#earthrunes

Word goes out that Coradel had returned from visiting the Duchy seat in St. Louis. At least, it goes out among those who pay attention to such things. Whether such word has made its way to Lord Hume is debatable.

Lord Hume does show up, perhaps someone gave him a nudge. As always, he's got that tablet thingee

So he arrives while she is at a brief court session, hearing the latest updates from Innish.

August sits at her side, and she is lightly holding his hand as listens to the herald.

"Suffice to say, April Fool's was exciting for all involved" Innnish says "But the giant baloon shaped like a dragon was 'slain' and while everyone around talked in a high pitch for an hour after, all were well"

That gets a pleased smile from the Baroness. "I imagine the childlings had great fun with that, and not a few of the adults as well." Then she spots her heir. "Ah. Hume." She nods to him. "What did you think of the helium foe?"

"I didn't take part, Baroness" He says "Sounds funny" He adds

"Mm." A glance to August, then back to Hume. "What did you do with your time, instead?"

"oh, well, a couple of things... I got the new DLC to the world of Silverhand game, fantastic graphics... played a little, but I worked on my Griffen program, made some suggestions to shore up a VPN set up, and noticed, well, frankly? The remote access to your education set up for the childlings sucked so I refurbished a few things"

The first items receive a blank stare. The last, though, gets her attention. "Oh? Refurbished in what way? I mean...not the technical details, but how with the use or experience change for the childlings?"

"Well, sure," he says "the public school system was demanding the kids hook up with an outdated program.. probably the company paid a school board member or something? What I did was.. well here.." he shows her on his tablet "See this , this was the rate , how fast it streamed before... because the company is greedy they weren't expanding their connection's speedd... this caused stutterin for low income kids who can't afford the modern gear. What I did was bypass the system for them so they got a lot more help from the connection itself"

the comparsionn shows a lot.. bueracratic slow moving nightmare for KIDS on the first one.. and smooth easier to use faster on the next

"Honestly, the ISP provider should be shot," He shakes his head

She frowns over the data. "Wait...you mean you improved this for the local mortal children as well as our childlings?"

"Well, yeah, don't worry, it's not tracible to us.. I figured well, Liams are a big deal here.." A nod to the Baron "And the chldlings have some human friends so while I was at it , why not? They can't access our channelin only sites and servers anyway"

Coradel hands the tablet off to August so he can review the data. To Hume, she says, "That was good thinking. Thank you for attending to that."

August takes it and does review it.

"Oh no problem, I mean, it was an easy craft for me. I could use cantrips, I mean I can dictum my way through a computer if i have to, but I prefer to rely on coding, itt's a ..craft you know? I prefer to make beauty with what I do, but it SUCKS utterly for any dreamer to find their imagginations given bad tools tto work with "

"I had not considered it that way," she says, nodding. At least I understood all the words in those sentences. "Now...have you attended to the physical task I gave you?"

"Ah, yes.. Healer Emma helped with the bruises" He blushes

A surprised look. "Bruises? From...from doing those four staff moves I showed you?"

"I .. may have hit myself" he blushes brighter

There are some amused looks in nnthe court. Even snickering here andn there

Coradel gives a brief glare at the onlookers to quell those snickers.

A look echoed by August.

Then to Hume, "Do you understand why I wish you to learn to defend yourself?"

They quell

"Well, I figure so I don' embarrass he hold" he says "Sorry about that' Mutter

"It is more than that. Please turn and look at the others here."

He sighs and turns, only sidhe birthrights lending him and the motion dignity. He looks them over. Pooka, and satyrs, and clurichauns, Boggans and trolls and more..

"The Duke and Duchess have named you my heir. This means that these people and others may someday be sworn to you. It will be their task to defend you, and your task to defend them. If it comes down to a physical fight, you will be doing your people a great kindness if you can aid in your own defense, rather than relying entirely upon their abilities. They need to know you will at least try. Do you understand?"

He mutters "What if I just keep suckingg no matter how hard I try?"

"If you keep trying, that is unlikely. But the effort and attempt are better than assuming your own failure and refusing to try." She stands. "That is all...court is dismissed for now." And more quietly to Hume, "We will speak a bit further, later on. I will see you at dinner." Then she turns to take August's hand once more, and they depart the court.

he bows, clicking, and he soon nfinds himself alone in an empty court