Long-Arm Jack

Long-Arm Jack is the unusually-honorable Other who lives within the Hardscrabble Home, a pitiless wilderness where his servants work.

Description
"This once, this once believe when someone rescues you from the blizzard, from the rock-fall, from certain death. This once, the fairy tale has a happy ending."

Long-Arm Jack collects the Lost. He wanders one stony edge of Arcadia, huge sack tossed over his shoulder and detailed knowledge of every crack, cave and goat path on his land. His domain is a harsh one, with few inhabitants, but he’s caught many new residents over the years. The isolation of his realm keeps away his neighbors — few Fae trouble themselves with Jack’s barren kingdom. Hunting parties must ask his permission to catch prey, and he takes trespassing by other Gentry very poorly. He’s a peculiar one among the Fae — not kind, but bound by his word, and not as hesitant to give his word when it suits him.

His Changelings
Many of his servants are changelings fled from crueler masters. Those who plead mercy from Long-Arm Jack, and swear seven years of service to him, are promised refuge from Fae hunters. Those who serve him well, and loyally, may find themselves gifted with tokens of endurance or, better yet, be released from their oath at the end of seven years. Long-Arm Jack thinks nothing of extending seven years into seven times seven, or then taking that another sevenfold… but sometimes he stops at seven. Those who try to shirk this duty and leave early, though — they go into Jack’s bag, and that’s the last anyone hears of them.

Farwalkers patrol the high mountains of Jack’s domain, searching for other Lostlings, giving them shelter, leading them to Jack. Cyclopeans maintain Jack’s prized fruit trees, and may have a chance to shake off their old habits of cruelty and cannibalism under his rule. It’s a risky service; those who wander the Hardscrabble lands for Long-Arm Jack make enemies as well as friends. The work is backbreaking, and ultimately they’re at the mercy of a pitiless Other for their freedom. But those who serve Long-Arm Jack can still hope for freedom someday.