Home At Last|Malagard, Khelek

[Darastrix]

"We'll see," he said, and hugged her back. "I don't know what I want to do yet." Maybe he'd just flip a damn coin. "But I need to see Filly."

With that, he pulled away and teleported to his room.

[Kender Bard]

Filly was sitting on the edge of the bed, one arm around Harmony and holding her close as she stroked the girl's hair. Harmony's face wasn't happy anymore, which suggests she had told Filly her story. Filly glanced up when Schuldig teleported and she smiled weakly at him, letting go of Harmony to go and greet him with a much more gentle hug than Locket had bestowed. "Schuldig, thank the stars you're all right."

[Darastrix]

"Why?" Schuldig asked, going with the first thing that popped into his head. "They didn't have anything to do with it."

~I shouldn't have let her go. Or I should have just let that sprite die when he got shot.~

[Kender Bard]

Filly frowned at his comment, but didn't rise to the bait. She focused on his mental comment instead. ~You're not a seer, Schuldig. You couldn't have known everything that was going to happen. Especially not where Tom was concerned--he was a mystery to us. It was the whole reason Harmony went in the first place.~

[Darastrix]

~I know I couldn't have known,~ Schuldig said, frowning. ~But I didn't like the bigger faeries from the start. I could have gotten her out safe and just picked a mind at random to watch through or gone though one of the other faeries' minds without worrying they might think it was her if they noticed.~

[Kender Bard]

~Harmony would never have agreed or settled to that~ Filly reminded him. She sighed quietly. ~I... agree that you should have removed her from them as soon as you felt that they would be trouble, despite any protests she would have made, however. But you didn't. And Harmony is still safe. Don't tie yourself in knots dwelling on it, please.~ She glanced back at Harmony who was fiddling with the cuff of her sleeve, trying hard to resist the urge to listen in on her parents.

~I'm just glad that you both came home safely.~

[Darastrix]

"Safe" was a relative term.

~We still need to keep an eye on her,~ Schuldig said. ~I don't know how true it is, but they said there's some sort of emotional effect on a feyling if their sprite dies. A mind healer looked her over in Sensatia and didn't see anything wrong other than what you'd expect if someone they cared about died. Even so....~

[Kender Bard]

~I'll keep an eye on her~ Filly promised.

Harmony gave a particular hard tug on her cuff and almost ripped the cloth. "Will you two stop talking in front of me without actually talking in front of me? Now I know how Locket must feel half the time. We're home now but everything isn't all right." She made a frustrated sound and frowned at them.

Filly was a little surprised and wondered if her shielding was that loose or if Harmony was just picking things up that well.

[Darastrix]

"Of course it's not," Schuldig said. "We got away, but plenty of people didn't. And with what they're planning, I doubt we've seen the last of them. Not to mention, I fucking hate hindsight sometimes and what that green faerie said about how losing a sprite affects feylings has me worried, no matter what that Mind healer said. There, you've been briefed."

He grimaced and rubbed his forehead. "And there's something about the damn things nagging at the back of my mind that I can't put my finger on. It might be important, so I have to assume it is. And I may have to reach back there and get fully into one of their heads to figure it out."

[Kender Bard]

"Is that safe?" Filly asked in worry.

"Of course not, they're crazy and not even human," Harmony grumbled. "And as for the other people, well... It's terrible for them, but there's nothing we can do so might as well forget it, right?"

"Harmony," Filly murmured with reproach, surprised at her sentiment.

[Darastrix]

~Hey, I'm not interested in going out of my way just for the feylings, either,~ Schuldig told Filly. ~I'm a White Swan, not a white knight, and some of them want to be there or already made their oaths.~

Even as he spoke privately, he snorted at his daughter. "Saying nothing can be done sounds too much like Etaf-as-the-Bane-of-Hope bullshit. But my point about the other people is that they still have feylings to use as liaisons. Since they still want land, we'll probably be seeing some feylings coming up this way later on."

[Kender Bard]

Harmony wrinkled her nose at that. "We should just get someone to kill Atarai. If she's dead, at the very least, it'd give the rest of the faeries pause. I mean, what if someone else steps up into her place and wants something completely different? That'd be great! I can't see how someone would want anything that would make it worse. I doubt Atarai is above killing people who get in her way, so there's that."

[Darastrix]

Schuldig raised a brow. "How about if instead of a bit of land, the replacement wants a whole nation's worth? Or they want some sort of regular tribute to 'protect' nearby humans from being taken or killed? Or they decide they want more human slaves and start cradle-robbing so they can have humans that grow up knowing nothing else so they'll theoretically be less likely to fight back?"

He crossed his arms over his chest. "When you take out a leader, there's always the chance that their replacement will be worse. Especially when you have no fucking clue who it might be or how it's decided."

[Kender Bard]

Harmony made a frustrated and angry sound.

"That's enough talk of assassination out of you," Filly said with a small frown for Harmony. "They're not here now so unless we're talking about making plans to send someone there it's not something we need to worry about now. Especially since you two have only just returned." She hugged Schuldig a little tighter.

Harmony sighed and stood. "I'm going to... go have Locket tell me what I've missed," she murmured and walked off.

[Darastrix]

As if she'd be consulted about assassinating anyone anyway. What the hell did Harmony know about that kind of shit? Nothing, that's what.

"What to do is probably going to come from Lucifer anyway," Schuldig muttered. "Personally, I want to break her damn stick."