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Nanny: I wouldn't try it, dearie. I've some idea what you are, you know.
Mab: *coldly unimpressed* I am the Queen of Air and Darkness. *smiles coldly* I am not the thin and shallow things of your world, witch. Tread carefully.
Nanny: *chews thoughtfully* Well now. Maybe that's right. And I certainly wouldn't want to be a bother. Barging in on someone else's world. *grins cheerfully* Wouldn't ever do that, me. That'd be rude.
Mab: *raises a cool eyebrow* Indeed? But perhaps you have already trespassed. Perhaps you have already ... incurred the price? *smiles thinly* There are, after all, no Accords to protect you. The peoples of other worlds are not defended by the laws of ours.
Nanny: *smiles inanely around the hard glint in her eye* Wouldn't know there, dearie. Laws ... excusing in-laws, they ain't never been my speciality. I'm more a spirit than a letter woman, myself.
Mab: *frowns narrowly* You cannot think you have power. Not here, in the heart of mine. You bluff, mortal, and badly.
Nanny: *grinning cheerfully* Maybe so, maybe so. Esme's more the cardshark than me, right enough. But then ... 'tisn't always about power, is it? *smiles faintly* Ain't never needed that much of the stuff, myself. Now, knowledge. Always found a use for knowin' things, I have. Amazin' what you pick up, over the years, ain't it?
Mab: *frowning thoughtfully* You bluff. I'm almost certain of it. But ...
Nanny: *nods agreeably* Oh, probably. Just a silly old biddy. Not a thought in my head, right enough. You just ask Himself, won't you? What's his name. The Erlking. *beams innocently* Definitely knows what's what, that man. Male. Anyway. What was it you were wanting, dearie?
Mab: ... If you bluff, it is with more nerve than most. You cannot think to pass through the seat of my power unpunished.
Nanny: Ah! But that's the key, isn't it? Passing through. Just passin' through, on my way to somewhere else. Where it won't much matter what we've said to each other, will it? Travel's good for the memory. Broadens the mind. But it gets tiresome, don't it, people always blathering on about where they went on their holidays, and who they met. *shakes head* No, no. Best to spare the relatives, after a while, and keep mum, eh?
Mab: Since this conversation rapidly grows tiresome, and is to neither of our benefits? Perhaps you are right. *smiles darkly* A drop of blood, for your toll, before you pass?
Nanny: *thoughtful* No. No. How's about some advice instead? A little bit of wisdom, freely offered?
Mab: *smiles skeptically* Wisdom, from such as you, to such as me? *while Nanny grins steadily at her* Very well, then. One piece of advice, for free passage on to your realm. Done then, and done. Speak.
Nanny: *grinning, not quite slumping in relief* Right. Well, dearie. The best piece of advice I can give you? *gravely, almost gently* If someone ever says to you the words 'Cripple Mr Onion' ... don't let them persuade you, lovely. You've not the knack for it, and you wouldn't know what you'd lose, playing a game like that.
*shakes head as she wanders off, tutting absently at the wary, suspicious expression in the eyes of the Queen of Air and Darkness*