ACOR01
[Date | Nov-15-24]
[Barista | Peppermint]
[Subject | Business as Usual]
[File Reference | ACOR01]
So, news. Abbey sent us a formal missive—like parchment-and-wax-seal formal, which means it's bad. Abbey doesn't strike me as the formal type—certainly not ceremonial to this extent. If I had to put down a guess… she's being watched, and she's trying to keep our little… well, what the hell do we even have? An alliance? A vague agreement to work together? I don't know, to be honest. But she's trying to keep whatever this is legit under the eyes of her taskmaster brother. Doubling up on the bad, her message was that her Green Tea is going bitter. If we don't step in soon to stop its over-steeping, it'll bleed over into the States.
So she's summoned us—well, she's summoned Hibiscus and Matcha and I—to her court for what she's calling "a necessary alignment of interests." That's one way to dress up a do-or-die ultimatum. I didn't pick up on any double meanings or cryptographic secrets in her letter, but maybe Hibiscus should double-check it for me. The only part that really stood out to me at all was: "Finding the Court of Rot is fairly easy—follow the Heather to the Elder, down the Elm near the Holly across from the Hawthorn. If you see Yews or Willows you've gone too far. Alternatively, from the Heather fields you could find the Elm next to the Holly, Hazel, and Hawthorn—though don't confuse the route with that of the Yew, Ash, and Ivy."
That feels suspicious. Or it could be sincere directions—ah, which reminds me, our Fairy Circle has fully fruited. Something that would be best appreciated with a strong cup of Green Tea, and now it looks like we can get one on demand. Vanilla's been running calculations to ensure that it's as safe as it seems. If we're going, we're going to need a plan. If we're not going—well, no point in discussing hypotheticals. It's pretty clear we've been invited to a feast we can't quite turn down.