koslorollo
in
maerue
The Grey Canary Room (1/1)
Story Title: The Grey Canary Room
Rating: K
Characters/Ship: DG and Glitch
Summary: In the middle of the night, Glitch wakes up DG to break into the Grey Canary room at the Northern Palace.
Notes: Written for "Last Words 03" Challenge at tm_challenge
Warnings: A month post-series; infused with An Ageless Light 'verse.
*
"DG…?"
The question gathered petulance.
"DG."
She rolled over to her side and tried to ignore it.
The third and final was heard like a slap.
"DG!"
"Wuffinhuh?"
DG sat upright, heart thumping, wide eyes on a figure of low-contrast. Glitch fidgeted, smiling uncomfortably.
"Good, you're awake."
She shook her head clear. "What time is it?" Diving for the clock, Glitch answered for her.
"One hand was at two and one hand was a three when I last saw a clock. But that might have been yesterday afternoon."
Never mind about the clock. She didn't really need to know. It was morning, beyond midnight but not early enough for one of the suns to wake. Glitch cleared his throat.
"I was hoping you'd come along and help me out with this project."
"Glitch," to keep her annoyance to a minimum, DG tried to remember that a month ago she'd been moved to pity by what had been done to him, "I don't want clean up your lab-"
"Not the lab. That'll be conquered some other day. No, this is, er, more dire as far as dire things go." With the way she froze emotion in her eyes, he'd have to explain. After more fidgeting, he blurted it out. "Your father's birthday party is tomorrow and I don't want him to have the present I wound up giving him but it's in the Grey Canary room and I can't get in there because I heard Mr Narington say that he had a special lock put on the door and only your mother has the key and wherever she put the key I'm not real likely to find it before tomorrow and I need to get in there before the servants do and mess everything up so I can at least attempt to remember which of all those presents is mine-"
Somewhere in all of that, a defeated DG got out of bed.
*
"Like I'm supposed to remember where I'm going!" argued Glitch when he bumped into DG once confusion stopped them.
"Oh, and like I'm supposed to remember!" she retaliated. "I've been here three days, and look how long it took me to know Finaqua! Your portrait's in the Grand Entry, so there's proof you were here-maybe-once-at least! What are you doing?"
He angled his head to catch a thread of memory, until the memory overlapped congruently with the present. "This way, doll."
DG wasn't convinced. "You should've asked Cain for help instead of me."
"Cain only knows where the kitchens are. We need the Grey Canary room."
"But he'd pretend to know."
Glitch's mouth tightened while the looming door came into view. "I already asked him," he confessed. "He grumbled and went back to sleep. I tried you instead."
"Thanks a lot."
DG analyzed the door before testing the knob. Her hand jerked back right away.
"Glitch! This door's not only locked but it's had a spell cast on it!"
He stared at the door with renewed interest. "Your mother is very ambitious. Well, just take it down. A wiggle of the ear, a twitch of the nose-"
DG led him down the way they had just come. In another circle of loops and another ten minutes lost, they finally arrived outside the palace. Across a garden still squishy from melting snow, they reached the groundskeeper's shed. They removed the ladder attached to the side and hurried away with it, sure that Mr Brumbly wouldn't mind as long as they returned it.
"I'll go up," DG told him once the apparatus was positioned beneath the appropriate window. It took a lot of thought between them to make sure it was the right window. "Stay and hold the ladder. Warn me if someone's coming."
Near the highest rung, with the play of shadows and light thanks to the number of stars and moons, and the black glass reflecting everything, DG could hardly see the window latches. Clearing her mind, she rubbed her palms together. Pulling them apart revealed a silvery-blue luminescent glitter. DG tossed it into a hover over the glass. In this new light of her own making, she saw there were two locks. In a state of concentration now entered effortlessly, the latches unwound. She wrestled the window up and called down to Glitch that she was going in. He started ascending just as she shimmied a leg over the sill. A couple of grunts later, and a stifled "that'll hurt in the morning", Glitch swooped in.
They stood in front of the fireplace and surveyed the long, narrow room. Again, DG rubbed her palms together. When the magical energy was ready, she flung it out of her hands and into the room. The gentle glow of the bluish sparkles revealed rows and rows of tables. Those rows and rows of tables were covered in gifts, all of them wrapped.
DG's heart sank. Glitch hid his eyes.
"There must be two hundred gifts here! I don't even remember what I wrapped mine in. Did I wrap it? Was it in a box, maybe…? Or box-shaped?"
Glitch found DG holding him back. He turned to make an inquiry just as she blew tiny dust all over him. He winced his eyes shut expecting grains of sand, but got soft kisses.
"Touch any of the gifts and say a word, and if it's yours it'll glow." DG nodded fiercely. "That's what should happen, anyway."
Glitch went to the first present on the table. It seemed a little familiar. He didn't realise why until he touched it. "Oh, this is Cain's!"
"Glitch! You're only supposed to say one word! Try the next one."
He put fingertips on it. "What do I say?"
"Say 'oh, this is Cain's'," she provided.
Glitch repeated the phrase once, and nothing happened. DG shooed him on, saying it wasn't his.
"This is going to take all night," Glitch said.
"Whose fault is that?"
"Mine. I should've woken you up sooner. Oh, this is Cain's! No, I knew it wasn't that one. I got him something small. Square. Maybe with a smell… Oh, this is Cain's! All right, now I just feel very silly."
He tried the small gifts instead. DG put the same spell on herself, choosing her command word easily, and touched only the small gifts at the second table.
They both jumped when the door gave an ominous creak. A shaft of light and a silhouette extended across the floor. The lamps burst into brightness. The blue glitter lights sprinkled down and faded just as the regal elegance of Lavynia swept into the chamber. Behind her, an odd assortment of household folks and family members. Azkadellia looked very worried. Ahamo took in DG's presence and smirked. Cain was still half asleep but at least remembered to hunt intruders with his hat on. Mr Brumbly had armed himself with a gardening rake. Narington had armed himself with a bad taste in paisley pyjamas. But Lavynia swept forward, hands at her hips and frilly dressing gown billowing out behind her.
"What are the two of you doing? It's three in the morning!"
DG was about to apologize when Glitch dismissed the Queen's disapproval.
"Spare us the drama, Lavynia. We don't need your words of reproof. Do we, DG?"
Under her mother's austere stare, DG's obstinacy grew. "He's right. I don't want a lecture. This isn't Hamlet, you know, it's not meant to go into the bloody ear."
*
Late the next morning, recovered from the ordeal, DG's breakfast, spent alone, was put on hold when Glitch twirled into the room. Grinning, he handed over a small, square box. DG lifted the lid.
"You got my father-soap on a rope?" DG let the article dangle. Soap on a rope. Really.
"Now you can see why I worked so hard to get it back. It's not very Ahamo, is it? So," he lazed into a chair and prepared a cup of coffee, "I'm trying to figure out where you got that line that you told your mother last night. The one that stupefied her. About Hamlet."
"Oh, that." She covered the poor, unwanted soap. "A quote I picked up on the Other Side and always remembered. What do we do with the soap? Do you want it?"
"Admittedly, I have too much soap. After annuals of not owning a single bar of soap, I have successfully reached my quota. Let's give it to Cain. Sandalwood is more his style, anyway."
DG slid the box across the tablecloth until Glitch recovered it. "What are you going to get my father?"
"Nothing! He was so amused by our misadventure last night that he made me promise I'd never try giving him a gift again. But it was so much fun that it'll be one promise I conveniently forget."
*
Rating: K
Characters/Ship: DG and Glitch
Summary: In the middle of the night, Glitch wakes up DG to break into the Grey Canary room at the Northern Palace.
Notes: Written for "Last Words 03" Challenge at tm_challenge
Warnings: A month post-series; infused with An Ageless Light 'verse.
*
"DG…?"
The question gathered petulance.
"DG."
She rolled over to her side and tried to ignore it.
The third and final was heard like a slap.
"DG!"
"Wuffinhuh?"
DG sat upright, heart thumping, wide eyes on a figure of low-contrast. Glitch fidgeted, smiling uncomfortably.
"Good, you're awake."
She shook her head clear. "What time is it?" Diving for the clock, Glitch answered for her.
"One hand was at two and one hand was a three when I last saw a clock. But that might have been yesterday afternoon."
Never mind about the clock. She didn't really need to know. It was morning, beyond midnight but not early enough for one of the suns to wake. Glitch cleared his throat.
"I was hoping you'd come along and help me out with this project."
"Glitch," to keep her annoyance to a minimum, DG tried to remember that a month ago she'd been moved to pity by what had been done to him, "I don't want clean up your lab-"
"Not the lab. That'll be conquered some other day. No, this is, er, more dire as far as dire things go." With the way she froze emotion in her eyes, he'd have to explain. After more fidgeting, he blurted it out. "Your father's birthday party is tomorrow and I don't want him to have the present I wound up giving him but it's in the Grey Canary room and I can't get in there because I heard Mr Narington say that he had a special lock put on the door and only your mother has the key and wherever she put the key I'm not real likely to find it before tomorrow and I need to get in there before the servants do and mess everything up so I can at least attempt to remember which of all those presents is mine-"
Somewhere in all of that, a defeated DG got out of bed.
*
"Like I'm supposed to remember where I'm going!" argued Glitch when he bumped into DG once confusion stopped them.
"Oh, and like I'm supposed to remember!" she retaliated. "I've been here three days, and look how long it took me to know Finaqua! Your portrait's in the Grand Entry, so there's proof you were here-maybe-once-at least! What are you doing?"
He angled his head to catch a thread of memory, until the memory overlapped congruently with the present. "This way, doll."
DG wasn't convinced. "You should've asked Cain for help instead of me."
"Cain only knows where the kitchens are. We need the Grey Canary room."
"But he'd pretend to know."
Glitch's mouth tightened while the looming door came into view. "I already asked him," he confessed. "He grumbled and went back to sleep. I tried you instead."
"Thanks a lot."
DG analyzed the door before testing the knob. Her hand jerked back right away.
"Glitch! This door's not only locked but it's had a spell cast on it!"
He stared at the door with renewed interest. "Your mother is very ambitious. Well, just take it down. A wiggle of the ear, a twitch of the nose-"
DG led him down the way they had just come. In another circle of loops and another ten minutes lost, they finally arrived outside the palace. Across a garden still squishy from melting snow, they reached the groundskeeper's shed. They removed the ladder attached to the side and hurried away with it, sure that Mr Brumbly wouldn't mind as long as they returned it.
"I'll go up," DG told him once the apparatus was positioned beneath the appropriate window. It took a lot of thought between them to make sure it was the right window. "Stay and hold the ladder. Warn me if someone's coming."
Near the highest rung, with the play of shadows and light thanks to the number of stars and moons, and the black glass reflecting everything, DG could hardly see the window latches. Clearing her mind, she rubbed her palms together. Pulling them apart revealed a silvery-blue luminescent glitter. DG tossed it into a hover over the glass. In this new light of her own making, she saw there were two locks. In a state of concentration now entered effortlessly, the latches unwound. She wrestled the window up and called down to Glitch that she was going in. He started ascending just as she shimmied a leg over the sill. A couple of grunts later, and a stifled "that'll hurt in the morning", Glitch swooped in.
They stood in front of the fireplace and surveyed the long, narrow room. Again, DG rubbed her palms together. When the magical energy was ready, she flung it out of her hands and into the room. The gentle glow of the bluish sparkles revealed rows and rows of tables. Those rows and rows of tables were covered in gifts, all of them wrapped.
DG's heart sank. Glitch hid his eyes.
"There must be two hundred gifts here! I don't even remember what I wrapped mine in. Did I wrap it? Was it in a box, maybe…? Or box-shaped?"
Glitch found DG holding him back. He turned to make an inquiry just as she blew tiny dust all over him. He winced his eyes shut expecting grains of sand, but got soft kisses.
"Touch any of the gifts and say a word, and if it's yours it'll glow." DG nodded fiercely. "That's what should happen, anyway."
Glitch went to the first present on the table. It seemed a little familiar. He didn't realise why until he touched it. "Oh, this is Cain's!"
"Glitch! You're only supposed to say one word! Try the next one."
He put fingertips on it. "What do I say?"
"Say 'oh, this is Cain's'," she provided.
Glitch repeated the phrase once, and nothing happened. DG shooed him on, saying it wasn't his.
"This is going to take all night," Glitch said.
"Whose fault is that?"
"Mine. I should've woken you up sooner. Oh, this is Cain's! No, I knew it wasn't that one. I got him something small. Square. Maybe with a smell… Oh, this is Cain's! All right, now I just feel very silly."
He tried the small gifts instead. DG put the same spell on herself, choosing her command word easily, and touched only the small gifts at the second table.
They both jumped when the door gave an ominous creak. A shaft of light and a silhouette extended across the floor. The lamps burst into brightness. The blue glitter lights sprinkled down and faded just as the regal elegance of Lavynia swept into the chamber. Behind her, an odd assortment of household folks and family members. Azkadellia looked very worried. Ahamo took in DG's presence and smirked. Cain was still half asleep but at least remembered to hunt intruders with his hat on. Mr Brumbly had armed himself with a gardening rake. Narington had armed himself with a bad taste in paisley pyjamas. But Lavynia swept forward, hands at her hips and frilly dressing gown billowing out behind her.
"What are the two of you doing? It's three in the morning!"
DG was about to apologize when Glitch dismissed the Queen's disapproval.
"Spare us the drama, Lavynia. We don't need your words of reproof. Do we, DG?"
Under her mother's austere stare, DG's obstinacy grew. "He's right. I don't want a lecture. This isn't Hamlet, you know, it's not meant to go into the bloody ear."
*
Late the next morning, recovered from the ordeal, DG's breakfast, spent alone, was put on hold when Glitch twirled into the room. Grinning, he handed over a small, square box. DG lifted the lid.
"You got my father-soap on a rope?" DG let the article dangle. Soap on a rope. Really.
"Now you can see why I worked so hard to get it back. It's not very Ahamo, is it? So," he lazed into a chair and prepared a cup of coffee, "I'm trying to figure out where you got that line that you told your mother last night. The one that stupefied her. About Hamlet."
"Oh, that." She covered the poor, unwanted soap. "A quote I picked up on the Other Side and always remembered. What do we do with the soap? Do you want it?"
"Admittedly, I have too much soap. After annuals of not owning a single bar of soap, I have successfully reached my quota. Let's give it to Cain. Sandalwood is more his style, anyway."
DG slid the box across the tablecloth until Glitch recovered it. "What are you going to get my father?"
"Nothing! He was so amused by our misadventure last night that he made me promise I'd never try giving him a gift again. But it was so much fun that it'll be one promise I conveniently forget."
*