[center][h2][color=#008b8b]Fionn MacKerracher[/color][/h2][/center]
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Fionn had been willing to let Gertrude's willingness to pursue a contract with the Moonlit Queen go by without comment, content to entertain himself with the two fairies hanging around him...But to start casting aspersions on her sister, rivalry or no, [i]was[/i] something that could cause them no end of trouble. Such should usually be hard to miss, even with the distraction of watching them all fight the hunt—not to mention that she might take it as an insult to her own pride, both in herself and her family.

Using the knights to try and push a wager, knock her down a peg, that could all be forgiven between them. The little queen might pout and rant, but that could all still fit within the 'rules' of how they interacted with one another. Outright theft would be another matter, and to immediately accuse one of them of such was a good way to make at least [i]one[/i] enemy, if not two. While they might seem capricious by normal mortal standards, fey beings like the queen and her sister were still very particular about rules of exchange, who owed what and to whom; taking Duke Thedric's mind, troublesome as it was, was a reasonable retribution, demanding repayment for an insult...by the Moonlit Queen's standards.

Not to mention that sending the knights to try and get something more from her as part of a wager, only to turn around and steal something out from under [i]all[/i] of their noses, was just as far outside the usual tactics. Forcing them to operate under false pretenses like that was risky and duplicitous in all the ways that the fey usually tried to avoid. Certainly, while [i]he[/i] hadn't been the one to hear the details of it from the Moonlit Queen's sister, he doubted that any of those who had would have missed something like that woven in to whatever they were told.

[color=#008b8b]"I'm with Tyaethe,"[/color] he spoke up, turning away from Fiadh and Laoise. [color=#008b8b]"Let's find out [i]what[/i] it was before we start throwing out speculation as to [i]who.[/i] I'd hate to make any insults that we owe satisfaction for."[/color]