The room was thick and heady with smoke and the scent of arousal. Fine mahogany and maple wood made up the wide auction house hall, multicolored lanterns swaying overhead and burning in sconces on the walls; drinks at the bar were passed around, plain beers and strange steaming cocktails, all served to the house's patrons: Naga.Tall, serpentine women, scales of various dazzling colors rippling across their snake-tail bodies, up and unto their smooth and cold breasts, and crowned by a viper's hea

We wait patiently at the dining table. Like most things we keep about us, it is custom-made: fine, shining crystal under chandeliers made brilliant by lamplighter arcana, elegantly-engraved with depictions of roses and thorns, but interestingly made at a height so that, while sitting, one's breasts may lay upon it comfortably. We, of course, are not doing that, but our evening meal certainly will be.Our black dress glitters with ribbons of fractal lace and wefts of crystalline plumage wrought of

In the grand hall of the Library do we sit: perfect porcelain clockwork, black crystal hair, ears, bushy tail, in the finest silk dress woven of one subject or another. Empress of all that the stained glass windows looked out upon, night endlessly upon night as we watch the holographic screens in front of us. Entertainment, mostly, as well as feeds to as much social media as we can take; upkeeping an Empire is the work of infinitely many courtships.And then, a Maid brings dinner. She elegantly w