“Don’t you have magic? Can’t you at least make this go any faster?” Abigail said, frustrated by how stiff she was, and had been, ever since she accidentally stood on the gray display stand.

“I could,” Eveleen said, tucking some strands of hair behind her slightly pointed ears; ears that Abigail had somehow never noticed before today, “But I like to build with my hands, you know? It’s more satisfying.”

Eveleen snapped a crafted felt pauldron onto Abigail’s new suit, clasping with a satisfying click, before she went back to her craft bench. The ‘knight’ struggled to shrug her shoulders. She had just come over to drop off some mail accidentally left at her place. Well, that and get some good gossip. Eveleen invited her into her craft room to show off her newest project. Then, Abigail stepped on the display stand, and froze. That’s how she had been for hours now.

“So, I get that you’re actually a faerie…”

“Fae,” Eveleen corrected.

“Sure, whatever. But what I don’t get is you living out here with us mortals.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourselves, or your world, short. we love to take vacations and sabbaticals in the mortal world. Get away from courtly life, live in the real world with real people.” Eveleen said, coming back to Abigail to strap a shield onto her frozen arm. “I think that does it.” She took a slow, inspecting walk around her neighbor, adjusting a few small things.

“You’ve been real cagey about what this is all for.” Abigail said accusingly.

“Well, now that you’re fully in costume, I guess I could tell you. The King and Queen are coming and there’s going to be a huge banquet. Some of us decided to put together a life-sized chess set for the occasion.”

“Wait, you guys are transforming thirty-two people into chess pieces?! For a party?”

“Of course not. I was planning on using a mannequin, but then you stepped on the base, and I thought this would be a fun way for you to experience the fairylands. Don’t worry though, you’ll fit right in.”

“With chess pieces.” Abigail said with a groan.

“Oh, for a mortal about to have the honor of meeting Fae royalty, you sure are being grouchy.”

“Are the Fae royalty going to play with me in chess matches?”

“Of course you’ll be played with, but you’ll be perfectly safe and well-kept. I’ll make sure of it. And by tomorrow night, you’ll be out of this get up and back home.”

That did help Abigail to relax. A little. “Just a day? I can do that.”

Eveleen went quiet for a moment. Well, longer than a moment. “Ok, let me amend. A day in real world time.”

Abigail narrowed her eyes, thinking Eveleen was being cagey again. “And how long is that in fairyworld time?”

“Just the duration of the banquet.” Eveleen said quickly, repositioning a strand of Abigail’s hair.

“And how long will this banquet take?”

The Fae woman took another long moment to answer. “For the King and Queen? A month. Maybe two. Ok, let’s just say ‘several’ and leave it at that.”