"I think the initial Fetcher should convey a payload of food likely to sustain claims from a variety of people, and not know who they are, and then those people can begin with Step One already accomplished if she doesn't completely no-sell the Fetching somehow."

"That makes sense. Just to check, how you were envisioning the food-Fetching working? Just mixing it in with their existing food supply so they cannot tell, or - Fetching directly into fairies' mouths, or something else...?" 

"Into her stomach, if they can manage it. I'd be surprised if her food wasn't inspected many times before she gets it. Stomach is better than throat is better than mouth - inducing vomiting immediately might throw off a lot of claims if it wasn't all the way down."

"- They are going to have to practice doing that extensively - it might be better if I can find someone with the Fetching-Mindspeech combination and Healing Sight - or someone who can do concert work, I suppose, we may want that anyway to have Farsight as well..." 

"Oh, I didn't realize it would be that complicated to get the stomach. I mean, it doesn't actually have to be the stomach, since injection works, it's not like they're going to kill her, but it'd be better if she didn't feel it."

"It is complicated because in order to be precise, Fetchers need to either be able to see where they are Fetching something, or have a clear mental image of it, or at least know exactly where it is spatially. I think this ought to be doable with Farsight plus practice, though. Assuming fairies all have the same anatomy, that is. I suppose if they are slightly off, it will end up counting as injection instead and she might notice it, which is still not a complete failure." 

"I don't know if we do, I was never really paying that much attention when I could have looked."

"How much food does it need to be, in order to count?" 

"The rule of thumb is enough that you'd be able to taste it in your mouth but I don't know more finely than that."

"I expect that would not require very much pure sugar, so we could plan on using that." 

"How do you purify sugar?"

"I believe that you boil sugary plant matter in water, strain out the solid matter, and then cook down the water to syrup and eventually crystals? It is labour-intensive, I am not sure of all the details." 

"You're aware that everyone claiming the food would ideally do all the processing themselves?"

"As long as they do not need to have grown the plant in question from a seed and can just harvest it themselves, I think the processing required for the small quantity we need is only a few candlemarks. There may also be a way to cheat at it with magic, for mages." 

"Might want to wait till they can grow it with sorcery. Like how I'm doing the raspberries."

"How long does that skill usually take to reach in the sorcery-learning process?" 

"It's one of the easier things, a lot of fairies can do that and nothing much else."

"I have not been directing most of my practice there, but can shift my efforts and then teach it to others. I suppose we will need quite a long time to prepare for this operation anyway." 

"We shouldn't rush. Everything in Fairyland will keep."

Leareth nods. "I think we have enough items to work on for now, then. I will want to train several people for the Fetching-Mindspeech role, even if we only send one, and I need to design the protective artifact against pollen, and learn the plant-growth sorcery in order to teach it. Anything I missed from that list?" 

"We'll also want to plan out orders for after the Queen's vassaled."

"That makes sense. I do not have much of an idea of where to start with that on my own, but can help you think through it." 

"Yeah, I'll draft it and you can give me notes."

"All right. Is there anything else it makes sense to discuss now?" 

"No, I think we have enough to be getting on with for now.

You'll want to be very sure of your Fetchers."