The Grand Wizard of Many Things, pointing unmistakably at the Concuspidor whilst addressing a broader audience:

...the Jewel from the forehead of the Snow Sphinx of the Crystal Palace of Winter - two years ago - remember that? Just a casket of clear water "because it was diamond ice, which melted on the way back". He got the water from the Ukrig the Spittleseller on the corner of Jug Street in the shadow of the walls of this palace...

...and then the Keys to the Gates of Heaven - summer three years ago - in fact they were the Keys to the Gates of the Shipyards of the desert town of Banakesh, which have been unused since the waters receded and demand dried up over two thousand years ago. The Concuspidor rode the desert on a rental-camel (account still unsettled), and took the keys from the massive, ancient gates, having asked the Gatekeeper, the last remaining Shipbuilder of Banakesh since all the others became nomads when the seas gave up the desert, and who has been kept alive for the centuries only by the faith that one day the waters will rise again and turn the desert back into ocean and revive the business, to fetch him a glass of water. He's still locked in there - he cheated a two thousand and twelve year-old man into looking the other way while he lifted the keys. He whitewashed them to give them that heavenly look before presenting them to the Court...

...the trained giant armadillo for a pet, the one with the big pink bow on it, from the Wet Forests of the Eastern Continent - spring, last year - the one which would obey all commands except "roll over", and could even talk, after a fashion... a settlement for a gambling debt from a wicker-worker, who made the thing, with Cog Cobblescrubber his servant strapped inside it, crawling around the palace for three days, until the unlikely "escape" was orchestrated. Cog left by navigating the drainage culvert, paddling the inverted wicker armadillo costume...

...the Kingdom-wide Domino Championships - autumn, every year for the last five years - ...

[...and so on, for a remarkably long time...]

In the Court of the King & Queen of Stuff
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