Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Six - War Talk

Mathilde the scary director dragged us to her office. All of us. The fact that there were only two chairs before her desk didn’t seem to bother her at all. She just sat in the big plush chair across a desk that had more square feet than my room back home. She made herself comfortable, crossed her fingers together under her chin in an arch, then looked towards Emeric. “You begin,” she said.

Amaryllis, Awen and I stood off to one side while all the members of the grenoil exploration party stood off to the other. Emeric stepped up and gave the director a shallow bow, his hands rubbing over the pommels of his swords.

“Do you mind if I give some... perhaps unnecessary details, ma’am, for ze sake of making sure zat we’re all on ze same page?”

“I don’t,” the woman said.

Emeric nodded his thanks. “On arriving here from our last exploration mission to Threewells, master Leonard left our party in order to more properly investigate ze destruction of ze Threewells dungeon.”

I shifted on the spot.

The director looked my way like a cat that spotted a laser pointer. “Do you have anything to say, or are you just fidgeting?”

“Ah, no?” I tried. “I was, um, just curious about where Leonard was?”

“Hmph,” the woman said. “Continue.”

“Yes ma’am. So, as I said, we returned and... I zink we just missed Miss Bunch and her friend departing wiz Lord Bristlecone. Zere were a few missions left in ze books, but one caught my eye. I zink you might have read its report already...”

“Go over it nonetheless,” Mathilde said.

Emeric nodded. “A harpy airship on a return trip to Port Royal noticed a wrecked vessel in ze north of Deepmarsh, or perhaps across ze border into ze Nesting Kingdom. Ze exact location was difficult to pinpoint, but zey reported it anyway. Zen an urgent report came in from Goldenalden about a Sylph ship going missing.”

“So we were tasked with exploring the wreck?” the Director said. “I think at your level in the guild you were to figure out how to undertake the mission yourself?”

“Yes ma’am,” Emeric said. “We questioned ze captain of ze harpy merchant ship about ze location of ze wreck he had seen, zinking it might have been ze Sylph ship. And when he mentioned returning to Fort Sylphrot, I zought it wise to hire him as transport. Ze idea was to retrace ze path his ship took, and hope zat we would find ze wreck again.”

“Clever.”

“Zank you, ma’am.” Emeric said. I saw Arianne stand a little taller at the praise. Had it been her idea? “We did find ze ship, ma’am, ze Bronze Falcon was laying at ze base of a large outcropping from one of ze mountains. We marked its location on a map.”

The director perked an eyebrow. “I would like to imagine you did more than that.”

“Most of my team landed near ze ship. Valerie stayed aboard ze Merchant ship to return to Fort Sylphrot to hire another ship to pick us up in passing. We didn’t know how much time we would spend near ze wreck.”

I saw Valerie crossing her arms. She didn’t look too happy about it.

“On arriving at ze wreck we had to fight off some mountain meeses.”

“At least ze meese meat was nice,” Donat muttered. “Fighting zem wasn’t.”

Emeric coughed. “After clearing ze area and giving ze ship a quick examination to find survivors we set up a small camp. Most of ze bodies... ze meese got to zem. But we found some within ze ship itself. It seems like some of ze crew survived ze crash, but were killed soon after. We found... feathers, ma’am. Harpy feathers.”

“Harpy are the most adept pilots in the sky, why would that be bizarre?” Amaryllis asked.

“Ah, ze crew manifest suggested zat zey were all Sylph. And some of zem died wiz zeir zroats slit.” Emeric sighed. “Ze cargo manifest was also messing some zings. Ze ship had a cargo of documents and some luxury goods destined for ze Sylph embassy in Deepmarsh. Zose were missing. So were some of ze other, more expensive zings in the hold. Ze rest was all cloth and some barrels of alchemical mixtures.”

The Director shifted back. “Anything else?”

“Yes ma’am. Ze crew’s food, we inspected it, in case we could use ze ship’s pantry to supplement our own supplies if Valerie didn’t return promptly. But ze food, a decent portion of it, was poisoned. I’m unfamiliar with ze exact make-up, but Pierre has a skill zat helps with poisons.”

“It was mostly powdered sleep root. Not a poison, exactly,” the ranger said. “But take a bit and you’ll be drowsy. Take a bit for a few days and you’ll be falling asleep in no time. Ze water, wine and flour were all sprinkled wiz ze stuff, so were some of ze ozer foods.”

“What did the captain’s log say?” the director asked.

“Nozing. It was missing along with some of ze maps and such. I zink zey took zings in a hurry.”

Mathilde leaned back. “So a ship carrying important documents from the Kingdom of Sylphfree had its crew poisoned, and was then ransacked. Any signs of a battle?”

“A few? Some of ze crew had weapons out. But most perished in ze crash, I zink.”

“Hmph. Any signs of hooks or grapples? Maybe some signs that another ship was involved.”

“No ma’am.”

The director tapped her arched fingers over her mouth. “That doesn’t bode well.”

Amaryllis swelled up. “It looks like someone is trying to frame the Nesting Kingdom.”

“Trying to frame?” the director repeated. “That’s a strange conclusion to jump to.”

“That’s because you’re missing some facts,” Amaryllis said.

“In that case, do enlighten me, Miss Albatross.”

Amaryllis nodded severely. “I shall. My... party and I have recently returned to Port Royal on business. While investigating something in the Scumways on behalf of a friend, we were ambushed by some low-leveled thugs. Of course we defeated them, and in doing so captured their leader. Awen here tortured some information out of him that I think is quite pertinent.”

“Awa, it, it wasn’t actually torture!” Awen defended herself, but no one listened, so I pulled her into a hug.

“It turns out that the person who set up the ambush went by the name Rainnewt.”

The director sat taller. “The same one who tried to have you kidnapped? Interesting, but I don’t see how this pertains to the situation with the Bronze Falcon.”

“I was getting to that,” Amaryllis snapped. “After we finished with the thugs we continued onto the mansion from which the Morepoles operate. We found a grenoil there called Don Grenoiulle, who—after being questioned—admitted to having worked with a Sylph called Rainnewt to kidnap a Cervid diplomat on Rainnewt’s behalf. They also robbed some of the local nobility.”

“Rainnewt was very much a human,” the director said.

“Yes, I’m certain that the criminal mastermind called Rainnewt who seems keen on kidnapping Harpy nobility is entirely different from the other criminal mastermind called Rainnewt kidnapping cervid nobles,” Amaryllis deadpanned.

The director ‘hmphed’ again, but this time it sounded faintly amused. “I suppose that a link wouldn't be hard to make. And you think this is related to the wreck of the Bronze Falcon?”

“I’m not saying that for certain,” Amaryllis said. “But I will strongly suggest that you look into who, exactly, issued that mission to find the ship within the Exploration Guild. The way the timing seems laid out...”

“It’s possible that it was Rainnewt who set up the mission,” the director finished. She pressed her hands onto her desk and stood up. “I see. Emeric, submit your report to the front desk. Then move your team out to help the city guard with their dragon problem.”

“It’s okay!” I said. “Booksie is looking after Rhawrexdee, I’m sure she won’t let him destroy anything... too expensive. And Cholondee is really busy... uh.” I looked away from the director’s flat gaze. “Taking over the city’s underworld,” I muttered.

“Wonderful,” she said in a way that implied that it was anything but.

I felt my cheeks warming up a little, and Awen’s hand started rubbing my back in little circles.

“Miss Albatross, did you have any plans to stay in Port Royal, or were you returning to Mattergrove, no doubt with the young woman that is certainly not the kidnapped heiress of the human kingdom.”

Amaryllis raised her head. “I think it would be safer for everyone involved if that kind of information was compartmentalized for now. Though I will be writing to my clan to inform them of what is going on. As things are, I suspect that someone is trying to start a war.”

The proclamation made the room go frigid for a moment. The grenoil looked at each other, and I felt myself itching to shift nervously again. Even the director looked unhappy. More so than usual.

“The Exploration Guild will also be sending out official documentation pointing out that someone, or someones, have been interfering with international politics in such a way as to ignite some conflicts,” the director said. “War would be bad for everyone’s business.”

“Thank you,” Amaryllis said. “On that note, I think we ought to be leaving.” The harpy gestured towards the back of the office.

Mathilde looked my way some more, then glanced at Awen for a moment before sighing. “You’re dismissed. Emeric, you and your team as well. I suspect I’ll be quite busy for the next little while, so please try to not do something utterly ridiculous, such as fly into the city on dragon-back.”

“Actually, it’s better if you let the dragon carry you. Flying on their backs is hard because of all the spines and... and I’m going now, bye!” I said before skipping out of the room and away from the director’s gaze.

“Did you really fly into ze city on a dragon?” Arianne asked as soon as we were all in the corridor out of the director’s office.

“No, like I said, we were carried by the dragon.”

“And how did you get a dragon to carry you in its arms instead of in its stomach?” Emeric asked.

“It was easy,” I said. “We gave it dating advice. And also we had a sleepover.”

Donat was staring at us in something that I suspected was awe, but the others were wearing much more incredulous expressions. I don’t think they actually believed me.

“Awa, it’s true,” Awen said. “Um, even if it doesn’t sound that way.”

“It’s okay!” I said. “So, did you guys have a fun adventure?” I asked.

“We did,” Emeric said while Donat shook his head behind him. “The mountains were a bit cold. It’s not that far north, but the altitude will make the air freeze. There’s even smoke when you breathe!”

“Vapour, yeah,” I said. “It can be fun! I love the snow.”

“You love everything, you dimwit,” Amaryllis said.

“Everything deserves to be loved,” I countered with an irrefutable fact.

Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “I think we skipped the introductions earlier. At least, proper introductions. Broccoli’s idea of a greeting is... well, unique.”

I frowned. “I just say hi and ask people to be my friend, what’s wrong with that?”

“All of it,” Amaryllis said. “I’m Amaryllis Albatross, of clan Albatross.”

“Awa, I’m Awen Bristlecone, and I wasn’t kidnapped.”

The grenoil were suddenly paying Awen a lot more attention. “Are you related to Abraham?” Valerie asked.

“Aw, yes?” Awen said. “He’s my uncle.”

Pierre, usually rather stoic, scoffed at that. “He’s a legend, is what he is. You take after him any? Arianne, what’s her class?”

“Pierre, that’s rude,” the mage said. I still saw her eyes dulling for just a moment. She was being sneaky!

I didn’t mind though, I was just happy that some old acquaintances were making nice with my new friends!

***