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Ari is... so, so lost. He didn't know this amount of lost was physically possible. One minute he's in a briar maze deep in Winter picking frostberries for a pie, then he takes four left turns and he exits the briar and he's in a temperate forest. Not even any snow on the ground. He turns around and there's no thicket to be seen.
He puts the frostberry pouch in his backpack and mutters the incantation to open a Way back to the mortal realm; he might land somewhere dangerous, but better endangered in the mortal realm than completely lost in the Nevernever. And... nothing. Literally nothing happens, no backlash or fizzling or anything that would indicate that he fucked up a spell, but the kind of nothing that happens when you don't have a spell to cast.
In something of a panic, he tests that he still has magic by punching a nearby tree, which splinters and crashes to the ground. "So that's still working, I guess," he mutters. "Punching systems: still online."
So, recap: magic works, he just got snatched out of deep Winter territory and put into something that kind of looks like the Wyld, and the Ways are on the fritz. Either something big is screwing with him or he's very much not in Kansas anymore. Either way, he'd better figure out what the hell is going on.
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bitterchill
"Of course." The fairy goes into the kitchen and prepares something soupy with chunks of a green fruit in it and feeds it to Ari, spoon by spoon.
bitterchill
Oh good. Ari was vaguely worried that requesting to be fed without having been specifically told that it was permitted would result in offense of some kind. He consumes the something, continuing to be fascinated by fairy foods.
The something is spicy and textured sort of like thinned-out mashed potatoes; the green bits are almost chocolatey.
"Enough?" inquires the fairy when the bowl is empty.
"Enough?" inquires the fairy when the bowl is empty.
bitterchill
"Yeah. Thank you, sir." Ari sets about his work with renewed vitality! Food is good at that.
The fairy makes himself some lunch too and eats it, watching from a slightly greater distance.
bitterchill
Ari is capable of working for pretty much arbitrary amounts of time, given food supplies and an interesting problem. He appears to have both!
imeanforever
The door opens. A fairy who is about five feet tall and looks nearly human except for the leaf wings enters, closes the door, bows deeply to the one with the dragonfly-wings, and then looks with open curiosity at Ari.
"You're going to need to have a nickname," the master fairy remarks to Ari. "This one goes by Promise."
"You're going to need to have a nickname," the master fairy remarks to Ari. "This one goes by Promise."
imeanforever
"That'll do. Promise, this is Winter. Ate some of my berries."
Promise nods.
"Go about your business, but when he's finished what he's doing he's going to do a little experiment with some of your blood, nothing too onerous."
"Yes, Master," says Promise. She goes into a side room that Ari hasn't been into yet and shuts the door.
"She's my sorceress," says the dragonfly-winged fairy. "She had a mortal once, too, but she wasn't very careful with it." He laughs.
Promise nods.
"Go about your business, but when he's finished what he's doing he's going to do a little experiment with some of your blood, nothing too onerous."
"Yes, Master," says Promise. She goes into a side room that Ari hasn't been into yet and shuts the door.
"She's my sorceress," says the dragonfly-winged fairy. "She had a mortal once, too, but she wasn't very careful with it." He laughs.
"I find I don't remember the whole story. I heard it secondhand to begin with," says the fairy. "Knock on her door and let her know when you're done with what you're doing and need her blood. I'm going out."
And out he goes.
And out he goes.
bitterchill
Ari realizes once the Creep has left that he seems to have forgotten that this piece of work is going to take at least another eight hours. He sighs, wraps up the part of it he's doing right at this very moment, deems that good enough for government work, and knocks on Promise's door.
imeanforever
Promise opens the door.
Her room looks pretty lived-in. Desk, shelves, stool, lots of books and notebooks, a pitcher of water, a bowl of fruit - apparently she doesn't have the need to be hand-fed. There is a bed. It would be big enough for two fairies if at least one of the fairies were inclined in that direction.
She has decorated. There are drawings stuck to the walls in brilliant colors, mostly of plants.
Her room looks pretty lived-in. Desk, shelves, stool, lots of books and notebooks, a pitcher of water, a bowl of fruit - apparently she doesn't have the need to be hand-fed. There is a bed. It would be big enough for two fairies if at least one of the fairies were inclined in that direction.
She has decorated. There are drawings stuck to the walls in brilliant colors, mostly of plants.
bitterchill
"Ooh, nice drawings," Ari says appreciatively. "Your room's cool, I hope I can figure out a way to make my room cool."
Ari would like to get along with Promise! Partly because she seems nice enough from his extremely limited interaction with her, and partly because the idea of being vassal of someone who is herself a slave makes him want to burn the world. Not her fault, though. Probably.
Ari would like to get along with Promise! Partly because she seems nice enough from his extremely limited interaction with her, and partly because the idea of being vassal of someone who is herself a slave makes him want to burn the world. Not her fault, though. Probably.
imeanforever
"Thank you," says Promise. "If Master gives you a room I would be happy to let you have some of my drawings for it."
bitterchill
"Nah, that'd be cheating. I'll do something with stone shaping, probably. Maybe there's some semiprecious somethingorother in the area, I'll dowse for it. Anyway! I'm a weird alien who has weird alien magic, and Bossman says I should figure out if I can use fairy blood for it. Don't worry, it'll just be a little bit. Oh, yeah, and I'm also supposed to figure out if I can heal you. Same weird alien magic. Any questions?
bitterchill
"Well, I just need to borrow a little cupful of your blood and then do some magical woo-woo to it. Your involvement is pretty much holding out your arm for me to cut on it a little, sitting in a circle afterwards for hopefully being healed, and watching the pretty fireworks I'm going to make with the blood if you want. They might get kind of bright if your blood has special properties, though, fair warning."
imeanforever
Promise nods and steps out of her room and sits in one of the living room chairs and holds out her arm.
bitterchill
Ari scoops a cup out of the floor. He pulls up another lump of stone, molds it into the vague shape of a knife, and pinches at the blade until the edge is sufficiently sharp. He holds the cup under Promise's elbow and cuts at the same place he used earlier on himself. Red blood trickles into the cup. "Huh. I half expected it to be green or something, faeries back home hardly ever have red blood."
imeanforever
She winces slightly but doesn't move her arm when he cuts her. "No?" she asks.
bitterchill
"Yeah, it depends on what kind they are. Usually if they're Winter they bleed blue or purple, Summer bleeds yellow or green, and Wyld bleeds... a lot of colors, that's where you'll get the red sometimes. I saw a wyld pixie once with rainbow blood, that was hilarious. Gruesome, but hilarious." The cup fills. It's really not much blood. Ari patches the cut with his pocket clay and goes to his bag for some vervain.
imeanforever
"Are there only those three kinds of fairies? Is the clay part of your healing spell?"
bitterchill
"Well, those are the broad categories; there's species within the categories, but there's hundreds of those and it'd take all day. Blood's a category thing. The clay's just to keep you from bleeding all over the place- bandage type thing. You could take it off if you wanted, but I use that spot because it keeps bleeding for a good while and I'd hate to ruin a good chair."
imeanforever
Promise doesn't take it. "But you're not one of those kinds of other fairies, you're actually a mortal?"