Chapter 6

                                        

                                              
Her Fairy Godmother had arrived with nary a fanfare, merely the sound of a letter being dropped on a flat surface.

Emberlee carefully looked up from her eye blindingly detailed needlework on the teal gossamer robe, to see her Mother's reflection once again in the Mirror. "Why in the world are you doing that by hand my Child?" It was Mother's voice, but once again not her inflections.

"Lacking a tailor to do it for me, and the time to send for one to be done, what would you have me do to prepare an appropriate gown?" she carefully stuck her needle into the pincushion so she wouldn't lose it, again. 

Gray eyes, that upon closer inspection had feline pupils, regarded her with both surprise and dismay. "Has no one truly understood the Blessing you've been Bestowed Child?" 

"What does an Adaban Fairy Godmother know about Xutian Godly Blessings?" she should be focusing on the package that had been delivered but the Fairy Godmother smiled at her as she took the obvious bait. 

"So many things Child, but what I was referencing in specific this time was your Blessing from the Beloved," that was the first time Emberlee had heard one of the Gods of Beauty Named. 

She'd come across more than even the Ortega Library had housed about the Xutian Gods, and she had some blasphemous theories as to why there were exactly as many Vapours as there were Godly Domains, but the Blessings were never explained as more than gifts of regard that all should be grateful for. Only those Blessed by the Gods of Magic could actually do anything with their Blessing. Or so the 온라인카지노게임 goes, Emberlee had always suspected that Xutian Religion was just another yoke the Royal family kept around their Citizens. 

"What can I do with my Blessing from the Beloved, Fairy Godmother?" Mother had taught her to use every weapon available to her, she would gladly take another for her arsenal.

"You could charm a flower into blooming, a bird to sing, or even for the very beasties to do the work for you," If a Fairy couldn't lie, Emberlee could assume her statements were literal but she suspected it was metaphorical. 

"I have not noticed any particular trait of mine that would ensnare creatures such as you describe," she was confident of that at least. 

"My Child, have you ever tried?" The challenge in her Mother's voice was familiar and stole her breath for the grief it caused. 

It was night time, and the full moon, so she lacked bird and beastie but Emberlee had a balcony flower box she could attempt this experiment upon. "How would I try?"

"As you did when you made your Summons to me Child; you Need it, speak the Command and compel it to be done." The Fairy's words were firm but rather unhelpful. 

Need. Command. Compel. She'd followed the Ritual she'd bought, but she'd been prepared to fail. What part of that was Needful, Commanding, or Compelling?

"It's not a song you can sing, a dance to be swayed, or magic to dazzle the eye," the reflection was bound to the Mirror, but the voice felt nearly spoken in her ear. "The Ritual is merely a signal for attention, it was you that Called for me to answer." 

Emberlee looked at her still closed balcony door for a moment longer before she confidently strode out to stare at her flower box. The inspiration for the florals stitched into the upper part of her robe were still barely budding, not yet ready to bloom at all. "Does it require blood?" that would be rather tedious. 

"Only if you want it to my Child, for now calm yourself and think only of what you Want the flowers to do, then Command it to do so," like everything else the Fairy said, it was illuminating but directionless.

Emberlee stared at the flower bud and considered what it'd look like if it bloomed. How the protective layer would bulge and give way as the flower petals exerted their Inexorable progression on them. The beautiful, fragrant petals would unfurl as they grew and flushed with life, attracting pollinators. The natural progression of all that was still weeks away, but the Fairy implied Emberlee could make it occur now. When she'd been trying to summon the Fairy, she'd written in blood and prepared for the arrival of one. As if she knew it would work. Wanting the flower to grow wouldn't be enough, that would only fulfill the Need requirement. She wanted it to grow, stared at the bulb and consciously tried to compel it to obey, and nothing about it changed at all. 

The first thing the Fairy Godmother said was that she could 'Charm'; so maybe it wasn't a song to be sung but a compulsion to be made. 

"You want to grow for me, show me what a beautiful flower you are," Emberlee spoke as if it weren't a completely ridiculous thing to be doing. And in response, the flower erupted into a beautiful and doomed blossom, its lifecycle spent too quickly. 

"Well done my Child, as expected you're a natural," her Fairy Godmother couldn't have seen her success from the Mirror inside, so Emberlee scanned around for the reflective surface being used. The wind chime hung to keep the birds away from the flower bulbs. Glass, not a mirror at all, and yet the paltry reflection in the coloured glass proved to be sufficient.

"Are you bound to the full moon on the Mirror's surface still?" 

"No my Child, I will stay with you now," it shouldn't have been as comforting to hear that as it was, but Emberlee savoured hearing it all the same, "although I will only be able to show myself in sufficient surfaces, for now I can observe those around you." That meant for the first the in over a year Emberlee wouldn't be alone and could take her time to plan her next move. It was an astonishing luxury she didn't know what to do with.

"First, I will see how Adaba replied to my greetings," she'd sent a brief message and proof of her Ambassador status, what had returned was more package than letter. 

The Royal family of Xutia used a golden seal on their official letters, the stamp used to press it indicating the type of missive it was. The Lindquist family crest would be an official appointment, like her Marchioness Inheritance and becoming an Ambassador, but if it was a gold seal with a personalized stamp, it was a direct, private message from the sender. Likewise, Emberlee had used the Ortega family Crest to seal her own letters, though she tended towards simple white sealing wax.