look, wondering how to best have him pose.
Before, she didn't have enough of a mental picture. Now, she had everything she needed right there in front of her, and she could choose freely to have him look however she deemed right! Image after image wheeled through Lana's head as she tried to envision every number of ways for Auri to pose, ranging from seraphic to salacious. Her blood began to heat in her veins as her body and mind burst into a paroxysm of eagerness for her craft. Then, finally, a sight coalesced upon her mind's eye, and she knew what she wanted to do.
"Give me a moment," Lana said, rising from her stool. She first went to hurriedly lock all of the doors leading into the room, not wanting her aides to find her in here with a naked man, even if he was just an art subject. After she had secured her privacy, she grabbed another stool from the corner, and carried it over to Auri. "Sit here," he instructed, that eagerness heavy in her voice.
Auri sat obediently with a nod and a smile. Lana watched him take his seat, and looked closely as his body sank into position. She brought a hand to her chin and hummed thoughtfully, while the linsang stayed quiet, submitting to her creative process. With a sudden added bit of inspiration, Lana ran to the other side of the room, and picked up another stool of the same height, and carted it back with the first.
Very carefully, she adjusted where she placed it, so that it was a couple of feet from the first. She shifted it around a few times, and then took a few steps back. "Okay," she said. "Put your feet up on that."
Smiling as Auri did just as she told him to, Lana trotted back over to her artist's nook. She repositioned herself so that she was facing Auri at a diagonal, able to see most of his front and one side. With the pose readied, she grabbed a brush, and began to paint.
Hours went by. Svetlana continued to work unceasingly, and Auri seemed just at home holding stock still for her. They'd make eye contact every now and again, and smile at one another. Her eyes carefully studied the linsang's body piece by piece, and she was meticulous in ensuring that she captured detail wherever she could. Before she noticed it (and before Auri spoke up), the time had passed to well past when lunch would ordinarily have been served.
Lana set her things down. The hunger was finally getting to her, and, being sick, she didn't want to push it. Auri took her silent cue, and he stood on his feet, and gathered up his robe. Covering up his body, he stepped over to the cougar and brushed his hand at her cheek.
"No need to rush things so quickly," he said with a smile. "I promise, you'll have the time you need."
An otherworldly calmness fell over Lana. He was right; there was no need to rush. She allowed herself a relaxing lunch, and when it was over, rather than get right back to painting, she took Auri for another, slower tour of her collection.
Night passed, and then another day, just as before, with the early hours spent painting and posing, and the late afternoon and evening spent in happy conversation and art viewing.
Progress on her work was coming like it had never done before. Auri's ability to sit still seemed (and very well may have been) supernatural, and moreover, he'd anticipated any need for him to move and shift to better allow her to see where she was looking at any given moment. Lana still had scores and scores of unanswered and unanswerable questions, but she didn't care. She needed to get this painting done.
It hadn't surprised her one bit when Auri had begun to slowly stroke his fingers at his shaft. It was calculated and deliberate in its sensuality, and it was timed perfectly so that he reached full hardness as soon as Lana was ready to begin focusing on it. She would have lost herself to her own desire if it weren't for the fact that she was pouring her heart and soul into the painting. It was almost trancelike, the way that she stared at the slender, pink flesh, glistening as the slight wetness caught the light of the midday sun through the glass.
There she was, only feet away from Auri as he kept himself perfectly posed, playing the part of a dandy Adonis for her to capture with brush and color. Every hour that passed with her painting seemed to go faster and faster as she kept losing herself in her intent.
Finally, though, on that last day, Lana's work drew to completion. She put of lunch, knowing that she would soon have the finishing touches upon the canvas, and she sighed when he brush made a final stroke. It was done?she was done.
Auri, who had never even seen Lana's progress, looked up. The cougar took the easel and turned it around, letting him she what she had created. She knew that her skills were not top-notch, nor were they particularly noteworthy compared to most of her own collection. But it was hers, and she was proud of it; Auri smiled as if to share in her pride.
"It's lovely," the linsang said softly, sitting more naturally upon the single stool. Lana smiled back at him for a few happy seconds, and then she felt her heart grow heavy once more.
She had done it. She had finished the last thing that she had vowed she would do. Now, there was nothing. All that she had left was to wait until death took her, and her fear was stronger than ever before, for now, she truly did have nothing to look forward to.
Like he had so many times before, Auri tapped into her emotional state almost before she was aware of it herself, and he rose to his feet, approaching her, face full of concern. "It'll be okay now," he said, petting her shoulder. "You've done well."
Svetlana wanted to cry, but she knew that she couldn't. Truthfully, she didn't even feel that she had cause to. She was just saddened to know that this was it. A slight sniffle accompanied her voice at first as she said, "I want you to know that I've got you named in my will." Auri's eyebrows heightened in shock. "The house and the grounds are being donated, but I'm leaving my collection?and my final piece?to you. I know I can trust it in your hands."
Auri knelt partially, pulling his robe back onto his shoulders to give a token attempt at modesty. Both of his hands went to Lana's shoulders, and he held onto them firmly. She still wasn't crying, and she did her best to make sure she wouldn't. "Lana," he asked quietly, "do you believe in an afterlife?"
"I do," she replied, nodding, voice almost soundless. She gazed deeply into Auri's face, trying desperately to put two and two together. "Is there something that you know?"
"No," the linsang responded with a solemn shaking of his head. "I don't have the answers. But I do think there's something." He looked into her eyes, and they registered her own fear. "I can tell how afraid you are. I don't want you to have to feel that way."
His tenderness touched a spot in Lana's heart, and it was reassuring, but it wasn't enough. She was still on the verge of trembling with her fear, as if she would simply die at any moment. "Were you... were you going to stay with me until the end?"
This time, Auri lowered his head to look down at the marble floor. "In a sense," he replied. He looked back up, and his expression was one of dire seriousness. "I have a question?no, an offer... that I'd like to make you."
The cougar's heart pounded in her chest. Somehow, the air in the room seemed different, now. The taste and smell of everything just seemed wrong. Was she dying? Was that what this was? "An offer?" she asked, lips and whiskers trembling. "What kind of offer?"
What came next came as a total surprise, but there was hardly anything that wouldn't have been, at that point. "I can ensure that you'll have your legacy... and that your collection will have one more piece after this one," Auri said, nodding over to the painting.
"I... I don't understand," Lana responded, and she didn't.
Auri stood upright, and offered her a hand. "I can make you beautiful," he said. "I can make you as beautiful?and as eternal?as these pieces of work that you love so much. Is that something that you'd like?"
Revelation slowly began to dawn on Lana, and the more she came to realize what Auri meant, the less she wanted to believe it. "You're serious, aren't you?" she said, standing up after taking his hand. "I don't know why or how, but you're serious."
"I am," Auri said with a nod. His fingers interlaced with hers, and he squeezed her hand softly. "Is that preferable to waiting for the end?"
There was no hesitation on the cougar's part. "Yes. Yes, please," she said, sounding a cross between eager and desperate. Her hand clutched his back with equal fervor, but the linsang soon wrested fee of her grasp.
"Wait for me in your study," he said to her, typing up his bathrobe properly. "I'll be with you shortly." He headed for the door that lead to the hallway that would take him back to the guest bedroom, and Svetlana watched him leave before she headed for the study.
The wait that followed must have been longer than it seemed, because when Auri came back, he was fully dressed, looking dapper without being overdone. It was like he had selected his clothing so that he would look nice without looking too formal for their friendship.
"You're exuding anticipation," the linsang said as he closed the study door behind him. "It's lovely."
Lana could feel herself blush at that. "Thank you," she said, feeling truly grateful at such a strange and bizarre compliment. She fidgeted her hands together, and stared at his face without staring into his eyes. "Were... you going to get started, then?"
The linsang nodded, ensuring that the door was locked behind him. "Only if you're sure that you want this," he replied, turning back around to look her over.
"I do," Lana answered, feeling happy at her own confidence. She was still scared, of course, but she had confidence in her decision.
Auri gave her an approving look, like she had passed some form of test. "Very well," he said quietly. "Remove your clothes."
As if she were preparing to go to sleep for the night, Svetlana got out of her clothes, which were far from the fancy garments she normally wore; something as potentially messy as painting had warranted otherwise. Even so, after getting bare, she neatly folded her garments and laid them over the back of a chair. It was ritualistic or anything like that, but she wanted to make sure things were in order.
She turned back to face him, and if there was any hint of sexual excitement in his eyes, it was subdued. Still, he came closer, and put both of his hands on her hips, sending a warm tingle through his. Her skin twitched under his fingers, and she was transfixed by his stare.
The linsang said nothing, and merely dropped to his knees. Both of his hands smoothed their way down one of Lana's legs, until they were at her foot. The cat gazed down at him, and his eyes were looking at her face. Without watching what his hands were doing, he cradled the top of Lana's foot, rubbing and massaging it. She hummed to herself; it felt nice.
Then, a feeling not unlike being in a sauna came over her. Or, at least, it came over her foot. The heat was searing without being painful, and it made her heart pound harder. She tried to wiggle her toes against Auri's fingers, only to discover that she couldn't. When the linsang's hands came away, she saw why.
Her entire foot, from the tips of her toes to the joint of her ankle, was no longer flesh. She didn't try to test its weight with the rest of her leg, but it looked metal. It reflected light, bearing a sheen that reminded her of white gold. And in its entirety, it was flawless and perfect, with not a single detail lost from how it looked before.
Lana would have been content to stare at it for hours, admiring it, but her concentration was broken when she caught a new color out of the corner of her vision. She looked back into Auri's eyes, and therein she saw that mystical, unreal blue color that she knew he was supposed to have.
"You're not panicking," he said calmly, as he reached over and grabbed Lana's other foot. The same heat scorched through her, and this time, the linsang slid his hands up her shin. Warmth spread its way along with his touch, and the cougar watched in amazement as her fur and flesh became some impossible material.
The entire process was turning Lana's sense of perception into a roller coaster. It had been longer than she could remember since the last time she had felt the touch of another man, and, under the current circumstances, she couldn't be bothered to try. There was a sensation like reawakening what such touches felt like, and then all sensation was gone, for once Auri's hands had passed, there were no more nerves to feel what was happening.
Auri worked his hands very, very slowly, and Lana took breaths in a measured pace. She wasn't sure, but it felt like it had taken him at least a couple of minutes to make his way to her knee. He cupped his hands around it, and his eyes flashed once. After that, the joint was well and fused into a solid bit of metal, and she could move it no longer.
"Yes, that's right... you don't need to be afraid," Auri muttered, his focus and attention obviously split into two. He stared back up into Lana's face with that magical glow to his irises, and he reached over to her other shin. This time, the process was definitely faster, and the feeling was rather pleasant as all of his fingers kneaded her lower leg from bottom to top, massaging the flesh before setting it solid.
With her other knee frozen in place, Lana was afraid that she wasn't going to be able to hold her balance. She didn't, though. Whatever the substance that Auri was turning her into, it didn't cause the rest of her to fall over. There was a moment's acknowledgement of that fact, before the rest of her thoughts went back to the matter at hand.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Auri said, mirroring the cougar's own words before she could speak them. Both of his hands pressed to the inside of either of her thighs, and the tips of his claws felt like they were giving off sparks as he pushed up. The linsang began to rise to his feet, and as he did, the length of her calves began to shift into metal as well.
The two were eye to eye with one another again, and it was enough to make Lana stop watching the linsang's hands so that she could lose herself in that hypnotic blue. Her own eyes closed for a few seconds as a couple of slender fingers slid up between her legs, and there was a sharp peak of the beginnings of sexual arousal before all feeling down there went dead, but not cold. Somehow (and perhaps it was just her imagination), Svetlana still felt like she was warm.
Auri took one hand and placed it to Lana's cheek. Her face stayed flesh, however, and she nuzzled back against his palm and fingertips, like the caress of a departing lover. She suddenly was keenly aware of the fact that she wasn't afraid, not only of Auri, but of death and the great beyond.
"Look," the linsang whispered, and he closed his eyes, as if knowing that they were holding the cougar in a trance. She followed his guidance, and looked down. Everything from the waist down was a glimmering, silvery-gold statue, including her tail, which was sensually wrapped back around one of her legs. It was perfection of the living form, captured impossibly in a never-ending instant.
This was it, Lana thought. Nobody would ever know where this final "piece" to her collection had come from. It was as if she was her own commission, leaving behind something beautiful, and something maddeningly mysterious, that would haunt and captivate whoever looked upon her for the rest of time. They would look at her, and they would know that she was just a statue, but she'd be so perfect, so unbelievably perfect, that they'd have to stop for a moment or two to doubt themselves as to what they were beholding.
She would be art.
Her sides, above the hips and below the ribs, came next. Both of Auri's thumbs pinched in to either side of her navel, and as the rest of his fingertips came to contact the lower curve of her breasts, everything below them was changed like the rest of her. She began to caress the linsang's shoulders and forearms, and it made him smile. He leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, a soft and chaste gesture, before he cupped one of his hands over a breast. She gasped as her nipple was tweaked, and, like before, the surge of exciting stimulation was there and gone in less than an instant.
Auri's other hand slid up the other side of her chest, until he was holding near her collarbones. The entirety of her torso had been frozen into stillness. Lana didn't even wonder how she was still alive and conscious, or even if she was still breathing. She didn't care. Right now, she cared only about one thing, and that was something that was making her entire world.
Her right arm came next. Auri took it in both of his hands, and set it down against her side. He put her hand on her steely hip, and she could feel the residual warmth there. She noticed that the linsang was panting, albeit softly. Something was stimulating him on a level that was as incomprehensible as the reality of what was occurring. His eyes flashed, and with a quick, rushing stroke of his hands, the cougar's carefully set arm was locked into place with its metallic transformation.
For once, Lana managed to anticipate Auri before he anticipated her. She brought her other arm across her chest, and held onto the opposite shoulder. The linsang needed no words, and neither did she. What was to be the moment that she dreaded most?the moment where it would all end?was no longer a thing of terror and suffering. It was an immeasurable, awaiting bliss.
Registering that though almost caused her to miss it when Auri transfigured her other arm. Now, she was flesh and blood from only the neck up. The linsang put his fingers on her chin, and tilted her head just slightly back, posing her to look like she was staring at something in the far-off distance. He kissed her where he had touched his fingers, and she felt the muscles in her throat go stiff as the life drew out of them, replaced with something far more precious.
"Keep your eyes open," Auri said. It sounded like a seduction, which for the cougar was entirely unnecessary at this point. She had no intention of closing her eyes, not now. With the biggest sense of wonderment that she had ever felt, she tried to imagine what her eyes would look like when they were changed over.
That was the last thing on her mind before everything slipped away, into oblivion, and into eternity.
The authorities were never able to come to a satisfactory hypothesis as to the mysterious disappearance of the eccentric art collector, Svetlana Chernysheva. There were no signs of foul play, and no notes left behind. None of her staff had a clue as to what might have happened to her, either. The one specific name mentioned in her will didn't belong to anyone, even when checked with known pseudonyms. It was just as well, though. With nobody to claim that which was left behind, it all defaulted back to charity, as specified. Her final, total estimated worth was almost ridiculous to believe for someone not in the corporate sector. Everything she owned was in immaculate condition, and meticulously catalogued. There was only one piece, a painting described only as "Untitled," that nobody was ever able to find.