undergrounds | walking with strangers (March & April Catch-All)

Abby comes into the flat, pushing the door shut behind her. She smiles a little, wary at least a bit. But... They were friends. At the very least, they were that, and they could talk.

"I just wanted to chat a bit. About something I was discussing with James Memon. East End's alpha."

They were friends, and Nancy was one of those who put her friends before anyone else. She held them close and loved as hard as she could, bending over backwards for them at the drop of a hat.

"Business," she said with a nod. Yep, tea. She points at her electric kettle, which starts to heat up, already filled with water. "Sit, yes, let's talk. I'm curious."

"He might be willing to give us Waltham Forest. Let Circle Midnight expand and have more room."

There is, of course, a 'but.' The word 'might' is enough there. But she needs the good out first. The promise.

"Good!" Hopefully that handover would go better than their last one did. However, Nancy knew how this game was played, and she could anticipate what was next.

"And? What do they want for it?" Nothing good came for free.

Abigail smiled faintly and found a place to sit. It wasn't going to be easy, and it might not even work. But at least this time, she trusted the person they were possibly working with. At least a little more.

"Havering."

If Abigail trusted this one more, Nancy trusted him less. She'd never met the man, truth be told. But she'd have to bring him up to Skip, she would know. Nancy pushed herself up to pour them each a cup of tea as the kettle started to sing. Another point and it was off.

"Oh." A trade-off. "That's hardly expanding our territory then, is it?"

"Havering's not ours, so we wouldn't be losing anything," Abby murmurs. "They're not either, by taking Havering and giving us something. But he needs support, at least from me."

She hasn't pledged anyone else's. Not even Midnight, really. She just told the man she'd talk to others about it. Let him know more definitely later. But the difficulty comes because...

"Havering is the territory the fae took when they offered us Croydon."

Without telling Midnight that they had plans for further expansion. That still left a bitter taste in Abigail's mouth. Which might have something to do with her willingness to potentially help the wolves with it.

"Right." Half the time she couldn't keep the territory map straight. But to hear it all laid out...

"I-" Nancy tries to buy herself some time to answer as she walks them over their cups of tea. Her mouth is dry, but she doesn't move to drink.

Taking the territory that the Wolves had won for them, against their previous allies... It didn't seem right. Not now, at least. Lord, Eames would be furious- against her better judgement, Nancy shrinks away from the thought. Eames was different. He wasn't so petty as to think that Nancy's support always lined up with Midnight.

...But she was a leader all the same.

"No."

Abigail watches.

She doesn't say a word and tries to keep her face blank. Because she's talking to a friend. This is business, yes, but her coven is still her coven. They have to trust one another, half to talk to one another. Which means she'll give Nancy as much time as she needs to think. And try to look as neutral as possible.

But the sigh at that word betrays her. She'd hoped it would be easy. Known better, but hoped all the same.

"I had a feeling we'd disagree on this. That's why I'm here. First."

No one else was getting approached until she and Nancy had talked. Fully and completely.

Of course she disagreed. Her loyalties were with the fae more than the wolves any day of the week. When it came to them, she only knew two (as far as she knew) that remained in London- Kyle and Skip, and their curses weren't active yet.

"The fae will slaughter us if we do this."

"And Redbright and the Night Council could slaughter us any day." Another sigh. "I'm sorry."

She was working too hard, doing too much. Her patience was thin, and her temper was frayed. But getting mad at Nancy wasn't going to do any good. She didn't deserve it, and they were in this together.

"As long as we're contained in Enfield? We're easy to ignore. Norrell can do whatever he wants, Sylvia can let him, and there is nothing to stop them from coming after us even more than they already have. If we can expand? Show them more numbers? Then they'll have to start paying more attention. Realise we're not just going to go away."

And there was nowhere else to go. Redbright had them pinned in.

"The fae used us," she said, leaning back as she sighed again. "We were a distraction in Croydon while they swept into Havering.

"They can't ignore us, you're the bloody Maiden of Witches!" There was no way to ignore them now, to sweep them under the rug. "The fae have us in numbers. We won't win a fight against them. Redbright maybe we could again. But not the fae, you have to think about it!"

But that they were a distraction... She'd never actually considered it. "We weren't. They wouldn't." They would. "Eames wouldn't do that to me." And she believed it. Fagin would have. Fagin did. But not Eames.

Abigail can't help the words that come out when Nancy talks about Eames.

"He's fae." It's cold, but she's a Widdowson. 'Cold' is natural. "Even Unthank only looks after me because I'm the last Widdowson. Without us, Geap Manor falls. If Geap Manor falls, his power wanes to almost nothing. He does what he can to keep me alive because it's in his interest to do it."

"And that's a perfect description of the likes of Fagin, Abby. My friendship with Eames is- it's organic." Even if he'd originally only contacted her because he thought he could use her. Whoops.

"I think it's a stupid idea."

"I'm sorry," she repeats, and she means it. Sylvia and Norrell have both accused her of letting her personal situation colour her perception too much. Which might be true. The difference here is that Nancy matters.

She waves the apology away. There was no need for it. "Don't be. You've got nothing to apologize for." She was thinking like their High Priestess, like she should be. Nancy was bogged down in personal details. "But I don't think we should do it."

We.

"What should we do?" Abigail asks. It's sincere. Because she knows it has to be something they can all agree on. "What do you think?"

Nancy presses her lips together. "I don't- I don't know. We can't go against the fae, I know that. But I want us to expand, I do. There has to be something else the East End Pack would be willing for. Another treaty- something."

Going against the fae would kill them all.

Abby leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, thinking. Then, she gave another sigh as she opened them.

"I just don't like this expansion by the fae. Territory at all was... strange..." But the fae were capricious. But then they kept it. And went further. "Crossing the Thames? That makes me nervous. I'll admit that. Especially with the timing."

It's just too convenient, all of it.

"We can't cross them, not as a Circle or a coven. I know that."

And acting individually... Was she even an individual anymore?

She raises an eyebrow. "The courts and who controls what," she said sagely, to make sure she was picking up exactly what Abby was putting down.

"But it's both courts. Eames was working on behalf of Seelie and Unseelie." She didn't know of Finnick's role in any of this, just that he was there and existed.

Nancy sighs and takes a sip of tea, because she's English. "I don't know, Abby. I don't know at all."

"Both courts makes me more nervous," Abigail murmurs as she takes a sip of her tea. Her eyes close briefly.

"Usually there's some quarreling between them. But they seem to have come together. Why? What are they going to do? What can we do?"

Because if the two courts were in alliance and had decided to set their sights on the mortal world, even on London...

"It scares me, Nancy. It really, really does."

Nancy looks at her nails. "I don't know- I'm sorry. I'm not- I'm not you. I can't look at all the angles and make the right decision." she admired that about Abby. Nancy, meanwhile, made all the wrong decisions regularly. she followed her heart, no matter how often it got hurt.

"and I'm sorry I'm not any help at all." she didn't have the breeding for politics, either. She was, in many ways, Abby's exact opposite.

"One things for sure though- Norrell can't win this election." whatever the fae were up to, they couldn't do anything with that man on the council.

"Definitely not," Abby agrees when Nancy mentions Norrell. "This 'purge' of his... It's only going to get more dangerous. Hopefully enough people in Daybreak see that."

Because Midnight... They had no voice. No vote. No way to try and sway anything that was going on. They were at the mercy of Daybreak, as they always were. Nothing she'd done had really changed that. If anything, she'd created a target.

God, how many had been hurt by the purging of dark magic who might not have been if she'd left them hidden?

There was still the issue of Waltham Forest... but that was a non-starter. So, she'd let the topic go for now.

"You see it. We see it. And you can bring our voice to the Council. They can't ignore us anymore- and we can't sit by while they take our freedoms away. Christ." She rubs at her temples.

"I just wish there was another way."

"We have to be careful-- I have to be careful. Any seeming infraction, and they will try to tear me into pieces." She has to be, to some degree, beyond reproach. Quietly, she sighs, taking another sip of her tea.

"We'll manage."

walking with strangers (March & April Catch-All)

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