Wicked Steps

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.

Adaba didn't use seals at all. Instead, the packet was tied together with a brightly coloured, carefully knotted ribbon. It wasn't even an expensive material, though Emberlee did marvel at how brightly red the colour was.
As she'd been dealing with small details and unfortunately knotted strings all month, it was a simple matter for her for tease them all loose. The Adaban red string was carefully coiled and set aside as Emberlee unfolded the simple paper 'packet' that'd been tied shut. Inside she saw the expected letter of response, but also a curious looking pendent on a delicate golden chain.

Emberlee reached for the letter first.

/It is joyous to receive word from a new Fairy Godchild, and exciting to participate in the changing world to come./ They'd written in formal Xutian, almost too formal for Emberlee's liking as that made it more difficult to interpret their intentions through word choice. The same reason she'd written in Adaban. /Please accept the enclosed Moonstone pendant as a welcoming gift for the Fairy's Child. A more suitable wedding gift will be swiftly sent along via Merchant for the impending newlywed Empire, along with Adaba's deepest apologies for not being able to send an Envoy in person for such a momentous event. Oberon./

Despite expensive, and exhaustive research into the carefully guarded secrets of her closest neighbor, Adaba had successfully kept the details of its citizenry well hid. She knew the capital was the city of Bipedee, and that the river that split Xutia nearly in half kept going down into Adaba but didn't go all the way to their capital. But outside of their border territory, Emberlee knew very little about their new allies.

Ortega guarded Xutia, and on the Adaba side was the territory of Baugh Pity, but no foreigners were allowed past that territory. Likewise Adaban Merchants couldn't pass beyond the Ortega March but had to pass the deliveries over and return. And yet, this Oberon was seemingly anticipating with great vigour the opportunity to communicate with her via Mirror. It was easy to deduce that Oberon was likewise a Fairy's Godchild, or at least familiar enough with them so as to make her Fairy Godmother's appearance nonthreatening.

"I've been given a gift, but as with most I suspect it comes with ulterior motive," she carefully lifted the Moonstone pendent by the chain, not directly touching the store.

"Tuatha Dé Danan's Tear; a valuable Gift," her Fairy Godmother identified without clarifying a thing. "It will not cause you harm to be adorned with such, although it looks like a simple stone it manages to be so much greater than that."

"Like you does it require the full moon's light to take effect?" Emberlee was able to barb the Fairy in a way she never would have dared to try on her true Mother.

"Moonlight, Starlight, and the dance of colourful lights from the farthest reaches will fill it with their glow, but alas it will remain a stone" her Fairy Godmother sat in the Mirror's reflection, and Emberlee was adjusting to thinking of the face as not her Mothers.

"So it'll store it first given light, what other tricks can this simple stone play?" a light in the dark would never go amiss, and it was unique enough to make up for its simplicity.

"Like Child and Fairy, each Tear is a unique thing. The Eternal Queen's crown is well suited to its Mistress, and with time we shall see if yours is a Tear borne from hope or despair." That was almost a logical explanation, but why couldn't she have just admitted to not knowing?

"Do you already know what this specific Tear is utilized for?" Regardless it sounded far too precious to simply dole out to an unknown Ambassador.

"For now the Tear simply indicates that Adaba has accepted your selection, and that if the time comes for it you would be granted entrance past Baugh Pity."

That was actually rather useful, but had also deliberately not mentioned what it could or should do in the future.

"Is the Tear on the Eternal Queen's Crown what makes her eternal?" The Adaban Empire had always called their leader the Eternal Queen, but maybe it was less a rank and was instead a literal descriptor.

"You ask at question at the heart of which I cannot freely answer Child," a cautionary scolding that didn't bother Emberlee.

"A different question then," she indicated the sewing that had consumed her focus recently, "What did you mean by not doing this task by hand?" It had sparked the initial revelation of a Blessing's use, but she still didn't understand how to complete the needlework with what little she had learned thus far.

"I meant only that nature devised the greatest weaver already and you merely need to make use of her skills," it felt a little like solving a riddle and yet Emberlee was learning it was just how Fairy Godparents spoke.

Nature devised the greatest weaver already, and Emberlee could make use of her skills? What natural thing was assumed female and a weaver? A spider in her web "I need something more substantial to wear than spun moonbeams and spider's web," Emberlee tried to ignore the sense of pride she felt at determining the Fairy's meaning.

"Unfortunately you are correct, now is not the timeto be adorned with shadows and light; but they can be Commanded to use your threads instead my Child."

Having a dress sewn by spiders under the direction of a Fairy Godmother, for a wedding between a Stussican Imperial Princess and the Xutian Sovereign. It was actually the strangest thing Emberlee had ever considered doing, and yet she was determined to proceed. So as she had done with the now dead flower on her balcony, Emberlee consciously used her Blessing to Compel all the spiders in her Manor to efficiently stitch her robe for her.

It was grotesquely hypnotic, a ballet of creepy crawlies swarming the bright teal and churning out a perfectly stitched masterpiece.

And like the flower that Emberlee had forced to bloom too early and too quickly, the spiders rewards for their hard work was their lives spent doing her will. Quite the burdensome cost if she tried it on a larger creature. But it might give her options she'd otherwise lack. She'd have to explore the implications and limitations going forwards.

"The charm that this Beloved's Blessing gives, can it work on a human?" She had to ask, the implication of it too great to leave unknown.

The Fairy Godmother laughed, a joyous sound that was nothing Like Mother's, "Nay Child, though I commend you for considering it. Only those things with no true sense of self can be dazzled by your needs."

"Pity, it could have proven quite useful," she let the disappointment go as her Fairy laughed again.

"I chose true when I Chose you Child;" the reflection was gone from the Mirror but Emberlee could hear her from the moonstone pendent gifted by Adaba.

"I am the one that made the Summons," she had to point out, fastening the necklace in place.

"And I am the one that answered it," the Fairy argued back, "I chose you, you made yourself available to be Chosen."

"Should I consider myself fortunate, or pitiful?" It wasn't in Emberlee's nature to accept a subordinate role, though she also knew that was the reality of their agreement.

"Both Child, both. Now rest, for their gifts will arrive sooner than you think and it'll take time to transport them to your capital city." Her Fairy Godmother soothed.

If this Oberon had a gift sent the very next day, it would have had a month to make the journey. However an appropriate gift for such an occasion would take longer than a single day to determine, let alone assemble. The wedding was in less than two months, and it would take significant time in carriage travel to arrive on time.

"What can you tell me of the gift being sent?" she settled into bed, oddly comforted at hearing her Mother's voice.

"Only that its a truly Adaban celebration being shared and your sovereign should be honored to receive them."

So much had happened in a single night that she had to consider, and yet Emberlee feel quietly and deeply asleep, and in her dreams the garden flowers were made out of spider's webs and animal bones.