[centre][color=680110]𝗔𝗘𝗗𝗡𝗬𝗫[/color]
[img]https://i.imgur.com/N4wteXP.jpg[/img]
[sup][img]https://i.imgur.com/LF0KJgM.png[/img][/sup][/centre][right][sup]Appraising and accosting the young barista, Cael; [@Silent Observer][/sup][/right]
Two figures walked along Pratchett Road with a slow and measured pace. They didn't look at one another, never so much as exchanged a glance, and so their remarks seemed almost to be addressed to the well kept hedgerows or the twittering birds.

"Winter hangs onto this land. Icy fingers locked into the earth. Their agents mass and more arrive daily."

"I assume spring is coming though? When have not the rays of sun wiped clean the earth of hoary frosts?"

"It is unlikely to come soon. Things are unsettled over there. Your absence is still felt strongly."

There was a hook in that sentence, baited by the taller figure to force the other to apologise or offer an explanation. But the first was not half the angler that the other was a wriggler, as he simply ignored the hook to press on to what interested him.

"And who is left most inconsolable by my leaving? Ettoryn? Veldear? The Triplets?"

The taller one sighed.

"Ettoryn thinks you will return and waits. Veldear thinks you will not and sullies your name. And the Triplets seek to undermine me."

The Other laughed.

"By looking to prove that you have taken many trips to the mortal plane where your predecessor has retired, I imagine. You can't fault their strategy, they'd make you look weak, themselves informed and myself dishonest. Are you ever followed on these trips?"

The taller figure shook his head sharply.

"Hmmm... I see two solutions, one more permanent but equally more difficult to arrange. The first is simply that you allow one of their agents to tail you, catch him and arrest him for crossing into this plane without permission from the Queen. You'll look a tad boorish but they will be unlikely to press the matter further and will be weakened by the loss."

Another shake of the head.

"No, it wouldn't do to increase your reputation as a killjoy even further, would it?"

The taller figure frowned and wrinkled his lip. He was unused to be insulted to his face with such unsubtle language, both because of his illustrious position and because the Summer Court's denizens preferred to wrap their barbed words in the guise of compliments. Had the shorter figure been anyone other than who he was, there would have be a reckoning. As it was, he would simply ignore the comment.

Seemingly oblivious to his partner's irritation, the other figure kept talking.

"The second is solution more involved. You allow the agent to track you to a meeting, find some excuse to meet with a solitary fae here on the mortal plane. Let the tail follow you to at least three of these meetings before apprehending them and dragging them back to court. Announce that this catspaw interrupted you during a debriefing of a double-agent you long ago planted in the Winter Court and that whoever sent them has jeopardised the Summer Court's ability to move against the Unseelie."

The two had reached the end of the lane and finally turned to face each other, Pratchett road on one side and Prospect Park sweeping down the hill below them on the other. The taller figure stroked his chin and looked down at his companion.

"The triplets will be humiliated. The Unseelie will be worried. And I will look more powerful than ever."

For a handful of seconds, he stared into his comrades eyes and nodded slowly.

"It is a fine plane, Aednyx. I will enact it immediately. This means I will not see you for some time."

The former Archduke, for of course it was he, gave a tinkling little laugh. "Worry not, my own company is more pleasant to me than yours ever could be. Make sure only that some minor Baron comes in a week or two to inform me of your success, which is of course inevitable for as long as you stick to my plan."

Pherakna, Archduke of Dewsdrop and right hand to Queen Titania, resisted the twin urges to strike and bow to the other fae and instead turned sharply on his heel and strode downhill. There was a spider's web that hung between two bars of the park's iron fence that could be used to travel to Avalon and he now had a great desire to leave this plane. He could not deny that he was second in word and deed to Aednyx but there was only so much poking he could take before he needed to leave or snap back.

And he had no idea what would happen if he retaliated. Better for them both that he accept the jibes as the cost of doing business and take out his anger on his opponents at court.

Aednyx, meanwhile, looked to already have forgotten his erstwhile colleague and was looking down upon Edgetoun with a critical eye. He leaned his weight on an umbrella, chosen more to match the maroon of his shirt than because he feared the rain, like a walking stick and carefully unfolded a pair of sunglasses. As he set them on his nose, he set his sights on a building some five minutes brisk walk away; The Daily Grind. After all, what was a better chaser to Faerie politics than a shot of human angst?

It was a pleasant enough stroll, the February air still having the chill of Winter in it but the optimistic sun seeming to have decided that it was going to act as if summer was here and shine on. Harsh and bright, with the noise of amorous birds in the air and the bustle of the city going about its morning business in the air, Aednyx's favourite kind of day.

He was hardly paying attention to the world as he opened the door to the coffee shop and was almost knocked over by a scruffy looking man who came barrelling out. For a moment, Aednyx considered some form of hex or curse upon the fool but curbed his anger as he caught a look at the man's wyrd, trailing behind him. If he was any judge, pain and heartache were already bearing down on the fool, all Aednyx needed to do to get satisfaction was wait.

'Eddie' placed his normal order (ginger tea with a dash of honey) and took a seat by the window. The sounds of keyboard tapping, phones beeping and mortals talking washed over him, each one more inane than the last. He heard whispers about that lycan in jail, rumours of some sort of youthful arcane gathering and an awful lot of buzz about some newcomers to the neighbourhood. Aednyx sifted through it all like a prospector looking for the shine of intriguing gold but nothing caught his attention. Just general worrying about current events, as though these mayflies would live long enough to see the effects, and gossip about their tawdry little lives. Not even a good old fashioned unrequited love or tragic misunderstanding that he could involve himself in...

And then, as he was about to give up and leave the place, he felt the ripple in the air, the crackle in his blood that spoke of magic. And not just any magic, this was no mortal's clumsy wishing the world to be other than it is but the assured sense of a fae reaching out in order to make events more pleasing to their own narrative. Without drawing attention to himself, Aednyx stood and watched as a blonde woman who talking into a phone with one hand took a sip of her drink with the other.

The drink in the cardboard cup, that was the target of the hex he had sensed so Aednyx was not surprised when the woman squealed and almost dropped her phone in shock, spitting out some of the drink. One hand over her mouth, she fled in combined embarrassment and pain, much to the confusion of all in the Daily Grind. All, that is, except two.

Aednyx looked over at the counter and saw the source of the magic behind it, a smug smirk twisted across his young face. He was one of the baristas, pale of skin and white of hair, who now turned back to his work, unaware that his deed had been observed. Aednyx had already known the boy was Fae, both from the youth's looks and from the intelligence he'd had gathered on Edgetoun, but hadn't had any reason to pay him any attention till now, him being but one more changeling frittered about the British isles by careless or mischievous Fae.

That hex was well crafted though, doing not enough damage the woman to cause an awful fuss but still enough to ensure she regretted whatever she had done to draw the boy's ire. Aednyx himself would probably have done something more subtle and long lasting, causing mortals to fall in love with the most inconvenient person was always a favourite, but the lad showed promise. Now, what was his name... Hail? Maille? Dale? The old fae's eyes found the younger's name badge as he stepped to the counter to order a refill.

"So, Cael, does a hex come free with every hot drink? Or only for those customers that look at you the wrong way?"

Aednyx spoke so softly that no one should be able to hear him over the general hubbub of the cafe but his words sounded loud and terribly final in the ears of the only other Faerie in the room.