"Before you start," (Patreon)

Ash continued, "please send the ladies away.  I don't want you to hold back anything you wish to say to me, but you might be tempted to censor yourself with them listening."

I looked at Vernier (who was regarding me earnestly), Rebecca (who was eagerly poised to take notes), and Burnside (who still seemed lost in a reverie of shock or horror or whatever.)

"Whatever I have to say, these femmes can hear," I replied.

"As you wish," Ash replied blandly.  "What do you want to discuss first?"

"Firstly," I began, "the method you gave me for controlling the time skips didn't work.  Did you withhold a step?  Were those instructions even genuine?"

"My dear boy," Ash huffed, sounding slightly offended.  "It did work.  Instead of being sent a year or more into the future, it was merely a fortnight.  Like any skill, practice makes perfect.  Surely I needn't explain that to someone who has studied Gramarye.  Once you get the  method down, you will be able to step forward by as much or as little time as you please.  You will not be able to go back in time, however, and I would strongly caution you from trying.  Down that path lies madness."

"Is that so?" I muttered suspiciously.

 "Your Highness, I may be many things, but above all I am first and foremost an elf, and elves DO NOT LIE.  I would ask that you have the common courtesy to never imply it of me again."

"Okay, next question," I continued.  "Why did you conspire and collude with the rabbits to cut me off from the world like this?  If you want to be pardoned back into Faerie, surely putting me in shackles leads away and not toward that goal.  Wouldn't it be more advantageous to stay in my good graces?  I am less inclined to do you any favors every time you sabotage me."

"The answer to that is simple," Ash sighed.  "You never told me not to, and this places me in a much more advantageous bargaining position.  Back when I was trying to intimidate you by enumerating all the flimsy ways I might ruin you, did you not consider that I might have been withholding a scheme or two that actually would work?  I thought I made it abundantly clear that I had put extensive thought into a double-cross, and you didn't even send spies after me.  How many times have you struck deals or cooperated with Unseelie elves, and how many times has it worked out to your advantage?  You really should read that book I gave you.  Even if you have enough misguided conviction to stay on the Seelie path, at the very least it would benefit you to know how the Unseelie think, and the methods they would use to stab you in the back.  You can't just keep relying on luck, otherwise you will keep ending up in places exactly like where you are now.  If you ever hope to be emperor, you'd better wise up."

PREV http://www.patreon.com/posts/57101906

NEXT http://www.patreon.com/posts/57664770