Day 54

[periphrasing]

[Usually when Peridot speaks up on the network, she's pretty perky and authoritative. NOT THIS TIME. HAHA.]

Ssssso... I don't want to cause a panic or anything, but there's not exactly an easy way for me to break this news to everyone, so I'm just going to come right out and say it:

I may have kind of, sort of... absolutely found proof in the Scribe's collections that the Summer Court is tracking us. And by the Summer Court, I mean specifically the Rose Queen and Ignatius and all their cronies from Portland are tracking us. And they know we have the Blue Rose.

....

Sorry.

...This is Peridot, by the way.

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[Mingle and threadjack as you please!]

Comments

[starseedling]

[Steven sounds like he's rehearsed his statement in advance, which just so happens to make it sound a bit more rigid and awkward than usual.]

It's my fault they know about the Blue Rose, and I am sorry for my part in causing this situation! But... I'm not going to waste time feel sorry for myself. Instead, I want to do everything I can to help protect the carnival.

[This part is less rehearsed:]

So, um... if you have any idea what to do, please tell me.

[THIS IS STEVEN, SIGNING OFF, AND TRYING NOT TO CRY.]

[whattaprick]

Let's just make a new rule: if we actually get our hands on any more artifacts, nobody faeblooded touches them, all right?

[starseedling]

[Nervous laugh]

At least there's only two of us... so that shouldn't be so hard, right?

[chronosynthesis]

I can think of a longer list of people who shouldn't touch them. [Why does every risk have to come bite them in the ass later? As if that situation wasn't bad enough...]

[osteothropy]

That sounds bad.




[long pause]

Any idea how good they are at tracking us?

[whattaprick]

Not good enough to get into the Carnival, apparently. Summer doesn't exactly seem like the 'wait for the opportune moment' type, so if they could have gotten in they would have tried by now.

Haven't figured out if running into Nightshade in Wismuth was a coincidence or if she knew we were there to start with. Either way, I wouldn't recommend anyone else get stuck with weird faerie tracking seeds. Wasn't much fun.

[osteothropy]

It'd be easier to get out if you didn't have all that skin on you.

[That's the joking part. Now, more serious:]

Stuff in the carnival is usually under the RM's jurisdiction. The times we have been attacked on our home turf, it's 'cause we did something to invite them in.

The vampires followed our Nightrunner team in the first time and left a curse mark in the forest. Which weakened the wards enough that those computer guys could slip in from computer world, through the people they'd infected.

Other than that, we've mostly just been attacked on away missions.

[periphrasing]

The text mentioned something about the "familiar scent of magic" in relation to the Ringmaster. It could be possible they're tracking her specifically, I guess? Apparently they were able to deduce that it was the Ringmaster that had bested the Prince and taken the artifact for herself, simply by investigating the remains of his realm.

[osteothropy]

Uh... look, no offense, but I think it might be good to have the specific wording. Any chance of giving us the whole thing?

[textsfromhotland]

Are we screwed?

[Sans you know this stuff better than she does please say no]

[osteothropy]

...No?

[It doesn't sound like something he's entirely sure of, but he's just going to put that out there.]

[hippocarnival]

Nightshade was in Wismuth. [He pauses, uncomfortable.] I guess... there's no reason they aren't working together still.

It's more dangerous when we're out of the carnival, because that's how they could get in, right?

[osteothropy]

Doesn't make a difference when we're merged like this. The stuff through the portal is safer, but everything inside the Athenaeum walls is under the Curator's protection, not ours.

[hippocarnival]

[Yuya hadn't even considered that, assuming they were playing it safe after Wismuth.] Is the Curator protecting us?

[At least by proxy of protecting his books?]

[anti_nonsense]

[ohhh shit.]

It even mentioned Ignatius...!?

What did it say, exactly?

[starseedling]

It said the Summer Queen sent him to help the Rose Queen with her mission.

[He can't help but sound ashamed on this one, his voice faltering.]

I'm sorry, Rita.

[anti_nonsense]

Don't apologize, idiot. I wanted to see what that artifact was capable of, myself.

[There's an audible sigh.] There goes any hope of at least one lasting injury on the Rose Queen's side...

[After all, it was unclear how badly Ignatius had been hurt in that last fight in Portland. Some even wondered if he was dead. Rita was never that hopeful.]

[periphrasing]

Like Steven said. He's explicitly mentioned as working with the Rose Queen to try to recover the Blue Rose.

...What's his deal, anyway? Strange mentioned that you had some sort of association with him in Portland. I don't suppose you could fill me in?

[anti_nonsense]

[It's not something Rita's keen on talking about... but there's no reason to keep it secret, so after some hesitation, she goes ahead and explains.]

To the other Rita there... he was sort of like her dad. Not by blood, mind you, but he took her when she was practically a baby and raised her... if you can call it that. [Like most fae, he wasn't much of a parent figure.]

She escaped as a teenager, and spent two years running and hiding from him and the rest of the Summer Court.

[moonfang]

Ha! Somehow, I ain't surprised. But, well, you know what that means--

We'd just hafta show 'em what that thing can do.

[kingsroads]

I'm afraid that's not possible, [ says the person who literally asked the Ringmaster 'but why CAN'T we just nuke Nightshade' back in Wismuth. ]

There's only a few thousand High Fae: any of their deaths would go noticed. Besides, blasting one of the Summer Fae to hell and back would only invite another to steal the Blue Rose in their place.

[osteothropy]

Right. With as little as we know about the thing, taking the Blue Rose out of hiding is just going to be handing it over to them, gift wrapped.

Doesn't matter how strong a weapon is if you never get a chance to use it.

[chronosynthesis]

Did it say anything about their movements? Numbers? [The confirmation sucks, but information on the enemy is something he hopes can be mined for value.]

[periphrasing]

Specific numbers? No. It just says that the Rose Queen is on a mission to track us down along with an "entourage of the Summer Court's greatest warriors". And as for their movements... It's pretty explicitly stated that they became aware that the Rose was out of the Prince's grasp the moment that Steven tried to communicate with it. The Rose was stolen from the Rose Queen by the Prince himself, so it was really just a matter of returning to his realm to and seeing the destruction we left behind to put the pieces all together.

[betheman]

Somehow... ...this does not surprise me.

'Nightshade' was one I, the man Gongenzaka, encountered while in Wismuth after all...though rather curiously at the time, she seemed more interested in CY-Ren! [he snorts.] ...That, more than likely, was due to what followed however...

[The whole...Magical Girl deal, and all that. Regardless.]

...It would appear some method of protection against them while visiting other locations, is even more important than previously assumed... I, the man Gongenzaka, should do some more reading then... [The last bit seems to be a mutter to himself, more than anything.]