Follow up: Notes on the Courts.

So let’s follow up.

On Labor Day, Chicago changed from Summer to Autumn. There was no progression, no development. The wall of sick heat transformed into a soft breezy chill. I take it as a good sign. The Courts aren’t having problems.

You may have heard mention of the Courts in Tery’s Tweets. They will appear again. It would be easy to say that they are the powers behind the powers, and that they pull the strings in the city. The Courts would love for me to say this as well. Their vanity is legendary. The power of the city, however, begins with the mortal families. They stole the land, they built the city, and it was their dreams and ambitions that brought the Courts over.

The Court (for back in the day, it was just one) is an immigrant culture. Thousands of years ago, it was an invading culture, which is a sort of forced immigration, I guess. But through force, through guile and through craft, we repelled these creatures, forcing them to retreat to deep woods, dark pits, and high mountains. Over time, the guilt of our victory turned into a nostalgia, and we came to cherish these creatures. Although many of the stories contained warnings.

They’re not local. I have to stress that. The local folk are still about, although in the states they’ve been nearly wiped out. The locals you see in the trees and in the streams are likely imports as well, coming with on the same boats that brought in people from Europe and china. But the Court was brought to Chicago as well as all the art and architecture, for one purpose. To make a slaughterhouse look pretty.

It worked well. From the late 19^th century to the 1930’s this city was flush with magic. The Schools of Sacred Architecture built the new towers, and crafted a city out of mist and imagination, bolstered by the raw natural power of the Court to hold it in place. The Columbia exposition was a bridge between realms for a time, and nothing felt out of place. Like any great magical endeavor, it was tremendous in both execution and destruction. Power enough to bring forth a dragon, but not to keep her chained.

The recriminations after the ashes of the white city fell were terrible. A School was deposed (as it had deposed another), and the factions of the court began to scheme and plot amongst themselves for complete control of the city. Daleys and Dillingers sought to aid them, with blood compounding on blood.

Sometime after Daley imposed his will, and mapped the city according to his own design, the courts sought a limited peace. There would be an ascendance each season. Each of the factions would have its time in the sun. Each staked a claim in places of focus for people’s spirits. Winter Spring, Summer, Fall. Tala, Math, Branwen, Eamon. The Field, The Wrigley, Lincoln Park, and Graceland. And they are with us still.

Autumn began on Labor Day.