Mortal Follies by Alexis Hall EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available For Free Download
- Authors: Alexis Hall
- Language: English
- Genre: Fantasy
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 2 MB
- Price: Free
When Miss Mitchelmore arrived at Lady Etheridge’s ball, she was
resplendent in a gown of silver French gauze over a silken slip, her hair
styled à la Grecque and decorated with roses. She caught even my eye, and I
sometimes find it a little tricky to tell mortals apart. Which, I’ll admit, may
have caused the tiniest of problems in the past.
For much of the evening I watched her from across the room while an
elderly colonel opined to me at length regarding the French emperor. It was
not, as you may imagine, a topic about which I cared in the slightest. See
above regarding my difficulty distinguishing mortals from one another, even
short Corsicans. Eventually I extricated myself from the conversation by
enchanting him with a slight but persistent itching between the shoulder
blades.
Thus freed, I found myself following the pretty Miss Mitchelmore. I am,
amongst other things, a collector of stories, and my instincts told me that she
was either the kind of lady who did interesting things or the kind to whom
interesting things happened. Or, at a pinch, the kind to whom they could be
made to happen. I am not above interfering in mortal affairs if it seems truly
necessary, or if it would be mildly entertaining.
Initially it seemed the evening would be a profound disappointment. Miss
Mitchelmore danced with several gentlemen, but never twice with the same
one. She conversed with a number of ladies but said nothing that might be
scandalous. There was, however, something strange about her gown. After
her first dance I noticed a tear in the hem. After the second I caught sight of a
stray thread trailing from her glove and saw petals falling from her hair. I
should at this point make clear to the reader that the lady’s dress, while fine,
was decidedly not of fairy manufacture. The works of my people have a
wholly undeserved reputation for coming apart unexpectedly or transforming
into leaves and cobwebs at the slightest provocation. In fact, such disasters
tend to require considerable provocation. The problem is that mortals are
exceedingly provoking.
But on this evening, at this ball, Miss Mitchelmore’s dress was most
certainly dissolving into something. A snag here, a run there—it swiftly
added up to a problem that first she, and then the general assembly, could not
ignore. The loss of a headdress might be explained away as youthful high
spirits, but by the time her gloves had frayed to the elbows it was clear she
was in no fit state to be in mixed company. And since in her present
circumstances mixed company could scarcely be avoided, she was, to put it
bluntly, fucked.
To her credit, but my disappointment, she did not panic. I have, over the
centuries, seen a number of mortals deprived unexpectedly of clothing (there
are some jokes, after all, which never fall out of fashion) and their responses
are almost always hilarious. But once Miss Mitchelmore’s skirts had begun to
go the way of the rest of her ensemble, she retreated quietly to the garden and
took shelter behind an ornamental bush.
For More Read Download This Book
EPUB