#scarsdale

Somewhere in Scarsdale, there a lovely house, with, well, increasingly lovely yard work. The weather being warmer, the sight of a moth is hardly going to raise brows like it might in winter.

Zara is camped out on the back porch. Hannah's car is gone - off at the grocery store.

The sluagh is making lace, working the tatting shuttle with slender fingers.

"Planning to snare another troll?" A fluttering voice

She laughs, a soft raspy sound. "Nay, only entangle my artist. Hello, Vashti."

Vashti slides into a sitting position nearby, her legs under her. She is dressing in grays and whites as is often the case, but the gray shirt has a creepy forest art work design with words mixed in that says "A walk in the woods helps me relax and release tension. The fact that I am dragging a body should be entirely irrelevant".

"A happy Eon to you as well, sister"

"How art thou?" Grey lips curl in a smile, and she leans over to bump her shoulder against the pooka's.

"Beltaine had a skunk chase me about a pole widdershins, we summoned a demon, and a good time was had by all" She blushes lightly, bumps back, "Since then, hither and yon. Troubles and sorrows do bleed into joyful humours, but is that not the way?"

"Tis, aye. And I saw Shalimar. He treats thee well?"

A soft smile, "Nay, horribly. Why he doth try to kiss me, and woo. What woman wants such?" A brow raised, which given hers leads into an antanae means it is most expressive, "Sister, think I knowest not that your wrath would reign upon him like barbed coils should he wound me? He treats me better than..." A pause, "The bar is so low even a worm might have trouble, but nay, he is as gentle as lambsbreath"

"I am prone to wrath, tis my nature. I simply try to direct it well. But, ah, sister-mine... it is tuesday."

"Tis? Has the Sabbath moved again?"

"Nay... oh, I cast shadows now, but I feel I must."

"perhaps the importance of Tues confuses me. Twas never one for numerology"

"Because Tuesday is the day he comes."

"And he being?" SHe looks about

"I know him as Rudolph."

"I believe... I think him one of us."

She frowns, her brows knit, "Recite..." A shake of her head, "I mean, pray say on"

"A satyr. Know you him?"

"Paler hath dipped his pen in every hue of well, and a goat horned kinsman we surely have, perhaps as many as three. Father does not extend his reach without purpose.." a frown, "Though we might sometimes hope to make a frodo of him, I have not heard of any of Pan's get that even tried- they are a lusty breed. "

"Well. What I have seen... I think him sent here, a puppet, a tool. He... exudes lust, ensnares with it. A magical aura, not just natural gifts."

"Sister, surely thou has not..." She blushes, "passed the boundary?"

"No. But I can smell it on him. And Mama..." A frustrated sigh. "She acts enspelled by him."

"He strives after thy kinian hea......." Realization, "Of course, yes. He shall rip the tapestry by Rockwell, and then where would you go?"

"I do not like it."

"This Ovid would leave his teeth marks upon the flesh of one so that her husband might count them, there is little to like," She says, biting her bottom lip, "How is it we are come to be rid of one only to gain another so...ah, yes. precisely that."

"Aye?"

"Thou did meet Golnaz in the land of the Lamb's laugh, under the fiery bird's wings at the very Chime of the Bel. She did rant?"

Her eyes narrow. "I did not tell you this."

A shake of her head, "The golden flower does not hear flutters, and how she screamed at her subjects"

"She does not listen, no..."

"but she talks" A smile

"Though of late..." another bite of a lip

"Aye?'

"Tis no matter , sister. Suffice to say, Golnaz was exiled by Imperial decree, barred from this scarred place. Rudolph would I think reason why"

"She.... I don't think she would take kindly to a sibling succeeding where she failed."

"She may well seek to sabotage him, if she knew."

"Father's words are as iron," A wince, "She'll abide for ffear where love has no reign. " THen she adds, "Nor is the yellow flower only under the eyes of kin"

She nods. "Too dangerous and unstable to mess with that... which leaves the problem of this satyr, and how to cool the lust he stirs."

"Thy skills are mostly in the saying of truths, barring a hex..." A shrug

"Exactly. I can fool the eye, but not the heart..."

"What offends the eye of thy mother?"

"I don't... what offends her?"

"Insult the waiter, and thy date may judge, aye? "

"Ah, aye. Make him cause offense."

"how best? I am not sure, may haps through truth you shall choke his ardor. If she can see the worst of what he is?"

"I... truth? I know not how... how malevolent he, himself, may be."

"From my observation, he flirts with any woman he contacts - and all respond to him. His... thoughts, his urges, his private time... all centers below, nu?"