Dawn wasn’t surprised that Gort had sent her over partly as some kind of joke.<i>‘That'll get 'im talking,’</i>he’d said. He hadn’t been kidding. It didn’t matter to her if she had to weather a glare or two to learn what Johnson knew about Muse. But he had earned a drink, at least. He was in a sorry state, after all, with his body as broken as it was. She’d healed cuts and bruises before, and made tonics for pain… She knew her<i>own</i>arm barely well enough to<i>maybe</i>be able to grow it back if she lost it, but a stranger’s? Even then, she’d seen things go<i>very</i>wrong with that sort of magic. It was the same type of magic the elves used to<i>change</i>themselves, and that took decades to perfect.<br/><br/>It would have to be a drink, then. She motioned to have his drink refilled. That was an easy treatment for the wounds in his mind, temporary as it was. The elves at the Lake of the Moon were the only people she knew with the expertise to treat him, really. And the water there did wonders. It felt like she hadn’t aged a day since she’d bathed in the lake, and maybe she really hadn’t. But there was no way he’d even survive the trip in the state he was in.<br/><br/>Dawn slowly sipped her cocoa as Johnson began his tale. She barely blinked, and her clear grey eyes never once lost focus. “People around here know that bitch as the ‘first elf’, practically worship her. Phah, I tell you, she stopped being an elf long ago if she ever was one. Now here’s the thing, every so often she apparently comes around these parts and the forest reacts. The fog gets worse and impossibly thick. It’s magic, don't ask me how it works.”<br/><br/>The forest and the mist<i>reacted</i>to Muse? Was the mist as thick as it was because Muse was nearby, or would it get thicker still? The town was still clear, at least…<br/><br/>“Her most recent visit was a few weeks back, her last one was what... twelve... fifteen years ago? She dropped off the rat there in town.”<br/><br/>Dawn followed his finger to the girl sweeping near the fire and her expression softened. She wasn’t a rat at all. But Muse’s daughter? She seemed happy, for what that was worth. She turned back to her hot cocoa and furrowed her brow. It wasn’t impossible. She hadn’t thought the tail particularly odd, but she’d seen a lot of strange things. And there were the vulpari, like Donchen, too.<br/><br/>“If the rat’s really the bitch’s daughter then the bitch is warped even to her womb,” Johnson said. Dawn met his gaze a little bit coldly. She didn’t say anything, but her knuckles were white as they gripped her mug. “Y’see what I’m trying to tell you? We're not talking about the ‘first elf’ here, we're talking here about a monster.”<br/><br/>“Oh?” Dawn said, her voice barely more than a whisper.<i>Bitch? Monster? She belongs on that tapestry as much as anyone else! But you don’t know. How could you know?</i><br/><br/>“Didn’t even think her real until I saw her. I was off in the deeper wood checking my pixie traps. Their dust sells great and I can usually catch a bit of game on the way back to town.”<br/><br/>Dawn visibly bristled at that.<i>Pixie traps? Is that what people do here?</i>Sure, pixies had been dangerous when they’d been under the Kaiser’s control. Now, they seemed more playful than anything. She still heard stories about them borrowing mana through sex, but it was never really malicious. She hoped the traps weren’t hurting them, but she knew better. A lot of people would do anything for pixie dust. It was supposed to have all kind of magical effects, but she only knew for sure that it was an aphrodisiac. It helped them fly, too.<br/><br/>It could be very useful. But it wasn’t worth making pixies suffer.<br/><br/>Johnson kept on, oblivious to Dawn’s growing anger. “The fog was getting thick but I just had to follow the river and then the lights to get back to town so I wasn’t worried... guess I should’ve been.” He sighed heavily. “I saw the pixies crowding around her before I saw her... I was already getting my net ready when this shadow I thought to be a tree walked into the clearing. For a second I even believed the first elf myths, hah, it’s true. The pixai nested and darted around her horns like they were stars. She wasn’t wearing a thing but a whole load of jewelry. She just stood there while I was gawking at her completely stunned. Which I tell you is unusual since I don't swing that way. T’was just... t’was like she was bigger than she was, not quite real…” The man paused to take a breath, and Dawn remembered to take one too. “We stood there for a while but then she saw the pixie trap in my hands and...”<br/><br/><i>And she took your arm.</i>Dawn’s face fell.<i>What are you doing, Ashy?</i>Protecting the pixies? She’d almost decided to rule the pixies once before, but she’d changed her mind at the last moment. Why now? Why go back to them, and not to…<br/><br/>Still, it made sense. Dawn shared that same anger. She liked pixies a lot, really. They weren’t that different from her, when she’d wandered A’enath like a fey spirit. That part of her awakened when she let the spark of her magic become a flame. She’d sung to her enemies with that power, danced on still lakes, drifted with the wind. But Verita had bound her and Muse both to something bigger than them all. Whether it was destiny or something else, she wasn’t sure. She felt responsible now, and it annoyed her.<br/><br/>Johnson’s cracking voice pulled her out of her thoughts. “I don't even know how I got away... I just... managed one burst of speed and fell into the river... but even as the river swept me away those burning eyes kept following me, even into my nightmares to this day... Mermaids nearly ate my leg but I didn’t care I just got away… now every day the fog is a little thicker I’m terrified the bitch is coming to finish the job…”<br/><br/><i>He doesn’t deserve this, no matter what he did. Scare him off, sure, but his whole arm? Muse…</i>Dawn finished her hot cocoa and let out a long breath. Instead of meeting Johnson’s red eyes, she gazed up at the ceiling. “Look,” she said at last, “I’m not going to let her get you or anyone else. I’m here to find her…”<i>And what? Save her? From what? Being queen of the pixies? I’d love to be queen of the pixies.</i>“...and figure things out.”<br/><br/>She finally looked back to Johnson, her eyes part sympathetic and part determined. “We have something of a history.” She gripped Muse’s jewel tightly through her robes. “There’s much more to her than the monster you met, and I’ll face fog and forest and death itself, if I have to, to see that part of her again.”<br/><br/>“I can’t make what happened unhappen. But I can stand between you and her, and try to make sure it doesn’t happen again.” For words coming from a lithe young girl, they were clear and confident. They were words carrying the promise of power.<br/><br/><i>But if the monster is all that’s left, even all I have won’t be enough to stop her. But I won’t believe it. Not for a minute.</i><div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>