{"id":36,"date":"2017-07-12T01:06:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-12T01:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/?p=36"},"modified":"2017-07-12T01:06:15","modified_gmt":"2017-07-12T01:06:15","slug":"five-pixie-dust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/12\/five-pixie-dust\/","title":{"rendered":"Five: Pixie Dust"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trinner Traln and the round man were, of course waiting for her. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPixies,\u201d she swore at both of them. \u00a0\u201cPixie dust.<\/i>\u00a0What were you thinking?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat?\u201d \u00a0The rotund man stared at her. \u00a0\u201cThere are pixies in that cave? \u00a0And you didn\u2019t bring any out?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhat do I look like to you, man, an insane woman? \u00a0Of course I didn\u2019t <\/span>bring a pixie out.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know how much you can sell one of those for? \u00a0Just one of them! \u00a0And you\u2019re coated with the dust, here-\u201d \u00a0he reached out towards her with a wide finger.<\/span><\/p>\n

Raizel stepped back out of his reach. \u00a0\u201cNo. \u00a0No, the pixie curse will only get worse if you touch it. \u00a0Let it be. \u00a0It\u2019ll wash off or-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Curse?<\/span><\/i> What do they teach you up in the mountains, ignorant child?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou know what?\u201d \u00a0She pulled the chest back behind her and glared at the man. \u00a0\u201cThis is mine by finder\u2019s rights and nobody would argue with me. \u00a0It cannot be yours Trinner Traln; you could not have put it there nor gotten it out, whatever lies you two spew. \u00a0And thus if you are going to be rude to me, I am not going to help you. \u00a0It is mine and I will take it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Both men spoke at once and reached for her, but something in her gaze – or the glow of the pixie dust, or the fact that the law was on her side – stopped them. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cListen.\u201d \u00a0Raizel glared at both of them. \u00a0\u201cYou. \u00a0Trinner Traln. \u00a0You want something out of here. \u00a0You-\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEsterzon Gorenz.\u201d \u00a0The round man was suddenly subdued. \u00a0Good. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c-Esterzon Gorenz. \u00a0You want something from here destroyed. \u00a0I want my fifty sed. \u00a0I want a place to sleep tonight, because I will not make it to the train station. \u00a0And I want to know why a -\u201d she could not speak of it. \u00a0\u201c-why the cave wanted me to look at something, <\/span>laid a geasa on me <\/span><\/i>\u00a0to observe something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026You were given a geasa?\u201d \u00a0Trinner Traln stared. \u00a0\u201cGet away from me. \u00a0The Empire will control you now. \u00a0They will see everything you see. \u00a0They will know everything you know-\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

He fell silent as Esterzon Gorenz slapped him across the mouth. \u201cThere was pixie dust, you fool. \u00a0There is pixie dust on her. \u00a0Not even in your wildest dreams of ridiculousness do <\/span>pixies<\/span><\/i> work for the <\/span>Tzar.<\/span><\/i> \u00a0Now stop trying to scare her off. \u00a0Give her her money so she will open the chest.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Trinner Traln paused. \u00a0\u201c – nobody has ever gotten the chest out of the cave. \u00a0Nobody has lasted long enough to dig. \u00a0They were scared off.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Raizel stared at him. \u00a0\u201cWhat?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Esterzon snarled. \u201cYou moron. \u00a0You have made a deal with a woman -\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cChild!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOld enough to make the deal. \u00a0You made a deal with a woman with no intention to follow through?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m telling you,\u201d <\/span>Trinner Traln<\/span> complained, \u201cI don\u2019t have the money. \u00a0I never had the money.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFifty sed?\u201d <\/span>Esterzon Gorenz<\/span> stared at Trinner is disbelief. \u00a0\u201cFifty sed is pocket change. \u00a0It is the cost of a sausage and a cheese!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf it\u2019s so little money, you pay her!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then I will.\u201d <\/span>Esterzon Gorenz<\/span> dug into his pockets and pulled out a handful of copper and silver. \u00a0\u201cTen, thirty-five, forty-five\u2026 it will be forty-five sed, girl, unless Trinner here can spare a five-piece copper.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Raizel waited. \u00a0She should take the forty-five, she knew, but she had been promised fifty, and that with no warning of fairy dust and geasa. <\/span><\/p>\n

Trinner Traln muttered and whined and, with great ceremony, pulled out five tiny stone sed. \u00a0\u201cHere. \u00a0Fifty sed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll be sure to claim it on my taxes,\u201d Raizel lied, just to upset him. \u00a0She stepped around the chest to the clasp. \u00a0It wasn\u2019t locked, just latched, so she grabbed it with both hands and pressed to open it. <\/span><\/p>\n

Light flashed. \u00a0Raizel swore. \u00a0If the idiot rude-men had gotten her messed up with yet another pixie or fairy, she was going to curse them both to the deepest depths of Sarandzu, never mind their treasures and missives and miserly fifty sed. <\/span><\/p>\n

She blinked until her vision cleared. \u00a0There was no chest. \u00a0There was no hill, no cave, not fat man, no grumpy paranoid Empire-fearer. \u00a0There was nothing at all except whiteness and a thin figure all in grey and black. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSarandzu and the seven dead grooms of Fetiania,\u201d <\/span><\/i>\u00a0Raizel swore, or tried to. \u00a0Her mouth moved but there was no sound. <\/span><\/p>\n

Nothing, that is, until the spectre in front of her opened its maw. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trinner Traln and the round man were, of course waiting for her. \u00a0 \u201cPixies,\u201d she swore at both of them. \u00a0\u201cPixie dust.\u00a0What were you thinking?\u201d \u201cWhat?\u201d \u00a0The rotund man stared at her. \u00a0\u201cThere are pixies in that cave? \u00a0And you didn\u2019t bring any out?\u201d \u201cWhat do I look like to you, man, an insane woman?… Continue reading Five: Pixie Dust<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Five: Pixie Dust. Raizel\u2019s coated in it, and that\u2019s barely the beginning of her problems.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quest"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8Tn4Q-A","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/11\/four-the-narrow-cave\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":0},"title":"Four: The Narrow Cave","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The cave was, indeed, very tight, and if Raizel had been any better fed, she would not have fit. \u00a0Trinner Traln and the round man shouted at her and each other as ehs slipped through the opening, moving more like a snake than even like crawling. \u201cHow did you even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/14\/seven-moving-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":1},"title":"Seven: Moving On","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 14, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The black-and-blue light danced upwards like a geyser and then seemed to be sucked downwards, towards the books. \u200b\u201dNo!\u201d Trinner Traln shouted. \u00a0Raizel glanced at him just in time to see him jerk away from Esterzon Gorenz and dart towards the idol. The blue-black light seemed to suck him in.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/20\/eight-a-kiss\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":2},"title":"Eight: A Kiss","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 20, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Raizel took breakfast in the inn\u2019s bar the next morning, feeling well-rested, content, and ready to face the rest of her journey. \u00a0Perhaps she\u2019d even hire a coach. The barmaid leaned over the table while she was refilling Raizel\u2019s mug. \u00a0\u201cThere are opportunities around here, you know, for someone as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":72,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/08\/22\/sixteen-the-arrow-pulled\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":3},"title":"Sixteen: the Arrow Pulled","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"August 22, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The Tzarin and his people wanted to leave slow and late the next day, so Raizel and the Diamond\u00a0Raven left them behind, not without some relief. The Raven was quiet as they walked, which suited Raizel. \u00a0It was early, the sun was low and rising lazily, and she wanted to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/07\/21\/nine-yederya-wizard\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":4},"title":"Nine: Yederya Wizard","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"July 21, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"The woman studied Raizel. \u201cYou have skills I don\u2019t?\u201d \u201cWell, I can\u2019t design a building,\u201d Raizel admitted, \u201cor build one. \u00a0But in the last two days I\u2019ve been dusted by a pixie, blessed by a spectre, and kissed by what might have been a goddess.\u201d \u00a0Also by two whores, but\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quest"","block_context":{"text":"Quest","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/category\/quest\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":95,"url":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/10\/11\/twenty-two-lost-and-found\/","url_meta":{"origin":36,"position":5},"title":"Twenty-Two: Lost and Found","author":"Lyn Thorne-Alder","date":"October 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cWhy her?\u201d The Diamond Raven shifted so he was standing almost between Raizel and the Left Hand. \u00a0\u201cWhy this stranger on the street?\u201d \u201cBecause she\u2019s not a stranger, is she? \u00a0She\u2019s the one that everyone\u2019s been muttering about. \u00a0She\u2019s got you, which is interesting in and of itself. \u00a0She\u2019s made\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 3 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 3 comments","link":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/2017\/10\/11\/twenty-two-lost-and-found\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36\/revisions\/37"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.lynthornealder.com\/sidequest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}