#rivervale_lodge

The dogs stir but do not break into barks.

Yet.

Moving dogs? Half-awake Dagmar, mumble-grumbling.

Brekke looks up sharply, then notes the dogs' reactions...and looks up again, eyebrow arched. She doesn't get out of her chair.

Mackerel, however, looks up very attentive at whatever she hears. her tail lashes once or twice, and she begins to meow...plaintively, as if she has been betrayed and left alone all this time. Mistreated, forgotten!

Brekke listens to determine if the thump is being followed by any sort of motion...is the thump-er endeavoring to get down to the ground outdoors, or does it seem to have made an entrance through one of the windows?

Definitely a window sound.. SIv's room

"Shuddup Odin, five minutes."

She lays back down, pulling the blanket over her head.

Siv soon peeks her head , and only her head, down the stairs "Mackerel, shut up you'll wake... oh.." A smile "Hi mom. Ah.. could you come up here a moment? Obviously I'm home, but I've got something to show you?"

Brekke nods, and climbs the stairs, trying not to look either relieved or concerned.

Mackerel follows, so she can get close enough to check on her troll, then turn her back to her and clean herself

which will be a harsh statement

Siv has the remnants of the most elegant ball gown upon her, rich crimsons and burgundy. The dress is very grand, or was... it would appear to have several chimerical tears in it. The mask is on the bed, a phoenix faced mask.

Brekke notes the state of the dress, and her jaw tightens. "What happened?"

"You are well?"

"I had a grand time, there's not supposed to be any violence on Carnival as you know... there was a bit of ..contest instead of violence. It was great, no one knew who I was. I got to pretend to be anyone I wanted to be. " She smiles "I flirted and danced, and saw secret rites. And so forth ye know? "

An eyebrow. "Secret rites?"

"Mom, I'm going to ask you not to do too much of the boon on me. I don't want you to panic and really, the more details I give the more I worry you're going to retroactively worry a bit much. But while I didn't go looking for it exactly, I managed to see folks practicing some very odd magics...not prodigal level odd, but pretty impressive stuff. It also turned out to be an Unseelie set up. And I don't mean like 'honor is silly but we can hang' type unseelies"

Brekke takes a deep, bracing breath. "No boon. I promise. But I hope that means you will tell me what happened. I will try not to...overreact." A pause. "You spent Carnivale with unseelie fae. Were you at a noble hold?"

"One I didn't know existed, it was hidden. At first I thought 'well, that's rude, hiding a hold, what if someone needs safe haven?' then I remembered the DeBukes did it kind of, but I didn't automatically think 'unseelie'. In fact, I was with a different group entire...but they recognized the one thing I brought with me that wasn't in the costume." She holds up the Cutlass she took in battle in the dreaming, "You told me not to go without protection, you know? And... they acted like they knew who I was under the costume , and that I was missing the 'real fun'"

Brekke definitely looks concerned. "Siv....that cutlass....let me have it for a moment, please."

SHe hands it over. Brekke had been too shaken after coming back, too numb, to pay such a prize much attention.

She turns it in her hands, looking for some marking of house or family.

The black ship design is fine, but then she realizes it is imposed over a peacock embossing

a peacock feather to be precise

Her hands tighten. "Siv..." it's a harsh whisper. "This is a Leanhaun blade. Were you with House Leanhaun this night?"

"Mom, this is the blade I took in the dreaming, from a balor. I think... I think this was a lover's gift"

"At least, folks acted like I was in a clever disguise to meet a paramour.. nudge nudge wink wink and so on..." She explains

"ANd yes, I didn't realize it at first, but oh yeah. I followed and went into the hold with Leanhaun, Ailil, and some Balor. But I didn't realize that until the party was really going"

Siv may never have seen her mother go pale before...an unpleasant shade of blue, and she's holding the cutlass as if it were a snake about to strike. "You..." she tries, then stops, then tries again. "What happened then?" she manages.

"I blended," she says "I'm no actress, but this was the one night no one looked like themselves. Honetly I wasn't the only troll in costume either. And it wasn't like the Leanhaun there came dressed as harps , mom. Most of them weren't even wearing green .. so just saying. SOmeone tried to read my fortune, but.. they just made a face and others laughed at her..."

"You let somebody in such a crowd try to read your fortune? Siv...do you understand the danger you were in?"

Siv's eyes narrow, and she takes a deep breath "No... I wasn't given much choice. THey grabbed my hand and cast."

"And again, mum.. .I ddidn't realize what kind of crowd I was in at first. Balor maybe disfigured, but did you know Leanhaun and Fiona look a lot alike when they refuse to wear their house colors?"

Brekke shakes her head. "Siv, I understand that you did not know then. I believe you. But...do you understand it now?"

"And yes, I know how Leanhaun may seem...." A darkness in her tone there.

"Mum, you sound mad at me, and I don't think you're being fair if you are- I am trying to share something I seriously considered keeping as my secret, something of my own. Now, may I continue, please?"

"Siv, I am not mad at you. I am concerned for your safety. I wish for you to be concerned as well. But I am not mad at you. I honor the fact that you are sharing this with me, please believe that." There's an urgency in Brekke's tone. "I will try to hear the rest without comment." She looks at the cutlass again, and sets it aside on Siv's dresser, wiping her hand on her clothes in reflex.

"Their King was a drunken sot of a man who announced this best day of his life " She blushed "Human, mortal. But he turned out to be kindly... and as I walked about the others, I heard talk about 'who gets his life in the morn' and well by then I was already suspicious.... " A deep breath "Mom, they were, in the name of tradition, going to kill him after his 'rule' was done. Flat out mURDER him."

Brekke nods tightly, grim-faced, but she keeps good to her word...she does not interrupt.

"But who should get the honor? Why a contest was to be declared, for the honor of 'dismissing the king' … Three contests...a riddle, a hunt, and a race. Now, by this time I had realized I was in the wrong crowd.. .and was trying to leave but..they'd have murdered him mother. So I did the only thing I could as a King's daughter. I entered the contest. "

Brekke's expression has shifted from helpless horror (troll style) to more focused and intent interest. She nods for Siv to continue, her brows knit with concentration on the story.

"I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I had a blast... the riddle, oh mom, I was SO lucky to get it... you and dad were right about school being useful, I'll say no more about that. But I guessed. I was not alone though. The hunt? A greased pig! Simple right? Well until I figured out he was a pooka! Sly little bastard. Ah I lured him... and then caught him... mostly by getting him wet and washing that grease off! I know, wrestling withn a pig is beneath me, but … I beat the others. The race? I got ahead of the satyrs by using chandeliers. Was not against the rules. Folks cheered me. And I was given the knife, the king was tied up, and informed his rule was at an end. Poor man panicked... and I chanted a bunch of gobledy gook... 'to honor the old ways' and so on... then I ..well, brought the BIG Chandiler down... when they got back from scattering, I had cut the king free and was booting like hell's gates had opened"

She looks excited as she tells of her good luck and success...oh, and how everything was about to come after her and the 'king'

Brekke is staring at her, wide-eyed...and determinedly silent.

"Well, quicksilver is my friend, and I yelled after 'a curse on one who draws blood fae on carnival' and... suddenly they weren't firing at me. The king sure, so I shielded him, hauling up and running. Lord but it's good to be a troll HEY Up. " A grin of wolf teeth "And I got away. Oh most of the tears to the gown are my doing. When I got into the contests I needed to move legs so slits and all. Well WE got away. And the king was dropped off with a motely that I knew to be Seelie who took him to a Liam they knew. And myself? I came back here. And their seers couldnae even find me. OH! I had not realized what a gift that was really until now." Then "Oh sorry, please, talk. You've been very kind to hear me out mum. Want to see the knife?"

"You...still have the knife...." Her mother's voice is tight. "Yes, let me see it."

"I've kept it against my flesh so I might shield it with that odd trait of mine. " SHe says and pulls it out of her boot. It's an old style, A rondel dagger, there is faint glamour in it but it is a treasure, not a chimera and yes would kill a human. "Got great balance by the way."

Brekke frowns at the blade. "Good thinking, to keep it close. But you cannot keep it that way always. What do you plan to do with it?"