Title: Absent Trio
Fandom: Original, but inspired by Melissa Scott's Roads of Heaven
Challenge: Anywhere but Here
Rating: G
Length: 100
Content notes: N/A
Author notes: Thanks go to Zana, Morgynleri & Icka for encouragement & sanity-checking.
Summary: They are not here




The room was spacious, the ceiling high, the paneled walls carved and painted with skill and elegance. Sheer curtains filtered the brilliant tropical light to a gracious level, bright but not dazzling, and cleverly made fans and vents kept the air moving, almost cool. The furniture was beautifully made of local wood by local craftspeople, the art and ornaments tasteful and thoughtfully placed. It ought to have been a place of peace, of pleasure, of comfort, but without the presence of its mistress, its masters, it was only a room in a stately house, not the beating heart of a home.