"..."

Throughout the entire process of being kicked out of Sorcha's room, Fio had been entirely unable to articulate herself. Mutely holding the  jar as the crossdressing queen picked her up unceremoniously and tossed her from her room, a stream of questions ran through her mind repeatedly.

[i]What was she doing?[/i]

[i]Why was she doing it?[/i]

[i]Was she meeting someone?[/i]

[i]Why did she look so good?[/i]

When the door shut behind her, the diminutive witch simply stood there, still holding the jar, for some time.

Eventually, she mutely returned to her room.

Somehow she doubted any of those questions would ever be answered.

[hr]

In a week's time, the unseelie fae was still in the jar.

She'd hardly given Fio a reason to even consider letting her free. Still, as obnoxious as she was, it would be utterly inhumane not to feed her and give her something to rest on. Meals of honey bread were given daily, and a small bed of cotton had been added to the jar. But any prospect of freedom was an extremely distant one.

And every irritating comment lengthened her sentence. The last one had even prompted Fio to threaten the unseelie with centipedes. It was a threat she'd never follow on, both because the prospect of even going near the many-legged arthropods gave her chills and because tossing centipedes into the jar was both cruel and unusual.

But that wasn't the only matter to attend to. She'd already informed the Queen of her findings from her mental dive, and subsequent dives had yielded little worthwhile information. Cethlann had prepared for them, it seemed. Little had moved on that front, but that wasn't all.

Sir Ethelred had asked her about a stone given to him by the very same unseelie that was now her prisoner. It was more proof that the fae had been hanging around and causing all sorts of mischief, even if she seemingly had some level of understanding reciprocating good deeds. While she hadn't been very helpful so far, a little bit of research had allowed Fio to discern its likely purpose at least, and she planned on informing Sir Ethelred today.

And then there was the matter of the invitation.

On its face, it was already difficult to turn down. And as much thought as Fio put into it, it didn't help.

Really, it seemed as if sending a letter back accepting the invitation, then preparing herself in every way possible, was the only option.

First, however, it was time to get ready for the meeting.

Fio covered the jar before bathing, drying herself, and putting on her clothing for the day, only uncovering it afterwards, and headed to the meeting room.

She'd speak with Sir Ethelred as soon as she got the opportunity.

[@Rune_Alchemist][@Crimson Paladin]