#brightwindsbarony

Stewards get busy, so perhaps it's forgivable that Hope just leaves the stone out at the hold while she runs her coffee shop

just sitting there, glistening

Grete is wandering the halls, looking for Hope. The childling is not sure where Sparrow is, but she knows that if anyone knows, it would be Hope.

Alas, there is no Hope! Not even at her desk where she does her work.

Where some mail is

and.. a gemstone of some sort

Grete can feel it

"Ooh." She drifts closer, looking over the stone. Is it in a box, or out in the open?

In a box, but the box has no lid! a shoe box or something used for transport. And there ,winking inn the center is a stone with glamour that's very different.

She reaches out, both with her kenning and her hand at the same time, touching the unusual stone. "Hello there." She says softly. "I'm Grete."

"Hi" A voice says behind her "I'm Neera" there's an echo to the voice, a woman speaking through a hall of solid stone

the stone feels.. she can feel a whole world there

She turns around, surprised. "I didn't know anyone else was in here, sorry..." A bit confused, and rather in awe, as she tries to make sense of the woman.

"Is this your stone?"

"Yes, " The woman gestures all around her "THIS is..my stone. Welcome to my place" And as Grete looks about, she realizes she's in a grand palace room of stone and gems smoothed to highlight it. The shimmer gives off enouggh light to see by, it's dark and sublime, yet solid and so inqusiitve

"I'm... where am I?" She turns around in a circle - a bit startled, but too intrigued by the surroundings to feel frightened or concerned. Even if perhaps she should... "It's beautiful."

"Thank you," Neera seems pleased, "I designed it myself. We're in a pocket of the dreaming. This is what my stone links to, like a genie's lamp if you knnow those stories? I don't grant wishes though"

"Oh! That explains why this... feels like that. The stone in the box. But YOU feel like that stone, too. How did you make a stone pocket? Can you show me how?"

"It's part of being a glome" She explains "'I'm not typical of the kind" she confesses, in here she looks like the most amazing statue an impossible one almost. Her eyes like twin copies of the stone, the rest more 'human looking' except ..well, flesh toned marble and so on

"You're really in tune with stones" Neera stares at her "I've never met a changeling like you before"

"I've never met a stone like you before." She says, agreeably. And then thinks. "A glome? I think my mentor told me about people like you. You're like changelings, except you picked natural things to become part of against banality, instead of mortals? I wish I could have been a stone." A bit envious. "I'm a wichtel. We're... kinda like, dreams of miners and diggers, strength and steady work, getting things done, and all things underground."

"Ah, no wonnder, you're like a dwarf of .. of other worlds, knowing every aspect of stone or ore .. and thank you. In truth, I wish I'd become a changeling" She says "Now, I have to tell you something. That small stone, the one we are in? It's called my anchor. Without it, I don't have a touch stone with the Autumn world. In fact, I could be undone. I hear your currennt ruler is kind. Would she keep it protected? Would you?"

"That's dangerous! Of course I'll keep you safe." She sets her jaw and nods. "Our Baroness is Sp- Lady Der-yn-wydd ap Liam." Carefully sounding out the name. "But we call her Sparrow. She's really nice, even if she's an oathbroken house. That is, she never broke any oaths, leastways, not here, and not to me. But the founder of her House did, so she's like... branded with it, even now. Which isn't fair, if you ask me, but no one asked me." A breath after a long, for Grete, speech.

"But even if she doesn't want to watch over your anchor-stone, I would. I can keep it safe if you need to. I even know a place where sharks swim through the ground and would eat anyone who came near. But they probably couldn't hurt you."

"Bullete?" She says surprised "This world has them too? mm" Then she smiles "Thank you. Now, I should probably step out with you lest folks think I've kidnapped you. Would you like to visit my home again sometime in the future?"

"Oh, yes please!" She nods! "It's lovely in here."

"Thank you," She says aggain "it's a connnection between where the stone is out there, and the Empire of Stone in the Dreaming"

"The Empire of Stone?!" Grete ponders, this place sounds amazing. Has she ever heard of such a thing? Either in this life, or in her fae memories?

It rings.. something about each type of inaminae having a land or king dom in the dreaming

"Yes, the land of the Glomes ... bit stiff and traditional"

"I'd like to see it someday... but yeah, let me introduce you to OUR empire. Well, Barony."

"I'd be delighted" She takes Grete's hand, and the wall opens and out they step into Hope's study

She steps through with Neera and blinks a bit. It feel awfully open and exposed without the comforting walls of stone around, and she rubs at an arm a little self consciously.

"Are you okay?" Neera asks at the gesture

"Sometimes I wish I had a place like that. All surrounded by stone. We tried to make a fort, out in the hills, but the adults didn't like it, and then the sharks came. We helped the sharks, but I don't know if they are smart enough to remember that, so I'm not sure we can go back." A sigh, but she adds, "My room here is nice, even if it's on the second floor. I have shelves now, and all of my friends are on display. And I can work out back when I'm using the polisher."

"Grete, " She says "In a past life, I was not what you called a nice woman" She admits "Until someone taught me that one can be selfish without necessarily hurting others..it's more complex than that, but I'm being brief. Now sometimes I like my privacy, but if you ever want to visit my place again, let me know. " She considers "If your baroness agrees, maybe you can keep my anchor in your room"

"I wouldn't mind! We can ask her." She nods, and considers this. "I'm not always nice. Sometimes people say or do things that make me mad, and I can't think of anything else." She admits. "But I try to not get mad at my friends."

"That's a fair warning don't cross you." She makes a note of it "A bit like some dragons there"

"Oh, I'm not a dragon. Dragons fly. I like it just fine on the ground." She grins.

A chuckle "A very fair point. Well, you're far too nice looking to be a Medusa or a Basilisk"

"Medusa is the snake lady who turned people into stone, I know about her. I think if people left her alone, they'd not have gotten stoned, so it wasn't really her fault and that guy.. the Greek one, who cut off her head? He sounds like a jerk. Stu told me about some of these stories. And then lent me a book, but the book doesn't match what he told me in all of them. But that's not his fault, he's a pooka."

"You are well read. Medusa was innded more victim than monster in my opinion, the originnal one" She sighs "Women face a lot of pitfalls in tales and society alike"

"I don't read a lot, but there are good books out there. And sometimes it's the only way to get Stu to stop peepin' at you is if you say you're reading. But he checks, so you have to actually read it."

"The fiend" She says "Still I do love books myself"

"You should meet him, then. And my other friends. Ryder, and Ashlee, and Irene... uh oh."

"uh oh?" Alarm

"No, it's okay. I'll talk to Irene." A nod.

"Irene hates glomes?"

"No... At least not that I know of. I don't think she hates anyone, except maybe those bad guy ninjas from her unicorn movies. No, she just has a habit of picking up things that catch her attention. She doesn't mean anything bad by it..."

"I just don't want her to take your special anchorstone by mistake."

"Ah, is she perchance a piskie?"