Fairies are weird too but she thinks that this one is nice.

She does not stop smiling, this time, when she wakes up and sees him.

"So," he says later this day, "it occurs to me that I should probably explain some things before we go to my court."

"Yes?"

"Oh, I don't actually have, like, specific things? Just, I thought, probably there are things."

"Oh. Probably. ...not having been to a fairy court I'm not sure what it's important to know. I suppose if I were taking you to Akershus and were responsible for you I'd want to make sure you knew to bow to the right people at the right times, and not to insult anyone, although I might not be sure ahead of time what insulting things you might do, and where to get food, only I suppose you don't need it, and how you know which people are servants and which people are nobles and how to interact with each sort of person. And who else to talk to if you ran into any problems and I wasn't there."

"Yeah many of those sound applicable. You bow to, well, everyone, and you say about the same thing to most of them, which is the flatteringest thing about the court we can come up with once you've seen it, plus that I've asked you to keep my company but you'd be honored to have the chance to tell them human stories later, if they'd like to bring me something for them. Don't ask them questions or ask them for favors, and try to answer things directed at you but it's all right to pause for a long time or to answer with "I'm not sure what to say about that". Don't give them an entangled name, obviously. 

Food's going to be a problem, which is why we want to be well away from court and back in unclaimed territory by nightfall. 

Uh, you're mine so technically no one else should tell you what to do, but of course sometimes they'll still have opinions about it, and they might attempt to give sufficiently broad hints, or to tell you things about what I'd want you to do, which is permissible for them to do but do mind that they could be wrong about me, since I don't visit much and don't know anyone very well, so if they say something that sounds wrong then it probably is. If you run into problems and I'm not there you take them to my brother, who I will introduce you to when we get there. It's not lawfully his court but he's the person who keeps it from sinking headfirst into disaster and it's not a problem if you're indebted to him."

Nodnodnod. 

"We won't be there very long."

"It doesn't sound very bad. As long as you don't stop being nice to me while we're there. Will the children be a problem?"

"You should probably keep him close to you, it could be a problem if he wandered off and someone talked to him, but otherwise it'll be fine."

Nodnod. 

"Why're you worried I'll stop being nice to you? Or are you just worried about that in general -"

"It sounds a lot like a human court, in some ways, except a lot of the etiquette is probably very different. And sometimes even if human people care a lot about one of their slaves in private, they don't want to act like they do in public, at court, because it's - embarrassing. And I think it would make me very unhappy if you started acting like you didn't care about me."

"Well, I don't like any of those people so I don't really care what they think about me. And also I don't think it's very unusual to be very enamored of your slaves because it'd be a bad idea to get someone that much in your debt if you didn't like their company."

Nodnod. She seems at least slightly cheered by this.

"Oh, the distinction - between slaves and just debtors - is that you haven't got a court, I don't think I ever explained that, but maybe it was obvious? There's no one else with a claim on you so you're entirely mine, while no matter how much trouble I got myself into, unless my court managed to finagle disowning me it wouldn't be my only attachment."

"Ohh. Other humans don't count at all, for that?" Not that she particularly wants them to.

"Nope. Your human king hasn't got a claim on you, he just had soldiers. And here he doesn't have those, so."

Nodnod. "Well. That seems much better than the alternative."

"I think so."

"Maybe we could head out after a few more sleeps."

"Yeah. Okay. I'm still a little worried but I don't particularly expect that to change very much with more time. And the sooner we go the sooner we can come back?"

"Exactly, yeah. I don't want to rush but I don't want to - linger around here dreading it - either, and it's not hostile territory even if I do dislike everyone."

Nodnod. "How long do you think it'll take to get there?"