Literature / A Grimm Quest

“Out of curiosity, is ‘Death Wish Day’ a formal or informal guard holiday and why didn’t you tell me everyone would be celebrating it?”

"My granddaughter has taken to the Second Realm, and I need someone to go and retrieve her.”

— Queen Mabrieen to Amy Grimm''

Amy Grimm's dream turns into a nightmare when the star of it, her fairy guard and best friend, Ash Dresden, suddenly bursts open and starts coughing up blood. Her morning does not improve when the two of them find out that Princess Capricorn, the heir of the Mound, has gone on walkabout in the Mortal Realm, and Amy, as the Human Ambassador to the Fey, is being tasked to go find her. It certainly doesn't help that they've been paired with Ash’s long time rival, Remmington, for the duration of their quest and that the two previous guards tasked with this quest, both disappeared without a word.

A Grimm Quest provides examples of:

• Action Prologue: The prologue follows Keriagon right before he’s taken out of commission.
• Aerith and Bob: The Fey names range from Ashling, Remmington, and Piper to Illaca, Tyghanaire, and Echalson. Justified as the Fey have to translate their names out of their own language so humans can pronounce them at all.
• After-Action Healing Drama: During the fight with Mistletoe, Amy is stabbed with a necrotic weapon, and has to be actively healed.
• Archaic Weapon for an Advanced Age: Justified: black powder explodes in magic heavy areas so fairies won’t use guns. Cody gets around this by investing in an electromagnetic gun.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Downplayed, when Amy asks Remmington if he needs to go home which surprises him into getting his temper mostly in check. Played Straight, when Ash asks Cody why he should have revealed a secret that Michelle specifically asked be kept from him.
• Artistic License – Geography: None of the three "Agate" towns closest to Las Vegas have theme parks.
• Artistic License – History: The Grimm brothers were real people, but Jacob Grimm had no children. Also, Charles Perrault was human.
• Big Damn Kiss: Happens in the epilogue.
• Bodyguard Betrayal: The rule that guards are executed if their charges die is a holdover from a previous regime when a guard betrayed his prince.
• Book Ends: The first time Ash and Amy head toward Mabrieen’s throne room, Amy checks in on Ash via sign language, which Piper acknowledges. On their last trip to the throne room, Ash checks in on Amy via sign language, which Cody grumbles about.
• Boring Return Journey: Returning from Nevada to the Mound (located near Bar Harbor in Maine) takes roughly a chapter, as the heroes just get on a plane.
• Both Sides Have a Point: Ash and Amy get into an argument over him hiding that he’ll be killed if she dies. On Amy’s side, she needs to be able to trust him to share information with her, especially if it relates to their survival. On Ash’s side, this isn’t something that either of them can change and he finds the reality of it soothing while he knew Amy would find it upsetting.
• Cast from Hit Points: Discussed with a technique called ‘pulling from the fade”; Ash specifically says that the Fade is not his life; while Amy points out that pulling from it still has the potential to coma/death the user.
• Cast Full of Pretty Boys: Piper has a line about his “normally handsome face”, Keriagon’s casual clothes are dressy enough to confuse Amy, Amy teases Ash about Remmington’s attractiveness, and Ash is so pretty that teen girls can recognize him on sight. Even Kaynick gets a line about his eyes.
• Celeb Crush: A teenage girl fangirling over Ash, is how the group picks up information about Princess Capricorn.
  • It’s also how Amy talks someone into rescuing Tyghanaire.
• Cell Phones Are Useless: Zigzagged; as Amy’s phone is useful (she looks up the time, gets a convenient text message, and calls a cab) until the screen breaks when she falls through a floor. Because her phone is still ON however, Cody can and does still use it to track her. They cannot use any of the phones to call the Mound, however, as everyone there uses messenger orbs and they burned their emergency call saving Tyghanire.
• Cerebus Call-Back: In an introduction to Mistletoe, Ash laughs off her having thrown him into a well as a child. When it’s hypothesized that Mistletoe may be the shadow he rejects the notion on impulse and is obviously terrified.
• The Champion: Seen most prevalently in Ash for Amy, but implied to be a running theme in all guards to their charges.
• Charm Person: The Compulsion spell is revealed to work like this.
• Chekhov's Armoury: Ash and Amy can communicate in fairy sign language. Amy seriously considers not wearing her necklace in the throne room as the chain is made of iron. The fact that Cody wears a bracelet is mentioned in a throwaway line in one of his first scenes. Lillies of the Valley being poisonous to humans is brought up when Ash has to eat a handful of them. Ash not knowing his mother’s name is alluded to once, and outright stated a second time before coming into play at the tail end of the novel.
• Chekhov's Classroom: In chapter two, Amy and Ash discuss ‘tricksy’ magic with Remmington, who is unfamiliar with it, and the ability to pull from the fade is mentioned as being able to coma/death the user. Later Ash pulls from the fade, knocking himself unconscious.
• Clothing Switch: Happens to Ash twice, first when Amy and Remmington dress Keri in his sweatpants, forcing him to go to bed in underwear, and the second time he volunteers his PJ shirt to Amy after her pajamas were destroyed.
• Cold Iron: Seems to be any iron that is solidly iron, and not, say, steel.
• Conditioned to Accept Horror: A large majority of the Guard believe that the law about guards being executed if their charge dies is essential because it keeps “middling” guards from volunteering to protect their charge after their death.
• "Could Have Avoided This!" Plot: Captain Piper calls out Prince Echalson for failing to tell them that Giselle heartlinked Ash and Capricorn; meaning that any attempt to compel Capricorn would have failed until the heartlink was broken.
  • Giselle also calls out Amy for never using Ash’s full name in front of her.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Remmington
• Dance of Romance: Amy and Ash dance together while he looks for a place to place his ward. Amy is visibly attracted to him.
• Disciplines of Magic: The referred to as spheres of magic
• Distracted by the Sexy: Ash, Remmington, and the other dancers on the floor all stop moving when Capricorn takes the stage.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Amy gets very quick flashes of things that will happen to her friends.
• Dream Intro: Chapter one opens up with an Erotic Dream Amy is having about Ash.
• Dream Tells You to Wake Up: More specifically, [[Dreamwalker Giselle]] tells Amy to wake up. She also helps Remmington wake up and is implied to have woken up Cody at one point.
• Everyone Can See It: Implied with Ash and Amy
• Faerie Court: The Mound, which serves as home for all the main characters including Cody, by the end of the story.
• Flowers of Romance: Subverted; Ash does bring flowers right after a fight with Amy, but they’re to heal Keriagon, not make up with her. Later played straight; when he shows up to escort her to a ball, and gives her the white rose from his lapel.
• Glamour Failure: When Ash adds Cody’s Ka-bar to his knife belt, he has to make it look like a magic trick to hide the knief’s presence
• Hiding Behind the Language Barrier: Remmington regularly speaks in Feenrede and Ash in French; neither of which Amy knows.
• Flashback Nightmare: Dresnik’s assassination attempt on Amy
• Hold Your Hippogriffs: “Third Realm Spur…” loosely correlates to “Heaven help…”. “Third Realm Blessings” is a little closer to “Thank Goodness”, while “like a gift from the Realm Beyond” is “like hell”. Ash also has a habit of using “drunk” when he means upset.
• Immortal Procreation Clause: The Single-Target Sexuality that is Lifemates may play into this. If you only ever get one lifemate as a species, then you don’t tend to produce a lot of children outside of those unions.
• Impeded Communication: The villains actively steal the heroes messenger orbs to screw with their ability to contact the Mound
• Innocent Cohabitation: Ash and Amy share an apartment at the beginning of the story as guard and charge.
• Innocently Insensitive: Remmington calls Ashling “Dresden”, prompting more than one fight unintentionally until Amy explains how a lot of the fey will use Ash’s last name as an insult.
• Interspecies Friendship: Amy and Cody are human; Ash is half human; Remmington, Keriagon, and Capricorn are full-fey.
• Interspecies Romance: Ash is the product of one and ends up in one himself.
• It May Help You on Your Quest: Ash packs a med-kit in case Amy needs it.
• It Seemed Trivial: When the group is trying to rescue Capricorn from Kaynick Cody wants to know why no one brought up Princess Sepia previously as a potential instigator, and is dismissed by the rest of group with statements of Capricorn’s immunity, Sepia’s powers, and Piper’s willing to kill her if she pulls anything.
• Last-Minute Hookup: Two couples get together in epilogue; each one signified with a Big Damn Kiss.
• Long-Lived: The fairies can and do die, they just have much longer lives with Proportional Aging
• Made of Magic: The Magic Realm is implied to magical in and of itself considering that it consumes the rejuvenating powers from milk that gets to close to it
• Make Them Rot: Necromagic, which can only be cured in one of two ways, is this.
• Men Use Violence, Women Use Communication: Downplayed bordering on justified in the main trio, as Ash and Remmington are fairie guards whereas Amy is a human diplomat.
• Martyrdom Culture: Downplayed. None of the named guards seem to be death seekers but the majority of them support an execution law, referring to it as an honor, with the implication being that most guards view the law as such.
• Mildly Military: The guard; which Ash and Remmington both belong to, seems to do everything from body guarding to protecting the Mound. They accept teenagers as trainees, have some form of tattoo or branding that can be located anywhere on the body, and a mostly unexplored structure of which collecting and maintaining a charge seems to be the “pinnacle achievement”. Ash operates as an independent agent and seems to report directly to Captain/Guard Marshall Piper, while Remmington is part of an independent team with Tyghanire at its head.
• More Insulting than Intended: Amy calls Ash 'Harbinger' knowing it will hurt him, but doesn't know why it's traumatizing for him.
• Morning Routine: Amy wakes up from a nightmare, gets dressed, feeds Sir Plank, and starts breakfast, with small indicators on how the morning differs from her typical routine.
• Narrative Filigree: A number of conversations exist solely to round out the characters or setting, and have nothing to do with the plot. I.e. Ash’s room is apparently painted lavender because Amy picked the color.
• Narrative Profanity Filter: Ash and Remmington tend to swear in Feenrede; so Amy doesn’t know the exact word, but nor does she need a translation.
• Omniglot: Amy and Cody were taught German and Irish as part of her Ambassador training; and Amy has picked up a sign language from Ash.
• Our Fairies Are Different: Humanoids from the Magic Realm, with long life spans, macroevolution, and magic.
• Poirot Speak: It’s noted that all of the fey have the occasional mis-translations, and that Amy is largely used to it. Ash, especially, is noted for throwing his adjectives behind his nouns rather than in front.
• Proportional Aging: Discussed. Ash ages faster than the fey; but slower than humans. (Amy notes that he’ll be middle aged when her grandchildren are taking over for her.)
• Poor Communication Kills: The whole novel really; but special mentions go to his Highness, Prince Echalson, and to Giselle and Amy as a pair.
• Realistic Diction Is Unrealistic: Not super abundant, but the several characters ‘uh’ as well as go off on tangents.
• Say My Name: Amy screams Ash’s name while he’s in combat, and Remmington screams hers as he’s chasing her.
• Scars Are Forever: Played With; Healing magic seems to overall prevent scars from being left, but once a scar exists, it stays. This causes Amy concern when some of Ash’s scars are missing in her dream.
• Second-Hand Storytelling: Ash relating what the fairies know of Stephan Grimm’s death.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Ash pulled from the fade to teleport himself and Remmington to Cody’s truck because Remmington, who can’t read fairy sign, called his attention to the fact that Amy was trying to sign to them, and Ash saw Keri’s shield drop. Amy had been signing, “Stay. We'll come to you.”
• Shirtless Scene: Remmington has one, Ash has several.
• Sleep Deprivation: While Amy and Remmington both show signs of irritability, Ash gets the worst of it as he’s the only driver for the first third of the book, resulting in him picking a fight with Remmington and forgetting to set his wards.
• Single-Target Sexuality: Although Amy uses the phrase One True Love, there are implications that a Lifemate is closer to this.
• Signature Scent: Each fairy smells like something that ‘isn’t food’ to non-fairy omnivores, scavengers, and carnivores
• Superhuman Transfusion: Ash breaks Cody's arm, bleeds on him, then wards their blood to give Cody his immunity to Compulsion.
• Switching P.O.V.: While the majority of the story is told from Amy’s point of view, the prologue is told from Keriagon’s, and Ash, Remmington, Cody, and Capricorn each get a chapter as well
• Tableau: In Amy’s Flashback Nightmare, the dream starts off with her frozen in place, ‘like an actor on stage waiting for the play to begin’.
• Unreliable Expositor: The heroes reiterate a piece of misinformation multiple times to Cody before they finally uncover the truth of what happened to Capricorn.
• Unresolved Sexual Tension: There are early hints of both Ash’s and Amy’s feelings for each other. Ash’s are usually marked by him pulling away, Amy’s tend to be marked by her sudden hyper-focus on Ash.
• Vagueness Is Coming: The “Ominous Limerick” may count, as its meaning isn’t clear until near the end of the novel.
• With a Friend and a Stranger: Amy and Remmington aren’t total strangers, but they are little more than acquaintances at the start of the story; vs Ash and Amy who have been companions for seven years; giving off shades of this before Keriagon and Cody join the quest
• Would Hit a Girl: None of the male guards show any reservations about hitting women( or ellas), but a special mention goes out to Remmington who outright clotheslined Ringalay.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Deconstructed: When Amy is crying over Ash’s injuries and how useless she’s been in combat, Keriagon doesn’t compliment her so much as points out that no one expects her to act like a guard when she’s a diplomat.