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The plan is refined and strengthened, contingencies are set to deal with various ways Thorn could've strengthened his defences, Mortal receives a very interesting email concerning one of their mother's contingency plans—namely that her assets have all been either frozen or transferred to Mortal themself, so Thorn doesn't have access to them -, and when Mortal and Promise judge there's nothing more to be gained from further planning they (eat dinner, sleep again, have breakfast, go over the plan once more when it's not completely fresh in their minds so they see if they come up with anything new, purchase Promise a mobile phone and a power generator to charge its battery in fairyland, eat lunch while Mortal teaches Promise how to use that, and) part ways.
On this side of the veil, Mortal gets to work. The first step: getting at least two safe houses, one for their HQ and the other for contact with the place near Thorn's court. They end up getting five, for redundancy's sake. The main HQ is near Seattle, the other four safe houses are in Greece, Russia, Japan, and Argentina. That, and getting the necessary existing equipment, is the easy part—you end up with contacts of the relevant sort when the bulk of your wealth comes from the kind of thing you can get with sorcery. The hard part is getting the various specific bits of technology that don't exist yet, including the the many types of trap and ammunition they'll need. Processing fairy voices with software turns out to be a dead end—apparently they're weird magical superpositions of sounds that make software go ?!?!?!?!?—but everything else, as agreed upon, can be made to spec nicely enough.
It'll take a couple of weeks beyond the one month for everything to be ready. Mortal hires someone who talks very fast.
And after the ball's going, there's not actually much for them to do with their time. They fret about details of the plan, order more redundant pieces of stuff (especially the to-spec stuff, not being mass-produced means they'd better have a lot of it to start with in case anything goes wrong), and have various antsy and anxious and calm and relaxed and terrified and panicked moods. A month is a long time...
At one point it occurs to Mortal that Promise might've decided to run away and not help, and then they'd never see her again and that would be terrible, and why would it be terrible anyway? It's just some fairy, fairies are evil, one must remember that. Even though she wasn't, of course, she was smart and resourceful and moral and ridiculously hot, and if they never see her again she'll never order them again and the tingly feelings won't ever happen again. Except what the heck, what are they even thinking? The answer, of course, is that they want to see Promise again. Why? To save their mother, of course. The only reason being ordered like that felt good was because Science. Of course. Of course.
The month passes—
Mortal and Promise in fairyland
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not_from_here
not_from_here
"Ratio of sugar to cocoa, ratio of milk to those in the kinds that have milk, some kinds have other ingredients like mint or nuts, the way they're prepared, the consistency..."
imeanforever
"Neat. There's not that much fine gradation in most fairy food, we usually just eat things however they come off the plant."
not_from_here
"Oh, there is so much food I need to show you!" She takes a look at the screen to make sure nothing interesting's going on then grabs some of the milk chocolate. Just a little square. "Wanna see if this one agrees with you? It has milk."
not_from_here
"Huh. Alright, then. I'll find other kinds and get you them."
(This is not going to be a date. Just so everyone's clear on that. Not a date. She does not want to ask Promise out, it would not be nice.)
(This is not going to be a date. Just so everyone's clear on that. Not a date. She does not want to ask Promise out, it would not be nice.)
not_from_here
She grins maybe a bit more than this deserved. But Promise smiled at her. It's so nice to see Promise smile, she wishes Promise did more of that.
She offers Promise more of the milkless chocolate and gets back to watching.
She offers Promise more of the milkless chocolate and gets back to watching.
not_from_here
Well, she's been ordered the same as Sand, act as if obeying torturers' orders, minimize risk, etc.
(Thorn needs to go into his room alone already, this needs to stop. Why is he terrible. Why is he so terrible.)
(Thorn needs to go into his room alone already, this needs to stop. Why is he terrible. Why is he so terrible.)
not_from_here
Couldn't he get off on torturing only consenting people? How did he even...
That's actually a good question. For now, paying attention, but later, she'll ask.
That's actually a good question. For now, paying attention, but later, she'll ask.
Time goes on and on and for a while it looks like Thorn is going to leave this court without ever setting foot into his room by himself.
And then Blossom leaves before he does
and in he goes.
And then Blossom leaves before he does
and in he goes.
not_from_here
Finally.
As soon as his door is closed and he's a few feet away from it: bullets. Lots of them, in a very short span of time. Invisible and soundless. The darts start darting at the same time, also invisible but not soundless, so as soon as they stop being deflected by the wards and clattering to the ground the mortal can stop chanting 'stop' and say 'sayyourname.'
As soon as his door is closed and he's a few feet away from it: bullets. Lots of them, in a very short span of time. Invisible and soundless. The darts start darting at the same time, also invisible but not soundless, so as soon as they stop being deflected by the wards and clattering to the ground the mortal can stop chanting 'stop' and say 'sayyourname.'
not_from_here
First reaction: blind panic.
No. Bad reaction. Not useful.
Second reaction: lower the bloody volume, he doesn't want to go deaf.
Third reaction: check that the traps are still trying to turn Thorn into Swiss cheese.
Fourth reaction: check resources. What are Verve and Sand doing? How are Promise and Yellow coping?
No. Bad reaction. Not useful.
Second reaction: lower the bloody volume, he doesn't want to go deaf.
Third reaction: check that the traps are still trying to turn Thorn into Swiss cheese.
Fourth reaction: check resources. What are Verve and Sand doing? How are Promise and Yellow coping?
imeanforever
Verve hasn't noticed a thing; she's far away.
Sand is holding perfectly still, not even covering his ears, paused mid-step.
Yellow's covering his ears. Promise was on her sleep shift and is waking up now.
Sand is holding perfectly still, not even covering his ears, paused mid-step.
Yellow's covering his ears. Promise was on her sleep shift and is waking up now.
not_from_here
"Trapped Thorn, there's a ward on him that made a huge noise and apparently stopped Sand. Still trying to fill him with holes and juice."
imeanforever
"He's probably been juiced. The noise is to keep him from hearing orders."
The court's top-tier sorcerers burst into Thorn's room and find the trap and get to work destroying it.
The court's top-tier sorcerers burst into Thorn's room and find the trap and get to work destroying it.
not_from_here
There are two, one with the bullets and one with the darts, in different corners of the room. There are also two speakers, relatively much smaller than the traps, in different locations, only one of which was actually blaring orders (and is no longer).
"Okay, so not all is lost," he says, releasing a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.
"Okay, so not all is lost," he says, releasing a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding.