#elsewhere

"That's it! Nadeen, you know it?"

"All around the mulberry bush.." Nadeen sins sweetly. She is not a singer, but she has naturally lovely voice

"Okay, pour for us, please, Marigold!" And she joins in, "The monkey chased the weasel..." As she starts to lead a dance around the table where Marigold pours.

Marigold nods, a little dubious, but you don't get to a, ahem, certain age as a changeling without understanding that the silliest things are often the most effective. And she pours for everyone.

Rian trots along after Sylvi, he doesn't remember all the words, but fills in with mmms and ahhhs and then, "Pop!" enthusiastically.

Nadeen sacrifices her dignity as well

There are other verses, too, but these involve mime. "This is the way we wash our face!"

"Wash, wash." Rian chirps.

And all the while, Sylvi gathers the glamour of their song, their game, and the nature around them.

A bluebird chirps, sweetly courting his mate. In the bottom of the empty fountain, where just a little bit of damp muck remains, a frog calls, "grrr-rrrnn-nnn-kk." The breeze carries the scent of spring... or perhaps that is coming from the Troll as she gathers her magick.

And after the third verse ("This is the way we wash our hands!"), she pauses in the game to lean past Marigold and stir the boggan's tea one, two, three times. "Okay, time for tea!" And she takes her own seat. "And plum cakes!"

Nadeen sits down, puttin Rian up in a chair for his plum cakes

"Yum cakes? Yum cakes?" Rian asks hopefully. Marigold blinks. "I'm not familiar with this cantrip..." Considering the tea.

"I freestyle a bit," she confides. "Now, drink up!"

"Be bold, Marigold" Nadeen says "A toast to Dahlia in whose garden we sup" And she drinks

Marigold nods. "To Dahlia, whose flowers still bloom anew." And she sips.

Sylvi raises her cup to toast.

The magic that Sylvi has gathered shimmers and trembles.. in the air, in the tea cups, in the sound of birds singing, in the tendrils of seedlings reaching for the sun, in Rian's joyful laugh as he manages a handful of plumcake into his mouth. Spring is not only in the magic and in Sylvi's soul, but all around them. As Marigold sips her teacup, the liquid flows down her throat, but seems to suffuse throughout her entire body with warmth, and for a moment, she almost glows!

A crackle, a puff of dust, and suddenly from behind them, water shoots into the air from the dried out fountain! The initial burst falls and sprinkles all of them like a light spring rain... chimerical, so the cakes are safe. Where the droplets fall on the ground, fresh new buds burst into life.

"GRnk!" The frog croaks in delight as it gets showered...

"Sylvi, it's wonderful" Nadeen's normally calm demeanor breaks into girlish delight

"Oh!" she says at the bursting of the fountain. And she breaks into a happy laugh.

Marigold laughs aloud! "Well, I never..." She stops, suddenly, blinking, and straightens up in her seat. She blinks again, and her eyes are teary.

"Oh Marigold, are you okay?" Nadeen says

Sylvi watches her carefully.

Quickly wiping at her face. "Just a bit of rain in my eyes." She stands, a little hesitant at first, and then reaches over to pick up Rian... the boy makes a sound of protest to be pulled away from the cake he is making a mess of, but then he squeals in delight as the Boggan lifts him overhead, and then gives him a spin through the air. "Rain indeed. Right as rain!"

Sylvi grins. "I guess it worked."

There's a gasp from nearby. A native American teenage girl gapes. Of course, her skin ggleams like copper hued marble "What. .uhm.. is everyone okay?"

Gwen, of course

Setting the boy back down, she reaches to touch her toes, and then straightens back up once more. "Miss Sylvi, if you could bottle that restorative tonic, you'd be set for life, I don't doubt it. I think you took a decade off my old bones. It's as if.... have you ever had a sound in the background that droned on and on, and you stop noticing it, until it goes away? I think it was like that... I just got used to being stiff and creaky."

Gwen says "She's cured?"

"She's a whole lot better, that's for sure."

"Not.. cured, Gwen. Helped. I think?" Nadeen says "but oh how lovely, Sylvi I take back a third of the petty things I've ever said about you"

"Marigold, I'm really, really glad. Thank you for letting me help."

"Gwen!" Marigold says, a bit guiltily. "I - that is..." After denying it was bothering her, she seems a bit sheepish to be caught in a healing by the Fledgling troll.

Sylvi makes a face at Nadeen, then grins again.

Gwen rushes and gives the kid and Marigold a hug "You're better. I was so worried!"

"Now, I don't know if it's permanent. But now you know that getting it fixed is worth it, if it gets bad again, right?"

Marigold hugs her back. "Oh, I'm still an old fogey. All the spring in the world won't make me a spring chicken again... but I think Miss Sylvi here has renewed my warranty for a bit on that old hip."

And Rian is set back at the table. "You did very good, little one. Go on then." And he digs into the cake messily.

"And I think I deserve a bit of cake, too." Sylvi says, setting down again to enjoy her well-earned tea.

Gwen looks to Sylvi and mouths 'I am in your debt, thank you'

Sylvi clearly makes a note of that!

"For that, Miss Sylvi? I'd even give you the recipe. How can I repay you?"

Nadeen says "Cake and tea it is"

Marigold makes room for Gwen on the ivy-grown bench, and there is enough cake to share.

"Well, I appreciate that, Marigold. Do you mind if I get back to you on that?"

Behind them, the fountain bubbles at a more sedate, yet still merry pace, the sound of the water flowing making a pleasant backdrop in the garden.

"Take your time." And a second cake is pressed over to Sylvi.

"You know, this spot is going to be really nice, I think," she says of the garden.

And she definitely takes a second cake.

"I think you should visit this are while it lasts now and then, Marigold" Nadeen suggests