A Winter Knight's tale
It was to be a simple mission, but not an easy one. Get in, retrieve the necklace and get out. Simplicity itself. Add in more details and things get hard fast. Still simple, but not easy.
The queen's necklace has been missing for decades, stolen from the London vault in 19th century by unknown thieves. Some five years ago, it was found again in a guarded location. That location was in Nevernever, deep inside Fomor territory. The previous knight wasn't fit for the task. The queen had a new knight now. She had decided that the new knight might fit the task better. This knight had promised he will make the queen's influence grow. Now it was time to fulfil that promise. He was given some stalwart companions and sent on a quest. So far, so like a fairy tale.
I am that knight. I usually work alone but not this time. This time, my team is made of a snow troll, two Sidhe ladies of war, a changeling and two sidhe guards. Also known as Krom, Caoimhe, Maeleachlainn, Jillian Doe, Mathghamhain and Sluaghadhan. Or, after two months of preparation and training for this mission and my nicknaming talent, now known as Krom, Key, Mel, Jill, Matt and Lue. For them, I am either The Wizard, Sir Knight or just Sir.
I say my team, but I am not the team leader. That would be Maeleachlainn, the baroness of some land I never heard off in the depths of Winter, one of dozens in court hierarchy. She is just borrowing the team to me for this mission on queen's orders. If Mel survives and this mission succeeds, she will become a viscountess. If we fail, the question will not arise. Very dour and serious, good with magic (especially materializing ice spikes from thin air), crack shot with a hand gun and assault rifle, knows how to use the dagger she never goes without. Good musician with anything with strings and can play something she calls "wind harp", which looks like magically making sounds appear out of thin air. Probably a few centuries old, judging by the behavior and speech patterns. Doesn't reveal much about herself and what she does reveal is hidden in euphemisms and word play. I feel like I am talking with Lea whenever we interact. Doesn't like me much and the feeling is mutual.
Krom is a snow troll, around 8 feet tall and almost just as wide. He was joined to the team a year before I met them for a single mission as a muscle, but had proven himself so useful that Mel petitioned the court to officially add him to the roster. Large but more agile than expected, has good fighting instincts, can shoot firearms reasonably well. Quiet thug of simple desires, never speaking unless he has something to say, which is very rare. I think that he might be more intelligent than he lets on, but can't be sure. He plays a straight man for a lot of Key's jokes. Has a habit of just taking a person under his arm and carrying them into meetings if he is in a hurry, instead of wasting time explaining things. Don't ask how I found that out. Give him food and drink, let him sleep and punch things and he is happy. Otherwise, somewhat mean and grumpy individual when someone bothers trying to chat with him. At least 80 years old, by my account, which is experienced age for a snow troll. Good for giving covering fire and smashing heads. And doors. And walls. Official title in court hierarchy: grunt. The heavy or the bruiser of the team.
Key is some sort of water Sidhe. An expert with mist, fog and water magic and good with all sorts of weapons, almost as good as Mel. Has preference for knives and bow and arrow, natural talent for making jokes and pranks but absolutely deadly in combat, especially hand to hand. Has a title of a Lady of Mist (like at least hundred others, both Summer and Winter, to my knowledge) in the court hierarchy and is second in command to Mel. Both are tall and smoking hot, as befits Sidhe ladies.
Key was pretty close to Jenny Greenteeth but she doesn't hold a grudge. Death is just a fact of life here, apparently. Likes to dance and play music in her free time, preferring pipes made of reeds, which she knows how to make herself. Teases Jill mercilessly, calling her Doo, Dove, rookie, birdie, mouse, Jumping Jackatash, little bird, chick, chickadee, chickapee, chickpea, fragie, hamster, bonnie, Bones, Jackie, Johnny, Janey, Janet, Joan, Joe and anything else but her name and those are just things I personally witnessed her say during the last few months. If she stops being sarcastic or joking, watch out, because chips are officially down. I think she has at least two hundred years under her belt, according to her comment that she knows Mel for centuries. Her dream is to become Winter Lady's or Queen's personal handmaiden and to gain as much power as she possibly can.
Jillian Doe is team's rookie, who joined them slightly over 7 months ago. Doe is of course fake, but Jillian might be her name in the real world. As the only other human on the team, I talked with her the most. She is changeling of unknown faery species (or at least she didn't tell me which one) and the shortest and youngest in the team. Her father was a warlock that my fellow wardens executed when she was 12 years old. Spent at least two years living in the streets and in foster system after that. Her faerie mother left long before that, when she was 9 or 10 years old. Likes Sailor Moon, Digimon, Disney cartoons and rock music.
We had dealings before. Faeries can speak all the human languages in the world and it works for changelings as well if they lean on their sidhe side. Both courts earn a lot of money and information by renting their people as translators. I met her while working security at an event where she was part of two dozen translators provided by the queen.
She was also one of the hundreds of people singing "Happy birthday to you" during my birthday ball, which she remembers fondly after my little demonstration. Has some minor magic talent she inherited from her father but most of her magic comes from her sidhe side and if she uses it too much, she might accidentally Choose and turn into full blown faery. Short brown hair, brown eyes. Looks about 10 or 12 years old, like a preteen girl going through a growth spurt, all thin limbs and knees and elbows.
According to her, that is a product of her Fae side activating during puberty and almost reversing it. She has been looking like that for at least 10 years personal time, but she had lost count long ago due to spending most of it in Nevernever. Key teases her a lot over her looks, calling her scarecrow or bones when feeling especially cruel and rubbing her ribs.
Owes a life debt to Winter Court, has the lowest possible title of "Handmaiden" in court hierarchy and counts as chattel according to Unseelie accords. As the handmaiden not bound to any one faerie noble and lowest ranked in the team, she acts as gopher, cleans the living space and helps others get dressed and prepared for missions and training sessions. Has a very good singing voice and sometimes accompanies Matt, Mel and Key during evening entertainment (Mel calls it "teaching courtly manners", Key calls it "the court education"). Or sings for them when they ask. Or gets beaten and smacked when they feel like it. Or does whatever the team asks when they ask. Quiet, polite, somewhat mousy, bright eyed.
Not very likely to last long among Unseelie Fae, according to Mel and Key and their centuries of experience in those matters. Or, as Key told me, they really don't expect her to survive this mission and are taking her along just in case, among other things, our enemies both have anti-Faerie and anti-human overlapping protection circles, because only activated changelings can go through those and anti-changeling circles are a bitch to make. And changelings who have activated and not yet chosen are rare, so nobody effing bothers spending time and effort to make those anti-changeling circles. In short, not very likely to be useful in their opinion, despite being able to use firearms and magic like the rest of the team. Her role in the team is fish bait, fresh meat for the meat grinder and, if she survives the first contact with the enemy, general support.
Matt is the knight commander (official title: baronet) and has to serve as guardsman in the palace for two days every two weeks unless notified of change. Tall, slightly shorter than me, very muscular. Good with firearms, especially sniper rifles. Excellent with swords and shield and short spear. Spent a lot of time in human world, loves to drive and is very good at it. Cinemaphile, car lover, trained car mechanic and somewhat of pop culture fanatic. Speaks the most modern English of all the Sidhe in the team. Officially works remotely as computer support in the real world.
Good with ice magic (as are most of Winter Sidhe) but excellent shapeshifter. Can shapeshift into a brown bear and some brown predatory bird which looks like something between hawk and eagle. Might be kestrel. Dunno. Has had at least dozen changeling children over the years, remembers their names and talks about them fondly if asked and that is a very rare quality for a sidhe noble to have. Over half of them have come of age and all have chosen to become Sidhe, a fact of which he is very proud. Currently has two human lovers in real world and one sidhe lover in different strike team in Winter Court.
Doesn't care much about or tries to climb the court hierarchy. Never hits or demeans Jill, never grovels in front of Mel and Key, doesn't care about Lue. Gets dressed himself and cleans after himself. The most likely of the team to understand my film references, is full of Tolkien and Star Wars knowledge. Can play mean violin. Favorite movie: "The Empire strikes back". If you can't tell, I like that guy. I like him a lot. Except for handsome face and the same hair color, he is complete opposite of Lue.
Lue is a Sidhe noble through and through. Has the lowest title of a knight and a haughty attitude like a duke. Extremely good in illusion magic and lying by omission, even compared to other Sidhe. Rules lawyer, argumentative, pompous, good looking, hypocritical, annoying, sadistic… The list of personal characteristics and reasons why I dislike him is long. His actions give further proof to my dislike. He is the type of person who would try to cause you grievous bodily harm during sparing sessions, mission be damned. He is the most likely to slap Jill or bully her for being a changeling and below his status, but quickly shies away from others who are above him in the hierarchy, preferring brownnosing instead. He also despises humans and is a bloodthirsty psychopath when given the chance to act like it. You get the picture.
Oddly enough, spends a lot of time outside of Nevernever. When pressed, he admitted what his job in human world is: corporate lawyer. I think he earns a million bucks a year and is so good in technically true, you didn't ask arguments and other tricks that he doesn't have to lie to do his job. In fact, due to his official rank he is supposed to keep guard at the palace 4 days a week, but he bought himself out of it, claiming that it would be a waste of his talents. He is tithing a mindboggling amount of money to Winter's treasury every year to stay that way.
Likes to drive sport cars and wear nice suits. Skilled in hand to hand combat, firearms and diplomacy. And contract magic! Keeps me on edge. Can't even accept coffee from him without suspecting a plot! Or two. Why? Because his dream is to own 10.000 thralls of all species who owe him their lives and become King of Winter. His ambition is huge, completely at odds with his position in official court hierarchy. His hobby? Trolling people on the internet and in real life. Can change into a wolf and some sort of grey falcon-like bird. Violently dislikes the name Sloan.
I think he is around 60 years old, because he prefers a kindly old man of that age as his disguise when going out in real world but I might be hugely mistaken. I try to avoid him as much as possible and the feeling is mutual. He is the one who "bought us three houses, one safe house to train, one safe house farther on the island and the bait house near the target in real world in preparation for the implementation phase of the plan" as he would repeat, just in case we ever forgot that. Role in our team: planner, surveillance expert and radio support.
So that's the team. Not the best strike team the Winter Court has, but definitively not the worst. I have lived with these people and trained with them for months. I got to know them somewhat. They got to somewhat know me too. Slowly but surely, we have become a coordinated fighting force I could trust with my life (except for Lou. I still trust him as far as I can throw him and that is not very far).