The Trouble with Time, Part 2.5 - Tart

"What do we do now?" Alice's voice is thin in her own ears.

"We should avoid the crowd. Minimize the chances of getting caught," Sam sounds far from certain. They're voice is quiet, barely reaching her and Kevin as they're huddled close together on the side of the road.

"Can we avoid the crowd? And would it help to do it anyway?"

"Of course it would. The less people see us, the fewer chances there are that someone realises we shouldn't be here."

"But it's easy to blend in in a crowd. No one pays attention to you, unless you draw attention. Being the only ones not in the crowd might stand out a lot more. Like Kevin said, if we're just walking down a road, there's no reason for anyone to notice us. But someone might find reason if we look like we're sneaking around."

"So you think we should walk head first into a crowd we're trying to hide from?"

"I think we should do whatever draws the least attention to us. But weirdly, I don't know what that would be in this place. Kevin seems to be the expert here. Kevin?"

"Kevin?"

He turns to them, looking surprised, clearly not having listened to a word either of them has said.

"What?"

"Get your head back into the game," she hisses. "We need to stay undetected. But we don't know if we have better chances losing ourselves in the crowd, or avoiding people and looking like we're avoiding people."

He doesn't say anything for a long moment, clearly in thought. Alice is just about to snap him out of it again when he finally answers.

"We go through the crowd," he says, thinks for a moment longer, then nods more to himself than the two of them. "It's riskier, but not by much, and I think there might be a chance of getting information here. I hadn't taken the fair into account, and I admit, I would rather it not be here. But it is, so we might as well put it into good use."

"You want us to find information at a fair?"

"We don't know where Vanessa is. We don't know where they're taking her on this trip. But this fair is big enough a deal that I would bet my right thumb we can find someone here who works at the palace. We don't want to interact with them, that would be far too great a risk, but if we can hide ourselves in the crowd and find whoever those people are, maybe we can overhear something that will help us. Maybe we can pick up on gossip. I don't think we would hear anything about Vanessa specifically, but knowing anything about what's going on in the court could be of use."

He thinks for a moment longer, then shrugs.

"Or maybe not. But as it is, we have no idea where to start looking. We have to start gathering info somewhere. And honestly, for the folk here, this is the place to be for the next couple of days. Which means this is where the gossip, stories and information will be too."

Sam doesn't look happy at all about that. They open their mouth, about to say something, but Kevin cuts them off before they have the chance.

"I know it sounds like a bad idea. I know it's risky. I know. But simply existing is those things for us here. And that is an unnecessary risk if we don't find Vanessa. I truly believe our best chance of finding her is blending in, keeping our ears open and trying to get any information we can get."

Alice nods, determined. Sam hesitates, then also nods.

"Okay. Don't talk to anyone unless you're spoken to first. Try to avoid eye contact. Just act naturally. You're here to enjoy the Winter Solstice fair. And if you hear anyone talking about the court or royalty. listen in without letting them know you're listening. If it's a choice between risking getting caught and missing some piece of information, always avoid getting caught. The information is no use to us if we can't act on it. And stay together."

He looks between the two of them for a second.

"Okay? Let's go."

~x~

They head into the crowd and all Alice can do is not to gawk. This fair is beautiful. She's been to similar ones in the human world, but this is... more. There's no other way to explain it. It's just more everything a fair is.

They stroll through it. Pretending to browse the stalls. Looking at the beautiful lights. Smelling all the smells that are somehow familiar and completely alien at the same time. The air of festival is so thick it feels like you could almost cut it. People are smiling, and laughing, and joking, and telling stories to their friends as they walk through the fair the size of a tiny town.

They spend an hour sitting in an area filled with tables and surrounded by café stalls, eating tiny tarts that are more or less the best thing Alice has ever tasted. Kevin very briefly made contact with a vendor to buy them, and refuses to tell them what they are. His eyes glitter a bit as he says it, like it's a joke only he understands.

They catch frustratingly little information, and next to nothing that could be useful. There's a rumor the king is angry with one of his ministers. Or maybe his wife. Maybe both. The princesses are planning on going out to the winter castle right after the solstice. A few of the ministers are having heated arguments behind closed doors about something that sounds incredibly boring to Alice, but Kevin seems to be curious about. Lady Marel just had a baby and can't make it to the Solstice fair this year. No whisper of a human king Oberon is keeping prisoner.

Eventually it gets late and the crowd begins to thin. Kevin decides they need some place to stay the night that isn't freezing to death on the streets. They're only practical option turns out to be an inn a little ways off the fair area. Kevin gets them a room (they want to stay together) and they hide themselves away from the world for the night.

Only as they close the door behind them Alice feels a weight lifted off of her. Not all of it, of course not. The feeling of running out of time she's had for the past year is still there, getting stronger by the day. But some of the worry for the immediate well-being of the three of them lets up as they are no longer under the eyes of the fae folk. They spent a better part of the day in a crowd, and no one realised they shouldn't be there, no one saw through their hastily put-together disguises how out of place they are.

For a moment she can breath a tiny bit easier. She digs into one more of those delicious tarts they got from the fair and gives a small sigh of something not even close to contentment, but of a temporary, small relief of everything.

Tomorrow they will probably do it all over again and see if they can get anything more useful out of the crowd than they did today.

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My head is not in this story. At all. Though it's better now than before I started writing. So maybe I'll actually write something decent next time.

The topic for tomorrow is Fix.

~matleena