#debukefarmhold

"But I gave him the chance to become it!"

A wince, and the hawk nearly hits the top of a tall tree as she's distracted by a tonguelashing

"Love is not a matter of crossing a glance and knowing it is fate! Love is.. love is weaving, the weft and the warp intertwined, the work of hands together."

"Well, now's ggonna weave to someone else, if the other two parts of the quest don't kill him.. I gave him a chance to back out of the questt, didn't think he'd agree, tthe horsebrained fool"

"Feh!"

"And what if you ARE his trueheart? What have you done?"

"I don'tt know.." She shifs back to her own form annd now sits on a branch "I told him he had to quest for three thinngs. Something the farmhold needs but didn't know it needed. to expose an enemy of the hold we didn't we had... and yes, to find his true love. "

Zara lands on a nearby branch.

"Well.. true love, not trueheart?"

"Perhaps this could work out, after all."

"He's gonna get killed and I can't protect him" She looks distraught

"Why not?"

"Why can't you secretly aid him?"

"And fear is not an answer."

"I can't leave the farm, especially not now," A sad look "Agnes is coming to her end. She'll be reborn, o course, hopefully back in the farm, be it in years or decades. But it's gonna shake us, and she's brave but facing it"

And yet Zara remembers.. something about Agnes, and an adventure in the Dreaming.

Gently. "Death is a friend, even if it may not seem so."

"Death is but change. And we, left behind, cannot see all that it means."

"And yet - that is no excuse to wither thyself. There will always be an excuse for stasis."

"this is more than an excuse, Zara." She sighs "I .. wish I never made him take that quest. I'm helpless twice over.. all I can do is my duty and wait"

"Hindsight is always 20/20."

"Fine then. We shall give him a fairy godmother."

"There is aught that threatens you. And it may well be da'an's design that has him seeking something that the Farmhold needs."

"For there is an enemy, Clementine."

"Zara..." Unsure sound "If this is some moral lesson about we need to adapt, you're preaching to the choir"

"Nay."

"Nay, there was a vision."

"Oh?"

"Aye. Not mine, though I probed further with magic."

She frowns, and relates what she saw - from the dark ones, to the scattering red seeds of wrath...

"oh..." then she frowns and grows somber "thank you, Zara. "

"I fear it is the Balor. And... well. You understand my trepidation about that house."

"It may well be the whole Shadow Court moving on deep plans."

"It could be, I think I'll put Emmit to work on this. I maybe a bit busy for the haven for a bit. Check with the flame for me when you et a chance?"

"Aye. I should shore up defenses there..."

"Good idea" She nods "If Emmit learnns more I'll have him tell you, best we keep some go between..." A bite of her lip "Buck's.. buck's gonna be on his own"

"Well..."

"Mayhaps you can't help him."

"And the wording... it was about things the Farmhold didn't know, not doesn't know - aye?"

"Well actually... "A blush "I'm so upset about it I don't remember the exact wording"

"The wording matters on oaths."

"QUEST.. he. . he agreed to it.. why tthe hell did he agree to it? I'm not worth risking his life for.. the moron" frustrated

Clem is obviously not versed on Courtly love

Zara huffs and rolls her eyes.

"The Ardent Suitor must prove himself to his Bashful Beloved."

"And thou art Seelie!"

"Damn it, Zara, I don't for for all that bashful beloved Ardent admirer stuff.. that's falderal and fluff to me" Blushing "Ain't the bashful beloved type, and I was the ardent Admirer to him. It was funn, didn't expet it to become all serious"

"Love is not falderal. Love is that which matters most."

"You're such a romantic... probably find two lovers clutching each other having died of cholera in each others' arms sweet" a shake of her head "It wasn't true love, it was... a way to pass the time, get a little warmth, be free to ..to feel. THEN it got complicated"

"An acorn is not an oak, Clem."