LIFE IN THE FAIRY KINGDOM
The kitchens are well equipped with ranges similar to our Agas and Rayburns of differing sizes. The pots and pans are of the highest quality and must be able to withstand magic hitting them. It is not uncommon for a frustrated cook, when things are not going well, to try to detonate their equipment. The Queen insists on the highest quality food and drink. Fruit and veg are grown on the Crown Estate. Meat is reared by peasants (they do have cattle, sheep and pigs, this is because they’ve observed human life for a long time and concluded this is where we get our meat from). Meat is taken into the Palace. The Queen would not countenance killing animals on her grounds though she loves eating humanely killed ones. There are vegetarians in the realm (some of L’Evallier’s relatives are well known for this). The Queen insists rare animals, imported from Earth or native, are not harmed. Anti-animal cruelty laws are tough. It is possible to be executed for breaking these. You’d have to be mad to try to harm the royal unicorns. They defend themselves brilliantly and nobody has been known to survive this.
One of the loveliest areas in the Palace is a suite of interconnecting rooms called the Peace Area. This is set on the fourth Palace tier, away from the hurly burly of government on the third tier, and all the rooms have fabulous views across the parklands, orchards, lakes and Fountain of Youth. One room is full of the most popular fairy tale volumes where people can just read, another plays any kind of music the visitor cares to name (soothing type welcomed, rock music less so) and the third is a place of complete silence. When anyone goes in there, the doors are sealed and no noise is permitted. The only sound anyone can hear in there is their breathing (and that’s only done to reassure the visitor they are still alive). Household members earn credits via good work to gain time in these rooms. Time in the Peace Area is like having a retreat in pure air and everyone who spends time here comes back to work refreshed, reinvigorated and as if they are on a permanent tonic. The Queen decides who goes into which room, depending on the known tastes of the individual being. L’Evallier has also spent time in the silence room and adored it, though this was long before his marriage, and now his idea of a tonic is having quality time and sex with his wife.
The Queen has a select band of highly qualified fairies and the well trusted wizards who report to her on life on the other worlds the Kingdom is divinely commissioned to keep an eye on. Nobody who’s reported on Earth has ever come back to the monarch with unremitting praise. From time to time these highly qualified people go and live on the worlds in question for a while to check all is well at that end and, above all, to make sure there are plans to attack the Fairy Kingdom again. Most of the other worlds (Earth is the one exception) have been at war with the Kingdom at some point, usually over the realm’s magical powers. Rarely, these beings are caught out, charged with spying and executed. War inevitably follows… What worries the monarch is this hasn’t happened for a few centuries now, certain worlds have not reformed at all where others have and Earth has always been something of a dump thanks to humanity’s presence and the Queen thinks it can’t be long before trouble brews again. This partially explains her hostility to Eileen’s defection.
One of the loveliest areas in the Palace is a suite of interconnecting rooms called the Peace Area. This is set on the fourth Palace tier, away from the hurly burly of government on the third tier, and all the rooms have fabulous views across the parklands, orchards, lakes and Fountain of Youth. One room is full of the most popular fairy tale volumes where people can just read, another plays any kind of music the visitor cares to name (soothing type welcomed, rock music less so) and the third is a place of complete silence. When anyone goes in there, the doors are sealed and no noise is permitted. The only sound anyone can hear in there is their breathing (and that’s only done to reassure the visitor they are still alive). Household members earn credits via good work to gain time in these rooms. Time in the Peace Area is like having a retreat in pure air and everyone who spends time here comes back to work refreshed, reinvigorated and as if they are on a permanent tonic. The Queen decides who goes into which room, depending on the known tastes of the individual being. L’Evallier has also spent time in the silence room and adored it, though this was long before his marriage, and now his idea of a tonic is having quality time and sex with his wife.
The Queen has a select band of highly qualified fairies and the well trusted wizards who report to her on life on the other worlds the Kingdom is divinely commissioned to keep an eye on. Nobody who’s reported on Earth has ever come back to the monarch with unremitting praise. From time to time these highly qualified people go and live on the worlds in question for a while to check all is well at that end and, above all, to make sure there are plans to attack the Fairy Kingdom again. Most of the other worlds (Earth is the one exception) have been at war with the Kingdom at some point, usually over the realm’s magical powers. Rarely, these beings are caught out, charged with spying and executed. War inevitably follows… What worries the monarch is this hasn’t happened for a few centuries now, certain worlds have not reformed at all where others have and Earth has always been something of a dump thanks to humanity’s presence and the Queen thinks it can’t be long before trouble brews again. This partially explains her hostility to Eileen’s defection.