Chapter Two: Bishop Meets A Queen

Bishop woke up slowly at first, feeling disoriented. He couldn't remember where he was. He sat up slowly on the side of the hard bed and put his hand to the ache in his forehead. Surely, that was all a dream. But if it were, where was he then. He did not recognize anything in the dark room he was in. It was a rounded room with rough walls, not a cell, lit by a torch on the far side. He had been lying on a large stone tablet with thick padding. There were sheets of soft, sleek material draped across it. The only other piece of furniture in the dark, cave like room was a stone tablet with food on it. Hunger hit him hard, making him dizzy. He slowly stood up and crossed the room to the table and surveyed the food. It was laid out buffet style but there was no food that he recognized. It smelled sweet and good but again, no aroma he recognized either. He started sampling a little off of each plate, sniffing each piece before putting it in his mouth. As he ate he noticed there was a window cut into the stone wall. No glass, just a square, dark hole in the wall about four feet in diameter. He did not approach it yet, however. He picked up a pitcher of water and drank deeply, disregarding the polished stone cup beside it. The water ran down the sides of his face and onto his tunic and he realized he was no longer wearing his own clothing. He was in a pair of slacks with a loose, comfortable tunic which appeared to be green in the darkened room.
He rubbed the lump on his forehead again trying to remember what had happened after he went into the water. He remembered the beautiful woman's face but everything else was as vague and shadowy as the room he was in. He picked up what appeared to be a piece of fruit resembling an apple and walked around the tablet to the window. He looked out and froze, the apple-like fruit in his hand, his mouth open, not believing what his eyes were telling him. He dropped the fruit and leaned into the hole to see as much as he could. Before him lay a huge cave. He was very high and could see quite far into it. Two waterfalls entered the cave from openings higher above him on the left and the right. Torches and fires dotted the darkness, lighting the cave quite a bit brighter than the room he was in. There were firelights coming from openings like his all along the walls of the huge cavern and more fires on the ground below as far as he could see. He looked to see how high the ceiling was but above the waterfalls the walls went up into darkness.
As he looked up he was shocked to see a woman flying across the caves expanse with wings like a butterfly. She glided gracefully along the cavern wall away from him. Then he spotted another going across in front of him about 100 yards away. Then he realized that there were dozens of them just out of his view flying everywhere, coming into sight and disappearing into the darkness. Some of them were carrying things like baskets and woven cases. One had some kind of notebook and was writing in it as she flew. Two crossed quite near in front of him carrying a big basket of food. Each had hold of a handle and they were dragging it through the air between them. As they crossed in front of him the one closest to him looked at him and smiled. She raised her free hand and waved at him. He waggled the fingers of the hand that had been holding the fruit to his mouth back at her. He shook his head and crossed the room back to the rock bed he woke up on, taking the pitcher of water with him. "What is this place?" he thought out loud. "How did I get here." A movement caught his eye from the darkened side of the room.

Princess Jo Dee Mulier Jean Militus stood in the darkened doorway watching the man sleep. She was worried about him. In their haste to protect the pool they had hit him much harder than they had intended to. She felt a sadness coming off of him in the forest long before he stumbled onto the pool. The more they had tried to misguide him and lead him away from the Victus Fountain the more determined he seemed to blindly find it. He walked as a man with no direction and without regard for his safety. She sensed that he felt completely alone and had given up. She did not believe in chance. She felt as if the fountain had actually drawn him to it. Perhaps he had a destiny to fulfill. Perhaps he was the VirDeclaro, the chosen one. She did not know this but she felt it very strongly. The Victus had a way of defending itself. The odds of the man actually falling into the pool had been extremely slim. And yet here he was. She had no choice but to make him become. In order to save his life and to find out for sure why he was here, she had to perform the MutatioNovo, the magic that made him more like them. The man moved and moaned in his sleep. He was becoming awake. She pressed herself further into the shadow and watched as he sat up and looked around bewildered. She watched him eat and saw his surprised reaction at the window. None of these things indicated to her that he was a spy. When he spoke out loud "What is this place?" she stepped from the shadow slowly so as not to startle him and softly said, "This place is called AdamoVictasVenustas and I brought you here."

Bishop nearly jumped out of his skin when she stepped from the shadows and spoke. His first reaction was to scream but then he realized it was her, the woman in the water. The face that he had seen in his mind from that moment to this with long flowing red hair, those incredibleemerald green eyes, the perfect lips. She gestured with her hand and the torches grew brighter.
He saw her wings. At first, fear tried to creep up into his stomach but they were so beautiful. When she saw him looking at them she drew them closer into her back but then, looking into his eyes, she unfurled them. She extended them to their fullest and more torches lit upon the walls. Her lush red hair was very long, hanging down to her waist past the small of her back making it appear that her wings grew out of her hair. Like butterfly wings they extended in length from the top of her thigh to the height of her head and were almost as wide as her arms outstretched. Unlike butterfly wings they did not look fragile at all but rather, looked strong and majestic. He thought they were simply magnificent. They were outlined in sky blue and the colors layered inward from blue to yellow to dark blue to orange to pink and every shade and hue in between with three distinct sets of patterns from top to bottom. Finally, there was sheen on them as if little specks of silver glitter had been clear-coated on. He stepped closer to her and she held her ground. He held his hand up and looking into her eyes he asked, "May I?"
"Yes" she whispered and leaned closer. She thought he meant to touch her wings and brought them forward but instead, his hand came up and caressed her cheek. They looked deep into each others eyes and he said, "You are so beautiful."
Someone cleared their throat as they approached the now lit doorway and they quickly stepped back from one another, looking away. "What are you called?' she asked him.
"What?" he asked, not understanding.
"Your title, your..." she paused for a moment, "your name." For a brief moment, it occurred to him that she had pulled the word out of his mind.
"I am called Bishop" he said, "Who are you? And where is this place? How did I..." She held up her hand and stopped him. Then she turned her head slightly and said rather loudly," Speak."
The woman in the doorway did a curtsey; her wings were folded in and over her shoulders. "Your Majesty, Your Mother wishes your company at once, Ma'am" She waited, looking down, as if for instruction.
"Go ahead of us; inform her we are coming now." The woman left and she looked at him once more. "I'm sorry," she said, "I am Princess Jo Dee Mulier Jean Militus, and you are my prisoner." She turned and started walking towards the door. She clapped her hands and four women entered the room, wings out and surrounded him. They were all wearing swords. "You will accompany me." she said and led them out of the room.

He was led up a series of tunnels and passageways like a maze. It seemed to him that they were always going up a slight incline and that they were spiraling up, by taking constant lefts. Finally, the corridor widened into a room with chairs and tables where several women were waiting and then went through two huge double doors and into a cavernous throne room. The floors were solid black rock polished down to mirror. Torches were lit every thirty or forty feet on either side. It was so quiet in the room that their bare foot steps echoed back at them as they crossed the immense space. At the far side of the room sat three ornately carved stone thrones, a big one in the center and two smaller to either side. The apparent "Queen Mother" sat upright and royal in the center. Her wings rolled up and coiled behind her. A silver Tierra crown sat upon her head and it was quite clear where the princess got her looks from. In fact, he supposed this is exactly what the princess would look like years from now. Standing a few feet behind the Queen was a very old and wizened looking Nymph. Although she was obviously very old with long brittle white hair and a creased and wrinkled face, you could tell by the way she held herself that she was very important.
On either side of the thrones stood five of the tallest women he had ever seen. All 10 had their swords drawn and all were looking intensely at him. Not with curiosity, as with all the other winged women they had past, but with pure intense scrutiny. He could almost feel them pulling at his mind and he had to shake his head to try to shake the feeling.
"Mother," the princess spoke, "I present you with Bishop." The princess took a seat to the right of her mother and fixed him with her stare. The Queen had yet to look up. She appeared to be meditating or be in a trance and for a long moment, he thought perhaps she was asleep and completely unaware of their presence. Then it hit him, like the waft of a song sung at great distance at first. He could hear it but could not make out the words. Louder then, and he felt himself go light headed, his knees buckled and two of his four guards supported him by either arm. There was a sudden sharp pain in his head but before he could bring his hands up, it abruptly stopped. He stood there woozy, trying to collect himself when he felt her gaze on him. He looked up at her almost fearfully, expecting to see her judging him with disdain filled eyes. He was quite taken aback when he looked into her compassionate face. She had kindness and a kind of sadness in her eyes for a moment. As if she felt as he had.
"I am Queen Regina Valde. I am honored to meet you, Bishop. You will forgive us if you feel we have been less than hospitable but we had to be sure of your intent." The old woman standing behind the throne stepped up to the side of it. "This is Dame Una Fiducia. She is my closest advisor and the eldest of all the Nymph. She is also an excellent judge of character. She feels about you as I do."
She motioned him to sit on one of the three steps before the thrones and he did so gratefully.
"May I ask her Majesty a question?" he said, expecting to be struck by one of the guards for speaking. The Queen looked at him curiously. "You just did." She said amused. "Would you like to ask another?" It took a second for that to sink in but finally he smiled. "Your Majesty, I have many."
Queen Regina Valde held out her hand. "I have been in your mind, Bishop. I see your intentions are not evil and you have many questions. You are a prisoner of your fate and it is fate alone that holds you here. Take my hand and close your eyes. All will be revealed to you." He reached out and took her hand in both of his. As he did he noticed that Dame Una Fiducia had placed her hand on the Queens shoulder. He closed his eyes and immediately felt as if a sleep had suddenly overtaken him. He could feel himself falling into a dream. He was a spectator and events unfolded before him as if he were standing there witnessing all firsthand. And he understood.