Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five - Bad Implications

Amaryllis was in a talkative mood. I knew this because she was talking a whole lot while walking out ahead of us.

“I would usually just gloss over this situation,” Amaryllis said. “But obviously you know nothing so it’s up to me to fill in the blanks. Honestly I... might have been a little lax in doing my part to educate you, Broccoli. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay?” I said as I almost jogged to keep up. Awen, whose legs were a bit shorter, was in that awkward position where she wasn’t quite walking fast, nor was she jogging outright.

“It isn’t!” Amaryllis declared. “But it’s an issue I can correct right away.”

“Okay?”

Amaryllis nodded, head bobbing up and down like one of those little plastic bird things. “I’ll start at the start,” she said. “There are five nations on the continent that matter.” She looked to Awen. “Six, if you decide to be generous and count Mattergrove.”

That sounded a little rude, but alright. Mattergrove was pretty small on the map I’d seen.

“The Snowlands, who are mostly uninvolved in geopolitics. The Nesting Kingdom, which is more of a clan-based elective republic with a token monarchy, but that’s unimportant. The kingdom of Sylphfree. The United Republic of the Trenten Flats, which is neither united nor a republic. The Kingdom of Deepmarsh, and the Kingdom of Mattergrove.”

I nodded along. “What about the Ostri people?”

Amaryllis waved her wings in a dismissive way. I was really getting good at harpy body language. “They don’t have kings, mayors, elected officials, or clan leaders. They literally have no governmental apparatus, which coupled with their abnormally high average level has kept them safe from most political conflicts.”

“Cool,” I said.

“They don’t matter. I want you to understand the current conflict even if it means pecking the information into that thick skull of yours.” Amaryllis straightened. “The Nesting Kingdom has grown to have the most powerful airforce, but we are still, for the most part, stuck on a small number of mountaintops near the centre of the continent.”

“Okay,” I said.

“The Sylphfree and the Nesting Kingdom have been at each other's throats for centuries. We both claimed the same mountaintop. The Golden Peak. And when we both discovered that the name was rather literal a war broke out. Then another, then another. It’s almost a formality that we’ll go to war once every few decades over control over the mountain. We’ve even become rather civil about it. Even if we hate each other.”

“Can’t you just split the territory in half?” I asked.

“Who would get the bigger half? Or the half with the more mines?” She shook her head. “It’s a lot of arguing and politicking with very little action. The mountain is basically untouched though, on account of both sides destroying any settlements or camps on it.”

“That's awful,” I said. I found Orange walking next to me and picked her up for the purpose of hugging the awful away.

“It is what it is.” She went on. “Other than that, the Sylphfree are nearly untouchable. They have excellent banking systems and are doubtlessly the richest nation on the continent. Coupled with their advanced healers and heavily-militarized government, no one has really succeeded in making them budge.”

We reached the exit of the Scumways and walked right past a cabal of guards without so much as slowing down. Maybe that thing about walking with confidence was true, because none of them tried to stop us.

“Then you have the Trenten Flats. Huge, expansionist, aggressive. They’re backwards and barbaric at the best of times, but they’re large, numerous, and have a lot of resources to throw at any problem.”

I nodded along, even if I found her description to be a bit... rude.

“And finally Deepmarsh. It’s relatively small, not too populous, but fairly advanced. They actually have very decent mages here. They’re not terribly keen on moving outside of their little deltas though.”

“And Mattergrove?” I asked with a glance towards Awen.

“Awa, we, we’re very small,” Awen said. “And, um, we don’t really matter all that much.”

“I... don’t exactly agree,” Amaryllis said. “Mattergrove matters if only because they’re on the far westernside of the continent and they do have something of a standing army. It’s small and pathetic, but it exists. If things go sideways then having an unaligned nation at the Nesting Kingdom or Deepmarsh’s back could be dangerous.”

“Right, okay, I think I get it,” I said.

“I truly doubt that,” Amaryllis said. She huffed her ‘but I must go on’ huff. “When the cervid tried to kidnap me I suspected a Trenten plot. Had that gone off, it would have ratcheted up tensions between the Trenten Flats and both Deepmarsh and the Nesting Kingdom. Now it looks like it was a Sylph plot to get those three nations at each other's throats.”

“But we don’t know-know that,” I said. “We just suspect it because of Rainnewt.”

“Exactly,” Amaryllis said. “Which means that someone, probably not a single actor like Rainnewt but either a country or organization, is trying to start a large-scale conflict.”

I licked my lips. “That’s not good.”

“Your gift for moronic understatements is as sharp as ever,” Amaryllis said.

“Well, I never liked politics and such, they always seemed like more trouble than they’re worth.”

Amaryllis wobbled her head from side to side. “I suppose I can’t fault you for that. The point of it all though, is that there’s obviously something strange going on, and if we don’t put a stop to it, it could mean trouble for just about everyone. Another war sparked between the Nesting Kingdom and the Sylphfree would be bad enough, but if the Trenten Flats pick a side, and Deepmarsh join in, then it could be a near global war.”

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“A world war,” I said.

“I suppose you could call it that,” she said. “Though I doubt the Pyrowalkians would join in, and the Snowlanders are as isolationist as it gets. It would take a lot to get them to move. The Kingdom of the Endless Swells... they’re barely a kingdom at all, more a collection or small nation-states loosely held together by a rivalry with the Pyrowalkians.”

“Awa, I don’t think it would come to that, right?”

I smiled over at Awen, but I don’t think it was my nicest smile.

History class was always kind of neat at school, but they would always go on and on about boring stuff instead of the big cool things. I did like the stuff about the battles and the intrigue, but they were far and few in between.

“I don’t want to say it can’t happen,” I said. “Because it might.” I tightened my fists by my side and glared at the horizon I could see over the nearest buildings. “But we’ll do our darndest to stop that from happening, right?” I asked.

“Obviously,” Amaryllis said. “War isn’t good for business, not when you own the factories that would get spelled out of existence first.”

“Awa, I, I don’t think even uncle Abraham has stopped a war before. I’m, I’m in, Broccoli! I’ll be by your side, forever.”

“Alright!” I cheered. “Let’s go stop a war!” I paused. “Amaryllis, how do we stop a war?”

My birdy friend sighed. “First, we’re going to stop by the Exploration Guild here. The director might know something. Then I’m going to be sending a few letters to my family. My sisters and mother are better equipped for handling this kind of thing.”

“Okay, neat,” I said. “And then?”

She frowned at me. “And then what?”

“Yeah, exactly, and then what?”

Amaryllis rolled her eyes. “And then we’ll have done our part.”

“Awa, that’s a bit... anticlimactic.”

I nodded. “That’s not as cool as I thought it would be,” I said.

“What, did you expect to have to sneak into the king’s palace to deliver a history changing letter while being hounded by assassins like in some drama play?” Amaryllis asked.

I looked the other way. “I choose to exercise my right to remain unembarrassed.”

“You moron.” Amaryllis slowed down a little when we reached the Guild row and had to climb up a steep slope. “We might stop there later,” she said with a gesture towards the strange, stubby Messenger’s guild with its neat poles sticking out of the roof with moving panels.

“Can’t your bank ring send letters to people?” I asked.

“It can send letters to my account, where a clerk will then take it and place it in my family’s vault. Or that of a family member. But sending letters like that only works if the person to whom you’re sending the letter has an account with that bank. Otherwise the Messenger Guild interferes. They don’t appreciate the competition already.”

Amaryllis actually stopped talking for a little bit because the climb was rather steep and that made breathing hard. She even flapped her wings a few times to skip ahead.

When we got to the Exploration Guild and pushed past the familiar double doors at the front, it was to find a decent-sized group within, one that I recognized almost right away.

Five grenoil, all of them in leathers, all of them with bandoleers over their chests. At their head was the handsome Emeric, with his two swords hanging by his hips, and I saw Pierre leaning against a far wall.

Arianne was in her almost-mage garb, with a serious-faced Valerie next to her. And standing a bit behind Emeric was a nervous Donat, the grenoil having changed out of the kinda-crappy armour I’d seen him in all those weeks ago.

The group were all standing back to the door, their attention on the squat figure of director Mathilde.

“I know these people,” I told my friends.

“Awa, are they friends?”

I nodded. “They kind of are,” I said. I couldn’t help the grin that slipped on. It was always super cool to meet old friends again. And these were friends that I hadn’t seen since... since I’d left Threewells. Was that only two weeks ago? A bit more? “Hello!” I called out while raising a hand to wave.

I had forgotten how scary the director looked when she wasn’t in a good mood, and I had never seen her in a good mood.

There was suddenly a lot of attention directed my way, but out of all the grenoil looking my way, Arianne was the first to react. “Broccoli?” she asked.

“That’s me,” I said.

Emeric grinned my way. “Well well, you actually made it to civilization alive. Ze world isn’t so terrible a place after all.”

“I did,” I said. “And I joined the guild too.” I poked a thumb at the pin on my bandoleer. “And I even have a party now!”

“I can see zat,” he said. “We will have to go for drinks later, and you can tell us about your adventure. We just arrived, we need to debrief.” His smile turned a little wry.

“Ah, that’s okay,” I said.

“Actually, it’s not,” Amaryllis interjected. “Director, we have some news. It’s urgent.”

“I can imagine,” the director said. She sounded about as amused as she looked. “Is that young lady next to you the missing-and-presumed-kidnapped Awen Bristlecone?” she asked.

“Awa, no, no that’s not me,” Awen said. Then she wilted as the director’s gaze turned onto her.

“It’s not kidnapping if you have permission,” I said.

The director turned her glare onto me. “I would love to see you arguing that in court, young lady.”

I swallowed, but I wasn’t going to let some rude old lady ruin my mood with threats of imprisonment. “We just came here to report some things,” I said. “It’s important.”

“Our news is important too,” Emeric said. “And wiz ze dragons in ze city... it seems like today is an exciting day.”

“Oh, no, the dragons are with us,” I said. “They’re not the problem.”

“You know, for a moment I zought zat maybe I missed ze little brat,” Pierre said. “Now I’m quite sure zat I don’t.”

***