“We are not having a snowball fight.” Duffy folded his arms across his chest. “Not now…”, he grinned. “We have work to do.”

Ruby dropped the snowball. “Spoil sport.”

“I’m watching you,” he replied, pointing to one of the statues that stood around the site of the old fountain.

When the avatar of Hromargh had descended on the city, his rage had shattered the centuries old landmark that pointed out the city’s heart. In its stead, Valeena had commissioned a pantheon of heroes from the isle’s long history. An anatomically incorrect statue of Duffy leered down at them from behind a mask of pigeon poo.

“We could wait to perform until spring. The cold plays havoc with my soprano.” Lilith offered, eager to keep them on track. She looked around the square to size up the mammoth task at hand. Dress patterns and tailoring shopping lists filled her mind.

“Lucian’s Call is a celebration of midwinter, Lilith. It has to be on Yule.” Ever a stickler for tradition, Duffy felt anxious even thinking about going against the Queen’s wishes. She had been not-so-subtle clear about what would happen to the troupe if they put so much as a hair out of place. “She made about four thumbs across throat gestures in the throne room, in case you missed it.” Duffy had developed quite the longing for the good old days after they departed the palace, when coming so much as a stone’s throw near Valeena’s domain got a bard’s head cut off.

“I just thought she was being coy…” Lilith furrowed her brow. Now she looked bac, the Queen had seemed rather keen on the idea of using the Midwinter festival as a building block for something greater. “Does she really think it’ll breathe life back into the island?” As far as she knew, Scara Brae was every bit the melting pot of people and industry it had always been.

“Our patron thinks the deep winter is leaving her coffers out to dry.” Leopold had the privilege of being privy to the city’s affairs now he was the troupe’s quartermaster. He had to listen to ode after ode about how they mustn’t go so much as a half-penny over the budget ‘gifted’ to them by the royal household. “We’ve sent word to Corone and the Bladesinger councils. We’ve somehow been pressganged into the tourism industry.”

“That’s precisely what we set out to do, isn’t it?” Lilith smiled. “Spread the word about the Arts!”

“But Radasanthians are delicate little flowers, and the elves break in anything less than pure sunlight. How do we keep them warm for three hours of innuendo?” Ruby began to see the bigger picture, though made a mental note to pad the bra of her costumes, just in case.

“Which is just one of the many things we need to sort out before the big day.” Duffy tried not to think about how long that list was. “We’ve got a great space to work with, so let’s bash heads and sort out the details so we can build the stage and start live-rehearsals. He looked at Leopold expectantly.