#baronyofthesilverwolf

"What, command people? S'called Sovereign an' I'm damn sure he can do it, yeah."

"You ever have it done to you?"

"Pfft. Nah. I ain't worth it; I make sure of that. Keep your head down."

"Yeah, but the guy at Bergen was being a real *&^%$$^. Somebody had to call him on it."

"And you decided it was gonna be you ta call him on it?" Willy shakes her head.

"Well, somebody had to."

"How'd that work out for you?"

Her spirals shift color a bit. "Well, not exactly great."

"Worse for Gwen. And Art got into a duel, which is DUMB. Because the Baron guy was clearly wrong, yeah? He was being an asshole and a bully, but everybody just seemed to want to let it happen."

"Yeah." agreeing, her point made.

"You said you were somewhere else, before. What was it like?"

"Duchy of Bluegrass in the Kingdom of Willows."

"That's down in Kentucky."

"Kentucky. Cool. Lots of horses! Why'd you leave?"

"Lookin' for stronger patronage. Found it, I think." she looks over her prize.

She nods. "Th'Baron seems interested in making sure we all do okay. What's he get out of it?"

"Dunno. But you can bet he got his."

"Well, he's loaded for sure."

"Yeah, they all are."

"And then there's the rest of us. Right."

"Ain't that some shit."

A shrug. "Just how things is. Most of 'em can't Make."

A frown. "Yeah."

"Dougal can." grudgingly "They're not drek, most of the time."

"What about nockers who can't?"

"Nockers can." a shrug "Hafta."

"Mmph."

"Look.... I heard about what happened to ya. Autumn people are the worst. Maybe only ONE thing worse 'n 'em. Here's the thing; you stop makin', THAT'S when he wins."

She looks down, frowning.

Another shrug. "You give up, roll over, stop makin'.... he wins. That's what he wanted, see? To kill your Dream."

"I don't think... ain't like he knows shit about nockers or fairies."

"He was just making me see... see what my *&^%$ is."

"SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH WITH THAT DREK!" Willy orders "NOT IN MY SHOP!" and she continues with heat "Don't matter if you think he does, or doesn't, or IF he does or doesn't. It's .... inside him. It's what makes him an Autumn person. Just like what's inside you is a Dream of Creation! That's what makes YOU a NOCKER."

"You PINHEAD."

"Hey!"

"What!?!?" She smirks.

"I'm not a furkin' pinhead!"

"Coulda fooled me, givin' up the Dream that makes you -real-. You got any fight in ya??"

"I just... I..." She scowls.

"Maybe I'm broken? Everything I make is screwed up. I try to fix it, and something else goes wrong..."

A huge sigh.

"Still got shells stuck to ya...." a mutter, the louder "Look.... we don't like to admit this but.... thing about being a nocker is...."

She breaks off and goes to stoke the forge, building heat. She clatters around, finding some materials.

And muttering to herself.

"...is WHAT?"

"Look, you gotta break a few eggs to make an omelette, right? We're out here takin' risks and pushing the envelope and... well... sometimes envelopes tear. Stuff.... doesn't always end up doing what we made it to do."

"Not... consistently, anyway."

She tilts her head, considering. "Yeah?"

"Yeah." More fire, more heat....

Willy keeps her head down, working. "So -sometimes-.... rarely, ya know, when yer workin' on sumthin' real careful and new, it... goes sideways. You make something that screws up, you fix it and sumthin' else goes wrong? Yeah. Means yer a nocker. Only -Douglas- make perfect." grumbled.