#anywhere

"Saw one. At the mall. He was a stupid jerk, was gettin' all in Symon's face."

"Hey, could I bring Symon here? He's a sloo-ah."

"Sluagh." He pronounces, thinking. "Well, Right of Safe Haven. Sure. Did that redcap need to be tall to be intimidating?"

She pulls a face. "I still think I coulda taken him."

"There were three of us and just one of him."

Frank nods. "Three to one odds are good, if you're one of the three. But not honorable. You might have been able to beat him on your own. What do you know about redcaps?"

"Yeah, not real tough if it takes three of you... but Sylvi, she just talked him down."

"They're the ones that eat stuff, right?"

Frank nods. "They can eat.... -anything.- Organic, inorganic... doesn't matter. -Any. Thing.-"

"They can also influence others through intimidation, no matter their size or state. That redcap, in the right circumstances, could have made you doubt your own size and strength compared to his own, to the point where you backed down, maybe even surrendered."

"Sylvi said a redcap ate Colton's arm. But that can't be right, can it?"

And, suddenly - clouds, a shadow of a scowl.

"It is absolutely accurate." Frank says gravely. "A redcap bit off, chewed with its teeth, and swallowed into his digestive tract, Colton's arm."

"...Fuck."

"In a word."

"Frank, are you seelie?" She hooks an elbow around a tree, leeeeeaaanning. "Olgar is unseelie, the girls said."

"Yes. I am, and he is."

"Am I unseelie?"

"Probably. At the moment."

"We can move from court to court. Seelie to Unseelie and back again, or vice versa."

That line between her eyebrows as she considers. "How?"

He shrugs. "Depends on the person, what can trigger it. I'm older, pretty set in my ways, and Liam is a very strongly Seelie House. Takes something pretty dramatic, traumatizing.... or Samhain."

She tilts her head. "You go unseelie if something bad happens to you?"

"Me personally? No. Usually, when someone who I care for is in danger or hurt. Troll; protective. Liam; protective. I'm kind of a double-whammy on that."

"Right. Like that stupid... it... right, okay."

Frank tilts his head, curious. "Like what stupid?"

"Wanting to stick your neck out. That's the troll part?"

He nods. "Probably. Problem is, you're a wilder; you're going to stick your neck out regardless of Kith."

"That's how you get hurt."

He nods again. "Also part of being a wilder. Getting hurt."

"How do you turn seelie? I figure that's why I'm... " She waves her hand. "Different."

A grunt. "Everything is getting hurt. That's why you keep your head down."

Frank chuckles, shaking his head. "Pain is part of life. My only suggestion is to embrace it, learn from it, because you're not going to stop it."

"And no, and yes. You're different. We all are, in our own ways."

"No. You aren't." Dull and matter-of-fact.

"Oohhh... we haven't known each other long, Dagmar. Give it time. You'll see. In fact, you can feel it now, can't you? A tendency to see me as untrustworthy? A feeling that you can't believe what I saw or do?"

"I just... if I could be seelie, maybe it'd be easier? Be more like them? I try to understand, but I think... I think I'm missing something."

She hesitates, wary - the question's a trap. "No... no, I don't.."

Frank smiles behind his beard, waiting for it.

She picks at the embroidery on her tunic, not looking at him.

"You do." He says gently. "I'm a troll that can't be trusted. Oathbroken."

"I'm different. Right?"

"But you said you didn't break any oaths, yourself. And you are strong, not sick."

He nods.

"But I don't want to be different. And part... they don't... they don't know. They really believe that shit they spout, you know? Good guys win and bein right or wrong means something..."

"It's not. It doesn't matter, it matters who's the strongest - what they want, that's what things are."

"Well, problem is, I believe that too. I'm Seelie. And, not wanting to be different is -also- Wilder territory." Frank sighs, but there's amusement there too. "Listen, in a thousand years I never thought I'd say this but as Mountain... I think you should spend some time with Olgar. He and I have .... well, we don't get along. Haven't. But I respect him and he's going to be able to relate better to you than I can, right now."

"We'll keep meeting, keep talking, but... you need his input too."

Walls gathering. "Oh."

"Dagmar?"