#scarsdale

Zara spills her tea.

This is not in itself a big thing, but...eyes, for the first time in years, she drops tea!

A bit of glamour, not a lot, and easily replished..has just gone out of her body!

"Hey, are you okay?" Earl says concerned. Zara doesn't spill tea, not at breakfast or.well she just doesn't

"Something... something happened!"

She crouches down by the amber puddle and stirs it (widdershins, thrice) with a fingertip. "Show me."

She gazes upon the fully grown Shakespeare Garden in Earth Runes. Tiny statuettes! But it's as if... and there she sees a Lion pooka standing and looking very pleased.

Could Vince have done this?

The trod is open! It... just like that.

The portal, if all worked as planned, leads to a collection of similar gardens...

She has a path to Earth Runes.. at least.. she thinks so.. there's something about it... restrictions! Some sort of key required.

A trigger, as it were.

Earl is nearby, worried "Trouble?"

"That Lion is on my trod, but I know not.. someone put a KEY on it..."

"You mean you can't get trhough your own trod?" Oh this, he realizes, will not sit well with her "You just have to figure out what the key is.. you'll get it"

Hissssssss

"I didn't think Vince was that powerful," Earl says surprised, "YOu never know with Pooka"

"My whole plan!"

"It's only one section of the .. okay, it's one of the ones you really needed. But look at this way... it's an instant trod. I mean, we thought we would be lucky to have it up in time for the end of summer and instead it's already here

Of course, Zara is not scrying Vince, she's scrying the rath of the trod SHE Helped connect.

Heck, her own glamour just fed it, she's sure of that.

"Tis my glamour in it."

Earl says "Before you go into full 'there will be a reckoning' mode, perhaps we should learn what is required to use the trod?"

HUFF.

"Maybe he did it on behalf of Coradel? " Earl wonders aloud

"Did he do it, or someone else? I thought I found an out of the way place..."

"mmm good point. We really don't know do we?"

"Well, we were going to Earth Runes soon enough..."

"Yeah, let's head out now" he says

"Aye, aye..."

A kiss, he gathers the bags, and is once more , loaded up like a pack mule.

Zara's own pack is quite compact to suit her spindly frame... but then, Earl has the Tea Service for Six.

(Travel sized!)

Bronte gets on Zara's shoulder, unaware taht Earth Runes is but the FIRST big stop.

And off they go to Earth runes

..............