"Your vengeance sounds like it will be epic indeed," (Patreon)

Vernier assured me.  "But in the meantime, you need to keep a low profile.  Them too," she added, pointing to my coven.  "They will somehow need to be evacuated.  They can't really stay here in this fairy circle with you forever."

"Is that so?" I asked loudly.  "What do you witches think?"

"You can do amazing things with lizards, bugs, and moss, My Lord," Gretchen admitted, "but I don't want to be eating that indefinitely."

"I kinda like having the dustman pick up my nightsoil every morning," Chloe added.  "Rather than, like, having to deal with it myself somewhere in the bushes."

"I'm ready to rough it," Petunia grinned, "for as long as it takes to learn how to call up storms and blight crops."

I let out a sigh.  Clearly I wasn't getting through to that one.

"You'll probably need to skip town," I informed them.  "You should try to find Rebecca.  She can lead you.  Of course, first we have to figure out a way to get you past the rabbits unharmed."

"What about you, my dear?" I asked as I grasped Vernier's hand and looked longingly into her eyes.  "Can you stay?"

"I think I'm in the same predicament they are in," she sighed glumly.  "I am probably strongly implicated in all of this, so it may not be safe for me in town.  And I also don't really relish the thought of living out here in the woods on a long-term basis."

"You could come to Fae-" I started to offer, but then realized that the Gate might not let her through.  Even if it did, what was there for her on the other side?  An empty scrying tower, a battlefield strewn with dead elves, and a desolate poisoned city full of Fuma only knew what kind of horrors!

"We've been over this before," she sighed.  "I would grow old and become burdensome to you, and eventually die, while you would remain unchanged."

"I've ruined your life," I wailed miserably.

"No, you saved me," she insisted.  "When I was at my lowest, you convinced me that I wasn't a failure, and that I had something to live for."

"Say ..." I murmured as a thought occurred to me.  "If you all have to go, maybe you could travel together and you could all stay where the Martens have settled.  Would that be okay?"  I directed the last part to Oak.

"That would be fine, I guess," she shrugged.  "Assuming we can all get out of here.  Seems to me it would be easier for us to slip out one by one, instead of as a large group."

I still needed to tell Oak about all of the dreadful crimes that Ash was guilty of, but her mood and the current situation were probably making her unreceptive.  I would have to send her coded messages or something at a later time.

"Well, while I've got your attention," I continued.  "Let's figure out what I owe you."

"I want ten pounds of gold and a cloak of invisibility," she blurted.

"Ten pounds??" I exclaimed frantically.

"Are you saying you don't have it?" Oak asked skeptically.

"I don't have it," I declared.  "But I can get it.  That cloak, on the other hand ..."

"Are you gonna say that no such thing exists?" she demanded angrily.  "What about the old tales?  Can you grant wishes or not?  Need I remind you that elves do not lie?"

"I haven't seen a cloak of invisibility in a long time," I stalled.  This was true, since I had NEVER seen one.  "Not much call for them these days, you know.  What do you need it for, anyway?"

"It would be useful to get past the rabbits," she explained.  "Among other things.  So do you have one or not?"

"I don't have one," I admitted.  "But it should be possible to make one.  I just need a cloak, and some time to compose the appropriate Gramarye for it."

"Ooh, my Lord!" Gretchen squealed.  "Are you granting WISHES??"

I was spared having to answer this awkward question by an Ixie buzzing into the clearing and yelling "SIRE!  SIRE!  Urgent news!"

"Well, what is it?" I inquired.

"I come at great risk from the rabbits' blockade with a message from Burnside.  She sayeth that she cannot get through; the rabbits themselves fall like wheat before the scythe, but their prayers are an impenetrable force to the likes of her.  Beating them only maketh it stronger.  She wisheth me to tell thee that Ash hath betrayed us.  He blew up the courthouse to make his escape, and ... I am not sure of this, since Burnside was a bit incoherent, but it is possible that he took Rebecca with him in his flight.  Burnside pursueth, and she sweareth both fervently and profanely that she will bring Ash to justice.  Whatever that meaneth."

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