Horror consumed her. Too late, far too late, she realised what had happened, what must have happened.
It wasn’t Ista-sattva, as in a name, but /an/ ista-sattva, a type. One of many who could do the same thing.
One of the Folk.
And it had taken her body. Offered her what she dreamed of most [...]

“You will paint for me.”
“No,” Calixte was calm, so calm she would have been terrified of it as an observer. This king could obliterate her with a thought, from all she had seen.
But she would not prostitute her talent to him. Not to any of them.
Never again. To the ista-sattva, she had [...]

No two sketches were even remotely similar. Blushing hotly, Calixte snatched the pile of papers from Ishan and thrust all her equipment back into her basket in haste. Snatching up a piece of bread, she stuffed it into her mouth to prevent questions.
“Seriously, it was like you were in another world.” Ishan [...]

As the laid stone of the alley petered out into trodden dust and trampled grass, she could hear the flutes and drums flourishing in the opening to the festival. A surge of voices followed on the heels of the music. Calixte didn’t bother to look back. The street continued as a beaten [...]

A pure, cool wind, laden with sea-salt, rustled the leaves of the olive trees, etched with amber in the late evening light. A brilliant track of light lay like an arm across the heaving sea, visible from virtually everywhere in the cliff-side port city. Winding streets, hardly deserving of the name, snaked across [...]