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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.
"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."
No more settlings have occurred.
"If you'd like me to be assured of your honesty you can come up with a wording for me to use, but I don't require it as a basic safety condition right now. Oh - what's your nickname?"
"I didn't, having his name wouldn't make him more my vassal than he already was and knowing it would make him a potential victim if I was captured. About the honesty order, it just sounds—productive, in a setting where two parties may not fully trust each other, to have this kind of order up. I'm not intending to lie or omit, it'd just be a token of good faith. And I've been going by Mortal." Which was originally due to lack of creativity but now has symbolic value—she is not a fairy, she is a mortal with everything that implies.
No settle.
Fourth alley? London's big and she knows many alleys but she's kinda running out of them, and in any case she'll need to, like, find a hotel or a hostel or something.
"All right. Do not lie to me unless intending the lie for an audience other than me, in which case clarify the lie to me privately at the earliest safe opportunity; do not tell me things in ways intended to get me to come to false or saliently incomplete conclusions, applying the same exception."
"Okay. Can I order you same? And gates settled, by the way, so I guess I'm gonna go get coats—any preferences? I don't know how tall you are by the way, you're still invisible—and this could take as long as an hour."
Off she goes for coats, then, one for each fairy. Good thing she has an international credit card. Well, three.