Faerie Sorrow's, Demon's Counsel
27th of December 2006 A.D.
Placing the flower behind one ear in an apparently thoughtless gesture you huff: "When it suits them indeed. It's almost funny how people can move between ignoring what's become different and what has stayed the same." playfully and yet almost conspiratorially you add: "They speak of blind men touching an elephant and each only seeing a part, but never about what the elephant thinks about getting felt up and still being mistaken for something else."
The Summer Lady sighs and it is like the scent of jasmine in the evening upon the air. "Do you want to come out back? I can show you some of the rarer flowers we don't put on display." She glances at the sidhe, you assume lord from the emotions he is allowing himself to show, as if she had just recalled he was there. "Stay here in case a customer shows up Liam."
It seems as though 'Liam' does not have the option of refusing a direct order, he nods once sharply and without a word takes her place as Lilly motions to a an odd door at the back of the shop, ledged and braced like you would see on a barn or maybe a shed, the white paint peeling off as though from years hard use. Any mundane shoppers would assume it is decorative you would bet, but it opens at her lightest touch... into a sunlit garden, the air balmy and fresh.
"Not Kansas?" you ask stepping under the fragrant shadows of cherries blooming pink, wisterias blue and another tree you do not know the name of purple as whispering twilight.
"Only about a third of the way to Oz," Lilly smiles as she closes the door behind you. "That it is a Jacaranda if you're wondering, it's an Australian tree, all the flowers in here are from Earth, no magic to them, though some—" she points at one of the handful of benches scattered around the garden in such a way that makes it clear they are making room for the roots and underbrush not the other way around— "have gone extinct otherwise."
"Benches used to sprout?" You ask in seeming wide-eyed wonder.
"No silly," she swats playfully in your general direction sending an eddy though your hair. "The lichen that's growing on the base. It's not
just the pretty ones she used to collect..." the cheer goes out of her like air from a popped balloon. "At least that elephant of yours could always trample the sages if it got sick of being poked. Blind men poking a duck and trying to convince it that it's a swan... eh who am I kidding?
She is poking the gofer I never wanted wings to begin with."
"Back up a little, is that something you can elaborate on?"
A small shake of the head is her only reply.
And with that the final piece falls in place. 'She' used twice without reference but in very different tones not to mention tenses. Together with the name of the shop you would guess it used to belong to Aurora the former Summer Lady, the one Harry killed and as for who might be prodding Lilly now... it has to be Titania, the Queen and the Mother would find it easiest by far to compel the Lady to silence, and the latter sounds way too detached from Bob's accounts to be the culprit here. As for the talk of swans ducks and gofers... well it does not take a detective to figure out what metamorphosis might mean in the context of a newly elevated Summer Lady.
I never wanted to be fey, I never wanted this.
Lilly's bright eyes dart around the garden, not like she is taking in the colors or enjoying the pleasant balm of faerie summer, resentfully and... guiltily. This you realize had been Aurora's garden, perhaps her refuge and now to Lilly it is a prison and she hates herself for the thought even as Titania is pushing her to be more like the daughter she had lost.
"That sucks," the words seem inadequate for the occasion, but you are not sure where the line is. Titania must have commanded Lilly not to talk about this because it would make her look bad or the Summer Court look weak.
"The shop used to be Aurora's Asters," she offers a seeming non sequitur. "A to Z, everything changes, it has to right?"
In a sense yes, Lilly has to change now as she grows more in tune with her Mantle, but where does that necessity end and the wish of a mother to fill the hole her daughter's death had made begin? Knowing what you do about what
Mab was willing to do for her children it is hard to imagine that Titania, whose power is of the heart, would not be swayed by grief. If Aurora had been deep in the Mantle's power then it would stand to reason that the more
Lilly changes the more she is like the daughter Titania lost.
Fuck, what am I going to do, what am I going to say? What can I say?
As is so often the case asking those kinds of questions and answer rises from within, a voice like hissing brass and cutting, icy winds:
"Yours is the Will and the Power of Unbinding Majesty, if you wish to divest the girl of the bright mantle do so."
"And declare war on the Summer Court?" you shoot back, shaken not so much at the words, but at how much you wish it would be that simple, that you could draw a circle in the dirt, tear the mantle from Lilly's shoulders and let it fly to some more willing host.
Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 12/15 (Occult Excellency)
"War would be their choice and not a light one," Usum does not relent.
"Yours is the will that moves the Five Cities of Fate. Mistake me not Majesty, I do not propose this lightly, the girl is a weak link. Hardly have you walked in the door and she has confessed a weakness, not just her own but one which encompasses the Court. How might some other less well meaning forces use this? The Knight of the Forlorn Heart has been rebuked but not undone. Think how easily could he promise freedom from her very nature, from the demands of the Summer Queen."
"You think she wouldn't notice?" Even having this argument feels terrifying.
"Two favors does Winter owe to thine deathless throne," he reminds you.
"One alone would be enough to guard you from the wrath of the Summer Court for such a transgression. As it would be in service of Winter's wider goal of guarding the world from those Outside the Cold Queen might even approve."
"And who is to say the next person would not be as ill suited for the Lady's Mantle if not more so?" It is a good thing Lilly does not seem to take the long silence badly, maybe because she is used to dealing with older fey for whom time flows differently, or maybe just because she does not expect more that those two words of commiseration.
After all, what else could you do? You bite back bitter laughter.
"That is a concern." Usum admits at last.
"You could always seal it in a container and deliver it to Mother Summer to be invested with all the wisdom she is so famed for."
What do you do?
[] Try to advise Lilly on how to keep those parts of herself she does not wish to lose
-[] Optional: After making her swear not to repeat it share the story about how Mab warped the very Mantle to encourage her
[] Seriously consider Usum's idea, once you are at the Last Station summon Mab to ask her advice on how workable it would be and if aid with this would fall under the terms of Winter's debt to you
[] Write in
OOC: So you know how Dresden, famously not the most socially observant person on planet Earth, noticed significant changes in Lilly, far more so than in Molly? Well when you add the fact that Titania had just lost her daughter and the changes made Lilly seem more like Aurora... unhealthy copping mechanism ahoy. 
