“Lady Gordon,” a voice said.

Hummer did not turn her head. Did not need to, because the voice was that same posh, presumptuous tone that let her know that it came from someone irrelevant.

“Lady Gordon, are you quite free right now? I do wish to speak to you.”

“I’m free.” She let the words escape her mouth, even if they were not true. She was very much confined at the moment, at this absolutely worthless party.

The voice, whoever they were, began to prattle on about a business opportunity. A new investment in some sort of plastics development lab. She did not even attempt to pay attention to them, and wandered off the first chance she got.

This party reminded Hummer of everything she came from Fleettwixt to escape. Everything in this world that she fought against, all wrapped up in one pointlessly extravagant event.

A ceremony all for Amelia Gordon, the prodigal daughter returned from her years-long sabbatical in order to embrace her royal responsibilities. Up on an airship, floating gently through the air above the city of Fleettwixt. All the cares of the little people made pointless by their truly infiniteness size. That was the point of it all, of course. An expensive airship party where they could literally look down on everyone else.

That was not the ACTUAL purpose of the airship party; more than anything, it was a test by the North Sunwell Company to show off the safety and expediency of their in-development airship network. They were test subjects in the grand game of progress.

The colony had spent years and excessive amounts of money building a full-fledged skyport on the top of Highden Station, a grand plaza to allow near-seamless transfer from the trains on the ground to the ships in the sky above. A few years from this day, and several more skyports across the city, and suddenly ariship would finally become a viable, useful form of transportation. Why bother with crowded trains or slow taxi trucks when you could simply soar above everyone else and get to your destination in less than half the time?

One day, if everything went smoothly, Fleettwixt would have the first-ever mass air transit system of any city in the entire Northern Reaches. Perhaps distant lands elsewhere in the world may have already reached technology beyond even this, but Hummer imagined that even if they existed, they would never be able to match the way that the North Sunwell Company was so willing to pat itself on the back for its every accomplishment. The poor would still be suffering in Beechhurst and elsewhere, but at least the rich, like her, could live a life of luxury.

She sighed into her glass of wine, just before downing the rest of it in the hopes of igniting some fire of passion that would convince her that life among royalty was truly right for her. It did not work, and neither did the next glass make any real difference on her spirits.

Amelia Gordon, a minor noble returned from secret disgrace. That was the name they always gave her. Hummer only wished to hear her nickname chirped out by her favorite voices in the world.

The plush carpet, the fancy spherical windowed design that allowed riders to see the whole city below. What a nice place, and yet without her friends, it was less than worthless.

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Waiting down at the surface were those friends, but so did too wait the future she had dreaded all her life. Her royal responsibilities, coming to snatch her up and force her to enter into her family’s business.

Everyone here was incredibly supportive. The few that did not know why Hummer was here, why she had not joined a royal corporation already, still pretended to be in the know. Most, however, were well aware of her past. They were all Saxonians, after all; the most gossipy bunch in the world.

Almost the entire party was Saxonian humans, here for socializing and power broking. A bunch of dark-skinned, gray-spirited fools. Third generation money and political appointees. In fact, the only non-human, the only light-skinned fellow Hummer could spot in the party, was Turr Williams.

Everyone in the Fleettwixt social party circle knew about Turr Williams. One of the secret powers of the North Sunwell Company, a man in charge of the entire Research & Development Department. He had the influence and ambition of any one of these Saxonians, and dined with them just the same, but no one around him gave him much thought. He attended event after events, and nothing ever changed. The partygoers here today mostly brushed him off, and despite

What could be the cause? His short stature, his half-goblin appearance, his Fleettwixt native-born status all knocked points from him. Being new money, being an upstart with no lineage behind him, knocked off even more. But more than anything, Turr Williams was simply unpleasant to be around.

And on that count, unfortunately, Hummer could sympathize. Today was her own party, a celebration of her specifically, and yet the only people who wanted to talk to her were those looking for favors, or those looking to gossip.

The latter had come just recently in the form of a gaggle of middle-aged women, snickering like they knew some dirty secret of hers, innocently mentioning Hummer’s ex-fiance, Bordeck Race, who had just been wed off to an elven princess somewhere or another. True love, he apparently called it, just magnificent, all along judging Hummer to gauge her reaction to the news.

It was genuinely the first time she heard it, and she told them as much. Their responses were just as inane as she expected, with barbed compliments about her beauty and worthless platitudes about waiting for the right man—or woman—to sweep her off her feet.

She decided to forget everything they said from about the moment they left her sight. Not worth the considerations.

If she truly embraced her royal responsibilities, marriage and motherhood were imminent. An un-love waited for her just beyond the horizon line, and she had already accepted that for years. It was not like she and Bordeck Race ever held much affection for one another. They hardly even met, and only when Hummer broke the engagement off did he finally come running at her and crying at her feet. It was not she he loved, but the power that came along with her.

If Bordeck had been here at the party just to see her off, she would not have been surprised in the slightest.

The party host gathered everyone around, holding a letter which contained the big announcement: Hummer’s placement. Her induction into her very first royal corporation, chosen by her family to help hone her abilities. A new board member who would help guide a company into North Sunwell levels of profit and progress.

Great, upracious cheers. Popping open of fizzy champagne bottles.

The Felid-Gnoll Trade Alliance, the letter had said. Seeing as Hummer was neither of those things, she was slightly confused, and so were the others in the party, most likely, but they let it pass so that they could move onto the next stage of celebrations.

Hummer stayed behind, stood there. Wanted nothing more than to see her friends again. Mino, Aeo, Amelia, Phelia...

“I’m not ready,” she said to herself. No one else could hear it for the cheers of a drunken duchess dancing atop a table.