The gardening fairies don't look up. The berrybush does, but she doesn't comment.

The hovering fairy studies the house and the stream. He likes the waterfall. The house isn't bad either. Wood transmuted into pearl, an interesting touch. He contemplates landing to ask if he can talk to the sorcerer who did it.

...He glances in that direction.

The berrybush approaches. "Too quiet for the others to hear, whisper your name in my ear."

"Tell me your nickname," continues the berrybush.

"Arcane," he says, very dryly.

Arcane follows.

"Tell me, is there anything I would want to know that you could share before I bring you to Thorn?"

"Yes," says Arcane, smirking.

Verve looks exceedingly exasperated with him. "That you're obnoxious," she surmises. "Follow me. Wipe that smirk off your face."

Arcane follows Verve and ceases to smirk.

"I am called Arcane, sorcerer of the Queenscourt," Arcane says serenely. "I have been traveling for one hundred and sixty-one days out of a two-hundred-day leave. In thirty-nine days, if I am not back where the Queen expects me to be, she will send others to retrieve me. If you try to keep me from her, or interfere with me otherwise, she is likely to be annoyed with you."

Arcane, of course, waits.

He smiles again, and nods graciously to Thorn, and follows Promise.

Promise manages to fly, when they're out in the open. She flies until they are at an unremarkable bit of swamp and then she lands in a tree. This is presumably the edge of the property, although Promise does not seem to be able to speak.

"You may disregard all previous orders," says Arcane, hovering next to the tree.

"That depends substantially on what you would like done with you," says Arcane. "You have the option of accompanying me on the rest of my leave from the Queenscourt and then returning there with me to work as my sorcerous assistant. You also have other options. I have no demands on my time for the next thirty-nine days, and no particular plans except to leave Thorn's court and not return. If you would like to be escorted beyond his reach and left alone thereafter, I can accomplish that without trouble and would be happy to."

Promise looks at him, apparently trying to figure out whether he is playing nasty mind games with her.

"I'm sure that can be accomplished. Where is your tree?"

"In the autumn forest that way. About three miles north of the bend in the river with the little island."

"I can take you there in less than an hour," he says.

"All right then. It will be simplest to carry you if you give me your hand." He holds out his.

She quivers, but takes it.

Promise... nods, and flutters down to her tree, and peels a branch-tip off of it.

"Where would you like to go next?" he asks. "I have plenty of time to bring you anywhere you might want."

"I - was thinking up in the white grass valleys. Someplace where there's a patch of trees to blend in with."

"Certainly doable. I could also take you much farther than that. Do you know the Sapphire and Emerald Seas?"

"On the other side of those is a desert that is habitually night, and past that there is quite a large stretch of forest that was mostly uninhabited when I passed over it eighty days ago. The breeder colony that used to live there moved out because they could no longer produce children in it. There would almost certainly still be plenty of room for you if I took you there now. The trip would be about fifteen days, less if you brought plenty of food so we did not have to stop to find more."

Arcane shrugs. "Then would you like to pack up and travel to that forest?"

Nod. Nod.

"We can do that, then."

Nod nod. "I'll - I'll be a few hours finding - I need a bag -" She ducks into her tree. She comes out with a bag, somewhat dusty. "I'll take a while to find enough for two for fifteen days but I will."

"For one for fifteen days," Arcane corrects. "Sky-veils can subsist indefinitely on natural light and rainwater. I only need to eat if I spend a lot of time indoors."

"Okay. It will still - I'll be back soon." She smiles weakly and then flies off into the woods.

Arcane hovers just above her tree and pays attention to his surroundings. The current harmonics of the area are very aesthetically pleasing. There is still no one around but Promise.

Promise is back in two hours with her bag full of fruit and nuts and chewy leaves. She appears very relieved to find Arcane still there.

"Hello."

"Hello." She seems to have perked up, probably from having eaten some of her food.

"All set?" He holds out his hand.

"All set." She takes the offered hand with much less shaking this time.

"Yes please."

The rain-funnel redirects to Promise. It is tidy and conveniently slurpable.

This is actually pretty boring after a while but Promise is definitely not complaining.

And Arcane does not appear to get bored. He watches the ground and doesn't say anything.

Promise is not going to bother her benefactor. If he wants quiet travel he may have quiet travel.

"...You know the place that well?"

"Sky-veils each have an extra sense. Mine is for harmonics. That and good situational awareness are a large part of how I have managed to be the Queenscourt's best sorcerer by such a margin for so long."

"Sensible."

"I'll find you somewhere tricky, then."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Promise watches the land underneath them go by as they streak through the air.

It continues to do that. Look at that land, and all the going-by it is doing. Rapidly.

"Thorn did. Do I correctly surmise that you were troublesome to him in some way?"

"He didn't like my - attitude."

"I can imagine he wouldn't have liked mine much either, if he had been foolish enough to try to keep me. He seemed like the sort of person it is easy to develop a bad attitude about."

"Some of his vassals like him. One way or another."

"He's clever, I'll give him that. I'm sure that berrybush didn't invent and set up her own dart traps."

"Ber- oh, Sugar. No, I wouldn't think she did."

"But he has just been introduced to the rare but significant hazards of capturing unknown passersby, so maybe he will reconsider the traps. I could have been some much more temperamental member of the Queenscourt."

"He probably didn't expect Queenscourt members to be ranging so far from her epicenter."

"It's not inconceivable. Grandmother Stone - have you heard of her? This far from her territory I wouldn't expect it, but stories do travel."

"I haven't heard of her."

"She's a breeder matriarch with strong feelings about who may have control of her descendants. Her colony has been a subsidiary of the Queenscourt for a very long time because it sits near a few Queenscourt locations, and anytime someone takes a stonecrusher as a vassal - that's the name of the kind - Grandmother Stone finds that person and endeavours to make them forget the stonecrusher's name. It became necessary to absorb her so that she would stop interfering with peripheral members of the Queenscourt. If she ever gains enough favour for the Queen to allow her out on an expedition in search of escaped stonecrushers, this is one of the directions she might go, and if Thorn were to capture one of her scouts she would certainly dissolve his court and might also write down his name; Grandmother Stone's Book is an infamous repository of her descendants and people who have annoyed her by trying to steal them."

"I've never met a stonecrusher, but I know what they look like. I'll bear that in mind."

"Yes. I've never been able to determine whether or not she is the first stonecrusher, but she certainly likes people to think she is, and considers the entire kind hers whether or not she is lying about being their progenitor."

"And if she has any ancestors they're presumably thoroughly neutralized."

"One can assume."

Promise sighs.

"Hm?"

"I'm a malcontent."

"Reasonable."

Promise laughs, a little.

"I tolerate the Queenscourt well enough. I find that it is very convenient to be able to truthfully say I have no rebellious inclinations. But if the Queen were someone like Thorn or Grandmother Stone, I would not be able to say that."

"Thorn likes - he likes his vassals to be so afraid of him that they stop factoring it in to whether they like him or not," Promise murmurs. "It worked really well on Blossom, you saw her. I think she's gotten to the point where it's an absolute fact that displeasing him is bad and has constructed other reasons to think so besides the part where when he's displeased he starts torturing people more."

"Not a mental trick I would be able to pull, I don't think. Good thing the Queen got to me first."

"I couldn't do it either. He went to a bit of trouble to catch me so he didn't give up immediately but I don't think he considers me a great loss."

"I wasn't expecting him to give up someone he particularly treasured."

Shiver.

"Thank you," she says softly.

"You're welcome."

Now Promise is quiet again.

Arcane keeps flying. He can fly forever, if there is rain enough to live on, and this trip will go much faster if they never land; therefore he plans to sleep on the wing as soon as Promise wakes up.

"Hello," says Arcane. "You utter nouns in your sleep."

"I wasn't sure. It seems the sort of thing one could escape knowing."

"I didn't use to know, but I've since been told."

"When I sleep I just keep going in about the same direction at about the same speed that I was going when I fell asleep. It's convenient on long trips, and if I drift off course I can correct it easily enough with fast-flight when I wake up. I think I will stop fast-flying and go to sleep soon. Do you expect to be able to keep up with me for seven or eight hours if I pick a reasonably sedate pace?"

"Mm - I think so. I haven't flown for a very long time in - a very long time. If I need to wake you up how should I do that?"

"Saying 'Arcane, wake up' is a fairly reliable method, and if that doesn't work and you urgently need my attention, grab the edge of a wing - you won't damage them that way, but it's very startling."

"Okay."

Arcane slows down their fast-flight until the landscape hardly seems to be moving beneath them at all, and then lets go of Promise's hand.

Promise flaps to keep up. She eats a soft-skinned melon.

She keeps up. She does not tug on his wings or tell him to wake up, just nibbles down her food supply and flies.

"Yes." She holds out her hand.

Arcane takes her hand, and off they zoom. Fast-flight is fast.

"One of the problems of having a direct harmonic sense is that it's very difficult in general for me to teach my spells to anyone. Fast-flight is one of the ones I haven't managed to translate. I might be able to translate a stripped-down version with fewer conveniences, but so far no one has expressed serious interest in being able to fly very rapidly while making a terrible racket that can be heard for miles in every direction, leaving behind a very obvious trail of disturbed air, and running out of breathable air in somewhere between one and six hours. Or about a minute if the spell didn't include an air bubble at all."

"It seems better than nothing under some potential circumstances, but admittedly not nearly so appealing."

"If I ever come up with a teachable version of proper fast-flight, perhaps I'll find you and let you know."

"I have no particular reason to mention you to her, except very incidentally in the course of describing what happened at Thorn's court if that comes up. She doesn't ask for detailed accounts of my travels, just for points of interest I may have discovered while I was out. 'So I took one of his vassals and deposited her out of his reach' will not provoke her curiosity."

"Not wanting to come to the Queen's attention is a very reasonable preference."

"I mean. She's probably better than Thorn."

"She is better than Thorn in many ways. But not wanting to belong to anyone's court is a very reasonable preference."

Nod, nod.

Flying continues.

"Yes. There are plenty of advantages. I might also like being in no one's court, but if I had been in no one's court to start with I would currently be having much more trouble with Thorn. I appreciate the security of being the Queen's best sorcerer, and of expecting to continue being the Queen's best sorcerer for the forseeable future."

"Mm."

"Mm?"

"I can probably avoid getting caught again. But I can - imagine the appeal in having somebody who can definitely retrieve me in case that probably falls through. But I don't think I can have all the things I want."

"I could visit you once in a while on leave, and look for you if I don't see you in the forest," Arcane suggests. "Less definite than being a prominent member of the Queenscourt, but also doesn't involve coming to the Queen's attention unless she has to send someone to rescue me from someone I tried to rescue you from."

"It won't be going far out of my way. I like overflying the Sapphire and Emerald Seas."

"Even though it takes fifteen days at high speed?"

"They're very pretty. And it's only five days' fast-flight across them the way we're going. Much of the trip will be spent getting there and about a day of it will be spent crossing the desert afterward."

"Fair enough."

"Is it hard to cross the desert if it doesn't rain there?"

"I don't need rain every day. I do prefer to fast-fly over deserts even when I am otherwise taking my time. If it took more than a week to fast-fly over it I would rather go around."

Nod, nod.

Fly, fly.

Arcane finds himself charmed by the stream of nouns. He is smiling when she wakes up.

Yawn. Much less startlement this time. "You look like you're in a good mood."

"The stream of nouns is oddly soothing."

Arcane laughs.

"How often does the Queen send you on leave?" Promise wonders.

"It varies. At least once a decade."

"Do most of her court get vacations or just the upper ranks?"

"Also varies, but generally no. And I get the longest and most frequent vacations of all of us. Some combination of being particularly trustworthy and particularly keen on long vacations."

"Yes."

Promise sighs enviously.

"I sometimes try to find a way to describe them, but while I can sort of serviceably produce harmonic maps that will let a sorcerer who has practice reading them get to know an area somewhat faster, portraying the aesthetics remains beyond me."

"I'd like a map of where I put my tree. If that wouldn't put you out," she hastens to add. "I know how to read maps, although I assume yours are more detailed."

"It won't be much trouble, assuming I can borrow writing materials since I did not bring any myself."

"I have some paper and ink, yes."

"Yes."

"No. The pages rustle. And distend the surface of the bag in a way noticeably unlike local fruits."

"Oh."

"I tend to notice things."

"I'd assume so. Seeing harmonics is an enormous leg up but couldn't make you the best sorcerer in the Queenscourt by itself."

"I also like sorcery, which is not to be discounted as an advantage. But having a lot of attention to spare and not sparing much of it is a significant factor."

"I like sorcery too."

"It is both useful and enjoyable."

"I don't know why more fairies don't pick it up."

"I have tended to assume they find it difficult."

"I don't think many even try long enough to find that out."

"Interests vary. I am at a loss to explain why, but I have certainly observed it."

"Perhaps."

Now she's quiet again.

And so is Arcane.

Oh, pretty.

Very pretty! And persistently pretty for the next several hours as they pass the beaches and continue on over the water.

Promise watches it be pretty, semi-alone with her thoughts.

"It's gorgeous."

"One of my favourite landscape features."

"What are the other best ones?"

"I started over a much bigger ocean, all the way on the other side of central Queenscourt territory from here, and it had floating islands with incredible crystal formations growing on their undersides. For a good few centuries they were the only landmasses I had any experience with. I was mildly disappointed by my first sight of ground I couldn't get underneath; it seemed to be missing the best part."

"Yes. I like that one. Let's see... as of about a century ago, there were a set of tuned canyons nearish your tree that whistled music in the wind; are they still there and have you heard them?"

"They were there when I started. I was going to go but didn't get a chance. I was very new when Thorn got me."

"Ah."

"I was waiting until I learned to turn invisible because I'd heard they were colonized by razorfeet."

"I heard that on an island in the far west there's a volcano made of bands of clear gemstones."

"I've seen that. It's a sight. I wanted to see it erupt, but I couldn't stay long enough that trip and I haven't been back yet."

"I don't remember hearing anything about how it erupts."

"Mercury. Kills most of the plants all the way down to the shore every time, but the interval is usually long enough for things to grow back, and some of them thrive on it."

"That sounds gorgeous."

"Yes."

"The library I used to go to was built into a cliffside. There was nothing naturally interesting about the place but they'd done a lot of art around the entryways."

"I am extremely fond of libraries. Pretty libraries, so much the better."

"The inside was nice too. Mosaics in the floors. The shelves were carved. They'd take art as membership payment."

"Before the Queenscourt, almost all the time I spent interacting with other fairies was in or on the way to libraries."

"Do you happen to know where the one nearest the forest we're going to is?"

"I didn't stop at any on this trip, but I know of one a few miles north and another one to the southwest near the edge of the desert, and I don't know of any reason why either of them might have collapsed in the last twenty years. They weren't being maintained by the breeders who left the forest recently. If you settle all the way in the southwestern corner of the forest, they'll be about the same distance away; otherwise the one to the north will be closer."

"Thank you."

"Are there other useful facilities within - non-accelerated flying distance?"

"Are art galleries useful? There was one of those. I can't promise it hasn't collapsed in the last twenty years, but if it has not, it will be somewhat further north than the northern library."

"They're nice. I don't know about useful, but nice."

"It was that."

"I wish I had seen more things. I'm probably not even a century old but I could have seen more things than I have in that time."

"You've seen more things than I did in my first century, I don't doubt."

"Mm?"

"I started over a large ocean, and I didn't get interested in exploring until much later. Most of what I saw in my first century was the same four or five floating islands, a lot of water, and a lot of sky."

"Were there any other fairies in the island cluster?"

"Yes, a few, but I didn't go near them. Later on I found other clusters that were more densely inhabited, and eventually of course I found proper land and landed on it."

"I thought I was reserved."

"I don't necessarily recommend the lifestyle. But it did tend to make a lot of things simpler."

"It didn't get boring?"

"I spent a lot of time just watching the sun go around and the harmonics shift. I didn't really have a more interesting life to compare it to. Maybe it would bore me if I went back there now and tried to live like that again, but I don't think I can get a long enough vacation to tell."

"I think I'm very impatient." Pause. "Most of the time. I do not mind spending fifteen days doing almost nothing right now."

"I am not very impatient at all."

"That's probably pleasanter."

"I expect it is."

"Maybe I should work on that."

"If you expect to ever have to spend fifty or a hundred years watching the sky change colour, it would probably be an excellent investment of effort."

"Does the sky do much of that where we're going? It was usually afternoon in my forest but I've been places with regular day cycles."

"The middle of the forest cycles regularly, but its outskirts and some of the surrounding areas tend to pause at dusk and dawn. And of course the desert is usually night."

"I don't see very well in the dark. It seems inconvenient to have it so frequently."

"I suppose. It does make counting time a little more convenient, though. And there's always artificial light sources."

"There is that. I seldom find myself needing to count time more accurately than I can by counting sleeps."

"I like knowing the time more exactly than that."

"Why?"

"No particular practical reason. It's just - nicely tidy."

Nod.

They do, they really do.

"Good." He drifts down for a landing. "If you give me some paper and a pen I'll draw you a harmonic map."

She gives him some paper and a pen. And then she dunks her tree branch in the stream and finds the best place to plant it.

Once Promise has planted her tree and given it the little boost she can manage without any knowledge of local harmonics or long-term familiarity with the place, she watches him draw. Because wow.

And eventually, he looks up and smiles and hands her the map. "That should be a help."

"So much. Thank you. Thank you so much."

"You're welcome," he says cheerfully.

"If you ever need anything - you probably won't but - well, you know where to find me."

"Have a good flight."

She watches him leave. Then she studies her harmonic map, and grows her tree. She plants her seeds, and eats the last of her stored food, and boosts the garden plants - she brought not only food but also something she can use to make paper and soft pillow-fluff. She sips water from the stream. She boosts all the growing things again. Her tree won't be ready to live in for at least a few days, even with the map, but she can push the food harder than that. When she's rested her wings she explores the area around her new home and finds where there's already edibles growing; leftover cultivars from the breeders, some things apparently wild.