Fatal Attraction

"Oh Freddy you sing so divinely!"  the Fairie Queen purred, walking slowly toward the stage surrounded by her freakishly tall lady's in waiting. Fantastic Freddy had just finished his set and was taking a moment to bask in the applause of the crowd before kicking off his encore, when, shockingly, his eyes had picked her out of the crowd. 

He hadn't seen Endelyn Moongrave since Skull River Bay, and had no idea what she was doing in Puerto Lejos, five hundred leagues away. But he didn't mind seeing her. She was just as breathtakingly beautiful as he remembered, and just as mysterious, the half mask covering her perfect face, lending her an aura of mystery. Freddy had seen a lot of extremely beautiful women in his time, but none of them, not Maria Cristina, Bella Bell, Sally Brown,  Lady Ophelia, none even held a candle to Endelyn. She was in a class by herself

Dakhir had given Freddy a seriously bad time about his last meeting with the mysterious fey.

"You accepted a gift and agreed to a bargain with what I suspect is an Archfey." Dakhir had scolded. "I hope those pretty golden guitar strings were worth it, because you will be held to that bargain, likely in ways you don't anticipate. The Fey are perilous Freddy. And we don't have time for this shit, we have enough on our plate right now."

Dakhir could be such a worrier, he needed to chill out. And the strings HAD been nice, not only did they have a beautiful sound, but they were always in tune and possessed other magical properties which he'd found quite useful. And all he had to agree to in exchange was a performance at Endelyn's castle of Bitter End, which, honestly he'd probably have done for free. Seemed like a good deal to him. Plus she was gorgeous. clearly a music lover and was totally into him. He hadn't seen what the big deal was? Besides Winter Solstice was a long way away. 

And now here she was again, hanging on every note he played, it looked like the Freddy Fan Club had a new member. Certainly she was into Freddy's tunes, which he found flattering. It was a little weird that he could hear her voice so clearly over the roar of the crowd though, almost like it she was speaking directly into his mind.

"Play my song for me Freddy, please?" she smiled.

Freddy knew which song she was talking about, it was the one that had won him the Competion of Song at Skull River Bay. It wasn't actually HER song though. He had written it in a few hours of fevered creativity for another lady entirely, one who had died five hundred years ago.  Written it while he was trapped with his friends deep in the Shadowlands, fighting for his life. Still, it was one the best thing's he'd written, Stairway, and he could understand why she would request it. Endelyn didn't need to know it wasn't about her.

He smiled at Endelyn, blew her a kiss and started to play the instrumental intro to Stairway on his guitar. As usual, as the haunting notes rang out over the audience, after an initial roar acknowledging the beginning of the encore, the crowd quickly quieted. Raucous noise died almost instantly, as the audience strained to hear the quiet melody. By the time the intro ended, you could have heard a pin drop. Freddy started to sing.

There's a lady who's sure

All that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

As Freddy played his encore, he felt tired, but fulfilled, it had been a good performance. Originally the idea had been to use the concert at Last House Westerly as a distraction for a raid on the Summer Gale, in order to free the captured nun Sister Clara. The three Carr sisters that ran the inn had promised such a concert, by a big name like Fantastic Freddy, was a rare event in the remote town and was likely to draw some of the crew of the galleon they were targeting and likely even a good chunk of the garrison of the harbor forts. 

The crowd listened, rapt as the song unfolded. 

There's a sign on the wall

But she wants to be sure

'Cause you know, sometimes words have two meanings

Of course the unexpectedly rapid and aggressive action of the Knight's Radiant had freed Sister Clara yesterday, well ahead of schedule and had obliviated the main purpose for this show.  But the party had decided to keep the performance anyway. For one thing cancelling it would look strange and draw attention they didn't want, and for another there had been a second purpose behind the show. Something was rotten in Puerto Lejos and they were hoping to use the concert to discover what it was. 

The Vetrini, the merchant house that unofficially ran the town had been behaving strangely of late, pulling their patrols back, opening the isolated archipelago to the depredations of pirates, endangering (among many others) the Abbey of St Ursula, who were the party's employer. It made no sense. The Vetrini might be cold hearted bastards who could care less about the people of the area, but they were expert merchants, why would they cut their own financial throats in such a way?

"I am certain Andre knows what is happening" Lily Carr had said. "He's been getting more and more depressed the last few months, I can tell he's hiding something from me but I can't get him to talk. Maybe if we get him away from his Vetrini handlers, together we can get it out of him? He loves music and idolizes Freddy."  

By "Andre" she meant His Excellence Andre de Bergiac, Governor of Puerto Lejos and Protector of The Lejos Archipelago.". Or, depending on your perspective, the twenty year old kid the Vetrini had decided would be a useful figurehead to put into that largely toothless position.  Lily was evidentially "stepping out" with the Governor, as they called it in these parts.

So far that part was going according to plan, the Governor had shown up and Ricmo and Lily had promptly intercepted him, closeted him away and were busy liquoring him up and working him over.

 The song was landing well, as it usually did. In the front of the crowd, a grizzled old pirate captain was openly weeping and several of the upper crust ladies further to the back appeared to have fainted. At least two dozen women were looking at Freddy with adoration, along with more then a few men. The whole crowd was spellbound, including Endelyn.

There's a feeling I get

When I look to the west

And my spirit is crying for leaving

An old man in the corner started making a strange keening sound and sank to the ground on his knees never looking away from Freddy. Freddy moved into the guitar solo. It was a long song with a strangely increasing tempo, it violating a lot of the musical theory he'd learn at the Ensemble. But somehow it worked, it always held them. As it did this time, there wasn't a member of the crowd that wasn't enraptured. 

 As Freddy moved into closing verse there was barely a dry eye in the house. People moaned, people sank to their knees, cried or sang along softly, swaying. He brought it home.

And as we wind on down the road

Our shadows taller than our soul

There walks a lady we all know

Who shines white light and wants to show

How everything still turns to gold

And if you listen very hard

The tune will come to you at last

When all are one and one is all, yeah

To be a rock and not to roll

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

It was a great song but an odd song and not his normal style. Sometimes he wondered where the lyrics had come from exactly. Inspired by Ophelia's story for sure, but wandering through that strange foggy forest deep in the Shadow, the words had come to him so fast and so fully formed it had almost seemed like he was translating them, hearing them whispered by wind and shadow, rather then writing them in the traditional fashion. Creativity was an odd thing at times, for certain.

There was a moment of silence as the song ended. And then the crowd lost it's mind. And Endelyn Moongrave was suddenly standing on the stage next to him. 

"Freddy." she said breathlessly, "Freddy...you..." she didn't have the words. Freddy smiled. Endelyn leaned up to kiss him and Freddy felt pretty ok with that. Fuck Dakhir.

Suddenly Endelyn stiffened and pulled back. She sniffed the air. "What's that....smell? WHO is that smell?" 

She wrinkled her nose in distaste. "I know that smell. That's....that bitch Erzulie!."

Quickly, she ripped Freddy's shirt open at the neck, displaying the voodoo charm Freddy wore around his neck. The one that Maria Cristina had sent him, 

Endelyn glared at him accusingly. "What. Is. That?!!"

"Babe, I can explain, it's not what you think." Freddy answered weakly.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Well that ended....strangely" observed Whisperleaf.

"Freddy is lucky he wasn't dragged off to Faerie on the spot. That was certainly the plan, when Endelyn sicc'd those Ladies of hers on him." Dakhir replied darkly. "You are playing with fire here Fred. Caught between a Loa of Love and a Fairie Queen. Sweet Mithra and I thought Bella Bell was bad."

"That would have been interesting to observe, I've heard even the laws of nature are radically different in Fairie..." Tello noted. "Freddy, if they ever succeed in dragging you there, please take copious notes. Do you think that's likely?" the Tortle asked hopefully.

Freddy shuddered. 

"Why would she need to fight to get him? He will be coming to her of his own free will soon enough. He's bought and paid for." Dakhir replied darkly. 

"Well, it wasn't a total loss." Ricmo pointed out, changing the subject.  "We managed to get Freddy away without bloodshed, and at least we accomplished our objective. Freddy's song certainly loosened the Governor's lips."

"I can't believe the Vetrini are pulling out of the entire Lejos Archipelago." Whisperleaf said wonderingly. "Abandoning all these people. The pirates will eat them alive. They won't last a month. And they seemed so reasonable when we confronted them about Sister's Clara's kidnaping."

"No longer a profitable operation" Dakhir quoted bitterly. "Head Office decided to write it off and move on. Seems like when the pirates cut off access to the rich mithril mines to the West, the whole town went into the red on some merchant's ledger."

"And don't forget we had a bunch of pissed off paladin's backing us up when we talked to the Vetrini. I think they were just trying to get rid of us honestly. And they didn't turn over the perpetrator. He has mysteriously, very conveniently vanished." Dakhir added.

"Well at least they gave Sister Clara her cargo back. And threw some soldiers in to help guard the Abbey. So that is something." Ricmo argued. 

"Seems odd that these mithril mines were so profitable, and yet they couldn't reclaim them." Ricmo continued. "They seem to have plenty of ships and the price of mithril has gone through the roof since the mines shut down."

"I don't think it was just the pirates." Tello slowly speculated. "Andre didn't say so directly but he hinted that something happened at those mines Something bad. So bad the Vetrini just gave up and wrote them off, despite their value."

"Cerro Rico" Whisperleaf murmured. "Means Rich Mountain in one of the old languages. 

"It has another name among the common people of the town" Tello replied. "The Mountain that Eats Men."