Excerpt: Oops!

The tiny green imp sat back on its haunches and peered at her with bright black eyes. "Message?" A tiny notebook complete with spiral binding and pen appeared in its hand. It licked the tip of the pen, made some minor adjustment, then peered at her with great patience, pen poised above the paper. "Message?"

"Again?" Alastriona asked. Very odd that the Council would try to contact her so soon after the embarrassing scene yesterday. Maybe they meant it as a joke. "You mean somebody has sent me another message?"

"Message?" it asked again, this time a bit more urgently. It tapped the notebook with its pen.

"Oh!" she said. What fun. It wanted to deliver something for her. Unfortunately, anything she tried to send into the Lands of Fey now would only be detained and possibly ripped up. She couldn't bear the thought of someone ripping apart the nice little imp. It was quite cute, the longer she looked at it, even though she was still a bit disturbed by the eyes that covered half its face. And the way it wiggled its nose from time to time. "No. No message. Thank you, though."

It stared at her for a few seconds, then tapped its pad of paper. "Message," it commanded. The eyes had narrowed.

"No. I don't have one. You have the day off! Isn't that nice?"

It eyes glared. At least, she thought it was glaring. It didn't look happy, at least. "Message!" it demanded in a very loud squeak.

Alastriona put her finger on its head, smooshing the creature into a sitting position. "No! No messages. You don't have to deliver anything anywhere anymore. You're free to do as you wish. Isn't that nice? Now be a good imp and rest." She picked it up by its tiny hummingbird like wings - oh, how she missed her own! - and dropped it into her pocket.

It squeaked madly, waving its pen about and screaming, "Message, message!"

She silenced it by closing her pocket and smiled with satisfaction. The liberation of the little imp made her feel as if she could still do some good in the world, after all.