Conor must appear before the The Marchioness before the next full moon after the Winter Solstice and he does… along with his friends, on Saturday night the 7th.

The Lady holds her court in the Nevernever via a secret passageway at the Trees nightclub in Deep Ellum. There’s nothing for it so Conor makes plans to court… minus his favorite hat which he can’t find.

After a dinner at Jaime‘s house… where Conor gets a nervous sensation in the pit of his stomach… the heroes attend court. The various quirks of the Winter Court are fully on display and Elena marks an individual as a target for later, Matthew deals with the advances of a Satyr… Ren is fully swept up in the moment and is happily drawing away… Jaime is tempted by his own particular addiction… and Conor heads down to center stage of the amphitheater and puts on a spectacular performance where he doesn’t even bother to try and hold back any of his Fae nature.

When The Marchioness finally arrives… Conor’s recently EX girlfriend Alex Kross is with her. She calls him to account for his grievous breach of her borders of the Nevernever by allowing mortals to cross (referring to how the team rescued these mortals from the Red Court)… Conor can say nothing, knowing his guilt completely. There is only a handful of means by which he can atone for his breach of her rightful fief and endangerment of secret “supernatural society” in general … payment of fine by service or treasure in some other form.

The Marchioness… supreme in her power and at the height of her season… gives him two options. A year and a day of sexual slavery… emphasis on slavery… or to recover a flower of the Nevernever for her. Knowing that nothing is ever as simple as it seems… Conor agrees to do the latter (a Year-and-a-Day of kinky bondage to a Winter Fae just … not being his thing). However, he discovers the source of his nervous sensation at the pit of his stomach… The Marchioness (apparently with Alex’s help) has cast a spell to claim/steal forever his … erm… virility… should he dawdle in his attempts to recover the bloom (unknown to him, his old lucky hat was stolen by Alex and given to The Marchioness for her “mojo stealing” spell).

Amazingly enough… he agrees to go and recover the flower… quickly.

After a several hour journey through the Nevernever… punctuated by an encounter with a creature of ice in the shape of a living (and deadly) tree… the heroes arrive at their destination. The Demesne of a Centaur who guards a single, solitary, magical bluebonnet. Not just any bluebonnet… THE… bluebonnet. The Nevernever’s reflection of every perfect bluebonnet of every song, every legend, every Texan’s image of self and State identity… yeah… THAT bluebonnet.

After parlay with the centaur… the exchange of a couple of stories and legends… and a sunrise… the Centaur lays down his life after magically creating a single solitary seed and imposing upon Conor a geas… to plant the seed and see that The Marchioness is not the only one to possess The Bluebonnet.

Conor puts the centaur to death and completes his “task” … returning The Bluebonnet to The Marchioness. Then he proceeds to set up a way to grow and protect the seed until it’s mature, he also found a new hat… the Centaur’s old dusty Stetson. Texas claims another immigrant’s heart.

However, 2012 was the year the environmentalists complained; no Lupensis Subcarnosus flowers bloomed in Texas… anywhere.