Sculpted by the Gods
Lady Dimitrescu x gender neutral reader
You stood in a lavish yet dark room. Candles casted a low flickering light, whilst shadows convened in the corners where the flame didn’t reach. It wasn’t ideal working conditions but the light was plenty enough to work with. Four quarried pieces of marble stood on wooden plinths. Dust sheets laid across the polished floor. Whilst drafting papers littered the ground, your messy scribbles dotting the pages. Accompanied by numerous sketches with specifications, sizes and little notes annotating them.
For the most part you were left alone to work. Most sculptors had apprentices but, you valued the time you had to yourself. Which wasn’t much. It was commissions like these that gave you that time alone.
The first few months were uneventful. You made good progress splitting the marble with a mallet and pitcher. Creating a rough shape. The rhythm of your strikes rung out into the empty room. As if waiting for a band to spring into life and play a lively composition.
The next month you began to feel eyes on you. As the month carried on this feeling became more frequent. You were aware that the matriarch of the castle was a formidable woman. But that is all you knew. You were, after all, an outsider. You did not speak Romanian. English was not your mother tongue, but it was the shared language between you and the castle staff. The woman commissioning your sculptures hadn’t actually met you in person.
The unnerving feeling of being watched became suffocating at times. Your mallet arm faltered a few times causing you to mis-strike. Whenever you looked around you’d see nobody. So you always just shrugged it off and got back to work.
~
Lady Dimitrescu sat in a parlour sighing heavily. Her daughters, as much as she simply adored and loved them, were absolute monsters sometimes. The castle was understaffed as is, she really didn’t need her two youngest to go off killing maids, and. To top it off, even Bela had indulged in killing one of the groundskeepers…
She looked at the gold gilded bottle of her finest Vintage. Then at the equally ornate glass in her hand. Another sigh. She set the wineglass down and went for the bottle. Necking it. She did love her daughters. Really, she did. But sometimes…. mother needs alone time. A lot of it.
The bottle was now drained. Alcina looked at it with disdain before setting it down and slumping in the chair. It was a rare occasion in which she was on top of all her business and work stuff.
The silence in the parlour became too much. The countess stood up with some force and headed for the door. Ducking ever so gracefully.
~
The east wing, where you were working had been cordoned off to the daughter’s. Alcina wished for the sculptures to be done without any setbacks. She also didn’t want the you to be scared off. You were a well renowned sculptor, and Alcina had deemed your works of a high enough standard. She had her staff deal with the correspondence with you.
What she hadn’t expected was you to be so pleasing to the eye. She’d found herself become… somewhat enraptured… by you. There was something in the way you got so focused and lost in your work that was endearing. Not wanting to ruin your workflow, Alcina has taken to watching you, more like stalking, but who was to argue with her?
She loved the way you’d sometimes start humming a tune as you whittled away the marble, how you’d walk away from it to see the stone from a distance. And how you’d trot back to it to continue working.
~
Right now you were sat on the floor, contentedly eating a hearty stew you had been served. As you ate you were also studying the second bust you had made. The first one was finished. Polished up nicely. And the second was nearly done. Leaving two more to be made. At times you’d look down at some of the many papers strewn across the room. Scribble something down then take another mouthful. Alcina felt a warmth bubble in her chest, she wanted to talk to you but, god forbid, she found herself a little… nervous, and shy. How unlike a Lady of her stature. After another few minutes Alcina had to pull her gaze from your figure. Somewhere in the opposite end of the castle her daughters were about to rip each others’ throats out.
~
You misfired with the hammer and injured your hand. Both chisel and mallet fell to the floor as you hissed, cradling your hand. You weren’t the only one to exclaim. A rich voice gasped. Your head whipped round at the noise to fall upon a towering column of white.
“I’m so sorry, I didn’t realise you were here!” You held your hand to your chest and smiled. Only now taking in properly, her height, “can I do anything for you?”
Alcina couldn’t help but chuckle at your obliviousness. It was a welcome breath of fresh air, having a human who didn’t instantly hate her or fear her. A human who made her stomach flutter a little.
“No, my little dear,” she walked into the room to the finished statue. Bending at her hips to admire the smooth finish, “I must ask, your hand?” The countess tilted her head to look at you.
“It’ll be fine, just a small bump…” you gave her a look, “I… your name?”
A pause.
“Alcina,” She offered, with a slight squint to her eyes.
“It’s a lovely name, it’s rather fitting,” you then give her yours. Unbeknownst to you she already knows.
The flustered butterflies returned to Alcina’s stomach.
“Greek in its origins if I’m to guess,” you bent down to pick up your tools and start working again, “do you know the countess of the castle?” You attempted to make small talk.
Your answer came in the form of a simple hum to say ‘yes’.
“Her surname is Dimitrescu, stemming from Greece, like your name,” you prattled on, “means ‘Son of Dimitr’ a Greek goddess,”
You chance a quick glance at her. Becoming a tad conscious of being overbearing.
“Please do go on,” Alcina watched you through her lashes which were tangling at the outer corner of her eyes.
“Sorry, just as someone you spent a lot of time in Greece, well. I just love the pantheon… that’s all,”
You let the conversation, or rather your ramblings lull into a silence. You found pleasantly comfortable. Only the sound of your mallet and chisel filling the room.
“Demeter is most well known as the Goddess of the Harvest. But she also presides over the cycle of life and death,”
“Interesting, I wasn’t aware of that,”
“I believe the Dimitrescu family are knowing for their wine making, the Lady is a vintner if I’m not mistaken. I think the surname is rather appropriate, you’d need a good harvest for grapes, so who best to follow other than the goddess of agriculture?” you mused softly. Taking a few steps back. Brow furrowing as you try figure what needs done to the bust.
Alcina makes a noise of acknowledgment before speaking.
“Do you find it… peculiar, that the countess has not had an audience with you?” Alcina studies you with scrutiny.
You look at her. Body facing her. And you make a face as you think of your answer.
“Not really, I have been commissioned by nobles before and usually their family head speaks with me directly,” you shrug, “but no. The specifications and brief were concise enough that I know what is wanted. I suppose before I finish the busts properly I’ll ask to have a meeting,”
Alcina finds herself nodding slowly.
“Just to ensure everything is as the Lady would want. Why do you ask?”
“No particular reason,”
Alcina approaches you and strokes your head. You find yourself leaning in. Enjoying the contact. This woman is rather enchanting.
“I’d love to make a sculpture of you,” it’s almost a whisper, “you have the loveliest face, it would be a crime not to immortalise it for the future generations,”
“My my, you flatter me, perhaps I may humour you, little pet,”
You find yourself chuckling and nodding.
“I hope you do Alcina,”
~
Eight months go by and you’ve finished the busts. Almost. Most of the time during those months you were visited by Alcina. You requested one of the maids to bring a chair for her into the room after a month of her visits. To save her from standing. She would stay for hours sometimes. And you enjoyed every second you spent with her. Never once did she ever reveal who she was. And she gave no hints either. To her you were oblivious to who she really was.
You manage to catch a passing maid.
“Excuse me, do you have any idea how to contact the countess?”
You frown when the maid gives you a look of disbelief.
“I’ll have an meeting arranged for you, you will be summoned when she sees fit to host you,”
“Oh… thank you,”
You head back into the room and go about collecting the bits of paper into a neat-ish stack. Clips kept them into four different piles. You placed them into a simple wooden table that had four bronze placards. Surface perfectly smooth. Engraving tools sat next to it. With the inscriptions as well.
The sound of a door opening snagged your attention as you watch, mesmerised, by your very tall friend sucking under the doorframe. One hand holding the door frame and the other her hat. You find it rather cute how she holds the hat so it stays on her head.
“Alcina! How are you today?” You chirp with a wide smile.
“I’m doing well my little darling,”
“I’m glad to hear,”
Alcina’s eyes scan the room and take note of the busts.
“Are you finished?” She tries to keep the edge of disappointment from her voice. She doesn’t want you to go. She doesn’t want your toes to the castle, to her, to be over.
“Well, almost. Just need to make sure the countess is happy with them and then it’s onto polishing them and making the inscriptions,” you do catch onto her tone, “if you put in a good word for me then perhaps the countess might commission me again. And we can spend more time together,”
“Yes, or perhaps I’ll commission you myself,”
“If it’s you then it’ll be free,”
“You’re so chivalrous,”
A silence falls between the two of you as you pick up a small chisel and make a few little adjustments to one of the statues. Alcina takes a seat.
“There is another statue that I believe the Lady would want commissioned,” Alcina spoke, “it’s much larger than these busts, but I’m sure that would be no challenge,”
“Well I’d be very much interested should the countess want me to work again,”
You set the tools down and walk over to her. She holds your waist as you hop up into her lap and caress her cheeks. Enjoying how smooth the feel to your calloused fingers. A familiar smile sets on Alcina’s lips as you stand on your knees to peck her forehead. Your lips travel down her temple to her cheek as you pepper her in little kisses. Then you place a chaste one to her lips. Smiling into them before leaning back.
“I have a secret to tell you,”
A perfect eyebrow was arched as you beckon Alcina to lean in.
“You do?”
“Promise not to tell anyone!”
After Alcina finished nodding you whisper into her ear. The grin can be heard in your voice.
“I think I’ve fallen rather hard for you, Lady Dimitrescu,”