The fae are a little like capitalism. Specifically, they can only work with competition.
With proper competition, capitalism can (can) result in decent outcomes for certain things. Competition means that no one has has any real way to get ahead other than doing better than everyone else. That can lead to innovation and improvement and efficiency.
Of course, if power ends up concentrated in a few, non-competing hands…
*gestures at the world in general*
Things are similar with the fae. Names very important to them, but they aren’t actually what you use for the final binding of a contract. No, sharing your name is how you invite bids for a contract.
In fae society, this works pretty well. You gather bidders, you speak your name, and the bidders compete with each other to create the best deal for you. You’re committed to picking one of them (to encourage more bidders- the system had a tendency to turn into something more like actual capitalism otherwise), but with a robust selection available, that’s not a problem.
What is a problem is if you speak your name in front of one fae.
Then you’re bound to accept an offer from the assembled bidders, but there’s only one. They can do whatever they wish. Fae have a very…particular idea of what ‘fairness’ means. It basically just means ‘that which was agreed upon’. Never mind if the person involved didn’t know any of the rules, and got into an awful situation thereby. Everyone knows those rules, and if someone doesn’t, well, that’s on them.
But what if a human actually read the rules?
Well, what would happen then is that you would negotiate passage to the market quarters of the nearest fae city (a standard and easy negotiation, if you know what you’re doing). You put up a quick advert, buy a few nights stay at an inn (again, standard and nearly risk-free, if you’ve read the rules they never tell you), and then go through with the bidding process.
A proper bidding process for what a human has to offer is really rare, and I got a lot of bidders. Some bidding processes are more directed, but since I was still a little iffy about what was available, I let the bidders come up with their own offers.
The fae, you see, really like the human world. Not as a permanent place to live, of course, but as a vacation…
The fae don’t have doritos, or fajitas, or muscle cars. They only barely have sex. The human world has a lot to offer them. But, in order to truly experience the human world, they need to assume a human identity.
The name also kept them safe- there’s a lot of rules in human society, too, and my name gave the fae who used it my knowledge of them. The fae actually have more stories about getting legally tripped up by incomprehensible things in the otherworld than we do, since they wander into our world more often than we do into theirs.
In the end, I leased my name for use, Thursday through Monday. Tuesday and Wednesday were my days to wander around as a human (if I so chose). I would get a fae identity to use, and cushy accommodations in the fae realm- I’d probably miss tacos a bit, but I could at least have them on Wednesdays.
Taco Wednesdays- now there’s a concept. Someone should probably let some marketing department or other know about that.
Tuesdays were really more of a burrito day, for me.
But staying in the fae realm wasn’t my payment- I just needed to stay somewhere, since, without my name, I couldn’t properly live in the human world. No, my payment was…
Well, it was like this. None of the bidders had really known what to offer me. They knew very little about humans, and many offered things that were probably rare and expensive for the fae, but not terribly impressive to me.
The winning bid had taken the approach of offering me a lot of stuff that was, to the fae, cheap and unimpressive. Limited flying ability? Sure. Minor healing factor? You bet. Basic illusion spells? Sure, tack that on. Preternatural ability to learn languages? Heck, why not?
A lot of it wasn’t impressive to me, either, but a lot of it was. Mostly it would be really convenient. A significant bonus to my odds of winning games of chance? Gambling, it turned out, was more like a competitive sport than a casual pastime- the really talented pushed their luck as high as it would go, and squared off against each other.
I wasn’t going to have to worry about money, back home. Which was the one thing they didn’t offer- they were still a barter economy, which actually works a lot better when your economy consists mostly of trading services that pretty much anyone can perform. Services such as, say, contract finalization and binding. One of the fae was doing that as a “neutral” party, and was apparently getting a short stint with my name as payment. The winning bidder was going to be subleasing my name a bunch, and profiting thereby. It was a pretty sweet gig for everyone involved.
Best of all for me, I was only leasing my name for three years, but the powers I was getting were permanent. I could live a luxurious life in the human world, or trade my name again for even more nifty abilities, or…
Well. The sky was the limit. Literally, now that I could fly.
When you hear advice, try to really understand it. There is a reason not to give your name to the fae, but once you know that reason, you can play the system a bit. Advice is not absolute, but situational. Good advice is good for a reason, and the reason is the important bit.
“Beware” doesn’t mean “be afraid”. It means “be aware”. And with that awareness, you can do an awful lot, if you’re willing to tread where others will not. The darkness is only dangerous if you can’t see in it.
kianamaiart
prguitarman
dailybridgerton
2087
turnnoffyourmind
