Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Four — Broccoli & Friends Mercenary Company
Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Four — Broccoli Friends Mercenary Company “You’re all familiar with the harpy delegation that was meant to be at the summit?” Caprica asked.My friends and I all nodded. “What’s going on with that, by the way?” I asked.“The summit? For the moment it has been postponed. We haven’t set any sort of date for the second attempt. It would be a faux-pas to organise something too hastily. I imagine that it will be a few weeks until we start preparing for another summit, this time with proportionately tighter security.”Amaryllis sighed. “And to think I wasted all that time preparing.”Caprica chuckled. “I wouldn’t consider it entirely a waste. Your group left a much better impression on the nobility of Sylphfree than any speech could have.”With a proud sort of huff, Amaryllis gestured for Caprica to continue. “You were talking about the delegation? The airship has been found?”“Not quite,” Caprica said. “We have an idea of where it disappeared, but not an exact location. The army scoured the areas it was supposed to pass through, but nothing was found. Then they expanded their search to other routes the ship might've diverted to — but still, nothing.”“Which either means that the army is incompetent beyond measure, or the ship never made it into Sylphfree in the first place,” Amaryllis said.“Does that mean that it got lost in the Trenten Flats then?” I asked as I tried to remember what Dirt looked like on a map. “Maybe it flew too far east?”“That would be very unlikely,” Caprica said. “The flying east part, I mean. We did receive confirmation of a sighting to the north of the Golden Peak. The path the ship should have taken would have brought it further north, then around through a well-marked passage between the north-western mountains of Sylphfree. But the ship never arrived at the passage, so we now believe it likely disappeared in the territory of the Trenton Flats.”“So you want us to grab the Beaver Cleaver, head out there, and find the ship and all its passengers?” I asked.Caprica hesitated, then nodded. “Essentially, yes. Though there are several details that we’d need to work out beforehand, and I’m not certain if your vessel would be suitable for the quest at hand.”I crossed my arms. “The Beaver’s an excellent ship,” I defended.“I’m certain that it’s a fine vessel. However this quest would require a certain amount of... discretion, which wouldn’t be easy to obtain if you were to just fly in with an airship and start searching for a potential crash-site.”“Ah,” Awen started. “Um, why aren’t the sylph looking? Why send us?”Caprica hummed. “Mostly the issue comes down to politics. The Trenten Flats and the Kingdom of Sylphfree aren’t allies. We’re not enemies either, but things are tense right now.”“Couldn’t you explain things?” I asked. “A whole ship went missing, full of innocent people.”“And politicians,” Awen added.I nodded before continuing. “That should warrant a search by the cervid, right?”“You’d think so, but the Trenten Flats have fewer ships than we do, and they’re older besides— they were outdated when they were first launched. Having Sylphfreean ships roaming above their territory would violate their territorial skies. Asking them to do the work would raise tensions. Besides, we can't rule out the possibility that the Trenton Flats are the reason the vessel is missing in the first place.”Amaryllis sat up straighter. “You think they ... what, shot down the Harpy delegation?”“The delegation was escorted,” Caprica said. “It’s not the case of one ship going down, but several. One vessel having an unfortunate accident is plausible. A small fleet is less so. Had the fleet turned around to return to the Harpy Mountains, we would have heard about it by now.”“So, you need someone real discreet and sneaky to look around the Trenten Flats and find the entire delegation fleet. So, naturally, you thought of me and my friends,” I said carefully. I was pretty sure Caprica knew that... well, I didn’t do sneaky very well.Amaryllis snorted. “We’re the most conspicuous people that have ever set foot on Dirt.”Caprica chuckled. “To be entirely fair, I wasn’t expecting you to go unnoticed. What I’m expecting is that the Trenten Flats won’t know what to do with you. Legally, there is no reason you can’t go sniffing around on your own initiative. Politically, it would be hard to blame any nation for your actions. Amaryllis has a reason to be looking for the delegation, even if she’s not employed by the Nesting Mountains. Awen, Broccoli, you’re both strangers to these parts.”Amaryllis nodded along. She plopped another pastry in her mouth, then chewed and swallowed. “I see what you’re thinking. I can merely claim that the delegation is needed to do its job. Broccoli and Awen can be acting as assistants and companions in my... let’s call it a personal quest to discover what happened to the delegates I had to replace.”“That’s exactly what I was hoping for, yes,” Caprica said.“I’m in,” I said.“We’ve barely heard all the details,” Amaryllis said. “Besides, we need to discuss compensation.”There was a knock at the door to the lounge, and one of the guards reached over and opened it. Somehow, both of them went even more stiff than they had been.The reason why stepped into the room, followed by a pair of paladins who scanned the space as if any one of us might be a threat. “Hi Reggie,” I said to the king.The king grinned and made his way to the seat Caprica was on. She slid to the side, making room for him on the couch as he sat down across from us. “This is a less formal gathering than I’m used to,” he noted.I wasn’t too sure about that. There were nearly as many guards in the room as there were non-guards.“Formality isn’t our strong suit,” Amaryllis admitted.“That’s fine,” the king replied. “I imagine that if Caprica is here, she has highlighted part of the request I had?”“You want us to sneak over to the Trenten Flats and find the delegation,” I said.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!He nodded. “I would have embellished the mission a little more, but essentially, yes. The location of the delegation needs to be sussed out. The sooner the better. The Nesting Kingdom could level accusations against us any day now about their missing diplomats. I’m certain that news of their disappearance has already reached some ears on the Harpy Mountains.”“No doubt,” Amaryllis said. “Are you doing anything to cover it up?”“No,” he said. “Innocence in matters like these can be difficult to prove, but I’ve found that covering up details and masking the truth to make it more convenient only tends to make the actual truth stand out all the more. There are people with skills and classes who are exceptionally talented at discovering and connecting disparate facts together to draw an accurate conclusion.”That sounded really neat. Magic-empowered detectives!“Wait!” I said. “Why haven’t you used those to find the delegates?” I asked.The king grinned. “Clever. But we thought of that already. Our own analysts haven’t discovered the delegation’s trail. We have a few ideas, some theories — it is partially thanks to such analysts that we are confident the delegation vanished outside our territory — but nothing solid. We’ve also tried to scry for their location. The army, as you can imagine, has ample reasons to keep a number of capable scryers around. So far though, we’ve found nothing conclusive.”Awen raised a hand like a schoolgirl asking a question. The king nodded to her, and she asked. “Um. What are the limitations of the scrying?”“I would have a number of generals quite angry with me if I divulged that. Suffice to say, though, that there are issues of range. We cannot, for example, scry from here to the Harpy Mountains. The distance is too great. Nor can we pinpoint a person’s location with great precision. There are spells that will point you towards a person, but they usually have two to three degrees of inaccuracy. Even triangulating from a few stations will point to a large possible range of locations a person could be in.”I nodded along. That explained why they hadn’t found the delegation.“Um,” Awen said. “Wouldn’t that mean that, based on the range, you’d know where the delegation... isn’t?”The king tilted his head to the side. “Yes, we used that to mark out areas where the delegation ships aren’t located. That will narrow down the area you’d need to search.”“Before we agree to all of this,” Amaryllis started. “Is this something you want us to organise on our own?”“I was going to suggest that you team up with a few choice sylph. I believe there are some paladins ready to escort you to the Trenten Flats. I’m afraid the search, once there, will be up to you.”I rubbed at my chin. “We’re going to need to get the Beaver Cleaver closer,” I said. “Not to do the actual search, but if we discover that the delegation left to go somewhere else and we need to chase it down, we need a fast, reliable ship that can do that.” the Beaver wasn’t the fastest ship, but it was very reliable!“That can be arranged. I’ll have someone bring the ship to the capital. If you could write a letter addressing your crew, that would be helpful,” the king said.I nodded along. That made perfect sense.“And now onto the more interesting topic,” Amaryllis said. “Remuneration.”The king chuckled. “How very mercenary. Yes, I wouldn’t imagine giving anyone a quest like this without paying them back. Speaking of which...” he gestured to one of the paladins. The sylph reached under his armoured cuirass and pulled out a lacquered wooden box which he handed to the king. How did that box fit under his armour? Unless the paladin was very, very thin under there. The box seemed heavy, especially as the king placed it on the coffee table with a clunk.The king undid a latch on the front of the box, opened it, then turned it around for us to see.“Three hundred sylph ducats, as promised,” he said.The box had three rows of coins, all neatly placed in groves obviously meant to hold them in place. I reached out and plucked one. It was heavy, which I expected of gold, and about the size of the circle I could make by touching my index finger to the tip of my thumb.I held the coin up before me, face side lined up next to the king’s face. “Were these stamped a while ago?” I asked.One of his eyebrows rose. “Some years ago, yes. Have I aged poorly?”I giggled and shook my head. “No no. But you had more hair once.”“Broccoli!” Caprica gasped.The king laughed. “Yes! I did! My wife reminds me frequently. Mostly I blame my overabundance of daughters.”“Father!”“Broccoli, stop insulting the guy who can chop our heads off on a whim,” Amaryllis said.“Oh, oops. Sorry!” I said before placing the coin back into its box.The king waved the apology away. “It’s nothing. I do own a mirror or two and can see the truth for myself. Now, this is the promised reward for the last task you completed for us. A handsome reward, I’m certain.”I glanced to Amaryllis. I had no idea if this much gold was a lot or not. I figured it was, but my frame of reference wasn’t ideal.Amaryllis caught on to what I was asking with just a glance. “Yes, Broccoli, it’s a lot. The Sylph ducat is perhaps the most valuable coin on Dirt, or at least the parts I’m aware of. It’s pure gold, not mixed with anything else. Three hundred gold is enough to purchase a small house in most cities.”“Oh, that’s nice then,” I said. “We can use it on the Beaver! Make the ship even cooler, right Awen?”“Ah? Yes, I can think of a few modifications that would cost about that much,” Awen said. “A new engine wouldn’t be cheap. But we don’t really need much, the Beaver Cleaver is still very new.”The king cleared his throat. “I’ll let you ladies discuss things further. You’re invited to stay the night, if you wish. Any mission you go on would likely start in the morning. Let Caprica know what you think.”And with that, the king was off, leaving us to make our choice.
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Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Five — Early to Bed and Early to Rise
Chapter Three Hundred and Twenty-Five — Early to Bed and Early to Rise We did end up spending the night at the palace, but only after returning to the inn where our stuff was. I might have been able to clean all of our clothes really well, but my friends still insisted on changing their underthings and taking baths.So we spent the rest of that day walking across Goldenalden, eating at the inn, and generally wasting time and having fun. The weather was nice and chilly, and we even got a flurry of snow that quickly melted away.When noon hit, all of us started to feel really tired, and I think we were reminded that we hadn’t slept at all the previous night.We ended up heading to bed early in one of the guest wings of the palace.I slept like a rock, more or less blacking out for who-knows-how-long, until a knock at the door woke me up.“Miss, I was told by Lady Amaryllis to awaken your group at this hour,” an unfamiliar voice said from the other side of the doorway.I yawned. “Thank you!” I called back.Then, because I could, I stretched my arms and legs out until every bit of me was shivering with tension, then melted back into the floofy mattress. The sylph really knew how to make a good bed.After lazing about for a bit, I rolled over and off the bed. Then I found my things where I’d dropped them on a clothing-chair and got dressed for the day. I found Awen in the corridor, walking the slow shuffle of someone who wasn’t entirely awake yet. “Good morning!” I cheered before giving her a morning hug.“Awa?” Awen mumbled weakly. She stuffed her face against the crook of my neck. “Hmm. Morning.”“Did you sleep well?” I asked as I backed off.She nodded. “I guess so. The bed was nice.”“I know! We should get some for the Beaver. Do you think Caprica would help us grab a few?”“You want to steal beds from the royal palace to put them on our airship?” Awen asked.“Of course not. The beds here are nearly as big as our cabins. We’d need much smaller ones. Besides, stealing is wrong.”Awen nodded along, then stifled a yawn. “Did you see where Amaryllis went?”I shook my head. “Just came out of my room, sorry. Let’s wander around until we find her.”That turned out to be a very inefficient way of finding our harpy friend, though we did end up wandering into that big dining room where we’d spoken to the king the other day. Caprica, her little sister Gabrielle, her bigger sister Stephania, and the queen were all at the table having breakfast.“Hello!” I said. “Good morning, and have you seen Amaryllis anywhere?”Caprica looked up from her meal. It seemed like some sort of porridge with lots of sweet sauce and jam on it. “No, I haven’t,” she said. “But you can wait here. There should be enough for a few more. Unless anyone minds?” She glanced at her family.“Of course we don’t,” Gabrielle said. She grinned and gestured to the seat across from hers. “Come, sit! There’s enough for everyone.”I noticed that they all sat a bit apart from each other, though all four of them also had books and papers out on the table. Stephania was looking over a newspaper and the queen had some reports. Gabrielle was the only one not working while eating.“I’m sure Amaryllis will show up eventually,” Caprica said. She frowned at the breakfast laid out before her. “Should we hide the eggs?”“Ah,” I said. “I guess? I don’t know if Amaryllis is all that easy to offend... well, actually, yes, she is easy to offend, and she did say that eating eggs is quite taboo among the harpy, but I don’t think she’d make a fuss over it.”“Aren’t there eggs used in baking all of our pastries?” Gabrielle asked. “I haven’t spent a lot of time in the kitchens, but I think there are eggs used there.”“Oh,” I said. “Well, I don’t think she’s allergic to them?”I sat down across from Gabrielle and Awen took a seat next to me. She kept glancing at the queen, but the older sylph woman was focused on her paperwork and her jam-covered toast.Caprica gestured to one of the butlers hiding in a nook next to a pillar, and he swept in and swept the eggs away with one hand while laying out fresh plates for Awen and I, with little folded napkins and shiny silverware.Butlers were so cool!“Please, serve yourselves,” Caprica said.“Thank you!” I said before I did just that. Sylph breakfasts were heavy on the bread, pastries and jams, with a few meats here and there that I avoided. I didn’t need a tummy ache so early in the day, even if it smelled nice.“I heard that you went on a big adventure at the Dungeon of the Lullaby Knight,” Gabrielle said. “Was it scary?”I nodded. “Oh yes, very. Some of the floors were easy, but there’s this one floor where you have to cross this room that’s filled with all of your worst nightmares. It was awful!”Gabrielle gasped, hands over her mouth, but for all that, she still looked interested. “But you braved past those, right?”“Yeah!” I said. “Me and my friends are real brave.”“And humble,” Stephania mumbled.“We’ll be putting that bravery to the test later,” Caprica said. “We found a way to carry you to the location of that quest father gave you.”“Caprica,” the queen said. She didn’t look up from her papers. “Is it wise to discuss secretive matters over breakfast?”“Usually, no, but Broccoli can’t keep a secret. All a spy would have to do is ask and she’d spill it all. Besides, we’re in the heart of the palace, if we can’t speak here, then nowhere is safe.”My cheeks, already filled with a mouthful of toast, puffed out. I could totally keep a secret! I... just didn’t have any secrets to keep, was all.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.“How are we going to get to the Trenten Flats?” Awen asked carefully while glancing at the queen.Caprica grinned. “I recall you mentioning that Paladin Bastion-” she ignored Stephania’s snort and Gabrielle’s sigh— “Promising you that he’d let you ride some wyverns. We have some knights who would be more than willing to fly over the Trenten Flats to drop you and your companions over to a predetermined location.”“Oh, that sounds fun,” I said. “Is riding a wyvern anything like riding a dragon?”“You’d have to ask someone who rode a dragon to learn the difference,” Caprica said with a grin. Then her eyes narrowed. “You... don’t know anyone who has ridden a dragon, do you?”I had kind of forgotten that the sylph really didn’t like dragons.That dislike wasn't mutual, though. From what I gathered, dragons loved the sylph, as in-flight snacks.“Of-of course not?” I stammered while cringing away from Caprica’s curious look.“You were right,” the queen said. “She can’t keep a secret.”“She really can’t,” Amaryllis said as she entered the room. She crossed the space, paused to bow to the queen-wait, were Awen and I supposed to do that too?-then continued on and pulled out a seat next to Awen. “What is Broccoli failing to keep secret now?”“Amaryllis! You could have distracted them by changing the topic, at least,” I said.“I didn’t feel like it,” she said. The butler swept by and placed another plate before her, and she started loading it up with things.“I was just telling Awen and Broccoli about our plan to get you to the Trenten Flats quickly. It involves taking a flight of wyverns over the flats.”“Not exactly inconspicuous,” Amaryllis said.“Less so than you’d imagine,” Caprica said. “Wyvern are native to the Sylphfree mountains, but the wild ones range over the flats in search of prey. Seeing a group of them isn’t as common, but it isn’t unheard of. From the ground, it’s difficult to tell that a wyvern has a rider at all.”Amaryllis considered it, then nodded. “That’s one way to make it there. How do we return? On foot? Can we charter a ship back from one of the towns in the Trenten Flats?”“We can give you a magical device to signal us,” Caprica said.“You have long-range magical signalling devices?” I asked. If that was the case, why didn’t they have telephones and the like?“I was thinking of giving you a special banking ring,” Caprica said.Oh! Like the one Amaryllis had that connected to the bank in the Harpy Mountains. That was less a communication device as one that let people teleport things back and forth. I'd consider getting one for myself, but we kept travelling far from any central banks — too far for their limited range.“That could work,” Amaryllis said. “Do you have any more details for us, other than ‘go to the Trenten Flats and find the diplomats?’ That’s a little too vast of a mission for just three people.”“Three very talented people,” Caprica said. “But yes, we have a few potential leads you can follow up on. I’d suggest that you travel to Fort Middlesfaire. It’s one of the many fortress-cities the cervid have built as they pushed north. One of the first ones, actually. From what I’ve read, it’s a prosperous-enough little city now, centering around the fort. There are dozens of smaller towns around it which provide the food and supplies needed for the city to function.”“You think we’ll learn about the expedition there?” I asked.Caprica nodded. “If you ask around, most likely. Fort Middesfaire is a central hub for the region, and an important stop for the trade caravans circling around the Harpy Mountains over land. Keep in mind that most of the trade in the Trenten Flats is done over land. They have long convoys that require frequent stops. Bandits are an issue as well. So traders enjoy having forts less than a day’s travel apart.”Bandits? That sounded awful. And a little exciting.“Don’t worry! I’m sure we’ll make lots of new friends that can help us figure out what happened to the diplomats,” I said.“Your conviction is appreciated,” Caprica said. "The wyverns should be ready to take off within a few hours. I know it’s on short notice, but I think that haste might be more important here than caution.”“That’s okay, we’re always ready for adventure, right girls?”Awen was finally looking awake, and Amaryllis just made a vague so-so gesture in the air.I pouted. So much for that. “Well, I’m always ready, in any case. Just let me get Weedbane and... do you think we’ll have time to prepare a lunchbox or two?”“Of course,” Caprica said. “I’ll have the cooks prepare a meal that you can carry with you. We’ll have some packs with ready-to-eat-meals as well. They’re... frankly barely edible, but they keep for a long time and do provide all of the nutrition you need. Perhaps you can even just bring a normal soldier’s kit with you. It will have everything you need.”“And will paint them as coming from Sylphfree,” Stephania pointed out idly.“Ah, that is true,” Caprica said. “I’m not well-versed when it comes to this kind of subterfuge.”Stephania nodded. “Even Gabrielle is subtler than you.”Gabrielle giggled. “No one expects the Gabquisition!” she said before her giggles cut off with a cough. She still laughed though, even as Caprica patted her back.“Right, once you’re done with breakfast, you can head out to the Wyvern Tower, that’s where you’ll find the wyvern knights and Paladin Bastion, who is no doubt dutifully waiting for us.”“I can’t wait,” I said.Awen and Amaryllis both perked up a little too. I think they were almost as excited to fly on wyvern back as I was!
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