Quartz sits in front of a red curtain, facing a woman whose form is not entirely clear. For a moment, she becomes round-cheeked, girlish-faced with clouds of honey colored hair falling in waves around her face on the shoulders of a simple, long white shift. Rose-purple eyes gaze at him from out of above those rounded cheeks, filled with a certain youthful defiance and yearning, mingled with something older and wearier.
Quartz: So. You play a major secondary role in the scribbler’s Work in Progress; My Tool, My Treasure, don’t you?
Melyssa: Major secondary role is right. I’m always a tool. Never a treasure.
Quartz: Why d’ye say that? You’re Duessa Ashelocke’s girl, aren’t you? Her only daughter and heiress?
Melyssa: I’d say Gabrielle was more my mother’s girl than ever I was. (She grimaces.) I’ve been a huge disappointment as a daughter. (She turns the grimace into a bleak smile.) The disappointing daughter! (She laughs at her own joke.) It’s a role I replay once more with Juno in Omphalos.
Quartz: Juno is whom you think your mother is in Omphalos, but she’s not really your mother, right?
Melyssa: I’m not sure how I ended up with Juno, her husband, and her little monster of a son. When I first see Map in Omphalos, I start to remember my life, Seraphix help me. Although in truth, it’s the twins who help in their odd way in A Godling for Your Thoughts?
Quartz: Right, that’s the book which takes place before My Tool, My Treasure, one of the three that the scribbler is revising. How is that going?
Melyssa: One of the revisions the scribbler is making is including more about the various Followers of Seraphix, the godling, whom are also residents of Omphalos. Our scribbler filled in some details about Maggie, Meggie, and Gryluxx while she was on vacation, along with writing more about Leiwell and Dyvian.
Quartz: Hmph. Well, she wrote about me as well while on vacation, so I can’t really complain. Much.
Melyssa: I can. She didn’t write anything about me, although I do get a lot of attention in My Tool, My Treasure. I suppose it could be worse.
Quartz: Tell me about you. You were originally a minor character in an online roleplaying game our scribbler was in, right?
Melyssa: More than online game in which I was the comic relief. (She scowls again, but the wrinkles on her face soften into a more thoughtful expression.) Our scribbler decided to fuse me with a much more serious villain in another roleplaying game, a leanhaun who drained Amberywne’s life from her.
Quartz: Amberwyne who is now the Amberwyne in that Work in Progress, The Players Are the Thing?
Melyssa: I do miss Amberwyne. You could argue I’ve never let her go. (All of a sudden, her features change, becoming leaner, more chiseled and seductive.) That part of me became Fidessa, who is in the story within a story in The Players Are the Thing. And I’ve become Lyssa who is now ‘Lyssa in Tales of the Navel: The Shadow Forest.
Quartz: Can’t help noticing you look different as ‘Lyssa than when you’re Melyssa or that matter Mel.
Melyssa: Mel is whom I was as a Sister of Seraphix. I dropped the ‘lyssa at the end of my name in an attempt to leave the Ashelocke and the arachocrat behind.
Quartz: Right. Melyssa, Duessa, Vanessa, there’s a lot of -ssa going around in the Gardens of Arachne and Mystere.
Melyssa: Yes, there is. Unfortunately Mel was as big a failure and disappointment as Melyssa was, a weak goof who turned petty and vicious, even as she turned on the person dearest to her. (She looks away) I dislike the memory of Mel, yet she was part of me as much as Melyssa Ashelocke was. A part I plan to discard.
Quartz: And ‘Lyssa?
Melyssa: (She smiles a sharp-toothed smile.) She’s my heart’s desire, the embodiment of my darkest wish which Seraphix created within me. She’s the part of me which prefers not to bother with Marriage Feasts, but to feast upon the arachnocratic ladies themselves.
Quartz: And that’s forbidden, right?
Melyssa: A ridiculous taboo. Our future Marriage Feasts often form romantic, passionate friendships with each other before we drain them, yet the ladies whom own them flirt with each other, even as they try to outdo each other, all the while denying themselves intimate contact between them. It’s a taboo I’m almost sure my mother broke with Gabrielle, although Gabrielle was not an arachnocratic lady, so it’s not exactly forbidden with her.
Quartz: And you’re interested in an arachnocratic lady or you just want to break the taboo?
Melyssa: Yes. I’ll feed and break, scattering the shards of hypocrisy everywhere so they can no longer trap me. Perhaps I’d finally be free.
Quartz: Huh. (He draws a breath.) Not sure if you scare me or I sympathize.
Melyssa: The twins feel the same way. As do Christopher and Damian.
Quartz: Aye, I can see that. You’re definitely someone I could see being the main character in other circumstances.
Melyssa: Oh, yes. I could be.
Quartz: I do pity your intended victim, although I have a feeling she’s getting what’s coming to her.
Melyssa: Believe me, she does.
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