***** PoV: Victrina Vitafino *****

When we stepped out of the portal into the Entrance Hall of the Grand Conclave, the architecture was stunningly beautiful yet austere in its whiteness, while the people were everywhere in a riot of colors and a cacophony of noise. There was a bit more panic and a bit less organization than the last time I attended a Grand Conclave, which is usually at the middle and end of an Event Cycle, but those are to be expected given the surprise nature of this Conclave.

After a few moments to take in the contrast between the chaos of the people and the calm serenity of the background, Spaghetti put up some kind of privacy field around us so that we didn’t have to shout at each other in order to be heard.

“Wow. I see why you guys call this the Grand Conclave!” exclaimed Spaghetti. “There’s several hundred thousand people in this room. I’m assuming this is some kind of market before the main event happens?”

“Yes, the market is usually the first three days of the event, with the official meetings happening on day four, and the Feast of the Grand Conclave happening on day five or six, depending on how long the meetings last. While the various leaders and those who want to watch what they can are in the meetings, there are all kinds of carnival games and whatnot scattered about. Sure, there are some carnival games during the market days, but there’s only so much room in here, even with the System’s space-bending shenanigans.”

“Alright, where to first?” asked Arthur, briefly weirding me out hearing his voice coming out of my throat.

“First, we should meet up with my people over near the fortified tents near the middle of the market,” I said. “You got to reconnect with your people, now it’s my turn to connect with mine.”

“Fair enough,” Spaghetti agreed, leading the way with his odd mechanical avatar. It’s body vaguely resembled a six-legged bear, with a head shaped like a pyramid. The funny thing is it was colored like a poisonous frog, brilliant orange at the front, fading into an equally brilliant blue at the back, with a smattering of black circles of various sizes scattered across his hide. For some reason, even here in the Conclave where violence is rather rare, people didn’t want to be in his way.

[So, I’m not sure why I didn’t ask this earlier, but why is his avatar so gaudy?]

{Because it’s modeled after a Shihoth, and they’re all colored like that. Honestly, he’s actually not that gaudy compared to most Shihoth I’ve seen. He only has two colors, as opposed to the standard three to six colors.}

[That’s a bit ridiculous. Why are they colored that way?]

{Our best guess is that it’s to warn others of the danger of the Shihoth’s innate magic. If you are hostile to them and they succeed at something, there is a fair chance that you will encounter some significantly bad luck. I’m not normally one to believe in luck one way or the other, but I have no other word to describe what I have seen.}

[I’m not sure what answer I expected, but it wasn’t that.]

“Heads up, but somebody’s trying to do something sneaky that’ll separate you from me,” Spaghetti said over the radio. “Who would even be trying to do that? Could it be some of your people?”

“I have no idea, honestly,” I replied subvocally via the radio, the gestalt having ramped up to the point where I could freely borrow skills from Arthur. “I’d say play along and see what happens?”

“Sounds like a plan! I’ll wander off this away, break line of sight, and then follow as stealthily as I can.”

“Roger!”

Sure enough, a few minutes later, we ended up in the middle of a plaza under a stealth field with no clear recollection of how we got there. Claiming the middle of the plaza was a little bit odd, surely someone would notice and poke the stealth field. Heck, I’m sure there’s some high level merchants that have good enough perception to pop a stealth field like this by accident.

Giving myself a mental shake, I looked at the lordling standing in front of us with a smirk on his face like he knew something that we didn’t. Normally, a lordling would have at least one bodyguard with them at all times, but he appeared to be alone. The only way that I knew he was a lordling is the royal crest hanging from his neck, plus the quality and absurdity of his clothes.

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{Wait, is he wearing a pink and green plaid leisure suit?}

[Fashion has never been my strong suit, especially when it comes to stuff from the United Kingdoms, but yes, I do believe that is a leisure suit.]

{Of all the places this could have led, I did not expect a random teenager in a leisure suit.}

“Greetings, fair maiden!” interjected the lordling. “Rejoice! For today, you become my fiance!”

“Huh? Who are you, and why do you think I’d agree to marry you? Why me anyway?”

“You are a Fair Maiden. Do I need any other reason to pick you?” he replied, pulling a small rolled scroll out of his suit pocket and starting to unroll it. “I find it funny that you think it matters whether you agree or not.”

Spaghetti suddenly appeared to our right and stole the scroll from the nameless lordling, before unrolling it the rest of the way. I did notice that he was using energy shields to manipulate the scroll while keeping it contained inside of a bubble. Unsurprisingly, it didn’t take very long for him to decipher the scroll.

“Oi! You give that back!” demanded the lordling, lunging at the scroll only to run face first into another shield put up by Spaghetti.

“This is a slavery contract disguised as a betrothal contract. Is this sort of scumbaggery common around here?” demanded Spaghetti, glaring at the lordling, while clearly directing the question at me.

“We’ve long suspected they were doing something like that, but we’ve never had any proof until now,” I replied.

“This cannot stand.”

With no warning whatsoever, Spaghetti filled the inside of the stealth bubble with a terrible shrieking noise, which Arthur’s knowledge told me was feedback squeal, that promptly broke the bubble. As soon as the bubble broke, he projected an image of himself that was twenty feet tall, and began speaking to the crowd.

“Let it be heard, let it be known! A lordling from the United Kingdoms tried to force my companion, Victrina Vitafina, into a betrothal contract which is actually a slavery contract in disguise. This is not acceptable. I am Spaghetti, Admiral of the Terrans. If you suspect that someone you know has been taken by one of these contracts, come find me and I or one of my associates shall set them free, if, in fact, they are captive.”

“You can’t do that!” screeched the lordling, who’s voice carried in the sudden silence that followed Spaghetti’s announcement. “Those contracts are ours by divine right! Who are you so-called Terrans to pretend that you know how to undo such a sacred bond?!”

“The bond is only sacred if both parties willingly enter into it. This contract of yours forces someone else to marry you against their will. There is nothing sacred about this process. My people have been fighting slavers on and off for decades now, and they used a similar contract when we first started freeing their slaves. They don’t use it anymore because of how easily we are able to break it.”

“My father will hear about this, and then you’ll be sorry!” proclaimed the lordling, having drawn his rapier and pointed it at Spaghetti.

“No, I don’t think I will. What do you think you’re doing with that toothpick?”

“I.. I.. I’m threatening you!”

“Yoink!” replied Spaghetti, using energy shields to yank the rapier out of his hands. “Hmm. Impressive! I don’t think I’ve seen this alloy before. Looks like a good choice for a rapier, it’s even got some decent armor piercing enchants on it.

“Pity it’s too short to get me through my shields. Even if it was long enough, energy shields would vaporize the blade long before it made contact with any part of me.

“Actually, if you truly are a member of a royal family, where are your body guards? Every monarchy I’ve ever had the pleasure of dealing with has assigned body guards to every member of their royal families they thought to be at all important.”

“I… I.. “

“They don’t know you’re here do they?”

The lordling made a few final incoherent noises, and then fled as fast as he reasonably could.

“Oh, ok. Goodbye!” called Spaghetti, waving cheerfully at his departing form. “If you want to get in contact with me after the conclave, simply reach out to any of the Terrans and your message will make it to me.”

As his projected image started to fade, a voice called out from the other edge of the crowd, “What about Victrina?”

“Cantano!” I cried, leaping across the intervening distance to pick her up in a hug and spin her around. “It’s good to see you my friend! You would not believe the adventure that I have had!”

“Oy! Put me down you tiny lump!” she replied, smacking me on the back.”Since when could you sweep me off of my feet?”

“Since right before I got carried away, though I didn’t understand exactly what was happening at the time. Where is the Lieutenant Colonel? It’ll be easier to explain if I only have to do this once.”

“He’s in his usual spot, let’s go!” she said, dragging me two steps before I pulled her to a stop.

“Cantano, wait! There’s some people who I need to introduce you to first.”

“Oh?”

“Cantano, meet my new friend Spaghetti. Spaghetti, meet my best friend and right hand woman, Cantano.”

“Greetings!” waved Spaghetti.

“Oh, hello,” Cantano waved back. “You’re rather colorful for an automaton.”

“That’s because I’m not. I’m actually a ship, this is just the avatar I use when dealing with people in places where I cannot take my ship.”

“Oh, ok. Right this way then! It sounds like we have some things to discuss.”

“Oh, you have no idea.”