#debukefarmhold

And everything goes blurry

"-You- brought me here to talk to her! I......"

As August is bespelled, a certain Mountain rumbles "Miss Vashti, after I interogate this fellow...you and I are going to have a talk"

As Jude pats August on the back and shows him around Ardent harbor, well, he found that the VIscount had many questions. Many many questions. And....twenty minutes later... August was out of the farm. And Vashti? SHe had e xplaining to do

(End scene here)

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"Now I have tried to bend, but lord, this is too much" Acting Chief and ever Hearth Agnes says her eyes actually tinged dark .

Vashti looks miserable as she sits at a chair at the table near the balefire.

"To be fair, the girl blind folded him on the way in" The Mountain says but he's not entirely swayed 'And.. . as sidhe go, August is said to be a mite better than most"

"You can barely stand them sometimes, Emmit, and you know I can't. THis.. this.." She sighs

"This is why , as much as anything else, you stepped aside for Clem" The mountain reminded "We're carrying too much weight. And no, I don't much care for sidhe but let's not forget the scathach and a few Beaumayn that came to our aid?"

A sour look on the Hearth's face.

Vasthi draws her legs up and shakes. Her eyes shoot past the Hearth/Temp Chief and lock onto a jar. The dark orbs grow wide.

"Honey, what's..." Agnes gazes where she's looking, "Honey that's just an old jar why would that bother you?"

Wingflitter

The two elders exchange looks. Emmit takes his hat off, and covers the jar.

And Vashti slowly relaxes, if only a little

Emmit says "When you're ready, tell us what you can. "And they leave it at that

(paws...because pooka)

Zara pops into the hall, obviously searching for someone and... the Elders... and Vashti... and... well, so much as a sluagh may swoop, she swoops in.

"Care to join us, Zara?" Agnes says and gets another cup of tea ready

Vashti may not have to look at the jar anymore but she still looks scared and miserable

She protectively draws her arms around the pooka. "What happened? Did August find you?"

"I sent him to find you first, to clarify all this... Vashti does not often explain herself well..."

"he got away from his cage and made a mess" The moth says

"You knew about an unauthorized noble on our grounds?" Agnes says surprised to Zara

She smooths Vashti's hair, still hovering protectively. "Not before I discovered him here. And I sent him to find you directly."

"And yet your sister apparently brought him here," The Mountain says

"I thought... that would be better than simply sneaking him off without... you are trolls, so I thought..."

"Aye. She did. As a surprise."

"Well, it surely was that," Agnes says "If one of our young Storm had found him they might have assumed he was a balor made it through and stabbed first and asked later. And we may be troll,s but we do have our secrets. He could uncovered far too much"

"That's... I sent him to find you, you're in charge..." flustered.

"I had tethered zara here so often that I thought mayhaps a friend would.... well, bury her in intense misery" Vasthi has trouble not lying and gets simplistic opposite speech

"I should have fetched you to him, aye. Stupid... where is he? Is he safe?"

"He's back at his college, none the wiser he was ever here," Emmit says "We learned a bit from interogating him while he thought he was talking to a house superior. His story didn't seem to have malice, so after that round of fuddles I played with his memories"

Emmit then adds "He's a stubborn son of a gun though. Haven't met a will like that in..well, a while"

She exhales. "Thank you. He was an innocent in this, no part of the planning. And aye. Don't I know it."

"That's not very reassuring to learn" Agnes says "What was meant to last for a long time could instead be retrieved. Honestly, our hold maybe public or at least better known, but we have secrets beyond our existence. " She looks at Zara, "Zara, I appreciate you 'sending' him to me, but not unescorted. We don't know him, and surely don't trust him without an escort. For all we knew he was here to take our bale, learn about the source of DeBuke fecund nature, and maybe our treasures"

"Fie, he's not interesting enough to want a bale" Vashti says glumly though pooka speech may not translate that well

Zara shrinks slightly. "Aye. twas stupid of me..."

"Any other day it might have been better," Emmit admits "But at a time when half our forces are out and about in a raid agaisnt sidhe and their servants, you can see why we're even more cautious than normal?" He looks at her kindly

"Oh yes, You were the one who dragged him here" Vashti looks at her sister "Twas not your wits that were eggs this morning, I took mine scrambled"

"I... I risked a scry..."

Then Vashti says to the two elders "Be done with it, and launch me into the pit.... but do not push her from thy grain fort. Twould break her black heart to lose mentor's hugs and lover's lessons"

"You're free to scry, Zara. I don't think we've stopped that...unless I'm working o na greater working" Emmit says

Her fingers are in knots. "Pray, be merciful to Vashti. She meant only to... help, aye? To help me."

Agnes humphs at the pooka "W'ere not about to push Zara anywhere if we can help it, thank you miss Vashti. Emmit would call it a waste to do so I think and I'd agreed. And Zara, your sister is her own woman too and cannot evade all consequence in the name of good intention. Both of you didn't think of the bigger picture this time around. You're young. Happens. " A sigh and look to Emmit "You see what we have here?"

"Yup" he smiles a bit "They're acting like trolls, each trying to shield the other so much they might step on each other's feet. Must be drinking OUR water too much"

Zara pinks.

The old woman waves her hand and sniffs "Don't need any of that 'firnostian humor' here, thank you." A look at both "Zara, you'll plead your case to Clem if she gets back. And I think she will. More accurately you will plead this August's case to her. And maybe keep an ear out to see if he starts to remember again and you will Leave us know"