Wicked Steps

Uncle Albert left for his Capital Manor the day after Emberlee experienced her first hangover, and she wasted no time in setting up to summon a Fairy. It was far simpler than expected and yet would have an astronomical cost that was not at all specified in any text. The Ritual to summon required a Mirror with no imperfections, her fresh blood to draw the Summoning Sigils onto the Mirror, and an intangible payment that the Fairy would specify if they appeared at all. According to some texts, the Fairy and the person could negotiate a possible payment, but Emberlee had scoured all the records she could find and was unable to determine what those payments might be. Some claimed the Fairy had taken a day of their life, but what was meant by that was never specified. A few suspicious stories warned that the Fairy would demand the rights to the firstborn child of the requester, though Emberlee always read those with a grain of salt as they didn't originate from Adaba but from other countries and were more like propaganda.

Regardless of what her potential Fairy may demand, Emberlee did not have a lot left to lose, so she felt even more determined to reach out. If the Fairy wanted a day of her life they could have it, but she would not make another bear the price of her request so if a child was demanded it would be denied.

But it wasn't just the payment the Fairy would demand that Emberlee had to determine. With spies in the Manor watching endlessly, Emberlee had to wait to try and summon in the quiet hours of the night. When no one but the few Guards would be stirring, and those Guards were not a part of the spies Emberlee was cautious of. Though she was still cautious, as by now it was her nature to be suspicious of everyone as an act of survival.

So it wasn't until she was certain none were around that Emberlee started the Ritual required to summon a Fairy. She'd found a rare Adaban Merchant who'd sold her the Ritual in trade for exclusive warehouse rights in Ortega, and this was her first time seeing if the expense was worth the item. In Xutia, magical items could be infused with powers for activation, but only by those Blessed by the Gods of Magic like Aubin had been. Emberlee lacked the limited magic of Xutia but was hopefully able to utilize the Ritual of Adaba.

The only other aspect of the Ritual was a constant that the moon had to be full overhead, its light was the required illumination for the Ritual as no candles or torches were allowed. Nothing but the night, a Mirror, her blood, and the Fairy.

With no witnesses around to deter or distract, Emberlee started her Ritual on the night of the full moon.

The Mirror selected was Mother's silver vanity, an heirloom of magnificent value but beyond priceless for its sentimentality. It was not the largest of mirrors, but it was as flawless as money could buy and heavy enough that Emberlee had struggled to move it to her bedroom in advance of the Ritual. Now she stared at it, the silver polished and gleaming in the bright moonlight. She hadn't looked at her reflection properly in some time, too focused on her duties as Marchioness and grieving to be bothered with vanity.

Her hair was as black as the mourning shroud she garbed herself in still, inky and straight despite the fashion calling for ringlet curls. She'd paled over winter, the lack of sun chasing the life from her normally golden-hued skin until she looked almost like moonlight herself. Emberlee still had some of the softer roundness of childhood clinging to her chin and cheeks, but she saw more of her Mother's stately features shining through as she matured. Her grey eyes were harder than her Mother's had been, the steel edge of a blade compared to her Mother's downy silver. What Emberlee lacked still was the more voluptuous figure her Mother had demonstrated, instead, she seemed to have inherited her Father's lean frame and delicate hands. Father always did look more like a courtier than a general, until he donned his armour and sword that is.

Her reflection aside, Emberlee couldn't help but stare at the mirror a while longer, memories trying to bog her down with nostalgia and grief. It served no good now to reminisce over the times when she sat on Mother's lap and learned the careful art of makeup, hair and accessorizing for Courtly functions. The ghosts of her Mother and brother were long familiar after a year of mourning. So Emberlee shook them off, looking instead to the small stiletto blade she wore disguised as a hairpin. The enameled flower, a night-blooming Epiphyllum oxypetalum, was the only thing not black in her attire; the white petals of the blossom glowing in the moonlight.

Black, silver, white, and finally red as Emberlee willingly offered her fresh blood to draw the sigils onto the mirror's surface. The Ritual she'd bought had the careful diagrams she had to follow, their strange shapes unlike her writing and yet all too natural feeling with the swipe of her finger. Emberlee carefully etched the Ritual onto the surface of the Mirror and then stared down at it in silent expectation.

According to her research, now all she had to do was wait until the moon set to see if a Fairy answered her summons.

Emberlee stared down at the mirror, looking at the silvered frame and blood-smeared surface, and she at first assumed that seeing her Mother's reflection in the mirror was a trick of her grief. Mother was as beautiful as always, her pale eyes glowing with the light of the moon, and the smile on her face nothing like the one Mother usually wore.

"Fairy Godmother?" Emberlee broke the silence, wondering if naming the creature before her was part of the Ritual.

"Child," the reflection wearing her Mother's face spoke, the intonation strange but familiar for the voice.

"You answered my Summons, what is the cost of your assistance?" she wanted to establish the parameters as soon as possible, feeling an unsettling sensation of energy draining out of her as she spoke to the reflection.

"I will share the burdens to come with you Child of mine, together we shall grow stronger," the Fairy Godmother promised, a strange negotiation tactic.

Wearing her Mother's face had to be a deliberate maneuver, as was the verbal implication that the Fairy Godmother was going to stay for a length of time. "What do you mean, share the burdens?"

Emberlee tried to focus on just the boundaries and facts available, her grieving heart far too emotional at seeing her Mother's reflection in the mirror next to her own. According to the reflection, her Mother was standing just behind and to the side of her. Close enough that Emberlee should have been able to smell the bath oils Mother adored, should have felt her Mother's familiar embrace. But it was a farce, a cruel yet clever ruse that successfully left Emberlee feeling unsettled. She was naturally suspicious, especially of a creature choosing her Mother's appearance, and yet Emberlee couldn't help but stay and listen to its terms, her lonesome heart demanding it.

"Child of mine, you will not face your perilous future unarmed and alone," that wasn't an answer at all, deliberately sensational and vague.

"Even unarmed and alone I would face my burdens," Emberlee fought to react to this Fairy Godmother as an opponent instead of trusting its familiar usage. "Currently I seek to open communications with the Ababa Ministry, as the soon-to-be Xutian Emperor's appointed Ambassador. What is the cost of such a request?" She'd traded warehouse rights to the Merchant and gotten a successful Fairy Summoning Ritual, but the costs are still accruing.

"Child of mine," the reflection of her Mother rested its hand on her shoulder and Emberlee swallowed a sob as she felt the weight of Mother's touch but couldn't see her for her real.

It was too much.

"Why do you keep calling me that?" her composure broke, Emberlee paced around the mirror while her Mother's reflection watched.

"You named me Fairy Godmother, your need called me to this Mirror, and your memories gifted me this embodiment," her statements were firm but not unkind, "I am your Fairy Godmother and you are my chosen Child." Her smile was familiar and strange all at once, too expressive to be Mother's and yet it was her face.

"What does it mean, that you are my Fairy Godmother and I am your chosen Child?" Maybe direct questions could have direct answers.

"I will always watch from any reflective surfaces, though for now my power is limited to watching and reflecting," she'd make a marvellous spy even if that was the only gift she had to offer.

"My research has indicated that Fairy kind cannot tell lies, or break oaths," Emberlee stopped pacing as her agitation settled.

"Clever child," the proud smile matched Mother's perfectly, "you can always trust my counsel to be true, I mean every word I say. Any broken oath is a shattered mirror to us, a great loss of power and access."

"So for now you will deliver a message, from me as Ambassador, and the only payment you require is the right to live in all the reflective surfaces in my March?" that would be far too one-sided.

"Nay child, my limit is the reflections around you, where you go I would follow, until such time our power and bond grows." That was almost ominous sounding.

"Then, Fairy Godmother, tell me your name and I will grant you the use of my own in return," she fell back on etiquette to guide her, and introductions were done from guest to host.

"Names are a thing of Power, suffice it to be called Child and Godmother for both our sakes," her admonishment was kinder than Mother's would have been. 

"Then, Fairy Godmother, relay a message to the Adaban Ministry and let us start to build that bond and power you described," Emberlee accepted the Fairy Godmother's conditions. "I'll write my message down and seal it, will you be able to transport a physical letter such as that?"

"If it is given to me now while the moon still shines on the Mirror's surface, I will return with the next full moon," her Fairy Godmother promised. 

That'd give her time to formulate a plan that now included having a Fairy Godparent to assist. For now, she bent to the task of sending an Ambassador's greeting to her counterparts in Adaba. The appointment from Xutia had a duplicate to provide her credentials to Adaba, and Emberlee quickly wrote her brief introduction to a still unknown compatriot. As a Marchioness' Heir, Emberlee had been taught international etiquette as well as Xutia's Courtly manners; all border territories made it a practice to. She longed for time to craft and perfect her message, but her Fairy Godmother had already warned that there was none to spare.

/Adaba Foreign Ministry/, she carefully wrote in formal Adaban. /I reach out to you as the Ambassador of Xutia, in the hopes of establishing regular correspondence. A formal invitation will follow, and I anticipate friendly relations between our diplomatic teams. Marchioness Emberlee Ortega /

Ultimately the message itself wasn't important, but having a Fairy Godmother deliver it was. A clever minister could read a whole tone of details off of this 'simple' act. That she had found their Ritual, and more importantly successfully utilized it. Additionally, this would likely make the Emperor-to-be look more capable as the Adabans would assume he'd been the source of the Ritual, and that even the youngest of his Noble leaders was an acceptable child for a Fairy Godparent. The fact that she was voluntarily demonstrating her Fairy Godmother would hopefully garnish her some favour, as it warned both parties that a Fairy's ability to spy through mirrors was known. And this was where Emberlee started to walk the careful line of diplomacy; this also opened Xutia, or at least the March, up to Adaba's influence. The Ortega March was fundamentally closer to the Ababa Capital city than it was to the Xutian capital; as the falcon flew it might look closer to Xutia but thanks to the Adaban use of waterways, they could be technically reached much quicker.

Not that Emberlee had ever stepped foot into Adaba despite having grown up with it as a neighbour. All part and parcel to the very complicated international politics that Emberlee was getting to learn firsthand. Merchant trains crossed the borders, inspected by both sides very cautiously, and after this Emberlee could anticipate greater trade ensuing. And perhaps, after she comes of age, she might get the opportunity to travel once her Father came home.

Emberlee set aside her little fantasy, and the pen, before swiftly returning to the Mirror and her waiting for Fairy Godmother. Her breath staggered for a wretched heartbeat at once again catching sight of her Mother's reflection. It was going to be a trial to regain complete composure in the face of such an obstacle, but Emberlee was nothing if not determined.

"Hand me the letter child," her Fairy Godmother instructed, reaching out as if the surface of the mirror was no barricade, "but only the letter. I dare not attempt taking you through the reflection quite yet. It would end disastrously," with that precaution in mind, Emberlee held the letter to the surface of the mirror and her Fairy Godmother plucked it from her into the reflection like... magic. 

And without further ado, as the moonlight left the mirror's surface so too did any trace of her Mother's reflection. Her Fairy Godmother had promised to return on the next full moon, and there was an Imperial wedding to prepare for, but for a brief moment Emberlee just sat and stared down at the Mirror. At some point the bloody sigils had disappeared, consumed now that the Ritual was complete. She didn't want a hint of this new contract to escape, so Emberlee destroyed all traces of the Ritual and righted the mirror from the floor. The perfect surface had no blemish to distort or hide the tears sliding down her cheeks as she tried to work efficiently despite another emotional outburst.

There were portraits of Mother and Aubin in the manor, she saw them every day. And yet this hurt in a different way, Mother's likeness and her voice but not a perfect recreation. After all, it was a disguise and the Fairy Godmother couldn't wear the same features in the same manner as a woman she'd never met.

Emberlee roughly wiped the tears as she turned away from the mirror, dismayed that a part of her was disappointed that she couldn't pretend that Mother still lived. It would have been easier to bear the face of an enemy rather than a lost loved one, but maybe in its way this too was a part of the cost of summoning a Fairy Godparent. She could endure it regardless, so Emberlee settled into bed to sleep what little was left of the night.

Alliance established, albeit tentatively, Emberlee had to focus on the next near insurmountable task; what to wear to an international wedding between an established and a budding Empire. Mother's dresses were all Xutian fashion-savvy styles, where gowns were accessorized with mixed fabrics and patterns embroidered into them, jewels often embellishing lengths of it. Stussica preferred longer, draped robes in top quality silk, hand painted or sewn with complicated artistic scenes and creatures.

Given the time limitations, and lack of tailor to create the attire for her, Emberlee had to endeavour to at least not be ridiculed for a lack of fashion. It might seem trivial but this would be her first Courtly appearance as Marchioness and even if there'd be no need for acknowledgement of her rank, she knew how important social esteem could be. Every aspect of her appearance would be judged for several reasons. It'd be the first appearance as Marchioness Ortega, her first time discarding the mourning shroud since Mother passed, and she was attending an Imperial marriage, even if it was a second marriage for both parties. 

Stussica held white as symbolic for newlyweds, so she avoided anything too pale to be safe. Black was tied to Mourning, and given that the wedding was interrupting what should be a period of Royal Mourning, anything too dark was likewise discarded. Purple was a Royal colour, so Emberlee gravitated towards the safer shades of blue and green. A jade green gown in silk gave her a base, nights spent cutting and sewing a sheath style gown with almost no accoutrements on it. But to lean into the Stussican style, Emberlee took one of Mother's blue-layered gowns, stripping it of the most gossamer teal layer. What started as yards of skirt layer turned into a translucent robe with floor-length sleeves and a wide belt to close it. And then Emberlee took the rest of the month stitch the landscape of the Ortega March onto the gossamer layer; an idyllic, artistic interpretation of her home. The neckline and sleeves were stitched with the blossoms of the wildflowers Ortega's coastline was famous for, a bouquet of flowers that would not wilt. She stitched expensive, delicate golden thread to imitate the feathers of the herons that rested in her homeland, and carefully tried to create the mythical phoenix in red and yellow at the skirt's hem to celebrate the second marriage for both; rising from the ashes.

She had not finished her endless seeming needlework by the time the next full moon had come around, and so she was bent to her task when the sound of paper being dropped compelled her attention.

Her Fairy Godmother had returned.