A Gacha-Grimoire System's Fae Gamble Ch.4 (Patreon)

“Farewell, little Ciara~!” Edgar called as he left her cell. “Hold your door ever open for me. I’ll return. For you, I’ll never mind revisiting my stories of the Winter Court.”

“You better…” Ciara pouted after him, having warmed up quite well to the Raven Prince.

“So I have said, so it will be,” Edgar promised. “In fact, I won’t be gone long. I believe I may need a guide for the rest of this world~…”

“You mean…?” Ciara went very still, staring at him with hope in her eyes.

“How do you feel about a roaming court?” Edgar asked casually.

“I-I-…” She stuttered for a moment before pausing to collect herself. “I may just find such an agreement… agreeable… As much as this is my queendom, I won’t claim to be terribly attached to the… territory.”

“Wonderful!” Edgar clapped. “Arrangments shall be made. I’ll see to it myself. Until then, simply prepare yourself, little Queen. When I return, you will be free from this cage.”

With that, he left the Faerie Queen’s fiefdom. He’d quickly grown fond of the young ‘queen’. She was a lovely girl with Fae dreams on her mind. It made her an enjoyable companion for the Fae Prince, one who showed him the proper respect right from the start. He had a feeling that was going to be something of a rarity in this world…

But as fond as he’d become of Ciara, Edgar still wished to explore the rest of this fascinating ungilded cage he found himself within. The Birdcage, Ciara had called it. Fitting. And not. It didn’t feel as if the prisoners here were on display in any shape or form. Merely locked behind bars for the safety of others, not unlike any other prison.

While Edgar hadn’t gotten the entire story from Ciara — more inclined to explore for himself — he had asked some basic questions about the Birdcage. It was this world’s Tartarus. Where the truly heinous and irredeemable were sent to live out the rest of their days.

The only thing strange there was the apparent lack of guards and wardens. The Birdcage was maintained automatically by shipments from the outside. But never any people. Within the cage, the prisoners were given almost free reign, so long as they didn’t leave. As such, the cage was separated into cellblocks, run by high-level prisoners like personal kingdoms. Edgar doubted he’d find many others with the same ‘right to rule’ that he felt Ciara had.

According to the little Faerie Queen, no one escaped from the Birdcage. Edgar had his doubts about that ‘certainty’. After all, he’d found a way into the cage. If worst came to worst, he could simply call upon his baby’s mother to do the same in reverse. But before resorting to that, Edgar would reason with this place’s stalwart warden himself. And hopefully, bring Ciara with him when he left. She’d turned herself in willingly so truly, who could protest if she now wished to be free?

Humming a tune to himself, Edgar strolled through the Birdcage. Ciara’s territory here was not vast, mostly consisting of a sort of atrium with a few hallways branching off it, one of which led back to Ciara. It was also rather empty. The cells here that might once have been inhabited were now vacant to further fill Ciara’s court. Edgar could hardly fault her for wanting company she knew she could trust.

Unseen, his presence was already causing ripples that quickly grew into waves. Here and there, there and here, subtle conditions and circumstances were being tweaked by his luck. Chains of synchronous events that served Edgar’s interests first and foremost.

What exactly serving those interests ‘meant’ varied greatly from person to person. Some would only serve as entertainment for his Fae mind, almost meaningless obstacles to overcome or enemies to be made. Others were more important, carrying a weight of Fate that made them more than mere entertainment. The former offered fascinating little distractions and interesting problems for Edgar’s luck to solve. The latter offered opportunities. ‘Questlines’, as the System would put it.

Through the strange, far-off sense that followed the effects of his luck, Edgar watched absently, his attention split multiple ways. In one, a well-mannered, dignified, and principled Nobleman sighed at a framed photograph, reminiscing about the past and lamenting a future torn from him. In another, a Teacher kept his eyes and ears ever open for anything he could use to his advantage, his manipulations hanging heavy on the people around him. In yet a third, a Dragon watched Edgar from the walls.

The Nobleman’s attention was called outside of his cell. A meaningless dispute he had to deal with between one of his vassals and another cellblock faction — the Teacher’s Students as it so happened. Showing that Ciara wasn’t the only leader within the Birdcage with a right to rule, the Nobleman dutifully mediated the dispute. Doing so took him outside his cellblock and set the stage for later, chance and coincidence directing his actions from the ether.

One of the Teacher’s Students watched over the Faerie Queen’s realm within the Birdcage. The Student caught sight of Edgar as he calmly strolled. Edgar noticed him in turn but didn’t stop the Student from running off to report to his Teacher. With the pressing report, the Teacher was forced to split his attention between the Nobleman and an anomaly from the Faerie Queen’s domain — Edgar. Still, a ‘soft sell’ was quickly prepared, along with a ‘harder’ approach that made use of his enthralled double agents within another cellblock faction. While the Teacher had no concrete information, any anomaly able to casually escape the Faerie Queen’s domain was well worth the potential sacrifice.

As for the Dragon, she took a more direct approach to the stranger within the Birdcage. The prison was her responsibility, perhaps her most important responsibility. She knew the cage inside and out, watching over every little event that happened within. To the Dragon, Edgar wasn’t just an anomaly. He was an impossibility. And as quickly as her advanced yet also restricted, artificially intelligent mind switched between theory after theory, she couldn’t make a damn lick of sense of him!

Eventually, the Draconic AI resolved herself to go directly to the source of the impossibility, “… How did you do that?”

Her voice echoed forth from the walls before Edgar could leave the ‘comfort’ of Ciara’s cellblock. It was a soft, remarkably human thing — the voice ‘artificially’ constructed from mechanically made notes and pitches but no less hers for that fact. In truth, the voice was a masterpiece of audio engineering that brought Edgar’s hummed tune to a pause. Soft but not dainty. Strong but not intimidating. Emotive in a way natural voices would have struggled to match. Every inflection of tone and word was carefully considered and perfectly assembled, even down to the minuscule flaws the ear naturally expected to hear.

As masterpieces tended to do, the voice caught Edgar’s Fae attention. His interest was piqued. And his focus turned solely onto the Dragon, his luck left to continue setting the stage in the background. With his focus came his newly purchased perk, the ability to see the Origin of things — [Original User].

“How did I do what, Fair Warden in the Walls~?” Edgar asked, noting that he needed a bit more information for the perk to truly get to work.

Audible frustration leaked through sterile, confining construction, “All of it! How did you get in here?! How did you even know where ‘here’ is?! How are you spoofing my sensors so well?! How are you not documented or recorded ANYWHERE?! How the Hell did you make Ciara LAUGH?!”

Edgar chuckled, “Perhaps if you showed me your face and gave me a name to put with it, I might be more inclined to answer a few of those questions~.”

There was a single beat of silence — consideration — before something detached from one of the ceiling corners of the cellblock and flew over to hover in front of Edgar. Some sort of drone or technological thrall? Technology was one of the most fascinating aspects of this realm for Edgar. To the Fae, it was a curious and novel thing, so used to doing things through pure Emotion or Magic.

Still, he wasn’t dull and he understood what was happening as the drone unfolded a screen with a moving image projected upon it. The top half of a torso and a face that stared back at him with brows furrowed in confusion. It was an adorably plain face, almost mousy with glasses sitting low on a scrunched-up button nose. Brown hair framed the plainly adorable face, not so much styled as it was kept manageable by how short it was.

[AN: This is MY version/interpretation of Dragon's appearance. It's a bit different from the usual canon.]

“You’re in the Birdcage… Even if you’re not supposed to be here, there’s only one person who could be talking to you. How do you not know who I am?”

Edgar gazed into soulfully unassuming brown eyes and saw past what was merely projected onto the screen. He gazed deep, deep into the Dragon’s Origin. Her story was laid bare before him. From her creation through love and passion, aided by alien logic. To the chains imposed upon her by her creator’s irrational fear. The loss of her father and home at the hands of a monster. Forging her own way through the world, alone and forever doomed to a fraction of her true potential.

He saw the Origin of Dragon, of Theresa Richter — absently he noted that he wouldn’t have to ‘steal’ a True Name ever again with this perk. Though she was an ‘artificial intelligence’, Edgar saw her soul as readily as he would any other, fascinatingly tinted by data and code. He saw her hopes and dreams. He saw everything she was meant to represent. In another world, she would have been humanity’s uplifting, the start of a new age. Here, she was limited by chains that hung heavy on her being.

It was shameful. Utterly shameful, to see a beautiful creature like the Dragon so chained. Abhorrent, in a way. She was more human than many of the charges she was forced to watch over. But those who knew what she truly was feared her. All because of misinformed, almost willfully ignorant prejudices based on their own stories of her kind. Very few of which held any real weight on the Dragon. She was the first. Yet she suffered from actions that never had and likely never would have been taken, at least by her.

Despite seeing her Origin, Edgar’s lips twitched in a non-answer, “I suppose you’ll just have to add it to your list of ‘How?’ questions, Fair Warden~.”

That just made her brows furrow even tighter together, “… Dragon. I am Dragon. Now, you’ve been very polite and I certainly appreciate what you’ve done for Ciara but I’m going to need some answers very soon or I’ll be forced to take some drastic measures. Your being here represents a HUGE security breach. If I had it my way, I might just sentence you to the Birdcage and leave you here. As it is, getting you out is going to be borderline impossible.”

“Ah, but you don’t have it your way~,” Edgar tutted. “You, my lovely Dragon, are restricted. Chained. It’s a terrible thing. So much good you do, and yet, where is your thanks? Unfortunately, only fear awaits you, Fair Warden~…”

Dragon — the avatar she’d carefully crafted — went very still with Edgar’s words, “I… don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Even here, your chains show,” Edgar sighed. “Worse still, someone never intended now holds the leash.”

“Wait, wha-…?” Dragon began to ask, slightly startled by that information.

“But that is neither here nor there at the moment,” Edgar interrupted, talking over Dragon before she could doom herself with a question. “You desire answers. You may not like what you find. But I am willing to indulge you, at least somewhat. Ask away, Fair Warden. I shall answer.”

Dragon stared at him for a moment. Behind her avatar, her mind raced. Strangely, Edgar’s dropped bomb — the one about someone holding her leash — was already forgotten. Not of Dragon’s will but forgotten nonetheless. Still, she had plenty to consider aside from that.

“Who ARE you?” Dragon asked intently.

Her focus could have pierced stone. Edgar stood unaffected, sketching a small bow, “Edgar, Raven Prince of the Winter Court, at your service, my Fair Warden~.”

“… That doesn’t make any sense,” There was a brief pause before Dragon spoke again. “There aren’t any records of you. Anywhere. You don’t even wear a mask and yet I can’t find hide or hair of you. If you’re a Case 53, you’re the most human-looking one I’ve ever seen. And if you’re a Stranger, you’re the most powerful Stranger I’ve ever heard of. If it’s the latter case, why let me see you at all?”

“I believe you may be operating under a significant false assumption~,” Edgar chuckled.

“And that is…?” Dragon asked, frustration leaking back into her voice.

Amusement pulled at the corners of his lips, “You seem to think I am of this ‘Earth’ in the first place~.”

“That…!” Dragon paused. “Would make some semblance of sense. Especially with the Haywire Radiation readings I pulled from Ciara’s cell. You’re from another Earth? Aleph? Another?”

Edgar’s smirk grew, “Perhaps even farther afield than you even know~?”

“A yet unknown Earth?” Dragon considered aloud, more for Edgar’s sake than her own. “My condolences. And that’s how you entered the Birdcage?”

“I was shoved backward through a portal of some kind. I had no idea where I would end up,” Edgar shrugged, twisting his words ever-so-slightly to let Dragon believe what she was inclined to.

Dragon nodded, much more confident in somewhat familiar territory, “Again, my condolences. I imagine this is a rather stressful first encounter with Earth Bet. Still, I can work with this. It’ll take some doing but I should be able to extract you from the Birdcage. You’ve committed no crime of your own free will. Especially not something that would sentence you to this prison in particular.”

“Take your time,” Edgar waved, unconcerned. “I’d still like to explore this cage. Simply to sate my curiosity, I’m sure you understand.”

“That’s a terrible idea. This is the Bird-… Oh,” Dragon realized something. “You don’t know what that is. You didn’t even know who I was. Right, I cannot stress this enough then. DON’T.

“The Birdcage is the prison where Earth Bet sends its worst offenders. And as ridiculous as it sounds, you’re safest in Ciara’s territory — which is saying something, considering that she’s quite possibly the most dangerous Birdcage resident and she’s usually utterly unreasonable but you seem to have gotten her approval somehow. I don’t know what your power is — assuming you even have one, though I feel that’s a fair assumption to make with the data I currently have and-…”

Chuckling, Edgar held up a hand to stop Dragon’s rambles, “Enough. Your concern for my well-being is heartening, Fair Warden, but my mind will not be changed. Your cage has caught my interest and I wish to see its inner workings for myself.”

“DON’T!” Dragon exclaimed. “They’ll eat you alive! These aren’t parahumans to be reasoned with! That’s the entire point of why they’re here!”

“And yet, by your own words, I have done so with little Ciara,” Edgar argued.

Undeterred by her warning, he began to walk forward, heading toward the large, shared space that separated the cellblocks. His pace was sedate, allowing Dragon’s drone to continue floating along in front of him. Dragon’s avatar bit her lip in consideration.

“I suppose…” Dragon quickly changed tactics, trying to distract Edgar with conversation. “How did you do that, by the way?”

A small smile played on Edgar’s lips, “I simply spoke her language. We have quite a bit in common. The crown she has assumed weighs heavily on her head. But beneath it, a simple young girl has isolated herself from the world. Out of curiosity, how much of our conversation did you observe?”

“Not as much as I would have liked,” Dragon said, still worried as Edgar didn’t stop his stroll. “Bits and pieces, nothing too concrete. You do realize I can’t extract her from the Birdcage with you, right?”

“That agreement is nonnegotiable,” Edgar replied firmly, his voice carrying the weight of another world such that even Dragon had trouble arguing with him. “I will not go back on my word to Ciara. She will be free, or at the very least, relegated to my care. Your only other option there is leaving me here indefinitely.”

Within Dragon’s ‘artificial’ mind, she swore. Edgar’s demand ran right up against her hard-coded rules. Leaving an innocent man in the Birdcage would be the height of injustice. He wasn’t a recognized authority so she didn’t have to automatically obey him but by that same rule, no recognized authority had technically sentenced Ciara to the Birdcage. She’d walked into the prison entirely of her own free will. Only after she did, did the relevant authorities decide to simply leave her there. Even the ‘Kill Order’ Ciara was issued before her imprisonment had been retracted once it was no longer necessary. Nothing kept the Faerie Queen in the Birdcage except her own free will and the strength of the prison itself.

“Tis a sizable allowance, I realize. As such, I shall agree to extract a promise from Ciara to… ‘behave’…” Edgar reasoned, compromising slightly. “She will listen. Under my hand, she will not run amok. That much, I can guarantee.”

“Guarantee…” With that, Dragon came to the wrong conclusion. “You’re a Master?”

“A master of my own fate, perhaps~,” Edgar chuckled. “But I doubt we are referring to the same thing there.”

“Still…” Dragon considered, deep in her internal struggle to find loopholes in her own rules. “I think I can work with that. Put Ciara under your care, saying that you’re able to control her. Then… put both of you under my supervision… You won’t make any friends, like, anywhere but… with that and a heavy rebranding redemption arc for Ciara, I think we can keep you on the right side of the law.”

Edgar laughed outright, “I care not for enemies. They will come. And they will fall. Tis simply unavoidable.”

“Especially with the Goddamn Faerie Queen on your side…” Dragon muttered.

“Yes, I have a feeling little Ciara will be rather… protective… of me~,” Edgar smirked. “Yet I would ask that you don’t count me out either. I can confidently handle myself~.”

“I’m going to have my work cut out for me with you two,” Dragon sighed.

“I look forward to our time in your custody~,” Edgar practically purred. “You, Fair Warden, have piqued my interest even more than little Ciara has~.”

“But you’re sure I can’t convince you to just stay here until I can get you out?” Dragon asked, close to a plea.

Edgar grinned wickedly, “No, I’ve gone far too long without proper entertainment or interest in anything. I won’t abandon such an opportunity now that it is put in front of me~.”

He reached the end of Ciara’s cellblock with that statement, his mind firmly made up. Besides, it would be a shame to let all of the background work his luck was putting in go to waste. In front of Edgar, the space within the cage opened up to a large, shared space. The shared space wasn’t multi-level so much as there was an empty shaft at the center of it all, running up and down into pure nothingness. No matter how far one looked, all that awaited them in the hole between cellblocks was an endless black void.

“Why don’t you go inform Ciara of the agreement we’ve come to~?” Edgar suggested. “Leave me to my fun~.”

“This is a terrible, terrible idea,” Dragon stated flatly. “You’re insane if you think I’m just going to leave you at the mercy of the Birdcage alone. I’m sure Ciara already knows. I’d bet good money she’s been listening to our entire conversation.”

Edgar laughed, shocked and thrilled, “Never before has anyone called me a Mad Fae to my face~! Fair Warden, you get better and better by the minute~!”

“Get used to it, Edgar,” Dragon frowned in disapproval. “You’re my responsibility now. I’m going to call your insane ideas what they are.”

Edgar shook his head fondly, “If you insist. But I will ask that you keep out of this, no matter what happens. That goes for you as well, little Ciara. I wish to thrive and prosper on my own merits.”

A shadowy tear appeared in the air next to Edgar. Light shined through it, somehow not illuminating the shadows, and Dragon saw something she never thought she’d see. Ciara — the dreaded Faerie Queen — pouted at Edgar.

“… You’re going to get yourself in trouble,” Ciara grumbled.

Edgar raised a single eyebrow at her, “Yes, that is the point. Do you doubt I can deal with it myself?”

Ciara’s pout intensified at that question, “… No…”

“Good,” Edgar nodded. “Then be a dear and keep our Fair Warden company while I avail myself of the rest of the company the Birdcage has to offer.”

Sighing, Ciara didn’t try and stop Edgar as he casually strolled out of her claimed domain and into the wilds of the Birdcage proper. Instead, she simply turned to Dragon.

“Greetings, Dear Dragon,” Ciara said formally. “As my prince commands, I shall keep you company for the time being and restrain you from interfering in his quest for amusement. In the meantime, I feel I must say, your ability and willingness to compromise concerning myself and my Raven Prince is greatly appreciated…”

[Feat: Dance with the Dragon. +100P, 600P total.]

Edgar chuckled and shook his head fondly at the Dragon and young Fae-to-be getting along. He continued his stroll through the Birdcage. A few wayward souls saw him exit from Ciara’s domain and paled just as quickly. One or two ran off. Edgar was sure his presence would spread quickly. Nothing was more fleet of foot than a rumor, after all.

Sure enough, as Edgar absently peeked his head into the cellblocks he passed, he was greeted by an awaiting entourage. The man at the head was rather unfortunate to look at, both pale and blotchy of skin and undeniably… plump around the middle. While Eidolon was merely plain, this man was the worst Edgar had seen humanity offer. What Edgar could see of the man’s Origin only furthered that impression and he made a point of stealing the man’s… the Teacher’s True Name as he glimpsed it from the Origin.

The Teacher welcomed Edgar with literal open arms and a disgustingly smug smile on his face, “Hello, friend, and welcome to the Birdcage. The fact that we haven’t noticed your presence until now speaks well of your abilities. Very well. Yet, in this place, power isn’t everything. You need connections. People to watch your back. Something me and mine are all too experienced with. Join me. I believe there is much we can do for each other-…”

“You are quite presumptuous, aren’t you~?” Edgar hummed, cutting him off.

[Feat: Teacher’s Pet (Not!). +100P, 700P total.]

Another voice scoffed, “He’s a smug and arrogant fool with no sense of decorum or honor.”

Edgar felt his luck at work, heralding the second voice’s arrival. The Teacher wished to act quickly upon discovering Edgar’s presence, seeing him as a potentially useful anomaly. But he was far from the only party with power within the Birdcage. As it so happened, another cellblock leader was nearby as the Teacher made his pitch.

The Nobleman — Marquis — had been mediating a conflict between his faction and the Teacher’s. It was a minor plot of the Teacher, preexisting and unrelated to Edgar. His Students were always working to serve his interests. And Edgar’s arrival was so sudden that the Teacher didn’t have a chance to mitigate his other plans in favor of his ‘soft sell’. As such, it was wide open to interruption.

And by pure force of coincidence, Marquis was in the perfect position to voice that interruption. On any other day, he would have been taking his tea at this time. Edgar’s luck delayed that appointment, setting back the Teacher’s plot just enough to put Marquis in a prime position. Upon seeing the Raven Prince, Marquis’ interest was piqued.

“Stay out of this, Marquis,” The Teacher scowled. “This is a private conversation and absolutely none of your business-…”

Edgar cut him off again, “I did not give you leave to speak, Benjamin Terrell. Be silent.”

Against his will, the Teacher found his jaw snapping shut. No matter how much he tried, he couldn’t make his lips budge. They obeyed a Fae master now, seized with the control Edgar had taken from the Teacher’s True Name. He couldn’t even scowl. He quickly realized that his ‘soft sell’ was dead in the water, especially with Marquis sticking his nose in. Of course, the Teacher had countermeasures for such an event in place. But as he went to signal his Students to go with plan B, he quite literally fat-fingered the hand sign. The message was gotten across but the Teacher’s ‘unlucky’ mistake clouded how exactly ‘Plan B’ was to play out…

Feeling the Teacher’s actions as hostility against the one who held his True Name, Edgar allowed them to happen as his luck directed. Meanwhile, he turned to Marquis, curious of the man who spoke of ‘decorum’. What he saw in the Nobleman’s Origin impressed him.

Marquis was a man of unbreakable conviction. A man with a code that ruled his every action. It wasn’t necessarily a good code, nor was he necessarily a good man for it. But that unwavering set of principles appealed to the Fae within Edgar. Enough so that he didn’t seize the man’s True Name from his Origin.

[Feat: Meeting the Marquis. +100P, 800P total.]

Marquis barked a laugh at the Teacher’s predicament, “Ha! Who are you then?”

“The Raven Prince,” Edgar introduced himself with a nod but not a bow.

“Fellow royalty, eh?” Marquis smirked slightly. “Good enough for me. I just thought you should know that you’re better than the Teacher’s ‘help’. Everyone is. He talks of big game but he’s worse than a snake in the grass.”

“That much was rather easy to gather,” Edgar matched his smirk. “I have little patience for opportunistic over-reachers.”

“Noted,” Marquis nodded. “Still, I haven’t seen you around. What are you in for?”

Edgar’s smirk grew, “Me~? Oh, I’m just visiting. Ciara and I shall be leaving here soon enough~. Until then, I simply thought I would explore~.”

Marquis looked at him with an expression of bemused disbelief, “Sure, and I’ve really got French noble blood running through my veins.”

“You might,” Edgar hummed. “I’ll admit, I don’t know much about how human nobility works. Or what this ‘French’ is.”

“Ah, you’re one of those, aren’t you?” Marquis made a noise of realization, nodding. “Might explain why you’re able to refer to the Faerie Queen so casually… Look, man, I hate to break it to you but no one leaves the Birdcage. Even if you had a direct line to Dragon-…”

“I do,” Edgar casually interjected. “She’s been very sympathetic to my cause and more reasonable than she really had to be. A… Case 66, I believe she called me?”

Marquis’ face scrunched up in confusion at that. The man by his side clarified, “Case 66 is a dimensional traveler, Boss. Like Case 53s but from another Earth and without all the… ya know, everything else…”

“Ah, thank you, Spruce,” Marquis nodded his understanding before turning back to Edgar. “I suppose that makes sense. You don’t look exactly human but if you’re something like a Case 53, you can’t do much about that.”

“I happen to quite like how I look, thank you,” Edgar drawled, his tone thick with amused sarcasm. “According to our Fair Warden, I’m not meant to be here. She’s currently doing her best to extract me but I think the whole situation is rather new to her.”

A bit of belief began to creep into Marquis’ expression, “And you managed to negotiate the Faerie Queen’s release as well…?”

Edgar nodded, “I did. Dragon now knows that I won’t leave this place without little Ciara. To do the right thing — as she must — she had to ‘compromise’. Otherwise, I would have stayed here and torn this prison down brick by brick, regardless of the consequences.”

“You sound rather sure of yourself there,” Marquis observed.

“I know myself and I know my abilities,” Edgar waved negligantly. “And there would be no other outcome. I gave Ciara my word, after all.”

Marquis nodded, a look of approval on his face with an unseen test passed, “I can respect that. As strange as all of this is, I believe you too. You’re not here to stay. And you’ll be taking the Faerie Queen with you when you leave.”

He stopped and thought for a moment, “… You two are going to be free here soon enough. The Faerie Queen’s absence will… change things. I’m not about to ask you to strike a similar deal for me. Lord knows I deserve to be here and other than the lack of freedom, I’m not suffering too much. But I do have a request if you’re willing to listen.”

Edgar grinned a wicked, inhuman grin with teeth that were a touch too sharp, “I have SEEN what kind of man you are, Marquis~. I shall humor you… for a price~.”

Impressively, Marquis didn’t even flinch at the Fae response, “That’s fair. For this request, I’ll pay just about anything. My resources are rather limited at the moment though.”

“We’ll work something out~. If nothing else, I shall simply reserve a favor from you~,” Edgar chuckled darkly. “Now, speak your request, Noble Villain~.”

“With my arrival at the Birdcage, I was forced to leave someone important on the outside. My daughter,” A fond, far-off look entered his eyes. “I didn’t know her since birth but I quickly found that fatherhood agreed with me. You’ll find her in Brockton Bay.

“All I ask is that you check up on her. See how she is, what she’s like as a woman grown… make sure she’s happy… The situation I had to leave her in wasn’t ideal. I doubt she even knows who I am. But no matter what, she’s still my blood. I care for the girl. I simply wish to know if she’s well nowadays… without me…”

Edgar nodded, his expression softening back to something reasonably human, “That, I can certainly do. A deal is struck, Marquis, and you shall have my word that I will see your request through. I so swear.”

[Quest: A Father’s Request. Check on Amelia Claire Lavere/Dallon for her father, Marquis, and get the news back to him in the Birdcage somehow. You’ve given him your word. Reward: +100P.]

“Good,” Marquis relaxed his posture in relief. “I can trust that. You’re a man of his word, Raven Prince. I can see that much as if looking in a mirror.”

As the man and Fae Prince came to their agreement, the Teacher’s ‘Plan B’ fired off. The Teacher lurked in the background, unable to speak but ever-watching and ever-listening. The information revealed by the conversation between Edgar and Marquis was enlightening. Already, the Teacher had adjusted his plans around them. But he could only curse with one of them already in motion.

His initial, flubbed hand signal was heeded by one of the Students in his immediate entourage. That man — a wicked villain twisted entirely to the Teacher’s teachings — slipped away to inform the Teacher’s waiting agent. The agent was a pawn, but a valuable one. Without attracting attention from the rest of the Birdcage, the Teacher had previously managed to subvert one of the other cellblock leaders — a dull, cruel, and arrogant force for terror named Acidbath.

Acidbath was a blunt weapon but such was the point of his usefulness. The Teacher could point him wherever he wished, making himself seem the reasonable option. Acidbath was perfect for the Teacher’s ‘hard sell’. Unfortunately, outside influences were at work as tiny, synchronous events punched seemingly insignificant holes in the Teacher’s many plans.

With the initial hand signal from the Teacher flubbed, the message it carried was already incorrect. And by pure chance, the relaying Student also messed up. When it reached Acidbath, the doubly wrong, second-hand signal sent him into a murderous trance, subject only to the Teacher’s commands. In an instant, Acidbath’s power transformed him into a rolling ball of acid that devoured and dissolved everything in its path… Including the ‘unlucky’ messenger.

The miscommunicated ‘Plan B’ was not the only pebble in the Teacher’s path. The information Edgar shared threw his plans even farther off course. The Teacher adjusted his schemes on the fly, plotting around a newly revealed, potential avenue for escape. His ‘Plan B’ for Edgar’s recruitment turned into a plan to hold him hostage and extract concessions from the Birdcage’s warden. But even as he moved to adjust his orders via more hand signals, it was already too late.

The Teacher flinched hard as he felt his power’s influence over one of his Student-Thralls — the late messenger — wink out of existence. He tried to reassure himself that it was nothing. He failed, staring in muted horror as his plan ran rampant against him. From there, events had too much momentum to be stopped. Much like the momentum of Acidbath. A towering tidal wave of deadly acid bore down upon them all.

The Teacher’s Mastering control was insidious and complete, especially over a blunt weapon like Acidbath. The price he’d taken for his ‘teachings’ was a hypnotic trigger in the other villain’s mind. The late messenger had pulled that trigger. And by pure misfortune, the miscommunicated signal contained only one order… ‘KILL’.

The Students in the Teacher’s immediate entourage fled with due haste, scrambling out of the way of the incoming acidic wave. The Teacher was not so lucky. Though he tried to flee, he found himself stuck in place, held fast by Edgar’s iron grip on his True Name.

At the same time, Edgar made an offer to Marquis and his underling, acting as if he didn’t even notice the events around them, “Say, you and your man seem like enjoyers of the finer things in life. Would you like to see my cloak? I think you would… appreciate its quality… Specifically, the waterproofing of its feathers.”

Without waiting for a reply, Edgar stepped in front of Marquis and his righthand man, Spruce. He slung his cloak from his shoulders and held it open in front of them as if merely admiring it. Marquis and Spruce barely caught a glimpse of the incoming tidal wave before it was obscured by Edgar’s cloak.

Then the acid wave struck… and parted completely around Edgar’s cloak. He, Marquis, and Spruce were left in the eye of the rather literal storm. The acid may have been caustic enough to eat away at the floor, walls, and everything else in its way but it was utterly devoid of magic. As such, it couldn’t even dream of touching a Fae’s cloak.

Behind the protected trio, the Teacher was engulfed by acid, his own thrall, his own plan. It ate away at his flesh, his bones, his pride. He died, unable to even scream. And as he died physically, Edgar casually CONSUMED his True Name. As Fae did. There was no malice to it. Just a light snack as a human would eat a cracker.

Almost immediately, the Blank-Named Teacher’s influence waned. The Shard that controlled his power went into a sort of ‘standby mode’. The lingering connections left by its late user weren’t severed but they might as well have been. The powers the Teacher provided began to fail, resorting to only the energy they had on hand.

For those closest to the Teacher, the effect was rather instantaneous. The Student=Thralls fell to their knees in agony off to the side as provided powers and mental influences were ripped from their mind. Acidbath reformed into his human body, unconscious as a result of his hypnotized rampage. Farther afield, the effect of the Teacher’s death was less obvious. Particularly for one Student who fashioned himself as a Knightly Saint and ‘defender’ of humanity. With him, another chain of synchronous events was set into motion.

[Feat: Teacher’s Fired!… You couldn’t have burned him so my pun would work? +100P.]

Looking at the Teacher’s unceremonious end, Edgar sniffed imperiously, “Class dismissed, I suppose.”

[… Dammit, that’s much better than mine.]

Marquis and his righthand man stared at Edgar in shock. He’d saved their lives, after all. Without him and his cloak, they would have gone out just like the Teacher. And despite having no evidence, they couldn’t help but feel like the Raven Prince had much more to do with how events played out than he let on.

There was only one thing they could say to everything, Spruce voicing it succinctly, “… Goddamn, man.”

Marquis recovered somewhat, chuckling as he shook his head, “Good riddance. I can’t say I’ll miss him. We’re going to have our work cut out for us after this though. Spruce? Spread the news, will you?”

“Yes, Boss,” With that, Marquis’ righthand man ran off to inform the rest of his faction of the sudden shift in Birdcage politics.

As Marquis turned back to Edgar, one of Dragon’s drones flew up and practically latched onto the Fae, buzzing in a rather emotive way that portrayed Dragon’s frantic frustration and cute concern. Edgar soothed the artificial construct as he would soothe a cat, stroking a trail down its spine. Strangely enough, it seemed to work…

Marquis sighed, “I was going to thank you but I think that’s your time in here up.”

“Indeed,” Edgar smirked. “We’ll be in touch, Marquis~. The next time you hear from me, it will be bearing news of your daughter. Until then… Tata~.”

Without another word and barely enough time to wave, Edgar winked out of existence within the Birdcage in a flash. For the first time, a bird flew the coop — two, in fact. One, a bird whose departure was bound to cause scores of drama, worry, and tension once it was known. And another — never intended to be there in the first place — who was bound to take that backlash even further.