sugar berry

[imeanforever]

Near a stream that pours off a high cliff and then snakes away is a garden, carefully tended, and a house, built of wood and stone and transmuted pearl. Fairies weed the plants. One is fixing the roof. A berrybush, hair atangle with spidery branches, is painting gold stripes onto her purple arms.

Comments

[infinitely_stranger]

"I have no particular reason to mention you to her, except very incidentally in the course of describing what happened at Thorn's court if that comes up. She doesn't ask for detailed accounts of my travels, just for points of interest I may have discovered while I was out. 'So I took one of his vassals and deposited her out of his reach' will not provoke her curiosity."

[imeanforever]

"Okay."

[infinitely_stranger]

"Not wanting to come to the Queen's attention is a very reasonable preference."

[imeanforever]

"I mean. She's probably better than Thorn."

[infinitely_stranger]

"She is better than Thorn in many ways. But not wanting to belong to anyone's court is a very reasonable preference."

[imeanforever]

Nod, nod.

[infinitely_stranger]

Flying continues.

[imeanforever]

"Do you like being in the Queenscourt?"

[infinitely_stranger]

"Yes. There are plenty of advantages. I might also like being in no one's court, but if I had been in no one's court to start with I would currently be having much more trouble with Thorn. I appreciate the security of being the Queen's best sorcerer, and of expecting to continue being the Queen's best sorcerer for the forseeable future."

[imeanforever]

"Mm."

[infinitely_stranger]

"Mm?"

[imeanforever]

"I can probably avoid getting caught again. But I can - imagine the appeal in having somebody who can definitely retrieve me in case that probably falls through. But I don't think I can have all the things I want."

[infinitely_stranger]

"I could visit you once in a while on leave, and look for you if I don't see you in the forest," Arcane suggests. "Less definite than being a prominent member of the Queenscourt, but also doesn't involve coming to the Queen's attention unless she has to send someone to rescue me from someone I tried to rescue you from."

[imeanforever]

"I'd like that."

[infinitely_stranger]

"It won't be going far out of my way. I like overflying the Sapphire and Emerald Seas."

[imeanforever]

"Even though it takes fifteen days at high speed?"

[infinitely_stranger]

"They're very pretty. And it's only five days' fast-flight across them the way we're going. Much of the trip will be spent getting there and about a day of it will be spent crossing the desert afterward."

[imeanforever]

"Fair enough."

[infinitely_stranger]

[imeanforever]

"Is it hard to cross the desert if it doesn't rain there?"

[infinitely_stranger]

"I don't need rain every day. I do prefer to fast-fly over deserts even when I am otherwise taking my time. If it took more than a week to fast-fly over it I would rather go around."

[imeanforever]

Nod, nod.

[infinitely_stranger]

Fly, fly.

[imeanforever]

Nibble, nibble.

Eventually Promise sleeps again. "Harmonics. Sapphire."

[infinitely_stranger]

Arcane finds himself charmed by the stream of nouns. He is smiling when she wakes up.