WHO Merlin and Luna WHEN Wednesday evening WHERE Merlin’s home WHAT Luna has a job to do, but at least there are books WARNINGS smut
Merlin looked at himself in the full-length mirror in his bedroom, checking his look. He was going for “respectable professor” in aesthetic, but sticking with his signature dark, rich blues. He wanted to project an aura of knowledge and authority, but not be unapproachable. The velvet blazer (he loved velvet) and plain slacks made the right impression, he thought, and his hair was swept back and beard artfully trimmed. He knew with the company Luna kept, she would be well acquainted with many different types of people, gods and men, so he had to keep up appearances and fit in with the elite group.
“What say you, Archimedes?” he asked the grumpy-looking stuffed grey owl that sat on a shelf near the mirror for just such conversations. The owl said nothing of course, but Merlin nodded, straightened his sleeves, and headed downstairs.
Merlin’s house was three storeys tall, and from the outside looked unremarkable, except for the circular window that overlooked the street from the third storey. The front door was painted royal blue, and had brass fittings that shone like gold, and a door knocker in the shape of a slender hand.
The front door opened onto a small foyer, for removing boots and raincoats, brass hooks on the wall and a wooden bench seat for sitting. A wooden door with a glass window then lead to a short hallway with doors on each side: to the left, a tidy kitchen, copper pots hanging up and a large cast iron cauldron in front of the window; to the right, a dining room with a dark wooden table and six chairs, a sideboard laden with crockery, the plates all white with a rim of gold. And then, through the end door: the library.
The house was essentially living quarters attached to a shrine to knowledge. The whole three storeys at the back of the house were wall-to-wall shelves, except for a tall window that went all the way up in the centre, framed by ridiculously long, heavy, blue velvet drapes that clearly were never used. The ceiling was painted a deep cloudy blue like the night sky, dotted with gold eight-pointed stars, and in the center was a circular skylight, around which radiated nine concentric circles painted with the paths of the planets, divided into the sectors of the zodiac. The constellations visible about New York were also painted in, animals and heroes parading across the night sky.
Each floor had a walkway going along the front of the shelves on the sides, the balustrades of brass and iron, curved in Art Nouveau style. The wall that ran through the centre of the house held shelves running perpendicular, giving more room for storage, and the open space in front of the window was square and symmetrical. A spiral staircase stood in one inside corner and a tiny round elevator in the other, going all the way up, giving access to the shelves and the rooms behind them. The second floor held a bathroom, a study and a guest bedroom situated behind the shelves, all decorated in varying shades of royal blue through to deep purple and accented with gold. The top floor was Merlin’s bedroom and a second smaller bathroom, but it felt like the library was invading it, because most of the walls in there were covered in books too. A beautiful telescope stood by the circular window, and on one wall was a low four-poster bed.
The contents of the library looked like they had once been intended to have some order, but somewhere along the way, the librarian had given up. The walls were full to the point where piles of books just sat on the floor, waiting to be shelved. In places were plinths and drawer units filled with what Merlin referred to as “curiosities”. Precious stones; magical items of varying kinds (some that worked, some that didn’t); a full human skeleton standing in a glass cabinet; various small taxidermied birds, animals and pinned insects; glass jars and domes containing an array of miscellaneous odds and ends and bric-a-brac collected from around the world. A pot plant or two gave the place a bit of greenery. Some large pieces of classical art hung, or were on the floor, propped against books. A lilac chaise lounge sat near a mahogany desk in the clear centre of the floor, almost looking like it had been crowded there by the ever-encroaching books.
Into this world Luna would step, and Merlin fully intended that she would be absolutely enthralled by the whole display. One last touch was the ambience, so he called out, “Play the mystic music mix!”
“Excellent choice as usual,” said a smooth female voice, just before classical music began to play, the speakers concealed so it sounded like the music was coming from everywhere and nowhere. Merlin nodded, satisfied, and headed into the kitchen to make sure the dinner was almost done.