My head was clearer in the morning, despite a bit of a hangover. I got up, washed the toy and myself, made coffee, then sat down at the kitchen table with a full mug and the card. After all, why not. The girl had to find a prince, that's what her dad had paid us for before disappearing. It was a contract she had no control over.
I resolved to pay her a visit that evening and see what she might have to say about it. I spent a couple of hours looking up every bit of intel I could find on the, I was sure, prince. His name was Gianni, according to the card. Although his title wasn't mentioned. I couldn't find much, really. There were quite a few nobles with fancy European names around.
I gave up after a while, grabbed my things and headed to the office. I'd need my boss to approve the match anyway. It shouldn't be too hard, she wanted this case closed just as much as I did.
The HEA Ltd. Agency owned an entire building, to house all the staff. Barely a fifth were actual fairy godmothers. The others were assistants, potion makers, attorneys and the cleaning team. Oh, and the bosses of course. They did work there.
This building was huge. 15 stories and counting. All glass panels and stone with a few gargoyles on the roof to stand watch. There was a giant "Make Your Wishes Come True" on top of the glass door. It always made me smirk.
If only people knew how much meddling the Agency did to make wishes come true, they wouldn't want to hire us. They didn't realize that most of our cases had been arranged barely a month after a babe was born, and that we sometimes replaced school teachers, nannies, coaches or even baristas to nudge a child in the direction their parents or tutors paid us for. This business was shady. But the pay was good, and you got to meet people. And travel.
My case was different though, the girl's father having signed the contract when she was already 16 and proving too much for him to handle. She wasn't interested in romance, and her father wanted her to marry young.
I passed by the glass double doors of the entrance, graced our desk person with a warm smile, and headed for the elevator. I rarely bothered to learn the names of the people that manned the desk. They changed every few months. It was probably the hardest job in the entire Agency.
The elevator was thankfully empty. A few more seconds of peace and quiet. I pushed the button that would take me to floor 9, and braced for the noise I was about to face. We winged ones were not a quiet bunch.
Sure enough, as soon as the doors opened, my hangover tripled. They might have butterfly wings, but these fairies cackled like chickens. And they rarely bothered to use their feet. I received greetings from every direction, including up. "Hi everyone, how's it going?" I answered by reflex. I didn't care to know, really.
"Tiiiinaaaaaa" came a voice from over my head, accompanied by half the contents of a coffee mug. "Tina love where have you been we've missed you! We were so worried when you didn't come to work for all that time. What happened?"
I wiped the coffee out of my eyes, then resumed walking to my desk. Why did I have to be at the very end of the corridor? "Hey Liliane. Been busy. Working on a hard case. What'd I miss?"
I had to ask. I mean it literally, it was in the protocol. You were absent for more than two days, you were under contractual obligation to ask what had happened in your absence. Thankfully, nobody bothered to specify that you also had to listen. Liliane started blabbering about worthless gossip over my head while I took the biggest steps I could to reach my safe haven. Nothing of import had happened, as expected.
Except for poor Niles, over at the mail service, who had been turned into a frog by a newbie practicing basic spells. It should wear off in a week or three, and he'd be compensated for the discomfort. And his silence.
I made a mental note to check on him, and see if I could reverse the spell rather than make him wait. Nobody ever bothered but it was basic courtesy, in my opinion. Most times it was an easy counter, either the kiss of a princess (we had a couple on hand at all times) or a "boobidybabbidy" of sorts. Only once had it been more complex, but we had finally managed to find a dragon willing to lend a paw. Literally. That had been a close call.
I finally made it to my desk and sunk into my comfy office chair. Lilian was still talking. "... and then Harvey told Lola that Jake…" I tuned out again. Turned the computer on. Waited for her to take a breath, asked her for a coffee. "Oh of course! Give me a minute I'll be right back I have so much more to tell you" she said without seeming to breathe, and flew away.
I took the breath she had forgotten. A deep one. I loved my job, but my coworkers were exhausting. Now seemed like a good time to look around me and see if there had been any changes. A new plant in the corner, hopefully an actual plant this time, and the ceiling was now a shade of taupe I could have done without. In other words, we were going to be recruiting soon. They always painted the ceiling before new arrivals. Probably to hide the greasy spots left by the hair of thirty flying idiots who kept bumping into it.
My computer had finally turned on. I entered my password and started checking emails and catching up on the other cases I had pending. Most of them were too young to need my assistance, but it was always worth paying attention. In case I'd need to send someone to play the best friend or something.
I couldn't do it myself in those cases, since I was the actual godmother and would only reveal myself at the very end. Unless the match happened naturally, obviously.
"Tina!" Liliane interrupted my thoughts with a high pitched voice that almost made my head burst. "Here's your coffee. Black, with lots of sugar, just how you like it, weirdo."
What was so weird about black coffee, I would never know. "Thanks, love." I gratefully took the mug from her hands. She had managed to bring an almost full one. "You're getting better at not spilling stuff, well done."
She beamed. She was known throughout the entire building for her habit of never reaching her destination with the amount of coffee she had started with.
"So, Tina! What have you been up to? You never talk about your cases. It's not fair, you know? You're the best, we could learn so much if you just cared to explain!"
I'd never explain. It would ruin the image. The truth was, I tried to meddle as little as possible. That's how I became the best. Let them figure out their own Happily Ever After by themselves. A slight nudge if they're going in the completely wrong way, as young people do, but that's it.
And I chose my cases. I pick the ones that seem to care about the happiness of the child more than about the contractor's personal gain. "I want my daughter to marry this Prince" is not my jam. "I want my son to find love", thatI'll work with. Except for this one, but I hadn't been given a choice. It had been dropped on me after 3 different fairy godmothers quit on the spot, declaring they were going to live in a hut in the woods and never talk about this ever again. As far as I know, they did exactly that. I visited once, they all live together now and they're pretty happy. Until you mention quantum physics.