The Hawthorn Bargain

Twenty years ago you freed a fox from an iron snare. Tonight a fae lord comes to your window to pay his debt.

7–9 min · 4 decisions · 4 endings · headphones on

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Story card (9:16)

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When you were eight, you cut a fox out of an iron snare in the hawthorn wood. It was not a fox. Twenty years later, on Midsummer's Eve, a fae lord with cat-bright eyes and very good manners is standing at your open window, because his kind cannot lie and cannot leave a debt unpaid. He walks you through the wood to the hill, teaches you the rules (eat nothing, thank no one, and mind every word), and gives you the count that opens the door. Then, in front of the whole court, he asks you to name your boon, and he will grant exactly what you say, not what you mean. Choose whether to invite him in, how to word your wish, whether you remember the count when the music closes around you, and what you say at dawn. A regal, candlelit, slightly dangerous fae love story for headphones. Four decisions, four endings (one of them a Gold bonus).

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There you are. Don't scream. You were eight when you cut a fox from an iron snare. It wasn't a fox. It was me. I've come to pay. So. You may climb out to me... or you may ask me in. Choose carefully.

Your turn: “He waits beyond the open window, moonlight on his shoulders.”

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