A Riddle Twice Told
21st of July 2006 A.D.
You are tempted, oh so tempted to ask this being for knowledge. To lean ever so forward, adjust your clothes just so, making best use of your beauty to lure lore old, obscure and perhaps forbidden from it. But no. That would be crossing the line from helping to betrayal. To do this would be to take advantage of his situation for your own profit. You won't do this. And when Harry learns of it, maybe you'll be able to ask your questions in the open.
"I want to know what other case Harry is working on," you explain simply. "What did the Queen of Air and Darkness ask of him?" you pause for a moment. "I do hope he got something good out of the deal."
"Well yeah, being alive and not enthralled is what you'd mostly call a good deal," Bob snorts.
Wait, when would Harry need help not to be enthralled? And then it hits you, Justin, Lasciel had mentioned that Harry only bested him though the aid of 'one of the ladies of the Winter Court'. You mentally file away 'standing debt to Mab' as something Harry has to deal with and might need more help with especially if Winter is mixed up with the Thule Society somehow..
"You know all this politicking should really be a lot more off-putting than it it," you muse. "I never really liked thinking about cliques and whose popular and all that Mean Girl stuff."
"Must be the 'queen' part in the whole God Queen Mantle you have going there," Bob opines.
"What do you mean...?" you cut yourself off. "No, no I am not asking about anything except what I need to help Harry."
"Aww... Are you sure?" Bob sounds so disappointed you almost pat the skull. almost because you do not want to deal with the fifty corny lines that would be sure to ensue if you did.
"Mab asked Harry to find the Ankou, the
oberour ar maro..." the bale-lights of his eyes flicker in a faux blink. "And now you have me talking French again. It'll stick in my head for weeks. ankou are a kind of fey, like sidhe, cat sith..."
"The fetch," you cut in, not bothering to keep the anger and disgust out of your voice.
Bob doesn't seem to notice, too engrossed in his lecture. "But there is ankou and there's the Ankou, eldest and mightiest of their kind who was once worshiped as a god by the Welsh and many of their celtic kin. Arawn he was to them, lord of Annwn and master of the dead. But the story is familiar enough I'll wager, the White God came and the old gods faded, they died or they changed. For his part Ankou was a practical sort, for a king and a god at least. Crowns do funny things the the heads that wear them you know."
You nod along. "So what did Ankou
do then?"
"He swore an oath to Winter, him and all his kin, they became the keepers of the dead in Winter's service. Most of the fey are bad at fighting ghosts and spirits and the wizards to rile them up because they do not understand mortality and the secret power that can be born of it. " Bob clears his non-existent throat. "Most of the fey are weak against necromancers when matching power against power, but not the Ankou in whom still dwells the memory of Annwn."
"Does the Summer Court often ally with necromancers?" You ask though you are pretty sure the answer is 'no'. You're missing something.
"Winter has more enemies than Summer," Bob says his tone suddenly dark. "Enemies far more willing to unravel the order of reality."
"Outsiders, you are talking about outsiders," the words, though just come to your lips are a lot more certain than you thought they would be.
"Shh... don't just say that aloud for everyone with ears to hear it," the spirit hisses.
"We are in a warded subbasement," you point out. "Hard to get much safer than that."
"Not hard, easy if Harry would pay more attention to his defenses and less to how to poke the biggest hornets' nest he can find," his eyes flicker in the direction of the model city.
Huh, you guess that would be pretty dangerous to use. Still you feel the need to defend Harry. "They say the best defense is a good offense."
"I'm guessing they are people who've never been to war," Bob grumbles. "So anyway the Ankou and their king joined Winter with pledge of blood on iron spilled before the Mothers... which makes it really strange that Queen Mab would be looking for him in Chicago with Harry's help."
"Mouse said something about a time limit as well, is he going to poof into a pumpkin in three days if we don't find him?" you ask.
"Nah... everything was clear mortal side so Harry summoned one of the Loa, you know what those are?"
"Ancestor spirits?" There is a lot more question in your answer this time.
"Eh, close enough, they are prophetic beings, that is they are willing to
speak prophecy. Let me tell you there are a lot of spirits whose existence transcends linear time, it's finding the ones who will tie themselves in knots for a price mortals are willing to pay that's the hard part. So anyway Harry called the spirit since he figured a retired god would be visible enough to the Loa's sight to give him something. It wasn't much." He pauses a moment then intones:
The carriage yet flies where the veiled road leads
On the trail of one who rides upon stolen steeds
The hunt grows savage, the hunt grows close
The last note comes ere the wilting of a rose
"So Ankou is hunting someone as well and he's close to finding them and the last bit is the timing?" you muse. "How long does it take a rose to wilt?"
"About a week" Bob replies, then anticipating your next question: "The prophecy was made four days ago."
"So three days left and now Harry is stuck in jail for at least the weekend which would leave him one more day to find Ankou before he goes who knows where," you conclude even as the fires of your soul grow a little brighter with the knowing of Ankou and his secret flight. "So did Mab say to talk to the spirit or capture him or..." you do not want to say kill, even though you know Queen Mab would not hesitate to try to use Harry as an assassin.
Gain 2 Essence
"Just find," Bob answers simply. "That's going to be hard enough."
What do you do?
[] Ask more questions
-[] Write in
[] Go home, take that Clorox bath then get as much sleep as you can before heading out to look for evidence to spring Harry from jail
[] Write in
OOC: And here we are, more answers and more questions as well.
