Arc 10 Post 45: Gifts to the Kindly
Gifts to the Kindly
27th of December 2006 A.D.
One might be forgiven for thinking that you got into the spirits business on the third day of Christmas. For the Lady and the Queen of Winter you're thinking of a bottle of Arctic Absinthe, a spirit fermented from fresh Ascetic's Root and those few lightless plants of the waste that are edible to people with a humanoid metabolism, not that you doubt Mab's ability to digest far harsher fare, but it is the spirit of the thing. Damn it, you just punned in your own head. To make yourself feel better you swirl the sample in the glass and note the liquid almost seems to contain a trapped aurora borealis. It's supposed to taste cold if that is not just advertising. One way to know for sure. In one quick motion you drain the cup.
"Woah," you exhale sharply. It tastes cold though it does not feel it, almost like mint, if you could refine the freshness of it thousandfold and replace and add a kick like sparks of lightning dancing on the tongue that settle into a subtle heat. Definitely novel enough without being so precious as to look like you are fishing for more boons. Two is plenty.
Together with a jar of milk and honey to pay off the messengers you hand both bottles to one of the eldest malks of Chapalu's kindred assured that they will get to where they are meant to go in good time. There aren't many things that can stir a cat into prompt action, but the thought of Mab's ire at being left waiting for a gift, even so small as this, is one of them. And maybe they are a touch worried about me as well, you admit, a little proud, a little worried and altogether next year's thought.
After passing Thomas his wine and Lydia her new shoes —good thing you had not gone for wine there as well, apparently 'ghosts can throw a hell of a party when the mood strikes them'— you consider the other gift left in the proverbial basket, Bright Brandy. Traditionally distilled from the shock-fruit of the near forests, it undergoes a natural form of electrochemical fermentation over a fivefold distilling process. At the end of it the wine posesses a cloudy white color, forking yellow streaks form and break apart as it moves, giving a false sense of depth. Supposedly it has a sweet and tangy taste, it crackles in the mouth and leaves a tingling numbness going down. You are not really in the mood for more tasting right now. Unlike the Winter Court you have no low-ranking contacts in Summer, in truth you do not have contacts at all.
The only time you had laid eyes on Seelie Fey was last July, when when you had met Lilly the Summer Lady and Fix the Knight of that Court. They had been friendly enough, but a lot had changed since then: you had gotten a reputation among other things as an ally of the White Court and of Winter. Who knows, they might even know of the boons that Winter owes you by some strange faerie magic. Is being neighborly, as your dad would put it, worth being even more on Summer's radar? On the other hand there's an itch at the back of your mind. What has Summer been doing and how would they react?
What do you do?
[] Deliver the gifts in person to the Summer Lady
[] Let Harry deliver the gifts, go home and talk to your mother
[] Write in
OOC: I forgot about Porter's gift and it did not make sense to go back it in this update since Molly has a better memory than me, so instead I edited it in here. No rolls in this one.
Last edited:
