Fairytale Leak Case File #6

Associated story: MARKED BY THE BAKER

In the FAIRYTALE LEAKS bundle

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Hello from Australia, Below is your leak of the week. This one's straightforward — I'm simply forwarding you Cashmere's email. He's hiding somewhere in the hay barn and intends to stay there for the next 24 hours, so he has no idea I'm passing this along. Let's keep it that way. If you don't know who Cashmere is: he's a cat, several centuries old. As for how many centuries — he'd call it inappropriate to ask. He is perfectly mature and entirely capable for his age, so he claims, so we let him be. He works for Rosalind, the fairy godmother of the Soulmate Registry in the House of God. He mainly handles field agents and occasionally deals with the principals directly — but only when things go wrong. Which, mostly, they do. He's a magnificent fifteen-pound Norwegian Forest cat with a glorious white coat. Picture attached.

— Forwarded email — Dear Rosalind, By the time you read this, I am no longer at my desk. I have relocated to the hay barn, where I intend to remain for a period of no fewer than 24 hours, human time. This has nothing to do with the incident. I will not be discussing the incident. There was no incident. I trust that is clear. The soulmate bond for our principals, regrettably, does not observe the 24-hour grace period I have extended to myself. So when you receive this, give the guinea pig Sir Nugget whatever he is asking for. A token promotion will suffice — and yes, I am aware he will frame it on the wall. He was assigned to another couple, but we must borrow him for Calla and Hugh, whose bond was very nearly severed by what we (you) did last century. For the record, and not for the first time: I advised against it. You'll recall the oven. The one in the Lower Pumblewick bakery, built by an innovator whose actual specialty was chimneys — a detail I raised at the time and which was, as ever, ignored. I told you to leave it be, because in modern human times that object simply becomes an air fryer, and there is nothing magical about an air fryer. It reheats things. It is an oven that has been to one seminar and will not stop talking about it. You don't cook anyway. But you took it regardless, hauled it back into the fairytale world, and the man was so devastated to lose it that he left town, broke his lover's heart, and never returned — over an appliance, Rosalind. I understand he wasn't your subject. I understand his bond was set to break either way. But a grown man fleeing his hometown over cookware is not natural, and the damage ran downstream to our own people: anyone tied to a bakery, a kitchen, or a real oven has suffered for it. Melanie and Caspian are among them. She never meant to leave town. She did. Now she's coming back, and we will use that window to stitch the bond shut before it frays past saving. Sir Nugget will handle the field work. Brief him gently. He responds poorly to urgency and extremely well to flattery, which I find personally exhausting but tactically sound. I will return in 24 hours. Or rather, I hope you will have resolved everything by then, so that you will not require me — because a Rosalind who needs nothing is a Rosalind I do not have to look in the eye. The barn is fine. The barn is dignified. I have made it my own. Cashmere  Senior Field Agent. Currently between desks.  P.S. The hay was not my idea, and I would thank you not to mention it again. -- This week's Story: Marked by the Baker. The Leak is below. Enjoy!  D.N. Leo Happy Novels — every story has a happy ending. I will never break your heart, my love. But I will put you through a lot before I fix it.