[PUBLIC CHANNEL] RINGMASTER'S TENTH ADDRESS (LATE D60)

[lordofthering]

[The Ringmaster is here to give you some information.]

It seems useful for everyone to know that the Blue Rose is currently trying to escape its container. It's not succeeding... but it is certainly trying. I'm keeping an eye on it for now, but my current assumption is that our assailants are somehow responsible.

Comments

[lordofthering]

If you can, try to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. Anything that looks like an attempt at a forced entry.

I have my focus on the Blue Rose, so having someone watching the gate would be helpful.

[atouts]

That much I can do, Ringmaster.

[ And that's about it for his interruption. ]

[whattaprick]

We'll sort it out.

[ For someone about to engage in a battle of ~imagination~ Lambert sounds grim as hell. ]

[lordofthering]

Lambert, I understand that I allowed you to use something like that in the past.

But that was never against the Courts. Things are different, now.

[whattaprick]

Yeah, I think I figured that much out.

Once things stop actually being on fire, can you tell us what the rules are? Because if we're still looking for the Miracles, after all this ... that seems like that'd matter.

[ Not that he had the impression that there were rules when it came to war, but what does he know? ]

[lordofthering]

Don't use iron. Ever.

That's the rule.


[The United Nations would disagree.]

[whattaprick]

Great. Can we count on the Courts actually following that too?

[ Frowning, frowning. ]

Because even if I got a promotion out of it, I'd like something like Hell to never--

[ He breaks off there. Frowns, even if she can't see it. ]

... wait. I told you back then, the Morningstar's people said they had help. Is that something they'd do?

[lordofthering]

Uuuhhm.

[Well that came out of nowhere. Silence.]

And... we have no proof of it, besides hearsay. You see how this works...?

[whattaprick]

Yeah, I do.

[ Sigh. Politics are too hard to wrap around his head around. Does it even matter in the end if they did have proof. ]

If the Courts are so dead set against using iron, how does the Mother of Invention get away with fucking around with it? Does it not count if you're using it against your own?

[ Assuming she knows about the whole Mother of Invention thing, at any rate. He tends to assume her knowledge is broader than his own. ]

[lordofthering]

There's difference between using it for war and using it for research. The Mother of Invention is apparently trying to defend against iron, not weaponize it.

All the same, she isn't allowed to do that within Arcadia's realm. She has to do her iron based research out in the colonies.

[whattaprick]

Good to know they have some standards.

[ Yeah, it's probably not a good time to be sarcastic, but when has that ever stopped Lambert? ]

If there was proof the Winter Queen isn't above indirectly attacking her enemies with iron, what would that even do?

[lordofthering]

Nobody would like it. If she could do it to me, she could do it to them.

I don't know if it would be enough to do anything about it, though. She's the Winter Queen, and there's no Winter Maiden. It would definitely breed discontent, but to what end...?

[whattaprick]

Don't rulers usually want to make sure they've got an heir?

[ Considering how the Winter Maiden (possibly) got to where she is, maybe not so much. ]

Considering this all happened a while ago, you can't say she hasn't had the time to make one.

[lordofthering]

It's complicated.

It takes a lot for them to create a new Maiden, and usually the ascension is a collaboration. The Queen becomes the Crone, the old Crone donates their energy towards making a new Maiden. Yet, because the Queen died, there was no ascension to Crone, so the old Crone is still here.

Ascending to Queen in the first place would have taken a lot of power, so without the Crone's help, it is possible she doesn't have the expendable strength to do it, yet.

[whattaprick]

Huh. Is the Summer Court in the same bind, with the Summer Maiden not in Arcadia? Guess the Rose could help them with that problem.

[ Though in his opinion, the aggressiveness strikes him more as Winter wanting to bury the bodies. It pre-dated ever getting the Rose, after all. He's also not sure what the implications of having an incomplete set of three really are, but doesn't take a genius to know a less than full set of anything is a bad thing, magically speaking. ]

[lordofthering]

It's worse for the Summer Court. They literally can't make a new Maiden while the old one is still around.

[whattaprick]

Can't the Summer Queen just order her home?

[lordofthering]

[She almost sounds offended:]

Obviously not.

[whattaprick]

Had to ask. I don't know how this works -- this whole making a Maiden thing sounds like the bloodbond stuff.

[ A pause. ]

So Maiden, Queen, and Crone. Does anything come after being Crone?

[lordofthering]

Ceasing to exist.

[whattaprick]

That doesn’t sound like much incentive.

[lordofthering]

They usually seem pretty into it. I guess it's a Queen thing.

[whattaprick]

I don't think I'll ever understand fae.