# The Arrival of Houndstooth Houndstooth was *not* a happy fey. Sent out by an archpriest, he should have gained renown and lands. Instead that human girl had...had tricked him. Yes, she must have done. She must have bewitched him with... mortal magic. Hmmmm that was not a concept that would win him renown. He stumbled through the Domains surrounding the Winter Court. He hated what he had to do but to disobey a bargain made...his very essence shuddered and quavered at the concept. He pushed past a few unruly and impertinent nixies and was sure he could feel his being shrinking in that moment. But there it was. The Winter Keep. Houndstooth was a summer fay but for one such as he that affiliation was never permanent. He stood up as straight as possible, shook his head to get his hair perfect, and approached the gate. There are no diurnal cycles in the Feywild, so Aster had no clock to tell him that his Lord and Master was up too late. Nevertheless, he was worried about the Winter Prince. Not that the Prince seemed unwell; if anything he seemed more invigorated than Aster had seen him in decades. Both in his work and...well, Aster realized that he didn't have much room to complain about the change in the Prince. Still. Aster felt that it was time for the Prince to take a break, and a recent arrival meant that Aster had a good excuse to interrupt. Aster looked into the room where the Prince was laboring over the "Tool or Weapon" as it had come to be called in the days since Lady Silver had left the Court. "My Lord, there is a bedraggled Fey of Summer here to see you, under geas." The Prince looked up, "Indeed? Who?" "Houndstooth, milord. A sometimes hunter for the Summer Knight, but really of no major standing. But he is under obligation to you and will not tell me the nature of the obligation." "Thank you, Aster," the Prince said and pulled the valet close, holding the smaller eladrin against him and burying his face in his lover's hair. "What would I do without you?" Aster was starting to get used to startling questions like this. "I wish and also vow that we will never find out, Lord." The Prince held Aster for a few more moments, the stood back and let his valet ensure that he looked every centimeter a true prince of Winter. Then he went through back hallways into the Throne room. Aster looked down at the very nearly _alive_ thing the Prince was working on and hoped once again that it was not a mistake to entrust such a gift to an impetuous mortal...but it was not his place to judge his Lord. The Winter Prince noticed, as he always did, that his mother's throne looked worse than ever. The observation reshaped his world yet again, as if his spine was suddenly replaced with ice cold steel. He looked at Houndstooth. The poor thing looked like a *wood elf*, he was so disheveled. His hair was barely styled, his clothing had none of the *flair* or *elan* that spoke of Fey refinement. His shoes...dear frozen souls, his shoes showed a mark of *scuff*. "Yes?" The Prince said, not haughtily, but with an exactness. "Your Highness, I have been placed under obligation to you...t-two obligations, in fact." "Indeed? And what are these obligations?" The Prince could *feel* the obligations like physical things, warping the flow of reality like cold iron. "The first, Your Highness, is that I am to enter your service for one hundred years from this day." "Indeed? Well, I will of course accept. What possessed you to make such a bargain?" Houndstooth gritted his teeth. "The second obligation, Lord, is...that I am to...say 'hi' to you, from one called Lady Silvercloak." He managed to say. The Winter Prince stood as if frozen. Not a single movement could be detected. Moments passed. "Very well. See yourself to the servants' quarters. The Head Chef will give you your first assignment. That will be all." The Prince left the throne room the same way he came in and made his way back to his workshop. Nobody believes him, but Houndstooth *swore* that as he left the Throne Room he heard the Prince laugh.