(1806) Summer Solstice

[Lucifer]

"Now the thing is... I got something you need." Ingrid had found a plate of her own so she could match the Ashen Courtier's musings.

And she let a pause hang, pregnant, between them. Just to see what the mighty Fairest would do.

The aroma of plum, heady with juice, pulsed around her.

"What most do not consider, or perhaps conveniently choose to forget," Lucifer mused, impaling one of the cannoli upon her fork and raising it before her eyes, examining it as the filling began to fall back onto the plate, "is that people are complicated. Complicated, and irrational."

The shadowed beauty raised her eyes and stared into those of the Antlered Queen.

"Part of why we have the courts is because they provide us with something that is stable in a world that is as unpredictable as ours. We have no families and our nightmares have been carved into us by the blades of a razor so sharp its pain is as indescribable and addictive as it it horrifying. What is more, the Crown which you once wore provides shelter. It hides us from the Gentry's gaze. If you are claiming that the Courts are irrelevant then, well, I doubt you have what I need."

The Autumn courtier let the cannoli slide from her fork to splatter, mangled, upon her plate.

"But I am listening."

[Rhodes]

Rhodes heads over to Beer Pong!

[Ingrid]

Ingrid remained smiling. Perhaps her lips were a little tighter at the corners, but the upward turn of her lips could not be denied. Her eyes remained firmly locked on the smouldering Fairest (how could they not) and for the moment the arrival of another Fairest with a stronger Mantle went unnoticed.

The Darkling dug into her apparel and then raised her hand. A hand in which the keys to Edna's secrets lay.

"Really?" Ingrid asked after a moment of effort. "Then... Then you cannot want these, can you?"

[Lucifer]

"So you admit it?" pressed, her eyes flicking between the keys which dangled so tantalizingly before her, and the shadowed pools of the Antlered Queen's eyes.

"Though, perhaps it doesn't matter. Not if the Crown still passes," Lucifer mused, her gaze finally captured by the dangling metal carvings. The keys to a kingdom...

What delicious horrors could she craft with such at her disposal? What beautiful nightmares?

[Ingrid]

Ingrid passes a few moments in silence as she processes struggles against the Ashen Fairest's smouldering beauty and the cadence of her voice. After all, there was only a small table between them.

Plucking her courage from her confusion, Ingrid chose to nibble on a treat: sticking her reeking cigarette to her lips while she held onto the keys with one hand and daintily held the treat with the other. When she had done to took the cigarette from her lips and let a bolus of smoke ooze oily from her mouth.

"I admit nothing. The last Ashen Sovereign gave these keys into my keeping as there were no other Courtiers who could take charge of them."

A coy grin surfaced.

"But if you really don't won't them I will abide by your desire."

[Lucifer]

A flush of color rose to the Aspirant Queen's cheeks and her eyes flicked once more between the dangling keys and the smoke oozing from the ethereal beauty's lips.

"I don't enjoy being toyed with," Lucifer replied, her voice hovering upon the edge of polite, a harsh tinge riding the words like the echo of barbed wire being dragged across her vocal chords. She swallowed, and took a moment to gather herself, a smile that was all sharp teeth finally appearing upon her features.

"Or, perhaps I should say, that yes, Queen Ingrid, I do desire the keys to the Ashen Kingdom. Will you entrust them to my keeping, or shall we...play for them?"

Lucifer set down her plate and brushed her hands together as though cleaning them of imaginary crumbs. Her stomach threatened to rumble, but for the moment she simply stood there, as imperious as ever.

[Rhodes]

Rhodes strolls away from the beer pong, pocketing a small notepad. Casting an eye around the room, he sees the Winter Queen and seeker of the Ashen Throne in light conversation. He moves slowly towards the couple, the breath of icy wind around him heralding his arrival, but the Fairest waits patiently for a break in their conversation for them to acknowledge his presence before speaking.

Inclining his head and speading his arms, Rhodes performs a half-bow to Ingrid. "Queen Ingrid of Spring. Please forgive my intrusion, but as a new Lost to the city I thought it best to introduce myself to the Monarchs of the Freehold." He rises, smiling casually. Would Lucifer react to the statement? It would tell him what the manner of Lady she would seek to be. "My name is Rhodes, of the Autumn Court. I hope you have enjoyed a prosperous season, as your comes to a close?" A simple pleasentry, to broach the conversation, addressing the Queen before others present. Ettiquette is so important at these things.

[Ingrid]

Ingrid's hand wavered and slowly began to move...

So close! Oh so close! Just before the Darkling's hand, bearing its gift and treasure, crossed to the distance across the table to where Lucifer stood - another Ashen Courtier joined them! The Darkling's hand retracts as if stung, fingers coiling around her precious prize defensively.

Rhodes' first interaction with the Emerald Sovereign is to see her hand coiling, shrinking, shrivelling to her breast. And her smile: coy and smug and... archly curious.

Ingrid weighs the two. One with terrible beauty and one with flowers in his hair, robed in a rich raiment of the Hedge. One with the first, primeval stirrings of a fearful mantle; the other with a mantle in full bloom - the kind that blew through her, stirred her plum aroma, and settled deeply in her spine.

"Well welcome then and good timing," the Queen of Spring purred. "We were just talking about matters pertaining to your Court. A trifle. A gift. A pledge from a friend, you know. Ah. Some keys to a house important to the Ash for a long time now."

Ingrid managed to get in a look at Luci before she made her decision and extended her hand, with the keys, to Rhodes. He was the Fairest with the strongest mantle. The Spring Witch knew how these things generally worked out.

Sorry Cayce - Lucifer appears to have only Mantle 1. Of course, the spite and vitriol and eternal hatreds will be good fodder :P