heart Forevermore, the grig would know an unending hunger and would be cursed to forever attempt to fill that eternal emptiness Quite pleased with herself, Mab laughingly flung the starving beast into the woods CHOKING IT DOWN O, then, I see Queen Mab hath been with you Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frighted swears a prayer or two And sleeps again This is that very Mab That plats the manes of horses in the night, And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs, Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes: This is the hag, when maids lie on their backs, That presses them and learns them first to bear, Making them women of good carriage —William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet (I iv.) Hezhkarm was soon found by her grig clan after they had heard of her release Broken, bleeding, and starving in the wild, in her madness-induced hunger she devoured them all, crying the entire time But even the meat of her family did not quiet her hunger pangs For millennia, Hezhkarm hunted the dells and forests, gorging herself until she became like a gigantic bloated tick, a creature made of slobbering fat, deadly fangs, and bitter contempt As fate and turnabout would have it, Queen Mab happened to cross through Hezhkarm‘s wood one day, and Hezhkarm caught her scent on the wind Hezhkarm attacked Mab for what she had done to her, and Mab would have died if not for her wicked wit Remembering the creature she had cursed a lifetime before, in exchange for her life, Mab offered Hezhkarm the one thing she had always wanted—Mab’s undivided attention That and a chance to become a lady of court Painstakingly, Mab taught Hezhkarm how to talk, how to walk, how to dress, and how to act Much as a spider when exposed to poison will curl into a ball, — 52 — Hezhkarm curled into herself and took on a new, more demure form Her bloated husk was clothed in a gown sewn from night-blooming jasmine petals, Hezhkarm’s face was dabbed in stars, her cheeks were smeared with rays of silvery moonlight, and her lips were blotted with morning dew Cloaked in Mab’s faerie glamour, Hezhkarm began to look like Mab herself Thus the “Painted Lady” was born, and she adopted the softer, more ladylike name of Jasmine, after the ephemeral flowers comprising her gown Mab’s wickedness did not remain dormant for long, though Out of a sense of cruel irony, Mab invited Jasmine to make her debut at the coming Celebration of the Autumnal Equinox, the very same feast where centuries before she had taken little Hezhkarm prisoner Filling Jasmine’s head with dreams of being beloved by all at the feast, Queen Mab paraded Jasmine about for all to see and promised that she would be invited to every formal meeting of the courts in order to feast and frolic with all of the lords, now that she was one of them But during Mab’s toast to Jasmine, she cast off Jasmine’s glamour and revealed her disgusting form to all present The lords mocked Jasmine, and she grew enraged, slaughtering many in attendance before turning on Mab Mab fled in the direction of Aralu, a barren wasteland of caves that Mab had long used as a prison to house various dissidents to her reign Through Aralu’s dank pits, she was hunted, but as she fled, Mab coated the stone walls in glamour to make them appear as part of a great manse Jasmine finally cornered her and once more nearly devoured Mab but not before Mab delivered a convincingly apologetic speech, claiming that she would make Jasmine the marchioness of all that was around her, as befit a lady of her stature Jasmine’s rage was thus stifled, and she assumed her damsel form once more and agreed to become the lady of the manor surrounding her In this way, Mab bound Jasmine to the cave prison of Aralu, and Jasmine was forever caged by her own desires When Mab’s glamour faded, Jasmine was distraught and seethed with open hatred at Mab for her betrayal But Jasmine had learned much of trickery herself during her time as Mab’s student and was quick to note Mab’s promise