video; open to both courts

[ortolan]

Good afternoon, I am Doctor Hannibal Lecter. It is a rare pleasure to have the opportunity to meet so many new and interesting people. I must admit that I have had some difficulty adjusting to this brave, new world and I can only hope that you are doing better than I.

[ The image-feed shows a neatly dressed man somewhere in his late forties standing in front of the curtain wall around Caer Glaem. As he speaks, he walks on with the burrowing faeries and climbing rose-vines looping behind him. He's chosen his direction well and the late afternoon suns highlights the angles of his face, but doesn't glare into the locket or blind the viewer. ]

I have spent some little time thinking about why we have been brought here - there is the story of the shards and I do not need that repeated - but do you really believe that these gems nestle in the breast at random? Or is there a skill one court or the other needs from you? What gift do you bring your king and queen?

Comments

[Video]

[prinsects]

You make it sound as if it must be so personal.

[There's a little scoffing emphasis in that, but it's confidence in her own opinion - as polite-sounding as it can be. She's got a reflectively smug yet reserved smile.]

I would assume that whatever gift we bring is part of or reflected in the presence of the shard itself, and that it can only be accessed here in the Drabwurld, where all magic works.

It's virtually the only thing that's not random between us.

[Her voice had floated up a little there; it polishes itself again.]

My name is Alexia Ashford, also. And what sort of doctor might you be?