Chapter Twenty Nine

Visions and Decisions

Conrad was tumbling through Jenna’s parlor. He had Charm and Moonbeam chasing him. They thought he was a ball of yarn. He thought he was a grown-ass man. They were having a conflict over it.

Jenna watched them. The whole thing was quite quiet. Charm wasn’t hissing. Conrad was swearing under his breath, but they were very mild swear words. Moonbeam didn’t really talk or make sounds.

Watching the whole thing was very soothing until Misha came in and saw that the pets were bullying Conrad. She scooped him up in her arms and carried him over her shoulder.

He wasn’t actually that much smaller than her. It was just that his limbs were scrawny, like thick yarn, so he was easy to swing around.

She loved him and carried him away like he belonged to her.

Once she was gone, Charm and Moonbeam were instantly bored. Charm started bathing herself in a patch of sunlight on the floor and Moonbeam cuddled into herself exactly where she was and made herself a little nest in the carpet.

It was very peaceful until Vash wheeled in Favel. The water sloshing from his goblet scared Charm and she bolted from the room. Moonbeam was less concerned about the water but followed Charm out anyway. Moonbeam seemed quite lost without her.

Vash bowed and exited the room while Favel stayed underwater a little longer than was customary.

Jenna got up and walked over. She stuck her hand into his goblet and pulled him out by his mantle. “What’s going on, Favel? Why are you acting like that?”

He stared at her with tear-shaped eyes, huge and melancholy. “I can’t face you!” he cried, swirling his tentacles and making a mess of water all over Jenna’s upholstered furniture.

Over the loudspeaker, Ixy said, “I’ll get Vash to come back with a mop.”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Jenna called back. “I don’t think the Chair of the Octavian Council is finished.”

Favel was making horrible sounds, half-crying, half-sobbing, half-screaming.

Jenna winced and held him over the water so she could try to hear what he was saying.

The only thing she could make out was him moaning, “I can’t face you,” over and over again.

Finally, Jenna didn’t know what else she could do. She pulled him out of the water entirely and brought him into her arms for the hug they had never had.

He stopped making the wretched sounds and slowly, he wound his wet tentacles around her. “Jenna,” he finally said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s all right.” She held him like that until she started to feel that too much water had dripped off him and he was beginning to dry out. Gently, she placed him back in his goblet. He had lost quite a lot of water. Jenna didn’t call Vash, but she went to a fish tank and using a nearby pitcher, she scooped some water from the tank and poured it over Favel. Then she noticed that she had accidentally brought a fish with her.

Favel ate it immediately. “Thanks for the snack,” he said after he had finished devouring it.

Jenna didn’t question it. She tipped her hat back and sat down next to him. “Can we talk now without you losing your mind?”

“Jenna,” he said softly. “The Octavian Council has sent me to beg you to have your crown reattached. It didn’t come loose because you betrayed us.”

“No,” Jenna agreed. “It came loose because my Grandmother Letty put in a failsafe. It seems she understood that crowning an infant without their consent was a completely crazy thing to do, but she had to leave the crowns with me, so she gave me one to help me work with the Octavians. However, she’s given me a way out if I don’t want to live my life as an Octavian diplomat… If I want to take it.”

“What does Sardius say?” Favel wondered, looking hopeful.

“Sardius says I can do whatever I want. He says he honestly doesn’t care either way. If I put the crown back on, he’ll do whatever he has to do to support me. If I don’t want to, he’ll take his security business elsewhere and we’ll skip the drama here. He swears he’s happy either way. Although he says I can’t stay married to both of you if I give up being a diplomat.”

Favel gawked. “You already married Sardius?”

“You ordered the wedding certificate for me!” Jenna reminded him hotly.

Favel breathed water and made bubbles. “So he married you as a third husband and you didn’t tell me.”

“This is the first time I’ve seen you since it happened,” Jenna explained. “And honestly, you knew I was planning to do that. I did not pull one over on you.”

“No,” Favel agreed, looking sour. “If you have to choose between the two of us, you’ll choose him. That’s the natural choice.”

Jenna brushed her hair out of her face. “It would only be a legal thing though. I promised to be your friend forever and I still mean to be. Do I have to remain a diplomat to stay friends with you?”

Favel groaned. “I don’t know the public relations nightmare that would be unlocked if we told the public all that has happened. I don’t know how the Octavians would react. I don’t know how the Adamis would react. Right now, the OC wants me to start all over with you.”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

“What does that mean?” Jenna asked with an upturned eyebrow.

“It means they want me to give you eight gifts,” he said, punching up a little screen on the front of his goblet chair.

“You need a list?”

“I don’t want to get it wrong,” Favel said irritably.

“Look, I don’t want any more clothes, or houses I can’t use, or potato chips, or crappy men. I am profoundly grateful for the help extracting Conrad. That can’t be discounted,” Jenna said in her best negotiating voice.

“They’re not talking about Conrad. The man is a complete maniac, worse than Sardius. The only thing the OC has asked me with regards to him is that in return for allowing him to be taken from the Xypher Zone, they would like you to sign an agreement promising that you will not marry him and make him your fourth husband.”

“Someone down there is worried about that?” Jenna laughed.

“Yes. They’re worried about that. I have been the subject of many snide remarks. Apparently, the Hipposyphis think that you’ll marry anyone. They’re jealous. They’re just annoyed you won’t marry one of them,” Favel barked.

“It does annoy people when I won’t marry them,” Jenna agreed, thinking of the cranky expression on Rold’s face when Sardius told him that he was going to be Jenna’s first husband.

“Okay. Let’s begin,” Favel said, zeroing in on the list in front of him. “They want to offer you the Augusta Four. It’s a moon that is nothing but beaches with perfect temperatures. It isn’t in this system, and nothing has been built on it yet, but they think it would be the perfect place for you to honeymoon with Sardius.”

Jenna was pretty impressed the Octavians were offering her those kinds of resources. She bet the moon was one of the places the Octavians had claimed that the Adamis were cranky about. “Hmm… Sardius and I have already honeymooned in the Xypher Zone. We think it was a castle owned by Rold Xant.”

Favel looked miserable hearing that information. “Ah, second, they’ve offered you a thirty percent share in a titanium mining company. In Earth money, the profits from the shares will earn you a billion dollars a year.”

“If I’m not allowed to eat and I’m not allowed to go anywhere and I work all the time, what am I going to spend that money on? People are always trying to kill me. Where am I going to go?”

“They’re offering you a starship called The Starkcatter. It would come complete with a crew that was willing to take you anywhere you want to go,” Favel said quickly, almost tripping over the words.

“Still working all the time. Besides, I wouldn’t feel safe flying around,” Jenna responded.

“They want to offer you a workshop that specializes in making shoes and gowns. It would be like having fifty Mishas. Can you imagine what they’d be able to make for you?”

Jenna rolled her eyes. She couldn’t imagine where Favel was going with this. All the things they were offering her seemed really stupid. It seemed extra stupid because of the time she’d spent on the floor of her room with her head pounding to the rhythm of a force field she couldn’t see. Did any of their gifts matter if she wasn’t well? If she wasn’t safe?

“They’re willing to build you a second undersea mansion so that conferences can be easier than going to the Hotel of the Twinkling Stars.”

“That’s a present for them and not me,” Jenna said, her eyes pointed at the floor instead of Favel.

“Sixth. They’re willing to build you a resort on Augusta Four to suit your specifications,” Favel rushed.

“We’ve come a long way from potato chips, huh?” Jenna commented sardonically.

“They want to present you with a new device for your personal assistant. It would be a fancier earpiece but it would also give you a lot more privacy from Ixy. We’ve all noticed that you need more private time and now that you’re married to Sardius, you’re going to need more private time than ever.”

That last offer had been gift number seven. The last one Favel said would be the last gift.

He looked at Jenna with large eyes. “The last one…”

“Yes. The last one,” Jenna repeated.

“They want to help you have a baby with Sardius,” Favel said reluctantly. “They’re aware it might not be possible without significant help.”

Jenna gasped and then heaved a sigh. “You’re going to give me time to think about this, huh?”

Favel smacked his beak under the water. “They want you to make up your mind quickly and I wouldn’t be much of a diplomat, or a life-long friend if I didn’t tell you the last part.”

“Go ahead.”

“Look, what I just said is the nice part of all this. This is them asking nicely. I’m not saying they’ll force you. Obviously, this is not the kind of thing that can be forced, but if you give up on the Octavians, they’ll withdraw their support from you. You’ll only have Sardius and his army to protect you. Maybe, that will be enough. Maybe, it won’t be. I don’t know all the enemies you’ve made, or what will come back to bite you. It wouldn’t be fair that you’d have to face all that on your own because it isn’t like you made those enemies for your own sake, but the Octavian Council thought they could count on you. They’ll be very hurt and unhelpful to you if you turn your back on them.”

Jenna had not even come close to making up her mind. She’d talked it over with Sardius, Celestina, Excelyn, Ixy, and Conrad, but she didn’t know what she wanted. She had no idea how to reply.

“This has to be a negotiation,” she said to Favel. “If that list is set in stone, that’s going to be too hard for me.”

“What do you want?” Favel asked.

“The first thing I want is to not go back to wearing that crown with the jewel in it. The force field saved my life in the Xypher Zone, but I can’t wear it all the time. Wearing a state secret that intense scares me to death. I would like to have a crown that is like the other crowns the diplomats wear. That one was only able to have the jewel hanging from it because the beak came from a slightly different race of Hipposyphis. I need something like the others. Something less demanding.”

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Favel said brightly. “I doubt that would even affect the eight gifts they want to give you.”

“Also, once we achieve quorum, I just have a ton more work to do. I need a break.”

“Sure, a vacation. Everyone needs that,” he nodded, pressing buttons on the screen of his goblet. “All the time that you’ve been here, you never stopped working.”

“And…” Jenna hesitated. “I need some time to think about this before I crack from the pressure everyone is putting on me to make a decision.”

Favel looked around and saw the sun patches on the floor. “It’s too bright here in the center of the Slipseed Ocean. I’m going to have your palace moved to a lagoon, so you can see something of Octavia Prime and have some space to make up your mind.” He moved to settle himself back in his goblet as a preparation motion he usually made before leaving.

“Wait,” Jenna said, putting her hand on the lip of his goblet. “I need a new earpiece so I can talk to Ixy.”

“No,” he said calmly. “She is going to take a little vacation too. I can’t give an earpiece to an uncrowned, prospective diplomat. The only person I’m letting you take with you is Sardius. The palace can be emptied quickly enough. Besides, you don’t need much attention. You don’t eat and it’ll be okay if Vash isn’t around to pick up your dresses for a bit. You’re stressed out. Take a break.”

Jenna sighed and called for Vash to take Favel to an exit and clean up the water.