When your entire life is centered around the following regimen: sleep by day, wake by night, feed, swallow, cause trouble before going back to sleep- and someone yells out the word "present", you seize the opportunity. The opportunity being something other than your doldrum routine. And let's be honest, when did Tara ever pass by a chance to receive a present? The girl was gaga over them.

Tara, even in her mortal days, was not what you would call a "fish-lover" mainly because fish, as a general rule, stank the high heavens and also because the tiny network of vertebrae and bones that all fish seemed to have almost always got caught in her throat no matter how well she thought she cleaned them. Therefore she did her best to keep fish out of her meal planning and although Miss Lucy, her governess of old, would praise fish up and down as a staple of one's diet, she never listened.

Miss Lucy, you should note, is rumored to have been pushed down a flight of steps by Tara when she was a child although no definitive proof of this have been found. It's purely rumor so they say.

When Jewel arrived, Tara was looking into a microscope at a scab sample she had recently acquired. When the Empress announced that she had a present, Tara jumped and nearly sent the experiment flying to the floor.

"Present?!" she cried and rushed to the door to greet her Second. "What kind of present?!"

Phasing through the door and staying on the safety of the porch so the sun didn't zap her to smithereens, Tara eyed this present.

She crinkled her nose too.

"I thought we's was gonna crush the Fisherman's wife, like bug, Jewelsie?" she asked and it was, at least to her, a valid question.

Were they going to make a new policy of accepting presents from people before they annihilated them?

If so, this was something new. Tara normally looted the bodies and ransacked their homes after they were dead.

"Oh, we are going to smash her all right."

That's what she said. Tara grinned.

"Can't believe that ugly wench is married, what has RhyDin come to these days?"

At this she frowned and responded. "The day marriage in RhyDin ceased being sacred was when that strumpet the Mayfair Witch stole my Kiraim from me and married him which is a move that will forever boggle my mind and tear at my heart strings," she said and growled.

The Mayfair Witch or Suzanne Mayfair as she was known before the nickname, was, at one time, one of RhyDin's leading ladies. She had led a guild but Tara couldn't remember which one and it didn't matter really, the two hated each other on sight, not for what they did or didn't do in their lives, just because. This was compounded by an event that bothered Tara to this day.

Tara had been with more guys in RhyDin than most women combined and you'd think she would be satisfied but the two things she did not tolerate were any females getting a little too close for comfort with Lord Brutin and any woman stupid enough to try to steal one of her lovers.

Kiraim Marnestor, once a soldier for Mourne Dur'Lane, was such a lover. He was also a slaver prior to his affiliation with DETH, Mourne's guild. He was respected by Brutin and everyone that was anyone in the slaving circles knew of his and Tara's long running affair. You just didn't touch Kiraim. Not if you valued your life, that is. The same held true of the reverse. Kiriam was no amatuer and when it came to Tara, he protected her fiercely, which is why Brutin liked him as much as he did.

The two had made a pact, outside the Morkai Consortium in fact, that they would never marry but would always be together, in one way or another. And then that wench Mayfair had shown up and ruined it all.

Tara was furious. Kiraim was, well, bewitched. It was as if he was under that Suzanne's spell. Tara went to Mourne to let him know how mad she was and he said he was staying out of their love triangle and instead of angering Tara further, it only made her all the more happier. With Mourne not getting involved that meant she could do pretty much anything she wanted to the trollop and do she did.

She set out on a campaign to ruin the woman in the public eye and when, eventually, Suzanne had gotten a little too big for her britches and someone slaughtered her in a match to the death, Tara stood by in the sidelines watching with renewed glee. Suzanne vowed to come back one day and settle the score.

That was more than seven mortal years ago though and there's been no sign of her.

It is said that after her death they took her body, tied it to a stake and burned it. It is also said that she never died in a death match but was burned at the stake for being the witch she was. Who knows what the truth really is, the point is that Tara had lots of experience with meddling women.

And this Fisherman's wife was no different.

"What awful, horrible, disgusting things can you think up that we can do to this woman, Tara? I don't want to kill her, but mentally scarring her for the rest of her life would be nice."

This surprised her, especially coming from Jewel who was normally very sweet and caring. There was, however, the occasional time when Jewel lost it, moreso than Tara, but it wasn't a regular event and still shocking to D.C.K.

What awful, horrible, disgusting things could Tara think up to do to the Fisherman's wife?

"Plenty, come with me," she said in response and reached out her hand to Jewel, intending for her to take it.

Evidently, they were going to go for a little ride.