After we all stood there (Patreon)

glumly staring at the ground for a while, I decided to speak up again. "How soon can we get on the road?"

"It'll be dark soon," Rebecca pointed out. "The girls need to sleep. We can depart first thing in the morning." She looked me in the eye for a moment as if she wanted to say something else, then dropped her gaze and mumbled out something about making sure everyone’s essential supplies were packed and ready to go.

"Reckon I gotta begin ma nightly patrol," Burnside informed the weeds under her feet. She abruptly turned, shuffled across the clearing, and disappeared into the bushes.

This was going to be a long journey. Hopefully I would have a chance to smooth things over before we reached Persoc Tor.

Remembering that I was the King of Faerie and had a certain dignity to maintain, I got a spare green satin suit out of my Elfintory and put it on before turning toward the coven’s humble cabin and calling: “All right, young femmes, everything's fine now. It’s safe to come out.”

The junior witches stepped out of the cabin with nervous and dour looks on their faces. I sighed inwardly. Everyone had been so excited about going to Persoc Tor, but now the mood was soured. It would be a while before I could patch things up with Rebecca and Burnside, but I could at least try and lighten the mood for these girls here and now.

“What did your parents have to say about your journey?" I asked cheerfully. "Are they as excited as you were?”

"My mum ith really proud of me for making it tho far in Mithtreth Rebecca’th training program," Basil announced with a note of satisfaction. "If being a witch doethn’t work out for me, I will have a promithing career as a pharmathitht to fall back on."

"My father was over the moon," Harriet declared, "when I told him that I'm going to be visiting an esteemed university. Being a learned man, he was skeptical when I first informed him of my calling to plumb the mysteries of fate and the occult arts, but after he discovered that folklore and mythology are now highly regarded as legitimate fields of study, he’s just happy that I'm following in his footsteps of academia."

"I expected my adopted lowfolk parents to be reduced to blubbering tears at the news of my departure to go join my kin in the mythical realm of Faerie," Fiona gushed excitedly, "but instead they seemed really, really happy at the idea of me going far, far away to be among the Tuatha at last! They must be planning an early anniversary trip or something."

Everyone stared at Fiona for a long moment, until Basil turned to me and asked: “Tho, when are we leaving, my lord?”

"Bright and early tomorrow morning," I replied. "It may be a good idea for you all to go to bed early so everyone will be fully rested for the long journey ahead."

"Reasonable enough," Harriet concurred. "That means it’s time for everyone to brush their teeth and get changed for bed."

"Hmmph!" Fiona objected with a stamp of her foot. "We elves don’t need to lower ourselves by performing such tedious acts of maintenance. My natural elven aura keeps my body clean automatically. An elf is always clean and beautiful by default."

“Go brush your teeth, Fiona,” I ordered flatly as the other two witches rolled their eyes at her foolishness. "Personal hygiene is not automatic, even for elves. Cleanliness can be accomplished by magickal means, but magick still requires conscious effort."

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