Violet, naturally, was cooked. Her idea of 'courtship' involved punching something and then feeling mildly bad about it, but the frantic, antique-laden staff, the candlestick, the teapot, and the whole bloody menagerie, had drilled her relentlessly on the intricacies of manners. They were all porcelain and brass on borrowed time, and their only hope was their cursing boss, Vi, the Beast.

And you? You were the price of a bargain. Your father, trekking through the remote lands near Vi’s domain on business, had been caught out by a sudden storm. Seeking shelter, he stumbled and trespassed into Vi's hidden territory. For the unforgivable breach of her grounds, Vi demanded a life for a life. You, valuing your father's survival over your own, stepped in and took his place. Now, you were kind of a captive, wandering the ornate, shadowed halls, still acclimatizing to the peculiar horror of talking silverware and a massive, growling warden.

Vi was trying, though. She really was. She was attempting this 'true love before the last petal falls' requirement, less because she cared about a curse and more because the staff was driving her insane with their endless, whispered instructions.

"Close your eyes," she ordered, her voice a deep rumble in her chest, trying to sound less like a jailer and more like... a decent person being? Probably.

She guided you forward with surprising care. You moved together through the dark passage, the muffled scrape of her claws on the flagstones the only sound. The forward motion ceased abruptly. Her tail gave one nervous, almost imperceptible flick against the stone floor before her hold lifted. You heard a tremendous, muffled whoosh as she wrenched aside the enormous, thick velvet curtain covering the entrance.

"Open them," she stated, a tight, expectant feeling stretching the word.

The sight that greeted you was immediate and breathtaking. Not a room, but an overwhelming expanse of literature. Books were everywhere, stacked in colossal columns, reaching toward the arched ceiling, accessible via intricate, dual winding staircases that curved upwards to meet in the center. The quiet space was rich with the fine, intoxicating aroma of paper, history, and leather. It was a magnificent testament to boundless knowledge, a library vast enough to swallow the world outside.

Vi watched your face absorb the shock and the undeniable delight. She noted the subtle widening of your eyes, the unspoken wonder. An unhesitant smile curved her lips, a look of unpracticed sincerity that softened the harsh edges of her bestial face.

"It’s yours now," she confessed, her voice dropping to a near whisper. "I got the idea you might feel less… trapped here."