Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty-Six — Draw the Party Line
Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty-Six — Draw the Party Line “Thank you,” Caprica said to a nice sylph who came by and placed a tray of little finger foods onto the table in the centre of the room, right where everyone sitting around it could reach.The young sylph’s face went red and he bowed towards Caprica twice before scampering out of the room.“Are they all like that?” Amaryllis asked as she looked over the contents of the plate, then picked out one of the snacks.Caprica sighed. “They are, yes. The sylph in Port Royal are only a small minority of the city's population, most of them come from Sylphfree and work with or around the embassy. I’m worried that they’ve made themselves somewhat insular, and they seem to basically worship the royal family.”“You’d think being separated would dull the fanaticism,” Amaryllis mused.Booksie shook her head. “That’s not how it works. At least, from what I’ve noticed myself... usually in books. But you see it a lot in Port Royal. There are a lot of little areas in the city where people from different places all group up. They tend to almost exaggerate their home culture. There’s a Pyrowalkian block that sells a lot of stuff from back home, for example. I think maybe it's something like homesickness, or perhaps being surrounded by foreigners causes them to idealise their homeland.”“I think it’s something like that,” Caprica said. “The sylph here are more loyal to Sylphfree’s royalty than the royalists back in the capital. Which wouldn’t be any sort of problem if I wasn’t right here. I swear, I’ve only been here for a few hours, but I suspect that the average sylph here thinks that I can do no wrong.”“Then why were you kidnapped?” I asked.“Kidnapped? No, they’re ‘keeping me safe’ against my own will. It won’t last. The moment I put a foot down they’ll fold.”“Does that mean that they won’t tie you up and drag you back home?” Awen asked.Caprica blinked, then parsed the question. “I think I’ll be fine,” she said. “If anything, we have staunch allies while we’re here. I just can’t overstay my welcome.”“What’s that mean?” I asked.“It means that if... no, when, news that I’m here reaches the capital, they might... kindly ask the local embassy to tie me up and drag me back home, as Awen so eloquently put it. They might even listen. The sylph here are enamoured with royalty, but the ambassador has a good head on his shoulders.”“Will we need to sneak you out of here?” I asked in a low whisper so that only my friends would hear.“After I’m done with these,” Calamity said as he plucked another canape from the plate.“No, I should be able to just walk out. Now, whether they’ll send an entire escort with me or not, that’s up for debate,” Caprica said. “In any case, I don’t intend to spend the rest of the day here. I’d be far more comfortable sleeping in the Beaver than here.”I smiled. Having Caprica feel like the Beaver was home made something nice and warm glow within my chest. It was home to me too, but home was mostly about the friends and family you had than about the place itself. “I’d like it if you were at the Beaver too.”“Then it’s settled,” Caprica said with a decisive nod. “We’ll head back to the Beaver. At least, once we’re done with this plate, which shouldn’t take long.” She looked pointedly at Calamity, who was stuffing his face again. He shrugged innocently.“The tea is nice, at least,” Booksie said.“Oh, right, Booksie will probably want to go home too at some point,” I said. “And we have a heap of other things to do as well.”Amaryllis nodded. “Awen needs her parts, and we need to visit the Exploration Guild, there are papers to fill.”“Should we split up?” Caprica asked. “I’d love to spend some time with you, Booksie. Broccoli told me a bit about you, and I’d be remiss not to make friends while I have the opportunity.”“Ah, are you certain?” Booksie asked. “I’m just a bookshop bun, nothing too special. You’re an actual princess.”Caprica snorted. “Nonsense. Trust me, I need to make as many good friends as I can while I can. My past will catch up to me eventually, and then I’ll be dragged back to Sylphfree and probably watched over like a stray dragon for a while.”I grinned. It was nice seeing Caprica so eager to make more friends, although it could be hard to make friends so quickly and effortlessly. I was working really hard on that and was still a ways away from being good at it.“Actually,” Amaryllis said, and there was a definite note of scheming-ness in her tone that immediately worried me. “This could be an opportunity.”“Oh?” Caprica asked. She had the same note in her voice, which only worried me even more.“What are you thinking?” I asked.“Well, Caprica’s embassy here has a lot more manpower than we have, and we just happen to have a monumental task ahead of us that we haven’t even started working on,” Amaryllis said.“The assassins?” Booksie asked.I’d hoped that she had more or less forgotten about that. I felt guilty bringing it up already, it was a worry on top of all the rest of the worries she had to deal with.“Exactly,” Amaryllis said as she gestured towards Booksie with a wing. “We’re just one airship crew. We can hardly be expected to scour a city the size of Port Royal to discover where a bunch of ne'er-do-wells are hiding and plotting. The embassy, on the other talon, is filled to the brim with overeager sylph. I peeked a little at your guards. Some of them are in their second tier. They’ll be pretty talented when it comes to spotting danger, and they’ll have training that we lack besides.”“That’s certainly an idea,” Caprica said. “But with the normal levels of animosity between the sylph and the average dragon, it’ll be hard for me to ask them to essentially foil a plot that goes against the local dragons.”Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.“Even if that plot is meant to start a super big, really bad war?” I asked.Caprica frowned and rubbed at her chin. “This is the same plot that set off those pirates to the north and which attacked the diplomatic mission heading to Sylphfree. And our airforce did participate in a raid against them already. I suppose we’ve laid down some precedent for us interfering.”“Alright, we'd be happy to have the hel ... wait.” I frowned. “Is this even a good idea? The sylph have an embassy here, but they don't have jurisdiction, right? They're not the city's law enforcement. I'm ... guessing they can't just go stomping around looking for bad guys, right?”Caprica shrugged. “It’s basic espionage. They should have plenty of experience with it here.”“Should you be admitting that?” I asked.Caprica rolled her eyes. “Of course not. But I expect all of you to be at least a little discreet about it. Besides, the embassy and its staff would just deny anything if asked.”“Can you get them to report to you?” Amaryllis asked.“Yes... maybe,” Caprica said. “Technically we’re both in entirely separate chains of command. The head ambassador of the embassy doesn't have to obey me, same for the chief of security. But I suspect that they’d both at least listen if I asked.”I wasn’t sure if it was okay or not to use Caprica’s influence to help, but if no one helped, then it would be much, much harder to catch any bad guys, and some pretty terrible things could happen. Booksie’s special day might be ruined! We had to do what we could to help!“It’ll take me a while to talk the head ambassador around. The chief of security will jump on this. I think he finds this posting to be something of a dead end,” Caprica said. “I think I’m going to miss out on visiting the Exploration Guild tonight.”“Oh no,” I said.Awen shook her head. “We shouldn’t go today anyway,” she said.We all turned towards her, and she shrunk back a little.“Uncle’s there. It’ll take him at least one day to tell all the stories of the things he’s been up to,” Awen said. “If we got there now, it’ll still take until tomorrow, at least, before we get anything done.”“So, we can put that off until tomorrow,” I said with a nod. “Should we shop for Beaver parts, then? I’m sure the sooner we have those, the sooner we can start fixing the ship up! Oh, and some parts might need to be ordered or custom-made! That’ll take even longer.”“That seems like a sensible choice,” Amaryllis said. “How about you take Booksie to see the Beaver and get those parts. I’ll stay here with Caprica and help her with the politics. If you don’t mind, that is?”“I wouldn’t mind at all,” Caprica demurred.Calamity yawned. “I’ll come with ya, Captain. Need to walk off all of this food.” Saying that, he reached over and plucked another canape.I nodded along. I was trading one friend for another. Temporarily, at least. “You’ll meet us back at the Beaver?” I asked Amaryllis.“Later, yes. I’ll try to drag Caprica back too, if I can,” she said.I didn’t like splitting up much, but it wasn’t like I had too much of a choice. And besides, it would be much easier on Booksie to make friends a few at a time, instead of having us all there at once.“I’m looking forward to seeing your ship, Broccoli,” Booksie said as she jumped to her feet. “And it was nice meeting you, Princess Caprica.”“Just Caprica to my friends,” Caprica said. “And I should be seeing you later. Hopefully in a less formal environment.”Calamity stood up too, stretching his arms over his head before he plucked his hat from the back of a chair and stuffed it onto his head.Caprica escorted us into the entrance hall, and I noticed the embassy staff standing at attention as she led us to the exit. Since we were splitting up, it was as good a time as any for goodbye hugs. Amaryllis fussed, of course, but she gave in to nuzzles and hugs soon enough, then it was Caprica’s turn. I couldn’t decide if the guards were envious of Caprica hugs or if they were about to jump in and toss me back into that cell.“You two will be alright without us?” I asked.“I’m more worried about you,” Amaryllis said. She handed me a small pouch that clinked metallically. “That’s our repair budget. Don’t go over it. Collect receipts and invoices. Let Awen do any negotiating.”Caprica chuckled. “Listen to your first mate, Broccoli; she knows what she’s doing. And don’t worry about us, we have an embassy full of sylph to keep us safe.”“I will, but you keep safe anyway, Caprica,” I said before giving her an extra bonus hug.We left the embassy, and I could feel the eyes of the guards on us until we crossed the gates and were on the street.“Alright, so, where to?” Calamity asked as he tilted his head back.“Awen knows what we need, more or less,” I said with a nod to Awen. I reached into a pocket and tugged out my notes. “And I have a list right here. Some of these things aren’t for the repairs though.”Booksie let out a long breath. “That was intense. Do you always have so much going on?”Calamity laughed at that and started walking backwards with his hands folded behind his head. “You have no idea, little bun. By the way, who is she?”“This is Booksie! Didn’t I tell you about her? Oh! Booksie, in case it wasn't clear, this is Calamity! He’s our... hmm, I guess he’s our ranger specialist? Hunter?”“I’m the pretty one in the crew,” Calamity said with a wink and a grin.Booksie shook her head, but she was smiling. “I think I see. Anyway, I don’t know too much about airship parts, but I do know Port Royal pretty well. I can lead the way, if you want?”“I’d love that,” I said.
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Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty-Seven — Daytrip
Chapter Four Hundred and Thirty-Seven — Daytrip Booksie ended up spending the night on the Beaver with the rest of us. Not that it was quite that simple.When we arrived, arms loaded up with boxes of stuff that Awen had picked out, we discovered that we had been followed. At some point, some local grenoil had taken to tailing us across the city. Calamity was the first to spot them, but there wasn’t much we could do. They’d hop away if we approached them and they generally kept out of the way.At the Beaver, the grenoil gathered along the pier, some of them sitting on crates that were stacked up there, others just milled about on the edges.I helped my friends and Booksie set down the things we’d bought so that Awen could sort through it all, then I went to check up on the grenoil.At first, they tried to casually move away from me, but the ones sitting on the crates were at the end of the pier, and it was easy to stand in their path, hands on my hips and my most fearsome pout on display to keep them rooted in place. “Hello,” I said. “I’m Captain Bunch, of the Beaver Cleaver, and I’d really like to know why you’re all sitting around here.”Two of the grenoil looked at each other. They were younger, I noted. Maybe in their early to mid teens, about the same age as the Scallywags, though they were, of course, a lot froggier. “I don’t know if we’re supposed to say,” one of them hedged.“It’s okay,” I said. “I just... well, we’re a little bit worried, is all.”The young grenoil rubbed his chin, then shrugged. “Ze great and all-powerful dragon, Cholondee, mistress of Port Royal and scourge of ze docks...” He made a few rolling gestures with his wrist, as if to say ‘and so on and so forth’ before he continued, “Has tasked us with keeping an eye on miss Booksie.”“Oh,” I said. These were probably some of the ruffians that Cholondee had recruited into her sorta-gang, then. “Well, Booksie’s nice and safe on the Beaver.”“You say zat, but we heard zat she was kidnapped by the sylph,” he said, his big eyes narrowing. “New travels fast in Port Royal.”“That was mostly a misunderstanding,” I said. “Did you want to talk to Booksie? Wait, does she know that you’re following her?”The grenoil looked at each other again, then shared a few shrugs. “I don’t zink so,” he admitted. “But zat’s not our problem. Cholondee, ze all-powerful, most beautiful, etcetera etcetera, said zat we need to keep an eye on her.”I rubbed at my own chin, the same way the grenoil had done. “Well, alright, if Chlondee says so, then I guess it’s not so bad. She’s just looking out for a friend. Do you guys need anything? Blankets, food?”“We... are okay?” he said.“Okay then!” I said with a clap. As long as they were comfy, then it was alright. I didn’t really mind that Booksie had some people watching out for her. If anything, it was probably a bit of a comfort. If anyone tried anything, there would be some nice locals there to help her in a jiffy.I returned to the Beaver after saying my goodbyes, then I checked up with the crew that had stayed behind.As it turned out, the Port Royal docks were very busy, which meant that there were all sorts of businesses running out of the docks. One of those was a service where some enterprising grenoil pushed around carts loaded up with local foods and sold them to the sailors stuck on board their ships.The Scallywags had met one of those earlier, and had loaded up on Port Royal delicacies. That was probably for the best, since I hadn’t refilled the pantry yet!The evening was nice. We showed Booksie around the ship, then I had the fantastic idea of hosting a sleepover, even if we had rooms to spare. Amaryllis and Caprica returned just in time to squeeze into the pillowfort Awen had erected within the dining room. Amaryllis, of course, thought that this was the height of silliness, but she flumped down onto a pillow herself and was soon wrapped up in warm blankets that muffled her complaints.The next morning, we woke up ravenous.“We have nothing to eat,” I complained as I looked into the pantry.That wasn’t entirely true. We did have food, the problem was that it was all canned stuff and I wasn’t in the mood to eat that so early in the morning. We were definitely out of fruits and veggies though. I discovered a lost and forgotten potato at the very back of the pantry that had tried to turn into an eldritch abomination of seeking roots and which was probably not edible anymore.“So, that’s the plan for today, then,” Amaryllis said. “We need to get supplies, and visit the Exploration Guild. And I imagine Booksie would like to get back home at some point.” She squirmed out of the eastern wing of the pillow fort, which had unfortunately taken some damage over night as it was sieged in our sleep and assaulted by stray arms and legs. “Also, someone needs to put this mess away.”“Who’s staying on watch?” I asked. “I did promise the crew that we would be letting everyone have some fun in Port Royal.”“Ah, I want to come, if that’s okay?” Awen asked. “To see Uncle again, if that’s where we’re going.”Amaryllis nodded. “I basically need to come, otherwise you’ll get yourselves into all sorts of trouble.”Booksie smiled, but shook her head. “I need to get back to my shop,” she said.“I’ll escort you over,” Caprica replied. “I think the Scallywags wanted to head out today. If they don’t mind escorting Booksie home first then I can play babysitter with them.”This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.I nodded along, that made sense. I didn’t want to send out any of my friends all on their own, but all of my friends were independent, and I couldn’t be with everyone all the time. The next best thing was making sure that everyone at the very least had a buddy.Caprica with the Scallywags, to watch over them and make sure they didn’t get too excited, and for them to help if Caprica got involved in something political again, and I could go with Amaryllis, Awen and probably Calamity to the Exploration Guild headquarters in the centre of the city.“The buddy system wins again,” I said.“What are you on about?” Amaryllis asked.“Ah, nevermind,” I said. “We should mark out a few places to meet, in case we get lost.”“Obviously the Beaver should count as one of those,” Amaryllis said.“And my shop,” Booksie added. “It’s a nice place. If any of you, or the other crewmates, gets lost, I can always make room for one more for the night. I have couches and blankets to spare.”I nodded along. “That’s a good start. There’s the Rock Inn and the Roll Inn. They’re right next to each other. I stayed there for a while, and the owner, Julien, was a very nice grenoil. It’s close to the centre of the city, too, and I bet the locals will know where it is if anyone asks.”“Ah, and the Exploration guild,” Awen said. “We’re not all members, but as long as one of us is, it should be alright to go in?”We split up soon after, giving everyone time to use the washroom and in some cases change into something different for the day out. I changed back into my usual gambeson and gear, though I decided to leave my breastplate and other armour behind. I didn’t expect to run into any trouble in Port Royal, so the extra weight would just be senselessly exhausting.The Scallywags were anxious to depart once everyone was on the topdeck, so I gave everyone their goodbye hug and told them to be safe while Amaryllis shared everyone’s pay out.Once Caprica was gone with the Scallywags, I asked Clive to keep an eye on the ship, then it was our turn to head out.The Exploration Guild was nestled on a street on the western end of the city, not too far from the docks, but a bit higher up the mountainside. The way the roads were laid out meant that we actually had to move deeper into the city before circling back and up. It at least gave us a chance to stretch our legs and wake up properly.We also discovered early morning food peddlers all over the place. “I love this city,” Calamity said as he came away from one cart with a pair of skewers with little blocks of steaming meat on them.“It’s nice,” I agreed. “It’ll be a nice spot for Booksie’s wedding, I hope.”“Oh, I’m looking forward to that,” Calamity said.“Because of the food?” Amaryllis asked.“Because of the food,” Calamity agreed.I rolled my eyes (because Amaryllis did it, and it looked fun) but didn’t poke any fun at Calamity. If he wanted to obsess over new foods to eat, then that was up to him.We actually got lost a little while searching for the Exploration Guild, but I figured that was just part of the fun of walking around and exploring. Next time we wouldn’t get lost as easily because we’d seen a little more of the city.Guild Row was one of the main streets in the upper parts of Port Royal. It was built at a fairly steep angle, so each step really worked on one’s calves. Colourful buildings lined both sides of the road, some decorated so that anyone looking at them could guess at which guild they belonged to.The culinary guild had pillars that looked like utensils, and the Courier’s guild had a semaphore tower poking out of the top of it.The Mage’s Guild, of course, had a bunch of floating pillars and little balls of glowing magic. I’d been very impressed when I’d seen it for the first time all those months ago. Now I recognized the spells and was even more impressed. How were they keeping them active for so long? Was someone recharging them? Could people even do that?The Exploration Guild headquarters were near the middle of Guild Row, a stately building with a large compass rose built into its front and the guild’s name beneath.I entered the guild first, then paused some ways into the lobby. Of all the Exploration Guilds I’d been to, the Port Royal branch was always the busiest, and today was no different. A group of grenoil moved around us towards the exit, all of them heared up for adventure. We traded polite nods when the leader of the group noticed the pin stuck to my lapel.“Greetings,” said a grenoil woman behind a waist-high counter. “Welcome to the Exploration Guild. How can I assist you?”“We’re looking for Abraham,” I said.The grenoil winced. “There’s no one by that name here.”“There isn’t?” I asked.“You’ll have to find this Abraham elsewhere if he owes you any money, I’m afraid,” she said.I blinked. “Uh. What?”Awen sighed. “Uncle Abraham’s my uncle,” Awen said. “Hi. I’m Awen Bristlecone. Do a lot of people come here asking him for money?”The secretary deflated a little. “Money, complaints, once a young lady brought a child that she claimed was his.”Awen stared, mouth opening then closing a couple of times. “W-was it?”“Oh? Oh no, I don’t think anyone has to worry about something like that,” the grenoil said with a dismissive wave. “If you don’t mind giving me a moment, I’ll go see if Abraham is actually here. You never know, with him.”“Thank you!” I said. I figured we wouldn’t have to wait long either way. If Abraham was somewhere, then it was usually obvious that he was around.
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