a present for Oly (closed, house-elf delivery)
The house-elves were never thrilled about running errands for Lezard Valeth. Besides his general creepiness, there was the obvious fact that he didn't need their help. He could have teleported things here and there, without recourse to elf labor. Instead he insisted on dispatching house-elves to carry anything heavier than a scrap of parchment.
That he had swathed today's cargo in oilskin, thus concealing its contents, might be taken as a mercy. If so, it was unintended as such. Within the oilskin wrappings, a glass container sloshed.
A note was attached to the twine which held the wrappings in place. It read:
For the Lady Olympia Binewski, at her request.
It was unsigned. Surely it needed no signature. For inside was just what Oly had asked of Lezard -- well, by Lezard's interpretation, anyhow: a living eyeball, immersed in nutrient fluid, tangles of nerve and artery and vein trailing uselessly behind it and drifting like so much seaweed. She had asked for an eye less ordinary than the standard brown or blue; Lezard had opted for a different kind of interesting than mere color variation would entail. The eye he had chosen was dully pearled by a rather severely advanced cataract.
How it could be alive, in this condition ... well, best not to think about that, just as one ought not to think about the other things Lezard grew or manufactured. Best just to take the gift in the spirit it had been given.
That he had swathed today's cargo in oilskin, thus concealing its contents, might be taken as a mercy. If so, it was unintended as such. Within the oilskin wrappings, a glass container sloshed.
A note was attached to the twine which held the wrappings in place. It read:
For the Lady Olympia Binewski, at her request.
It was unsigned. Surely it needed no signature. For inside was just what Oly had asked of Lezard -- well, by Lezard's interpretation, anyhow: a living eyeball, immersed in nutrient fluid, tangles of nerve and artery and vein trailing uselessly behind it and drifting like so much seaweed. She had asked for an eye less ordinary than the standard brown or blue; Lezard had opted for a different kind of interesting than mere color variation would entail. The eye he had chosen was dully pearled by a rather severely advanced cataract.
How it could be alive, in this condition ... well, best not to think about that, just as one ought not to think about the other things Lezard grew or manufactured. Best just to take the gift in the spirit it had been given.