A Spring Tradition [Lambeth raid]

[livesarejuststories]

The Unsuspecting
Early morning

At dawn, most people are still asleep, nestled soundly in their beds. Some might be stirring, but all is quiet. What is about to come? Has no warning. Except, if one's extremely perceptive, an influx of the feel of magic in the air.

Still, that could merely be the fault of the changing of the seasons, as the Seelie Court begins to grow in power.


The Surprise
Late morning

At precisely 11:11, something in the air shifts. The fae who had walked in -- that she cannot make a door still aggravates Lagertha extremely -- have changed their purpose. They are no longer merely idling around.

Instead, their magic is used to force open doors or windows.

The news will later report a rash of break ins, with jewellery and pieces of art going missing. Expensive, especially unique things (be they magical or not) are the prize. Cash? Matters little. Three children, left unattended for too long, also vanish.


The Aftermath
Early evening

Circle Daybreak made a fine show, Lagertha will give them that. She let those who opposed her see her as she is, not as she pretends to be. 'Lacy Brook' is still uncompromised.

And it is Lacy who sits at a coffee shop in Lambeth, listening to the news report. The angry police, the 'distraught' parents making a plea for the return of their children.

You shouldn't have been passed out drunk when your son was crying, she thinks as she listens to one single mother weep and wail. That boy? Is far better off under her care in the Other Realm. And she fully intends on keeping him.

"What is the world coming to?" she murmurs as the news story ends.

To her credit, she manages not to look or sound pleased with herself when she says it.

Comments

[knightscode]

Lancelot's brow furrows slowly at Childermass' words, less at the revelation that the man knows who he is (he hasn't kept quiet that he's a Guardian, after all, he thinks he's reasonably well recognised by now) and more at the suggestion inherit in what Childermass says. That he has some preconceived ideas based wholly on his affiliation.

He presses his lips into a thin, unhappy line.

"The fact that something is being learnt is not separate from harm being done," he says finally. "Nor is it the same thing, If you are content to leave a human child in the hands of the fae that is your prerogative, but I intend to see the chid returned to its family."

[knowstheworld]

Childermass raises a careful brow at the other man's words. It's clear that he obviously feels some sort of personal connection to this child and returning him to his human family, although he wonders how much he even knows about where it is that he's come from. Where it is that he's so insistent on returning him to.

"And the fact that a place is considered to be one's home, that certain people are blood kin, that does not mean that it is the best place for a child to be raised," he points out. "But I am not content to do anything. I am merely stating a fact."

[knightscode]

He studies Childermass with obvious wariness, but gives a single nod finally. Lancelot is not someone who rises easily to an argument and he isn't about to start now.

"Then you will help?" he prompts. With the child. With tracking down what happened, getting it back. Anything he can. Lancelot is only one person, and he's not one hundred percent sure this is exactly the right situation to call Faolan in on. Not considering what he's up to.

[knowstheworld]

Childermass gives a moment's pause. Will he help with the child? Well as far as he's concerned it isn't strictly necessary. But he's here anyway, and the other man may be a lot of things but he's a Guardian besides them. Refusing to aid a Guardian, no matter how soft that person might seem, could come back to bite him later on. And not just him, but Norrell as well.

So Childermass inclines his head slightly after giving the question the consideration that he should, before responding. "If you should require it... I am here."