#elsewhere

And yep, sure enough she pulls up the shell, deserted , but still lovely. It's a gradient blue, from slate to sky and has a slight translucence

Resurfacing, she holds the shell up to the sky to take a look at it in the sunlight.

Even more beautiful

She looks at the shell for a moment longer, then lets it go, so that it can sink back to the bottom of the lake.

"It's not mine to take." She says, half to herself.

"You're free to keep it" The Eshu observes, "Maybe it's not your to take, maybe the lake gave it as a gift?"

"You can have it, if you like." The glimmer of blue just reminds her of trolls.

"No thank you. If it was a gift from the lake, it's not for me."

Actually, there about a third of the gradiant is a blue that's about the same shade as Siv's thigh

"...I don't want to go back. Not the way things are." Gazing at the water.

"And how are things?" Njeri asks

"Strained. I could tell her I'm okay with her choices... but I'm not. I don't want my lover to be linked to a reminder of my past. She's not going to bend on this. What happens if I go home? Things go back to normal - except now she can't talk about her day without triggering my upset? And the kid, it's not even her fault, she ends up with a Knight who can't even bring her home for dinner? I can't get that look she gave me out of my head. I'm NOT the monster here. I'm NOT!" She slaps at the water in frustration, and her own reflection wavers as she does that, then stills, and looks back at her once more.

"Ah," a thought, "So, it's your past that's haunting you... it followed you here? It will follow you on the road then most likely. Believe me, I know. You can't out run a scar, on body or spirit. You can only hope it heals." The Eshu slides up on the shore letting her feet dangle "I don't know this girlfriend of yours, but you seem decent. You're feeling Samhain early, maybe that too is an escape, but Unseelie codes don't mean we don't fall in love or hide us from pain. We must each of us contend with the shadows we found in ourselves at one point or another. You don't sound like a monster, you sound.. injured.. or scared, or both. What is it about the kid that triggers you?"

She returns to the shore as well, glad to get away from her own reflection on the surface. She flops down and stares up into the sky instead, watching a cloud rather than looking into the lake any longer. "I don't get on well with nobles, or Liam. She's both. And I know she's just a kid. But it's the... that's not the point."

"The point is a Liam treated you unjustly and she is, in your mind, associated with that, " A nod "I had similar problems for a time"

"Yeah?" Turning to look over at Njeri.

"With satyrs, if you believe it. I still won't date a satyr," She explains

She blinks at that, but nods slowly. "I guess I understand. I don't even like looking at most sidhe. It's like, they're gorgeous, right, but... you known when someone says that they ate or drank something and got super sick, like food poisoning, and now they can't even look at it again? It's like that, that deep inner... NOPE feeling..."

"I have a cousin who couldn't eat Pepperoni Pizza for five years because she got sick eating one while she was pregnant. She can nibble now but it will never be her favorite" a nod, "For me it... was finding a very manipulative satyr, who I am embarrassed to say played me like a harp.. if you were wanting to snap the harp's strings. Even running didn't work ... eventually he was gone, but for years I hated satyrs like you. I suppose it was a flip of a coin wehther I was going to hate all satyrs, or all men, but men of all sorts outnumber your kith so.. I guess that's how it landed. The things I used to say about your kith , well, if you heard them, you'd want ot slap me and I'd deserve it. I am.. better now"

She looks profoundly embarrassed

"I don't blame you." She says. "My own tragos got me into trouble. For a while, I hated them, and avoided other Satyrs, other than my own fam. Then I realized that they didn't make me do anything, and I hated myself. Now? I don't really know. I pity them, I guess. As far as I know, they're still locked away. That is, unless they already went mad. I don't know how long someone can last in there, but I imagine that years would make even the strongest person snap."

"If anything, they must hate me. I'm the one who turned on my own tragos." This she says quietly, not sure how such an admission would go over in Haven.

"Was your traggo hurting innocents?"

She looks away. "Close enough, yeah. Dreamers."

A nod "Then, you had to try to stop them, it would have been wrong not to."

"Locked away? Forgive me for pulling at a scab, but, where were they locked away?"

"Do you know about Count Jude ap Liam, and his Hall of Mirrors? It's where he judge, jury, and executioner's ravagers and worse. I was one of them, I did my time. The others? Rhapsodizers."

"Rhapsody? Oh my... yes. I could see why you'd imagine they'd never.. see daylight as it were.. I've heard of that hall of mirrors, Titus told me about them" Njeri nods

"Friend of yours?"

"I would not say we're tight... get dressed, I'll introduce you to him? "

"Oh!" A bit of a laugh, she hadn't even realized they had moved from swimming to nude sunbathing. She fetches her clothes from the lakeshore and is quickly redressed.

Njeri moves back to the wall, "He's a nocker, in fact you may have seen him? He had the spider leg device and was climbing the wall?"

"Oh. That looked... intense."

"I hope you don't mind if we cheat?" She gestures and.. suddenly Piper can fly.. as can the Eshu

"Oh, you're a wayfarer!" She does a twirl in the air! "I've not gotten past hopscotch, myself."

"Well I can't flicker flash.. yet" She admits and they approach the wall "Titus? Art you.. ah there he is.."

Titus looks over and grunts from his perch near the top fifth of the wall "What the furk? I didn't for a satyr, why are you delivering?" He demands of the Eshu. Titus like most nockers has patterns, not so much the traditional spirals , more wavy lines

"Njeri wanted to introduce me. I'm Piper." She offers a hand out to the Nocker. She doesn't know many, but figures it can't hurt to be polite, even if it's one way.

"Titus Trimblefarhtz" He shakes the hand and raises a brow as if DARING Her to laugh at the surname

"Piper McCormick." She doesn't laugh! It's a close thing though.

"PIper was at Ardent harbor...." Njera starts to explain

As if PIper's hand were now on fire, Titus yanks his hand back, "FURK me with a pogo stick! Look, If this is some check up, I've been clean for 3 years now, ever since that stinking mirrored bat finally went away"

"Oh - no. NO. Wait, yours was a bat?"

"Yeah, look tell your boss that I appreciate the second chance, but I've DONE my time, and it's damn cruel to..." He starts to build up, but Njera puts a hand on him

"You are misunderstanding, Titus" She says "She was also.. in your situatation"

She STAMPS a hoof at that. "No way in HELL I'd EVER work for that... (#(&@(*&$...."

Titus's jaw falls, then "Wait..you were in the mirrors too?"

Apparently she DOES speak a few words that Nockers might understand.

"Ha, yeah, and his arcadian mother probably #$#$#$ sideways... #$#$# turboboosted Snowblower while #$$#$# "

Njera's eyes widen, and she blushes. Yes, even a world traveling eshu can feel some innocence lost here