Will She Want To Stay In Sunnydale?

I'd put in an order for the Sunnydale Minion My Personal Assistant at the Sunnydale end of the portal, to pick me up some GECs and a whole bunch of other things for the Little Bard.

Firewalled against all who mean harm,
See the words, obey the charm.
None who disapprove may see!
Warded well and now heed me!

(I hope. There are some powerful Talents on Newlands North.)

I also told her to get me a laptop with a recording facility that doesn't work through the Quain system. (A sophisticated Mechanical Minion is all very well, but not when it's been programmed with a compulsion to gossip to Headquarters!)

They're right, I've changed. When the signal came that the stuff was ready I should have sent off the Gig-Minions. Marty hates the whole GEC thing, though. He's almost shocked at the idea of eating animals. It'd be comic to tease him a bit ... except that it's the Minions that watch the boss' back during a gig.

(There are things that a sensible Operative really doesn't do, and upsetting the back-up group is one of them. Nobody should be too surprised if I just go pick up the stuff myself. That doesn’t mean they’ll all approve of it. It isn't done for my class to be seen carrying things. Everyone knows the Field Operatives are a lore unto themselves, though.)

The Little Missus is another matter. I know the Minions never expected me to bring back another Queen. The Manager Class may have done - but they surely never expected what they got! She was born human, though, we're within the Lore. I don't think they'd be sorry if it was annulled or something, though, or they had a way to send out my Talisman again. This war is giving them too many excuses to talk about duty.

The Quain aren't used to wars. Most of them us have had things our own way. I wonder if the Managers'll be too Lorebound to see that Erynne and me, that's new, too. That’s part of what’s bugging them – but we could be like a new-style team. I can bring whole cities to ruin- from what I saw in Erynne's dimension that's the main objective of wars. We could even do old-style Gigs, but I'd want Erynne with me for that, too. There are limits to what I’ll do.


( No More Queens. )

There are limits to what Erynne will do, too. I don't know if Newlands North is quite what she was expecting. It isn't the time-drenched spires of Quaverel, that's for sure. (We've already had predatory song-lizards leznerizing on the roof, and that's messy.)

We've been talking about a multi-dimensional honeymoon. Would she want to come on tour, if they send me? There's more - the message from Nixi said my in-laws are right there in Sunnydale. It sounds almost like they want Erynne back... (I guess it'll be her call. I can't not tell her, she'll get me to cast the mojo sooner or later - and I can't lock her away like treasure, not if she wants to leave, not with the Management class not favouring my choice.

How do I ask her where we go from here?
That's never been a really upbeat verse,
Will she return to those that she holds dear?
Will we dance on across the multiverse?