“Well, this week’s been educational,” I mused as I walked alongside Michelle, “and for so many at that.”

                “Normally I would agree,” Michelle murmured as we paused at a top sign.  “But we didn’t accomplish much.”

                “Justice is a slow to start thing,” I said with a sharp grin. 

                “So is getting your hair done,” Michelle shot back with a grin of her own.  “Five hours, Cass, five of them.”

                “I can count,” I retorted.  “Besides, I had to get it redone for the shindig tonight, you said so yourself.”

                “It got messed up in your Krav Maga class,” she reminded me, pulling out her phone.  “And as important as tonight is for establishing corporate funding for Climbing up, we had to get it redone.”

                “Funding is a done deal,” I said as we crossed the street to our building.  An errant breeze reminded me my hair was up in an elegant knot at the back of my head.  It felt strange after months of it being down in braids.  “Tonight is to establish myself as a goddess to the family and maybe recruit some more help.”

                “Wonder if they’ll try to do a beefcake parade for you,” Michelle mused, her mind full of eligible young bachelors trying to woo some ingenue that had just graduated.  “I didn’t get one because I had a real degree, not some fluffy one the elders approved of.”

                “Misogyny, what a bitch,” I agreed.  “Let them shower me in beef cake, I’ll toy with them.”

                “I didn’t need to hear that, little Psyche,” Zothie said from my couch as I let us into my apartment.  He was wearing a pair of shorts and a t-shirt promoting some weird brand of soap he’d gotten hooked on.  “I was waiting for you two so I could hear the plans for tonight.”

                “I thought you didn’t want to go,” I reminded him.

                Michelle had her phone out, opening her itinerary for the evening without batting an eye.  She was already used to my mercurial brother.  “Damia will have a late lunch ready in about twenty minutes so I’ll run up to grab that when its ready.  After eating, we’ll start getting ready.  The limo should be here at six thirty along with our honor guard on motorcyles- I still can’t believe you requested that.”

                “I’m more surprised they managed to find one,” I told her with a shrug.  I’d seen it in a movie, thought it looked cool and told Michelle we needed one for the family party tonight.

                “A good assistant can find anything,” she informed me.  “We should arrive at the *redacted* by 7:15 and will make our entrance along the red carpet there.  Everyone else should be inside by 7, so we’ll be a bit late for the start of things, but I want you to get the attention you deserve.”

                “And then you set your dress on fire,” Needles- Luna- added, walking out of my room with a dress over her arm.  “I got those final adjustments done, Michelle.  Just need you to try it on, Psy.”

                 “Is your dress ready?”

                “I can wear off the rack,” Luna informed me with a pixyish grin.  Without her clubbing boots, she was only around 5’4”, quite a bit shorter than me but then again, most women were.  “And the dress you bought me is the most expensive thing I’ve ever owned in my life.  I’m terrified I’ll spill wine on it or something.”

                “That’s why it’s black, my dear,” Zothie said from the couch.  “Hides a multitude of sins.”

                “Then why am I not in black,” I wondered as Luna held my dress up.  It was a cascade of scarlet silk, a plethora of straps that would hold it up over my back and a matching capelet that could be dropped with a thought.  The front was a deep V that meant they’d had to build a bra into the top, though I was “allowed” to wear under pants of my choosing.

                “Because, my sacredness, you’re supposed to be attention grabbing,” Michelle told me.  “No other woman will be in red tonight, that’s your color.”

                “But my power is black.”

                “Red looks spectacular on your skin,” Zothie pointed out, rising from the couch.  “I also took the liberty of having some things crafted for each of you this eve.  Mustn’t have you stepping out without proper adornment.”

                A trio of boxes appeared in his hand, each about a foot square and four inches deep.  He handed the top one to Michelle, saying, “For our dear organizer.  Saw something like this on that singer you admire and had to have one made for you.”

                She set her phone down on the coffee table to accept the black leather-wrapped box, sitting down to lay it on her lap before pushing open cover.  In the box were a necklace and matching tennis bracelet, the metal a shining platinum that was outshone by the diamonds that wove around the bracelet.  But the true glory was the ruby set into the necklace, a tear shaped, six pointed cats eye that was so clear I could feel its quiet hum of glory.  I leaned over Michelle’s shoulder to look at the bracelet and saw the rubies that interspaced the diamond were also cats eyes. 

                “That’s beautiful,” I told my brother.  “The stones sing so beautifully, too.”

                “They can’t hear the song but I felt something extra was warranted,” Zothie said, obviously pleased by Michelle’s stunned reaction.  “Now, say ‘thank you, your sacredness’ so we can move on.”

                “Thank you, your sa-sa-sacredness,” Michelle sputtered, fingers tracing over the necklace.  It would look amazing with the black sweetheart gown she would be wearing, picking up the crimson embroidery beautifully.

                “And for you, Luna,” Zothie said, holding out the next box to my new seamstress.  “Thank you for hemming the trousers for my tux.”

                “It wasn’t a big deal,” Luna said, eyes as wide as her namesake.  She took her box, gasping over the name embossed on the top and after lifting the lid, looked up at Zothie with tears in her silvery blue eyes.  “It’s really a Sapphire Studio Design.  This is too much, Sir, you can’t-“

                “I already have,” he said, pleased.  “It was custom crafted for you, dear, with a rush order.  There’s no returning it.  You’ll just have to keep loving it.”

                She lifted out what looked like a platinum want with a crescent moon at the top.  Rubies were clustered in flower shapes over the outer curve, and I had to peek around her to see a bracelet with more of the same with rose gold leaves. 

                “Thank you,” Luna said, obviously trying not to cry.  “It’s too much but thank you.”

                “Good girl,” he said and looked to me.  “And last, but not least, my dear Psyche, this is for you.”

                The box he set in my hands was heavy enough that I copied Michelle, settling onto the couch next to Zothie, tracing my fingers over the smooth leather case.  It was stamped with a logo I was unfamiliar with (which didn’t say much) and contained a smaller velvet box and a matching ring box.  I opened the ring box to see my own statement ring in a box bearing the name Cartier.  It was honestly a bit obnoxious in how bit it was. 

                “You’ll be able to see this across a football field,” I told Zothie, slipping it onto my right ring finger.  It fit perfectly, of course.  “How much was this?  The box says it’s a Destinee Solitaire.”

                “Not telling,” Zothie said.  “It does match my cuff links.  But as lovely as it is, the ring has nothing on the necklace.  I did ask Michelle about it matching your dress before I bought it.”

                “But that one wasn’t for sale.  It was listed at…”

                “No, don’t tell her,” Zothie cut Michelle off.  “I want to see her look at it first.”

                “You’re silly,” I told him preemptively as I lifted the cover off the final box.  Yup, he was silly. Mad.  Insane.

                I didn’t deserve this.

                Singing softly, a cascade of precious stones made up a collar bone gracing confection of a necklace.  Five rows of small rubies made the top layer, with seven rows of square-cut diamonds on the bottom, centered by a trio of gemstones- a near glowing round moonstone, an oval-cut royal red ruby the size of my thumb with the bottom stone, and anchoring the bottom was a deep green round emerald.  It was exquisite and must have cost a fortune in metal alone, judging from the weight.

                “Thank you,” I said as I lifted the necklace.  It sparkled and sang with its own power and beauty.  “These aren’t ordinary stones, are they?”

                “No, they are not,” Zothie said with a secretive smile.  “But you’ll figure out their uses soon enough.  I’m off to get ready, see you girls in a couple hours.”

                Yes, it really did take the three of us about two hours to get hair, make up and dressing done.  I’d had to put my shoes on before my dress because there was no way I was reaching under the dress to do up the crystal embellished pumps.  Mine were a “modest” two and half inches.  Which was nothing compared to the 4” heels on Michelle’s Monolo’s.  She’d said she needed the height to avoid having to hem her dress but I think she just wanted to be taller. 

                It took both women to help me into my dress, weaving my tendrils through the dozens of straps on the back of the dress.  I was still as they directed what to move where, afraid I’d shred the form fitting dress before they could button the last set of straps in over the back.  The gown clung to me from bust to hips before the slits that ran from floor to midthigh started on each side.  Between the cut and the heels, I had to walk with an aggressive surety or not at all.  Anything less would get me tangled in the dress and I’d fall.

                Again.

                Anyway, once I was all strapped in and sitting on a stool at the kitchen counter, I was able to watch Michelle and Luna dress, putting on their gown much faster than mine.  Michelle just had to be zipped into the sweet-heart gown she wore, though hers only had one slit that went to just above her left knee.  Her 4” heels brought the bottom of the dress to skim along the top of her toes, making her look all long legs and the corset she wore beneath it made mountains out of her breast. 

                Luna’s dress was a simple black v neck gown with a gentle flare to the feet, giving her a ball gown silhouette, or so she’d said.  Her new necklace hung right below her collar bone and the crimson colors of the rubies there and at her wrists all the more eye catching for it.  Her shoes, like mine, were a lower heel so she could move easier.   She’d wanted to wear black Keds or combat boots, but Michelle had nearly had an aneurism over the idea.  So lower heels were the compromise. 

                At 6:25, a nock on my front door was followed by Zothie walking in, dressed to the nines in a black tuxedo with a scarlet vest and tie instead of a traditional cummerbund and bowtie.  A stickpin held his left lapel down, easily noticeable for the ruby that matched the centerpiece of my own necklace.

                “I’m sensing a theme here,” I said with a laugh.

                “No one else is allowed to wear rubies or red tonight,” Zothie informed me. 

                “They’re sending people home who forget,” Michelle told me, glancing down at her phone.  “It’s already started, some old biddy thought she’d try to up stage you.  She had spares in her limo, off all the ridiculousness.”

                “We must assert ourselves,” Zothie said, pulling on his cuffs to make the rubies there flash.  “And having a signature color and stone, in your case rubies, helps do that.  By claiming the color for you and your intimates, you say this is mine.  And red is a classic power color.”

                “So we’re making our first moves by showing up in what everyone else is forbidden to wear,” I said.  “Interesting.”

                “So much of tonight will be,” Zothie said with a look in his eyes that made me wonder just how off script tonight was going to go.