#anywhere

"Slavers."

"Not us, we just tip them off" He states "The... this time we saw how rich she was, no run away so we... we decided just once to make BIG money"

She stares, unblinking - implacable and silently furious.

The chooked man, regaining his breath, looks tempted to try to fight again. Earl bends down, "Don't make the lessons you're about to learn become even more barbed than they're about to be. WHO and WHERE is this 'house' for young run aways?"

"They call it the Bird House.. it's outside the city proper off Dunning Road behind a copse of trees. Old plantation area gone to seed"

Zara spits.

The two men shudder "What.. what are you going to do to us?"

Earl looks to his lady "Bit of dross, and you decide their fates? Or..." He leaves it to her.

"In the end, Da'an decides their fates. But I may hasten it."

Zara feels a pulse.. the Dreaming has been kept at bay somewhat by the cold iron here... but they've moved from that part. She actually senses Da'an is with her, silver tendrils coaxing her

Zara pulls out her dross. "What shall we do? Aye. Would you beg for mercy?"

"Beg?" He says

"We can make a deal" the guy who is lucky to have a trachea chokes

"Aye. Would you beg us for mercy?"

"It MIGHT help" The Eshu says , but does not make it sound like a sure thing

Earl just glares

Zara has a certain gleam in her eye.

The guy who was not choked says "Yes, fine.. please let us go. I'm begging you"

A sniff, unimpressed.

"Look, whatever you want to do with us, do with us, just don't kill us or turn us into the cops" the guy says

THe other fellow nods

And Zara feels da'an curl it's grip tighter. One should be careful what one agrees to with the fae

"I shall grant thee as much mercy as you hath granted thine victims." A pronouncement - Earl realizes that her question had been a bunk!

A slow build up , and as any magician will tell you, stage or otherwise, audience participation gives it even more oomph.

Zara tears the dross in twain, releasing fate's fire!

Fate's fire lashes out...and something else as well

Zara feels , well, not like a slave, never that that. She has ALLOWED Da'an to do this. And her faith is rewarded. She is a vessel, is she not? And she plucks from the men not just their fortunes, but their names, before spilling it out again. It is possible Emmit might warn her about this, but it's not her doing. The wish she made earlier, for adventure, for secrets, has come full circle, and is backed by a sense of justice that may not be true in a world of darkness, but it is quite real in the Dreaming.. she takes their true names and finds them shifting twisting...was one named Jeff? No longer. Was another Fred? No more. For Zara it feels like she is being filled and emptied but the knowledge how is remaining

And two grown men, no, four? The two Earl knocked out to get to them, they were in the know as well...

Four grown men shift, and stitch, and reweave....

Slavers.

Not men.

Not men in more ways than one. Their features soften, and their statures shrink.

The two teen girls, younger than Tziporah, look at themselves and cry out "What's going on?" says one in bedraggled clothes which at least still fit even if they do scream of poverty

And Zara knows soothsay also had it's say. None shall believe these former slavers, these kidnappers. They protest to anyone that they are not teenage girls. or are not supposed to be. But they are fated never to be believed.

And the dreaming whispers Do you want them to remember always, or slowly forget? Name thy provisos, name thy demands, Witch of River and Word, and so it will be. You cannot stop this working now, but you may define it

"Remember. Lest true repentance occur, without self-centered motive."

"Look, um.. " Jeffrey ... more like Josie or Jean, sniffs "This isn't possible. It's not I..."

"Oh my god, if they find us, " Fred? Freida? Winifred.. Winnie... "The Bird House, they'd put us in the bird house"

"You took what was mine, for money. You tried to imprison a dream of freedom, for money. You have enslaves dozens, for money."

The girls sniffle

"It seems you have no money, now."

and cower ,they are not strong, or tall, they have no weapons, they have no money, and they are aware of it

"You best run, hope strangers are kind" Tziporah says "Kinder to you than you were to others. You have become what you saw as prey. Others will see you as prey also. ENjoy your second chance, but the path you've been set on will be frought with dangers akin to the very ones you set on others. " SHe nods "Your story, tragedy or redemption, I think is yours to write, but either way, it will inspire what happens when one tangles with a stranger on the road "

Zara nods at Tzipporah - oh, her sister's Name is close. The eshu is strong.

And no sidhe namer will have the honor of helping her sister find it

"Zara?" A voice can be heard calling out. Siv being the ony one who can yell

Symon is gazing up front. Two girls of age 13 tops look confused at themselves, one has a black eye. They appear to be freaking out.

"Hank.. Holly? We're ..we're girls"

"Don't call me Holly, Kelly" She says to Kyle "This isn't..."

Lily grins without teeth "Someone invoked the wyrd"