This, of course, was simplicity itself; (Patreon)

One of the classic Elfin pranks we used to pull on lowfolk!  I quickly composed the Gramarye to command the rabbit's underclothes to yank themselves up as high as they could possibly go.

"Move those miscreants away, back toward their village," I instructed the forest, with a dismissive wave of my hand.  Some vines snaked out of the bushes, twined around the semi-conscious rabbits, and dragged them out of sight.  Meanwhile I tried to look impressively Wise and Thoughtful as I mentally reviewed the powers I had currently at my disposal:

I could Pook from place to place inside the stone circle, as well as to the scrying tower and back, and presumably to locations within Albric Tor (though Pooking to places one could not see was risky.)

I could spy on virtually anyone with the scrying tower, provided I could locate them.

I could apport useful objects (again, provided I knew where they were.)

I could transmogrify people and objects from one form to another.  It was possible to make these transformations temporary (in the case of Elf-gold for instance) or permanent (in the case of Oak Marten.)  Theoretically I should be able to design a transmogrifying geas that would wear off, but then return if certain conditions were met.  Rebecca's father, for example, could turn back into himself in a day or two, but become a poodle again any time he lost his temper.  Yes, that could be fun .. I just needed to craft the precise composition to make it work correctly.

I could communicate with the trees, by using the Voice of the Forest.

If I concentrated, I could read lowfolk's minds with Elfmind.  Previous experiments had shown that this was much easier than reading an elf's mind.

I could elf-shoot lowfolk, which temporarily incapacitated them .. or I could just shoot them with regular killing arrows if I needed to.  Elf-shot unfortunately did not work well on elves.

Speaking of elf-shot, it wasn't too much of a brag to say that I was an excellent shot with a bow - and after Adoyret Sam's training, I felt pretty good about my hand-to-hand combat skills.

One thing that was supposedly possible but I hadn't yet figured out was some way of controlling the temporal discrepancies involved in traversing the Gate between Faerie and the lowfolk world.

"Lord Ramble," Oak beseeched.  "Sorry to interrupt your Majestic Pondering, or whatever it is you're doing, but we still need to discuss how we're going to defeat the shoe cult and keep the rabbits from interfering with us again.  Maybe they learned their lesson today, but I wouldn't count on it.  More immediately, what should we do about this girl?  She's got the crude makings of a distinctive personal style, but it needs refinement and she needs to be formally initiated into our society."

PREV http://www.patreon.com/posts/38107488

NEXT http://www.patreon.com/posts/38588970