"Prince Keron." Althea greeted as the man in question sat himself in front of her. "How can I help you?"

"I am sure you have an idea as to why I am here, Countess." the Prince said.

"Vanessa, I take it? If you are here to ask my permission to take her in as a disciple, then you have it. Please tell me if there is anything I can help with in that matter." Althea replied, as the maids poured her more tea.

"Yes, thank you, Countess." Keron said. "I will be on my way."

Althea watched him walk off, and then blink away, wondering if she should interfere. The Prince did seem to be trying, but his trying was not very successful. A month had passed, and he was no closer to Nathan than he was the day they met. The father and son were stepping around each other, as if afraid that even one sentence would ruin their relationship.

But she was an outsider, kind of. Keron was technically her uncle-in-law, and Nathan her cousin-in-law and retainer, but this still seemed too personal for her to meddle in. Not to mention that she wasn't exactly an expert in such matters. Just an overly concerned person that did not want her own past to repeat.

But Keron wasn't the late Countess, and Nathan wasn't her. Perhaps it would resolve itself.

Now for the next item on the agenda.

"Steward Ven, could you please call the Eastern Isles?"

Althea watched her reflection in the orb, observing the tiara on her head, the dress she wore, the teacup she held in her hand. The meeting was technically casual, and it had to appear so. But she was also meeting four future Adept stage retainers for the first time. A good expression was a necessity.

"Prime Minister Verest." Althea smiled as Verest appeared on the orb's projection, six others seated around him on a long wooden table, like a king's feast.

"I greet her grace, the Countess Guarding Diery." Verest said, getting up to bow.

"Please, please, there is no need for formalities, this is an informal meeting." Althea said. As much as she hated to admit it, her moves were calculated.

Allowing the greetings to continue would establish herself as their superior, and that could help. But it was more likely to come off as arrogant and unfriendly, something she did not want.

"As you wish, Countess." Verest replied. "I would like to introduce my companions."

"This is Elder Bel, the oldest living member of my species."

Althea turned to the fattish old man, a walking stick-like staff resting against his chair, as he turned to look at her with his dark violet eyes. The Elder's persona spoke of age, from the white hair to the thin legs, he appeared to be a person at the end of his life. But his eyes told a different story.

Althea met those violet eyes, sharp and piercing as if they had not lived through centuries. The Elder's body might have decayed, but his mind had not.

"Princess Veroa is of the royal-Elven bloodline, and one of the reasons we were exiled from the Elven continents." Verest introduced.

Althea looked at the princess. The exceedingly sharp features, haughty smile and glowing blue eyes did scream Elven Princess to her. But she had to say, she was surprised by this. A half-Elven Princess? There had to be a story behind that.

"And finally, the Twins. The two of them are good friends of mine, and we have faced many difficulties together."

Althea turned to look at the Twins, and had to act quickly to hide her shock. The two of them had scales on their face, two scales that covered their cheeks.

"The Twins are also a quarter-mermen, and technically just a quarter-human." Verest said.

The children of a half-merman and an elf then. How interesting. Althea turned her head back to Verest and said.

"I am happy to welcome them to the Diery county, and would like to invite them to visit the Diery palace when they have time. The county has much to see." Althea said.

"I have heard of the great natural beauty of the Diery county. The work of Druids, I am sure. I would like to visit sometime." Elder Bel said. "Tell me, Countess, has SilverGrove glowed while I have been away?"

Althea tilted her head. "I fear I do not know what SilverGrove is, Elder. Perhaps the name has changed, or been forgotten."

"Yes, it has been five hundred years since I was chased out of my home, hunted by the very people I once thought friends. " the Elder said.

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Althea's smile stiffened. Even if she didn't know the Elder's story, she could piece some things together with this sentence. Why did humans have to be so prone to bigotry? But this mention had to be planned. A ploy to see her reaction when confronted with such matters.

"Yes, that is a long time." Althea replied. "And I do apolagize for what happened that year. I hope to make sure that it does not happen again."

"On that note, I do have some plans to share with you." she continued. "In an effort to make the county more welcoming to hybrids, I plan to institute a false citizenship plan."

"A false citizenship plan?" the Elder asked. "I fear I have not heard of such a thing before."

Althea took a deep breath. Well, here went nothing. "The plan would involve forming an organization, not an army, just an organization, that offers the same benefits as citizenship. The organization would be state run and headed by me, effectively giving a hybrid the same status as a human citizen of the county."

The Elder looked at her carefully. "And what do you hope to accomplish with that, Countess? Do not give me that 'build a home' excuse. There is no reason for you to build a home for hybrids, not even we took that charge, and we are hybrids ourselves."

Althea gulped, trying to hide her nervousness. This was an important question, and one had no clear good answer. If she insisted that she was doing this for the hybrids, then the Elder might believe it. And that would go a long way into establishing trust. Or he could think her a pathological liar, and distrust her.

On the other hand, if she revealed that she wanted the hybrids there because she thought they would be useful to the county's growth, then he could think her heartless. Or just another noble using them. Or he could take it as a sign of trust, and like her honesty.

In the end she simply did not know enough about the Elder to guess at what he thought.

"The county is underpopulated, and has a dear need for talented people. The hybrid population lacks a home that offers them rights and the ability to live safely. I think that leads to a win-win situation for both of us. Do you not think so, Elder?" she asked.

The Elder matched her gaze, looking at her as if he was trying to peer into her mind. Perhaps he was, Althea had no idea if mind magic could pass through the orb's connection. Or what the Elder's element was.

"I think that is a splendid idea." the Princess clapped her hands. "But we will have to see how successful it is, won't we?"

"Yes...we will have to see." the Elder drawled in reply.

"Now, onto happier matters. I hear you humans have a special type of desert. This thing called a cake." the Princess said, actually looking eager. Althea wasn't sure if it was acting or if she was actually eager. "I wonder if you know where I can get some?"

ALthea opened her mouth to reply, but was stopped by the Finance Minister.

"Just a moment before we start on cakes and desserts. I wanted some clarification regarding the ports and their location." Melinda said.

"Of course, I will clarify what I can, though much is in the air at the moment." Althea replied.

"Yes, yes. Well, I just wanted to know where you plan to put the ports." Melinda asked.

"A final decision would require a more thorough survey of the available land, but at the moment, our options are between the Cove Island and Serlen harbor. I believe those two are the largest natural features in the Eastern Isles that would be suitable for a port." Althea replied, but the smile on Melinda's face told her there was something else that the half-Elf knew.

"Not quite, Countess. A fisherman discovered something very interesting." Melinda said, removing a strange stone along with papers.

"I was not sure how your communication orb reacted with Elven memory crystals, so I had them painted." Melinda flipped the pages, showing Althea an image of a fisherman in a low hanging cove.

The ceiling seemed to glitter with moonlight as the fisherman sailed through what she presumed were shallow waters.

The next picture had the same fisherman making something of a water-bridge to guide his boat down a waterfall into a deep cavern. The cavern was very, very, large. And beautiful to look at. The picture was not very clear, but Althea could see several colors of luminescent moss glowing on the ceiling. And on the surface of water.

If that moss was growing on land, then that meant that it could be something of a hidden port. Perhaps not if its entrance was so easy to chance upon.

"The cavern is hidden by a huge underwater wall of rock, but if we were to break it off and make a gate in its place, then we would have a port. The cavern can be accessed from the city, there is a tunnel system that runs into it. The system would need widening, but that is little more than a day's work for our Earth mages. "

A direct access to the city. And an entire tunnel system. How...convenient.

"How large is this cavern?" she asked.

"The entire breadth hasn't been checked yet, your grace, but I am sure that it runs through the length of the Eastern Isles. There are at least five other access points from the sea, and I suspect, more from the land." Melinda said. "But that would still make it one of the more secure ports. And we can close some accesses as we go."

"Yes, we can do that. I will inform the Diery Port Authority of this, and have them send assessors. But I think we may have our port, if you give us permission to use it." Althea replied.

A massive cavern that covered the entire archipelago? The Eastern Isles weren't the largest archipelago around, but they were still quite large. This cavern could easily hold hundreds, even thousands of ships. Perhaps they would have to use only a part of it at first.

And another issue was access, it would need magic to get in. Even if the rock was removed, the gate was below sea level. the water would have to be moved away to let ships in. And that would probably require magical artifacy, which was prohibitively expensive. Did the half-Elves have someone that could do it?

If not then she did not see how they could manage. Perhaps the Empress knew someone. But that could delay port plans...Tenebre would need to check it out first.

The Princess opened her mouth, probably to mention cakes again, but was stopped by someone entering. On Althea's side.

"Countess, your next meeting is here." Steward Ven said, entering the room.

"Oh, I will be there in a minute." she replied, turning to the orb.

"I fear that this meeting will have to come to an end now. I will have return back to about when someone will arrive to assess the port locations, he is the head of the Diery merchant navy, and I expect that you will be working together for a long time."

"Of course, your grace." Elder Bel said. "I look forward to meeting this head."