Portia Jessup is a fawn Pooka Childling in the Barony of Silver Lakes in the Kingdom of Grass.
Overview[]
The Baroness of Silver Lakes, in Monona, Wisconsin, had a problem shortly after the end of the Accordance War. Most of the commoners in her fief accepted the terms of the Treaty of Concord and settled down under her stern but prosperous rule. Then there were a few, mostly satyr and pooka childlings, who wouldn't stop making waves. Calling themselves the Tumbleweeds, they cast wayward cantrips and went to great lengths to disrupt the normal activities of the baronial court. Of course, they stopped short of making Ilyria ap Gwydion, the Baroness, look bad, but they held nothing else sacred. No minor disciplinary measure worked and, finally, the baroness had had enough. It may have been an overreaction, but she chose one of them, a small, delicate pooka named Portia, to stay in Silver Lakes; the rest she shipped of to court in the neighboring Duchy of Plums, about 10 miles away. (She didn't want them separated from their mortal parents, after all.) The Tumbleweeds were stricken with the thought of leaving Portia behind in the hands of the supposedly evil Baroness; their behavior improved a great deal in their new home, however. Portia, meanwhile, was a little scared of being the sole Tumbleweed in Silver Lakes. She didn't realize that hurting her would be the last thing on earth Ilyria would do. The pooka still keeps in touch with her motley through her pet chimera, a butterfly-sized deer fly that talks incessantly and is a general pain.
Things have recently gotten much more interesting for the childling. First, she's close to entering her wilderhood; the sweet summer of her life. Second, her friends in the Duchy of Plums, which is centered in Madison, Wisconsin, have been using her to get information on the Baroness; they have entered into the employ of the Duke, a man named Ashana ap Eiluned. Portia has no idea that her friends have been delivering all her innocent gossip about Ilyria straight to Ashana's pointy ears. While she could become a willing accomplice, right now she's more use to the Duke as an unknowing spy. If something were to happen to Portia, it would break the Baroness' heart.