3. A Fae Lodge
A fine spray of fog dampens your face as you emerge from the incense-heavy shop, a quiet certainty forming in your chest. Selina Leanabel might hold real power.
Blue-tinged smoke lingers in the alley, curling through the evening twilight as you slip between towering buildings. Pangur Ban sits just beyond the haze, nearly fully cat-shaped now. At your approach, he swivels his head, and catches you in his viridian gaze.
You tell him what you sensed during your tarot reading and keep all else to yourself.
"Well done... for a mortal."
His long tail swishes, a pale curl of smoke rising from its tip. "She may be just what I need to free myself from this unfortunate predicament, and flee far from the center of whatever seismic events are about to unfold.”
Careful not to thank the feline directly, incline your head, offering a smile instead. “And my reward?”
Pangur Ban poofs into a misty cloud only to re-appear at your feet. He circles your ankles in a lazy figure-eight.
"Oh, our bargain is only beginning. I must meet Selina and avail myself of her powers. Only then will I share my most secret knowledge with you.”
He turns, tail high. “Go now. Follow the Romani woman. You will be invisible to the Fae for several more hours. I will find you when the time is right."
A few hours later your vaporous new friend appears.
A low rumble bubbled from Pangur Ban's chest as he drops beside you at the corner table you’ve claimed inside Fògradh Lodge.
"Once again, my human friend, you've proven useful. We know exactly where Selina is. I am so close to my goal.”
His quivering tail matches the anticipation in his eyes. “If you still want pieces of the Malleus Tenebrarum Sidhe, I have a task for you. One that may reveal how much Portland’s Fae know about what’s happening on Sauvie Island.”
You blink, confused.
He continues, “While I approach the witch for a reading, you’ll slip through the pub. Search for anything unusual. I’d focus on the reading room.”
You chew your bottom lip, drawing back. “Unusual” among the Fae seems like a meaningless concept.
The cat waved a paw.
“Most of the Fae living in this world are solitaries, moderately powerful at best. Look for powerful Fae who shouldn’t be here, eavesdrop, that kind of thing.”