“That’s bound to have tied some tails in knots,” Ulrick chimes in.

  “I feel like the renovation was announced as a cover for the poor state of everything. If they were renovating, they should have said so. I might have been able to talk them into staying. As it is, they’re probably already back in Ikedena telling all my other cousins what a ‘rustic’ place Centis is," I grimace.

  Torsten laughs, “You mean they’re telling them that we can barely afford a jug to piss in and a window to throw it out of.”

  I nod, “At a guess, yes. Duke Jellema says it was all Arvo’s, the steward's, fault, but I can’t imagine a steward doing much of anything without the king’s permission.”

  Ulrick nods, “No, he wouldn’t.”

  “Ulrick, why don’t you give Kenric and Víl? the grand tour?” Torsten asks.

  Smirking, Ulrick nods, “Come on then. It’ll be good to stretch your legs after that carriage ride.”

  “I’d love that,” I reply. I’ve got some ideas to improve their defenses. We step outside, and I’m looking around.

  “What are you thinking?” Ulrick asks.

  “Your father told you what we discussed?” I ask, and Ulrick nods.

  I launch into what I see, “If the roofs will hold them, catapults on the towers. Hoardings on top of the wall. Shore up those weak patches. Make the moat wider. If you have a postern gate, make sure it's either welded shut or well secured. I brought some things to help give you some warning.”

  “You really think this will happen?” Ulrick asks.

  I nod. “Three years at most, but possibly sooner.”

  Ulrick looks around and starts to see this keep as I see it.

  “The walls aren’t tall enough for that. Hoardings will help, but they might not be enough.” I nod, “You’ll want to have escape routes ready for everyone. I don’t know that they’ll be looking to take prisoners.”

  Ulrick’s face falls at this news. Historically, the invading armies that Ellisar’s engineered often don’t take prisoners. Anyone who’s caught is killed.

  I don’t want to see that for Inga, Klara, Uta, or Iris. Those sorts of things tend to go very badly for females, no matter how young they are.

  “Send Inga and girls to my mother Imelenora just before the tides turn on the second year, sooner if things start happening before then. My mother will adore Uta and Iris,” I reply. “I’ll even give them a letter for my mother.” If I’m wrong, they’ll have a lovely visit. If I’m not…”

  “Then they’ll be safe there, protected by your family,” Ulrick finishes.

  I give Ulrick a small smile and gesture at everything around us, “Aside from the people, there isn’t a thing here that can’t be replaced. There is nothing here that can’t be rebuilt, probably better than it is now. If you can’t get your lands back, we’ll find you new ones. Your worst case is that you end up as nobles in Codegor on their frontier. My point is that this place isn’t worth any of you dying for it.”

  “The Codegor frontier is harsh,” Ulrick says.

  “It is, but if that happens, we’ll come and I’ll help you rebuild—just no witnesses and no questions. It will go faster than you think,” I explain. We were experts at putting up new base camps during the border war. If our base camps could keep those things out, I think they’ll hold against a few wild animals or even wild humans.

  “Is that another Fey thing?” Ulrick asks.

  I smile and nod, “It is.” I don’t tell him that it will be with magic. I don’t know how they feel about it. Torsten is smart enough to take what I’m offering.

  I can claim that all the gifts I brought came from Imelenora. I still have trunks of things in the warehouse in Varpua to be shipped to Herrenstein. I’ve been shipping them a little at a time so that if any one shipment is lost, it’s not a devastating loss.

  I nudge him with an elbow, “I doubt we’ll be here for the midwinter festivities, so I brought presents.”

  Ulrick laughs, “You’re a good influence on Kenric.”

  “He’s been one on me, so I suppose we’re even in that regard,” I say with a shrug. Ulrick continues to show us around.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  I make it a point to suggest some improvements. We come to the well. “No one uses that anymore. We get our water from the river,” Ulrick shrugs.

  I frown at him, “What happens if you can’t get to the river?” Ulrick nods, and we tour the smithy, the stables, and some of the other outbuildings. I suggest putting in a garden. Ulrick starts telling me they have one outside the walls, and swallows the rest of his sentence. Instead, I get a sheepish nod from Ulrick, and Kenric gives him a friendly shoulder bump.

  “It’s not just your holding that should be as self-sufficient as possible. It’s everything inside these walls. If it's outside the walls, you may not be able to reach it, or it might be destroyed,” I explain.

  “Your shelter is taken care of. You have the keep. You need food, water, weapons, and medicine. Pretend that there’s an army out there, camped all around the walls. How do you get water?” Kenric asks.

  “A few more of those stonehorns will help quite a lot with the food you need,” I add.

  “Things that keep, like hardtack and jerky,” Kenric says. “Anything that can be dried, smoked, salted, cured, pickled, brined, or fermented will do."

  "Next year, you should think about canning some things. Pack it way inside the keep somewhere,” I suggest.

  Ulrick nods and sighs, “Inga’s not going to like that.”

  “You’re going to need a lot more storage space to store enough food, and Inga will like being hungry even less than she likes all the work. At least one silo for the grain and big bins for the dried beans. You’ll need barrels of tallow, salt, and honey, and somewhere to store cheese,” I explain.

  “That’s assuming that you eat all the animals,” Kenric says. “If you need to feed the horses, cows, or chickens, the quantities go up.”

  Ulrick grimaces, “I don’t think we have that much storage now.”

  “Start building it and filling it,” I advise him. We stand around discussing potential sites to put food storage. Finally, Ulrick leads us back inside, from the lower-level parlor, upstairs to the Great Hall. Inga and Klara are busy putting the finishing touches on the long table.

  Once we’re seated, Inga looks at me across the table. “Ulrick says that you brought midwinter things with you. Were you planning to hand them out now?”

  “I was hoping to. I want to explain a bit about what they are instead of just dropping them off,” I reply. “She’ll probably need to demonstrate them, if it's something you brought from Imelenora,” Kenric adds.

  “They are. You said to bring useful gifts, so I did,” I smirk.

  “More trinkets from the border wars? Kenric asks.

  “What else would be more useful?” I ask, with a grin.

  Kenric smiles, “The Fey make some miraculous things.”

  I shrug. “I suppose that they seem so, but it’s all fairly ordinary for us. I think that’s part of why my duennas fled. As Ellisar’s emissary to Centis, I really shouldn’t be the only Fey here. There should be a few of us to handle diplomatic details. I’m hopeful that as soon as the tides turn in the summer that more will arrive.”

  “Who are you hoping for?” Kenric says.

  “Larrel, Keryth, Revalor, Fylson, Dirue, or maybe Mirthal,” I reply.

  “Do you know them?” Torsten asks Kenric.

  “I’ve met them, but Víl? knows them much better than I do,” Kenric replies.

  “I’ve known them all a long time. If Fylson comes, Elara is likely to as well. We might get lucky enough to have Ellisar send Amer. The gossip in Oskar’s court is petty enough to make him feel right at home,” I grin.

  Kenric laughs and nods, “That might be true.”

  “More like you?” Torsten asks me.

  “Some more so, some less so, but, in general, yes,” I reply.

  We are sitting, eating, and chatting when Luka asks when he can have his present. Uta and Iris turn their big eyes to me. Gods above! They’re adorable at that age. I shoot a panicked look at Inga, who sighs in resignation, while Torsten palms his face.

  “Did you get us anything?” Uta asks, her lower lip trembling. Kenric snickers as Ulrick, Tobias, and Arno laugh.

  Someone seems to have kicked Luka under the table because he yells, “Ow! What was that for?!” Now, I’m laughing, and so is Inga.

  “You may as well get their presents,” Inga tells me.

  I reach down, grab the bag, and pull it into my lap. “I don’t know if they’re old enough to appreciate these yet. They’re not going to be impressive to a child. They don’t look like much, but the first time you’re ever out in the weather in them, you’ll understand why these are so highly prized. We don’t allow them to be exported.” I lay my hand on the stack of cloaks. “This probably doubles the number of these that are outside Fey territory.”

  Torsten and his sons seem interested now. Inga and Klara both appear somewhat confused, and the two youngest girls look puzzled. I hand the top one to Torsten. He shakes it out and looks at me, “It’s a woolen cloak." I smirk and shake my head. "No, it just looks like a simple cloak. Wrap yourself in that, and you can walk through a forest fire, a deluge, or a blizzard, comfortably. The material won’t cut, burn, or tear. It will change size to fit you perfectly. It will muffle your passing and hide your scent.”

  “How long will it last?” Tobias asks.

  “It’s nearly indestructible, so it will likely outlast you,” I reply. “They can be destroyed, but you really have to work at it.” I don’t add that you need special tools and magic to destroy one. The clasp on the cloaks has been worked with my family’s crest. Any Fey who finds these humans wearing this will assume that they’re in service to my family. Since I’m well-known enough, even among the other Fey courts, wearing my family’s symbol should give them some protection, at least from other Fey.

  They’d be handed over to us. It might cost a bit to retrieve Kenric’s kin, but they’d be safe enough if another Fey finds them. I distribute the rest of the cloaks, but it's clear that Uta and Iris aren’t impressed. Inga isn’t either, but she hides her feelings better than the kids. Klara is unsure. My nose still works, and I can smell Inga’s disappointment. I didn’t bring anything else, but I think I can fake it. I reach into the bag and pretend to look for something. I pull out a pair of dolls for Uta and Iris. They’re copies of my own childhood toys.

  They’re delighted with the dolls and run off to play. I set the bag on the table and push it toward Torsten. “The rest of this is for you.”

  Torsten upends the bag and tosses it aside.

  I point to the bag and say, “You’ll want to keep that. It’s much like the cloaks. It won’t lessen the weight, but you could cram nearly every possession you have, including the furniture, into it.”

  “Does it expand to fit all that?” Arno asks.

  I shake my head, “The size stays the same. You can shove it into a regular pack.”

  So... what's big wish for a present this year? Let me know in the comments...