The Art of Charming a Changeling Quotes

“In this painting, Vibrant Lord Vernal Mauve looked as poised and polished as one might expect. His proportional relationship with the ruins suggested he was short in stature, but there was a confidence to his stance that made him appear to occupy much more space. Lord Mauve was dressed in a ruffled blouse of tea-rose lace that lay daringly unlaced across his collarbones, paired with a set of trousers seemingly sewn from a full meadow of fresh rose petals. Like most Faeries, he sported a pair of false wings. Because Fairies’ magnificent wings were invisible to Folk, fifteenth-century Fairy visitors delighted in designing fashionable contraptions to help them maintain their winged appearance while abroad in Folk cities such as Stillscape. Lord Mauve’s wings featured a patchwork of iridescent tulle, which Loftus highlighted with a convincing shimmer.
In an appealing departure from the acutely toned physiques prized in prior centuries, the Fairy’s figure was rounded and soft beneath his elegant attire. His chin curved pleasantly into a bright, full face, and the madder glaze layered atop the beige pigment of Lord Mauve’s skin gave him a rosy glow. Most perplexingly, Loftus had evidently decided to buck tradition by gracing Lord Mauve with the warmest smile Florrie had ever seen. She could not tear her eyes from it. How tempting it was to imagine the gentle voice and endearing mannerisms that would accompany such a face!
In other words, Florrie suspected that if she were to meet this Lord Mauve in passing, she would blush deeply and dedicate all her subsequent daydreams to imagining an improbable scenario in which they might become better acquainted.”
― Sylvie Cathrall, The Art of Charming a Changeling

“It was an archetypal ruin portrait, a sub-genre that was terribly common during the fifteenth century. The top third of the picture-plane hosted a thick glade of botanically unrecognizable trees, while the midground included several isolated groups of ruins. The most elegant of these was a stately colonnade, supported by seven intact floreated columns topped with finials sculpted in the form of fierce-looking dragonflies. The artist had also included the significantly solitary arch, the remains of a large floor mosaic in the shape of a spiral, and several stacks of moss-covered ashlar stones. Behind the ruins, diminished in the distance, was the only complete structure in the picture; the domed-roof weaver's cottage in the thirteenth-century style was, no doubt, Loftus's attempt to appeal to the viewer's misplaced nostalgia.”
― Sylvie Cathrall, The Art of Charming a Changeling