Visit to Jimmy

Roland felt incredibly silly, standing outside the city holding a package of butter tarts. He didn't feel particularly kingly most of the time, but having to offer tribute to a wild little man to get information felt more humbling than usual. 

Finn insisted it was good for him as she stood beside him. Their bodyguards had been left behind some distance, as Jimmy had an intense aversion to 'too many people', and had often neglected to answer Finn's visits when her guard was within view. 

The guards hated it, but who could disobey the king? 

"Jimmy!" Finn called. "I brought you something!" 

"It's that easy?" Roland grumbled, "You just call him and he shows up?" 

He had thought, wrongly, that his old irritation at the quarter-halfling was a thing of the past when the war had ended. Jimmy had actually done a great deed by bringing the Cetoans back from Pink Sky World, and even leading them to fight as reinforcements in the war. 

There were some who blamed him for leading Haf to his death, but those people were few and far between. Haf wanted to help Klain, and just because Jimmy made that possible didn't put the responsibility for the Void's evil on his shoulders. 

Roland had wanted to reward Jimmy for his service in Pink Sky World, but the strange little man had been intensely grumpy about the fact that his magical herbs were gone and the worlds seemed closed to his coming and going. 

"Sometimes yes, sometimes no," Finn replied. "He comes when he wants." 

"I do everything when I want," Jimmy interjected, coming around the rock.

"And you want to come more often when we bring gifts," Roland guessed. 

"Nothing wrong with a little incentive," Jimmy shrugged, snatching the tarts from the king's grasp as if the man was going to eat them himself if the quarter-halfling didn't get them away. 

"We have a few questions," Finn smiled. 

"You ain't had those in a while." Jimmy observed. "You just come for visiting's sake." 

"There wasn't much to ask about, really," The queen frowned. "You told me everything you knew about the children years ago, and you disclaimed any knowledge of the sparkles when they first started appearing." 

"And then you never asked again," Jimmy bit into a tart, and Roland's eyebrows rose. 

"Should my wife have to ask again on the same subject for you to tell her things you learn?" He asked. 

"I'm a mite forgetful," Jimmy shrugged. "We get to chattin' and it slips my mind." 

"So you have learned things about the portals, and just not told me?" Finn's voice was a little hurt. 

"Ah! See? You know they're portals. That's what I meant to tell you for a while now. But you don't visit often, and then I forget you don't know everything I do." Jimmy mumbled around a mouthful of the treat. 

Roland controlled his irritation as best he could. "Is there anything else you know about them?" 

The words were strained but polite, under the circumstances. 

"They're to other worlds. Seems a bit random, but not completely. I'm sure the halflings on their way will tell you more. I gather they've been having a lot more luck getting herbs out of them than I have," The quarter-halfling swallowed and took another bite. 

"You know about the halflings?" Roland looked at Finn. The message from Gabriel about finding them hadn't been revealed for public knowledge yet. 

"Sure, I got a small sense of when magic's being used. There's magic coming, and humans ain't smart enough usually to do it themselves. No other creatures left in this world know magic, so must be halflings. They may not be friendly, but if they're coming this way it's for a reason, and I don't imagine they intend to wage war." 

The declaration was so roundly informed that Roland stared at Jimmy for several seconds, wondering if he somehow had access to the confidential communications of the City Council. How else could he have deduced so much? 

"Anything else you know that you care to tell us?" The king said tightly. "Before we move on to our new questions, I mean." 

"I think that's about it, o' course, my memory ain't what it used to be, I could stand a few good meals to jog it a bit." He patted his admittedly-thinner middle. 

"You want to come for dinner?" Finn asked with a raised eyebrow. "You never liked coming into the city before." 

"Things aren't great out here. There's strange stuff happening. I bet those halflings want your protection from it. Portals are getting bigger, letting stuff through." 

"You always had the ability to come into the city," Roland observed. "You've come by the house once before uninvited." 

"That was extraordinary circumstances," Jimmy puffed out his chest. "I'm polite enough to wait for an invitation." 

"You can come for dinner any time you wish," Finn said kindly. 

"Thank ya kindly," Jimmy gave her a small smile before he spat into the ground to dispel any illusion that he was learning proper manners. 

Roland sighed impatiently. "If you would be so kind, we had a question about a plant." 

"That's my area of expertise. Well, one of 'em. I'm knowledgeable on quite a few things," Jimmy tilted his head.

"Do you know anything about a flower that looks like this?" The king pulled out the drawing he'd had Finn do of the flower from his dream. It didn't nearly do the colors of the plant justice, but the general shape was as correct as the two of them could make it. 

Jimmy snatched the paper and squinted at it. "You don't have the original for me to look at?" 

"No." Roland refused to elaborate until the quarter-halfling provided more information. 

"That's a shame," The little man looked the paper up and down. "Looks like a powerful thing." 

"What makes you say so?" Finn came around to look at the drawing with Jimmy. "What about the plant gives you that impression?"

"Well, for one thing, the king hisself came all the way out here with butter tarts like a delivery boy to ask me about it, so it must be important," Jimmy grinned. 

"Excellent deductive reasoning," Roland took a slow, deep breath to keep his irritation at bay. 

"But secondly, the petals here. You see how they arch? Normal flowers from this world, nonmagical ones–which is all there's been for nigh on ten years–all share it, but this dip here, that's from the Darkness. All the flowers from that world share it."

"There are flowers in the Darkness?" Finn said, a bit startled. 

"There's plants everywhere. Moving on, this curve here at the base of the stamen, all the flowers I saw in Pink Sky have that trait." Jimmy continued. "And your old Fullest Lilies, I don't right know what world they were from, but their stems had this indent here at the leaves." 

Roland leaned over the drawing as Jimmy spoke. He had the urge to ask whether Jimmy was making all of that up to sound intelligent, but the quarter-halfling had never directly lied to them. 

"So your conclusion is that this flower is powerful because it shares the traits of flowers from other worlds?" Finn clarified. 

"That's about the size of it. When everything got divided, nothing in this world was magical anymore. Kind of changed my view on what makes things magical, if I'm honest, which I always am. Since this thing looks to have parts of several worlds in it, I think it must be pretty special." 

"Does special mean powerful?" Roland asked. 

"Usually, though not in the ways you may think," Jimmy answered. "You got this flower, and have questions on it, or you looking for it?" 

"It's complicated," Roland said vaguely, with a grin. Jimmy so often spoke in cryptic terms that it was fun to turn that back on him. 

"Sure, always is, so they tell me. You don't have it, then, but aren't really looking for it." The little man quirked one eyebrow. "That answers some of my questions." 

"Do you know when the other halflings will get here?" Finn asked. "You said you could sense them, then they may be close?" 

Roland turned to his wife, realizing she was concerned for Gabriel's safety. "I'm sure they'll be here soon, all of them." 

Victoria should still be with them as well. He took a deep breath, knowing he would rest more easily with at least those two young people back safely within Klain's walls. 

"Sure, sure. Probably by sundown," Jimmy assured them. "Though I can't say that I'm particularly excited to have 'em around. I liked being the only halfling blood. I don't trust 'em." 

"We think they could wind up being good friends to us," Finn said hopefully. 

"Well, then, I only got one more question for ya," Jimmy spat in the ground again. 

The king and queen looked at him expectantly for a moment. 

"What's for dinner?"