RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and y-Four - To the Victor, the Spoils

  I don’t know why, but I sorta expected there to be something after the fight. Maybe not like a party or anything, but at least an opportunity to chat ahe nobles iands above dispersed to talk in clumps, Fransico left after giving Amaryllis a dht mean gre, and then Augustus escorted Caprica out of the arena.

  My friends and I followed after her because there wasn’t much else to do, really.

  Caprica waited for us in the corridor just outside of the arena proper, her guards standingat either end, as attentive as ever. “I suppose that was a grand success,” she said.

  “I hope so,” Amaryllis said. “It’ll mean that, uhe main harpy delegation shows up between now and the summit, I’ll be representing the Harpy Mountains.”

  “You’ll o do more than just show up,” Caprica said. “Do you have a dress for the occasion?”

  “I have something suitable,” Amaryllis said.

  “And do you have ahat assist you at the event itself? A secretary, at the very least. You’ll want to study the reports oher delegations, and you o submit your text, prepare a speech for the opening, a main argument speech, and a closing. The closing speech will be tricky, you want different versions of it to respond to different likely possibilities.”

  Amaryllis huffed. “I know that it won’t be as simple as showing up,” she said.

  “It will certainly not be that simple,” Caprica said. “This summit is supposed to be a grand diplomatic event. Especially between Sylphfree and the Harpy Mountains. The... failure of the diplomatic meeting at Fort Sylphrot is putting even more pressure onto this event to be a success. And I think that your lord Francis isn’t the only one who wishes for war. We have more than a few generals and nobles who would be eager to do more than parade around.”

  I puffed my cheeks out as I let out a big breath. “We’ll have to vince everyo to start anything.”

  “It won’t be easy,” Caprica said.

  “Nothing’s ever easy,” Amaryllis said.

  “Huh?” I asked. “A bunch of things are easy. I guess this might not be one of them, but I’m sure if we share the work it’ll get done!”

  Caprica chuckled. “Well, I suppose at least you won’t have to do all the work on your own. I should have some free time in the ing day or two, maybe I stop by your inn and assist you.”

  I cpped. “That would be super! We could have tea, and have a study session. I’ll have to ask the innkeep if we have more cushions.”

  “Cushions?” Caprica asked.

  “Don’t ence her,” Amaryllis said. She gestured to Caprica. “What about the rest of the day? I ’t imagi’s much ter than noon.”

  Capriced up, towards where I imagihe stage was. “I should rejoin Gabrielle. She mentioned wanting to tour the city a little. She very rarely leaves the pace, and while I’m worried that it might put her health at risk, I don’t want my sister to be raised entirely in isotion.”

  We started for the staircase, back up to the parts of the arena that were better decorated. Amaryllis and Awen surreheir borrowed gear along the way. I had sort of left my bucket and mop behind at some point.

  “You mentiohat Gabrielle is a little sick a few times,” I said. “Is it bad?”

  “It’s not great,” Caprica said. “But it's under trol. Sylphfree has unmatched medical facilities and the best doctors on Dirt. Our medical and healing arts are sed to none, and that’s in rge part thanks to the same affli that Gabrielle has.”

  “Huh?” I asked.

  Capriodded. “It’s not a secret. Quite a few members of the royal family grow up feeble, with fainting siesses or ill-health. In the past a feassed away far too young. I have a great-uncle who poured a siderable amount of wealth into sh up our medical facilities and building great schools to study and experiment with the healing arts.”

  “That seems nice,” I said.

  “He was moved when his sibling passed away from a wasting siess,” she said somberly. “When the schools started paying dividends in the form of a healthier popuce, the military started to see the potential as well. It became... well, suffice to say that in Sylphfree, the most honoured sylph after the royal family are the padins, followed by the brass, and swiftly followed by those who dedicate themselves to medie and healing. It’s seen as a very acceptable alternative to military service, though a costlier one.”

  We made it up to the floor above, and found Gabrielle and the rest of Caprica’s guards waiting there. The girl grinned wide and stepped closer. “You did so well!” she said.

  “We did what we had to do,” Amaryllis demurred. There’s no denying the smug aura arouhough.

  “Would it be insulting if I said that I didn’t expect Caprica’s new friends to be such talented warriors? All three of you,” Gabrielle said.

  I shook my head. “We only barely won, I think. That was tough. If we were actually warriors, then we would probably have done much better.”

  “I’m not so sure of that,” Caprica said. “You all fought in rather strange ways. I’m particurly impressed with Awen’s gss magic. It seems tremendously useful.”

  “Awa? Oh, it’s nothing special. I hope I’ll be able to improve it as we tio level and grow stronger.”

  “So you three really do io keep growing?” Caprica asked.

  I blinked. “Should we stop?” I asked iurn.

  She chuckled. “Most civilians will eventually make it past their first tier if they find something they truly love, and focus on it. I think most of our forces reach the top of their sed tier eventually. But you all sound like you want to go far beyond that.”

  “I don’t see why more people don’t,” I said. “It’s not hard, is it?”

  “It’s time-ing,” Caprica said. “And more importantly, requires that oravels and reaches more and more dungeons, not to mention increasingly dangerous challeo level effitly.”

  “I guess it’s not something for a pt person to do,” I said.

  She shrugged. “It’s admirable that you want to grow more personally powerful, don’t let aell you otherwise. Now, we could stand here and chat, or we could be more effit with our time. Gabrielle, I don’t recall eating out with you in a long time. Would you rather return home or stay with us for a meal?”

  Gabrielle sniffed, eyes rolling ever as she pced her hands on her hips. “Obviously I want to go with you. I’m not twelve, Caprica.”

  Caprica eyed Gabrielle up and down. “I don’t know. The way you were jumping up and down and cheering earlier, I think I could be vio believe that you were.”

  The little sister’s cheeks reddened and her wings fpped furiously behind her. “Capri!”

  Caprica grinned back at us. “We should all go. My treat, to celebrate yrand victory today.”

  “Thank you!” I said.

  Augustus greeted us by the exit. He made sure to shake everyone’s hands and weled us to fight at his arena whenever we wao. Judging by the number of ill milling around, our little fight had attracted a lot of attention.

  I imagihat in a pce like Goldenalden, where royalty was honoured, having two princesses visit someone’s establishment and e out looking pleased would be great for business.

  Caprica’s guards ran out ahead a bit and formed something of a wedge leading to the carriage, that was, until Caprica waved over one of the guards who had more feathers on his helmet. “We’ll walk dowreet a little. Take in the air, window shop, then likely find something to eat along the way,” she said. “Could you do a wide formation, please?”

  The guard bowed, then spun and made a few quick gestures that had the uards dispersing into an even wider .

  Gabrielle didn’t eveo notice all the motion, she was too busy taking ireet.

  It was a bit weird, hanging out with some new friends while being aware from the periphery that we were stantly surrouhe worst thing was that it felt rude not to speak to the guards. Some seemed really nice, and when I smiled at them they smiled or nodded back. They were people too, and they obviously deserved to be befriended just as much as anyone else, but their job got in the way of that.

  “Broccoli?” Awen asked.

  I snapped out of my thoughts and gave her a quick side-hug to tell her I was fine. “So, are we going to get fancy food, or are we going to get fun food?”

  “Fun food?” Gabrielle asked.

  “You mean food we... like?” Caprica asked right after.

  Nothing so simple,” I sniffed very haughtily and as fancily as I could. “Well you see, dear princesses, normal food is just food that’s meant to be eaten, as all food is. It be tasty or not. Fancy food is all about the presentation, being all nid prettiful, but fun food, now that’s food that’s meant to be fun to eat!”

  “Sometimes I wonder how I became friends with you,” Amaryllis muttered.

  Ign Amaryllis' interruption, I went on: "I don't think they have hot dogs or hamburgers here.”

  “You eat dogs?” Gabrielle gasped, hands over her mouth.

  I shook my head so hard my ears sed together. “No no, I’m a vegetarian. Hot dogs are like... sausages pced in this piece of bread, usually with ents on top.”

  "Eating sausages doesn't sound very vegetarian," Gabrielle pointed out.

  "No, they're not for me, I just like them. I wasn't always vegetarian."

  "Oh." Gabrielle gave me a weird look. "So, these hot dogs are basically sandwiches?"

  I held back a pout. “Nevermind that, I’m sure there’s some sort of junk food sold around here. There has to be.”

  “I don’t know. The sylph are notoriously prudish, it’s possible that they don’t like the idea of such frivolous food,” Amaryllis said.

  “We’re not prudish,” Caprica said... prudishly. “I’m sure lenty of fun food.” She waved the same guard captain over, and asked him if he knew where we could find fun food. He looked pletely stumped for a moment, that was, until one of the younger guards cleared his throat and said that there were a few pces some blocks over.

  So off we went, chatting about this and that and nothing at all while pausing in front of windows to stare at the stuff within. I don’t think any of us failed to notice the small ente of nobles snooping about some distance away, tally always going the same ere. I’m pretty sure that most of my friends didn’t notice that the city guard patrolled the same street six times in the space of half an hour. I think they were pretty much just going around the blo a big circle by the end.

  The blocks over had more shops, though they catered towards a less distinguished crowd. The clothes were more utilitarian and , and the things behind the windows had less silver and gold trim on them.

  At long st, we found a restaurant where a very flustered young sylph dy made space for us, then shyly presented us with a menu. There were all sorts of s and sandwiches for sale, usually with goat meat prepared with sweet sauces and a few sads that had more bread and cheese and sau them than veggies.

  We ate, we ughed, aeased each other over every little thing.

  It was o unwind after such a stressful day. And we’d need all the rexation we could get. Things had reached a maximum level of plication, and I had a feeling deep in my tummy that things wouldn’t get any easier for a while.

  ***

  RavensDagger

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