[locked to de Carabas and the Old Firm]

[vicioussweetie]

About a half-hour before dawn, Alison paced through the Nexus, looking for a quiet spot where she could curl up and work. She settled on a corner that seemed to be stolen from an old English manor house's library, claiming the leather-clad sofa for herself. It was just long enough for her to stretch out comfortably, which she did after a brief

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[cat_and_mice]

The marquis approached quietly, his footsteps making little to no sound as he walked over to the couch and grinned down. "Hello, Alison. I hope I'm not waking you."

[vicioussweetie]

"Not at all." She opens her eyes, smiling up at him. "I was just thinking. How are you?"

[cat_and_mice]

"Fine, and you?" He looks around at the things she brought, curious. "Are you ready?"

[vicioussweetie]

"I'm quite well." Sitting up, she moves to one end of the sofa so he can join her if he'd like. "And nearly so. But first..." She claims a small bakery-box from her things and offers it to him. "In case you get hungry. You may want to sit down."

[cat_and_mice]

De Carabas looks impatient, but sits down. After a moment he takes the box and looks inside, wordlessly.

[vicioussweetie]

The box is full of honey cakes and slices of elder flower bread.

She takes advantage of his being distracted to do...something...and when he looks up again she looks quite different. Her skin is faintly luminous, her eyes a liquid silver, her ears long and tapering back to delicate points.. The colors of her hair shift like flames, though her hair does not itself move. She wears a gown of red mists wrapped around her form, red clouds with silver linings.

When she speaks again, her voice is like velvet. "I am sorry if the delay frustrates you, my lord."

[cat_and_mice]

He looks at her for a long moment, then smiles. "It does, a bit," he confesses. "But it would be foolish to go underprepared. This is what a fairy is, in your world?" He tilts his head to get a better look at her ears and the way the light hits her skin and eyes, reaches out to feel the non-fabric of her gown, admiring the effect. "Beautiful, my lady."

[vicioussweetie]

She allows his touches, even leaning into them a bit. Her gown is very thin indeed, if it even exists. There's precious little between him and her... "Thank you. There are many kinds of fairy. I am one of the sidhe, a mound dweller, or in other lands an elf."

After a moment she takes his hand between hers. "If you are ready, I can form the effigy now. It would be a help if you could hold still for a few moments."

[cat_and_mice]

"You will have to tell me about your world someday," he says softly. He settles back against the couch and looks at her, eyes glittering. "I am ready."

[vicioussweetie]

She nods, taking a pad and stick of charcoal from among her things and beginning to draw. There's no immediate effect, but if he is patient there is after a few minutes the beginnings of outlines hovering over a nearby chair, and as she works the form becomes more and more lifelike. If he can be patient for a full half-hour, the form would be completed, and the only way to tell the two apart is that the effigy does not move.

[cat_and_mice]

The marquis is a very patient man. He has had to sit still for hours at a time, in less comfortable and interesting locales than on a couch watching an effigy of himself be sketched into the air nearby. A half-hour seems to pass quickly, and even when she stops drawing, he does not move until she tells him to.

[vicioussweetie]

"It's done." She finally lifts her eyes from the page and smiles again. "Do you approve?"

[cat_and_mice]

He smiles. "It would be impossible to tell us apart, were it not so still." He is obviously impressed, but also obviously still wanting to move this along as quickly as possible. "Is there any way to fix that?"

[vicioussweetie]

"I am afraid that is beyond my power," she murmurs, carefully dusting the charcoal off her hands. "You had best be going. My concentration has its limits."

[cat_and_mice]

"Give me as long as you can. I will only take a few hours." He stands, giving her a sort of bow, taking her hand and kissing it. "Thank you, Lady Ali. This may well save lives. Especially mine." He smiles slightly.

[vicioussweetie]

"I will give you as long as possible." She meets his eyes with a reassuring smile. "Now go."