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She's a four-year-old girl, and people (especially her Dad) insist she's a boy.
Not that she isn't sometimes. She is. But not today! Today she's a girl. And Dad keeps saying that's not true, that God made her body perfect and she shouldn't second-guess God's plan for her. God made her a boy, so she's supposed to be a boy. And on the one hand that kinda makes sense. God doesn't make mistakes, right? So if she were really a girl sometimes, then she'd... what? Her body would change, she guesses. But on the other hand, she knows she's a girl. She's a girl with a peepee, that's obvious. She'd prefer not having a peepee when she's a girl, but it's not the worst thing ever. And if God doesn't make mistakes, God also didn't make her feel like a girl sometimes on accident, right? It must be part of His (because God is always a He, even though God made everyone, boys and girls, in His image, he's always a He, Dad says) plan.
She tells Dad that, today, and Dad gets angry, and yells at her, and she doesn't know why he's yelling. It makes sense to her! But he won't explain why she's wrong, he's just yelling, Dad's so mean, she hates him, and she's not crying, shut up, you're crying!
And now Mum's coming and she's talking to Dad, and that usually makes Dad stop yelling and go away but he won't stop now and Sadde's angry and afraid and hurt and she's running away. A part of her thinks that it doesn't make much sense to run away, the park is pretty open and she can't really hide anywhere, and she'll have to go back because she'll get hungry (not now, though, she just ate a sandwich).
So she runs until she finds some bushes where she can hide, and she hides there, and she doesn't cry, and she spends a long time not crying. Mum and Dad don't come after her, though, and after she's done not crying she doesn't wipe her eyes and her nose, and she comes out the other way of the bushes she was hiding in.
And she's pretty sure that's not the park.
"Subversion from the inside. In case orders actually work remotely via microphones and what-have-you, it sounds like the best idea, so that no one that doesn't already have access to his court needs to sneak in."
"So, suborn a court member, send them home before they're missed with airtight orders and hope Thorn doesn't notice... and from there?"
"Don't just release them. If orders do in fact work remotely, you can give them earbuds—little boxes this small that fit in ears and can transmit sound sent from somewhere else—and small microphones and cameras—which transmit image and sound to us—and we can use them to control vassals in Thorn's court without ever setting foot in it."
"We don't strictly need them, then. We can even tell whoever that we're using microphones but keep them deactivated, to mislead. Or only one of us wears the feed and if the other notices the one was ordered they can countermand it immediately. Or we keep Yellow chanting 'I rescind all orders' in the background."
"Some combination of those strategies would likely do it. No one in the court has Thorn's name, even as a protective backup, as far as I know, so a mole only gets us so far."
"Then we apply more technology and mortal food," she says, turning her right palm up and using her left index and middle fingers to press the button there and reveal the hidden needle. "Or technology, sorcery, and mortal food. I'm hoping it will be possible to make it so cameras, microphones, and earbuds are all invisible and in the case of earbuds soundless past a certain distance. If we weave a wide enough web of moles, we can reach him and, and..." Pause. "Something. I don't know, I'm too tired to think, this is an old plan and would need to be adjusted for his resources."
"Food at one remove isn't very effective and every in-court attempt to subvert a new mole would be potentially very conspicuous. Mortal food probably works better under those conditions than fairy food would, even strongly claimed fairy food, but it's not a guarantee. We need to figure out a safe place or way to sleep, more immediately."
"I could try to open twenty gates to cities and find us a hotel room in one of them, I have my credit cards and my mother doesn't have access to my accounts," she says, momentarily forgetting she's talking to a fairy.
"...right. Hotels are buildings with lots of rooms whose owners let other people spend some time in them in exchange for money. Money is what humans use to trade instead of trading things for other things, basically a numeric value for things, and credit cards are one of the ways of transferring these numeric values to other people in exchange for goods and services."
"I've heard of money," Promise says. "This does leave a bunch of gates open but I'm not sure there's a way around that. Can you aim for somewhere sufficiently inconspicuous? I won't be invisible any more as soon as I step through."
"I... could aim for a few alleys I personally know in London, I don't know if 'an alley in Edinburgh' would work given that I've never actually been to Edinburgh even though I have a good mental image of where Edinburgh is and what alleys are like."
"And that's private enough that no one will notice me and Yellow there, or between there and the hotel?"
"Dark enough alleys at this time of night in that timezone, yes for the former, not necessarily for the latter but I could get like a coat or something. ...a roof might be a better idea still for the former, but not that much for the latter."
"My wings roll up under a coat all right, Yellow would have a harder time but it could still work."
"...I'm not sure where I'd get one, though. Might be useful for me to try to open a few gates in the USA, too, it's still early enough there that there are stores open."
"Okay. This is probably an anonymous enough location for gate spamming. If you think you can get us all to a safe place to sleep you may open as many gates as necessary to do that, though I recommend testing each before opening the next to avoid excess."
First pass: London and New York.
And: another alley in London?
"Treat Yellow's name with the same caution as mine and retain all orders regarding that caution for my name. If you intend to abandon the attempt to work with me, give me at least one hour's notice. Under the assumption that my priorities are to remain free, to oppose Thorn insofar as this does not interfere with remaining free, and to retain access to my resources except, if you decide to abandon the attempt to work with me, you, avoid sabotaging my goals. Do not touch me. If you have not given me notice about abandoning the attempt to work with me do not pursue any plan I have not had a leisurely opportunity to comment on or, in the case of an emergency situation, that seems in your best sincere judgment likely to optimize for my goals. With these constraints you may act."
"...I don't have Yellow's name. And I don't want it, unless you have a very compelling reason for me to get it. And anyway all of those things were things I was already going to do." She sighs and shakes her head and—has the second London gate settled yet? How about the first? "In any case I presume, then, that this is you suggesting I go to New York before trying another ten gates in various dark alleys and rooftops in London? And do you want to add an honesty order in there, to make sure I'm not lying to you? I'm not going to, but this is the one good use I can see out of this terrible system, is guaranteeing this kind of trust."