Drabble challenge (2)

[rosiphelee]

For wispywillow The tennis played in the palace is real tennis, not modern lawn tennis.



Three years after the Lords fell, when the last battalion of the second echeloi had finally left the Hall of Flutes, swearing allegiance to the Court, the Serene Lady locked herself into the old tennis court with a flagon of Byzant wine and orders not to be disturbed for less than the return of the Lords.

She set herself to remembrance, forcing a new detail clear with every sip: Stefan's crooked teeth, Callisto's earlobes, the sound of laughter.

By the time the mice came creeping out, she was weeping, unaware of the abandoned wine and discarded tennis gear surrounding her.

Comments

[wispywillow.livejournal.com]

Ooo, lovely! Thank you, me dear!

Oh, and will you believe me when I say I'm just a couple pages from finishing The Haunted? *dances* I'm loving it, too!

[rosiphelee.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it :) I was determined to answer it in this setting, and real tennis suddenly clicked into place as being perfect for the palace.

Yay! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[shanra.livejournal.com]

Ooooh... Very mysterious, me dear! And very sad too, especially that ending paragraph. There's so much emotion that you can get through in just a small amount of words. Truly quite astonishing.