"Those orders still hold,"

I stated breezily.  "Thank you for that extremely thorough report.  Your job is done."

"So you're just going to leave it at that?" Lana asked, incredulously.  "No follow-up, just a likely address without any further clues?"

"That's right," I confirmed.  "You and the Sisterhood are to stay well away from there.  I will have one of my other, more trustworthy followers fetch Zandar for me."

"What other followers?"

"Naturally, one of my thousands of adoring fans, amazed and spellbound by tales of my astonishing magickal exploits."

"Not this again," Lana groaned.

"Yes, this again," I declared.  "Vernier, Lysander, and the coven members have been spreading tales of my mighty & mystical deeds.  Ash even set up a network of storytellers to spread the word of my elfly greatness.  Naturally some dedicated soul, tantalized by the lore, will quest his way here eagerly to pledge his services to me.  Any day now."

"Have any come by yet?" Lana sighed.

"None so far, but it's just a matter of time."

"All right," Lana postulated.  "Even if anyone does come sniffing around for the White Elf or whatever you've called yourself in these tales, how are they going to get past the rabbits?  Assuming they pass the rabbits, how will you know they've arrived?  Unless you stay here in this circle all the time, you'll miss them.  No going to Faerie.  Even if you can manage the time slip so well that you can get back here the same moment you left and never miss anything, it will still mean sitting in this circle for years waiting for someone who might not even come."

"I can also monitor the circle from my scrying tower," I informed her.  "Besides, those blasted rabbits can't keep this siege up forever.  A generation or two down the line, and the whole witch trial and the scary spirit in the woods will just be a spooky campfire story no one actually believes."

"Yet during that same time, you expect your stories of the Amazing White Elf to be believed so strongly that people who never experienced any of this will travel great distances to come here, on the slim chance that the legends might be true?"

"Well, yes."

"You've already wasted so much time doing nothing!" Lana exclaimed.  "Are you really going to wait another two generations??"

"Why not?" I countered.

"You are so pathetic, I'm almost tempted to help you free of charge."

PREV http://www.patreon.com/posts/90425273