Narrator:

The Misfits met briefly in their private meeting room a day later.

Naturally, Eleanor had also carefully considered their circumstances and allocated a corridor with three bedrooms plus a toilet block for them to live in.

Just as well the castle was an extensive sprawling collection of buildings with plenty of rooms.

Once upon a time, it would have been packed with people: the king and his entourage busily running the country, nobles galore scheming their little court intrigues, guards to protect them, servants to do all the cooking, gardening, picking up socks, and mopping up the messes they all left behind themselves.

But now, it was mostly deserted.

A tiny contingent of servants who had looked after the old king and some of the remaining guards now lived there. The first thing Eleanor did was invite all of these people to stay on. She had also gotten the Treasurer to look at the finances and consequently decided to give everyone a small raise.

The next thing she had done was to get more guards to live in the castle's guard house and to allocate quarters for herself and her friends.

And now, the day after Aragon and Esther's discussion, she had arranged a planning meeting.

She sent invitations to all relevant personnel, and the Misfits were included.

The Misfits:

"So, we all ready to report to the queen's planning meeting?" said Alice.

"Yep, sure are!" said Cassy.

"This could be fun, helping run a country. I've never done that before," said Bronsen.

"Really? I've run half a dozen countries in my time!" said Drayden.

He looked around at three disbelieving faces. “They don’t believe me?”

"Hey, have a little more faith in me. I have run countries, well, on a computer. They are called civilisation games; the computer models a city or a country, and the player controls what happens - for example, what buildings to build, what roads to make, and what taxes to charge. All those sorts of things. It gets pretty difficult, I can tell you. Get some details wrong, like not providing enough farmland, and the whole civilisation collapses."

Alice rolled her eyes. She flicked out her tail and wrapped the end around Drayden's wrist. "This is real life, not a computer game!"

"I'm sure there is plenty of cross-over!" said Drayden, as he used his tail to try to tickle Alice's waist.

Ten minutes of rambunctious horseplay later, they all took a break.

"I'm so glad that Aragon was saved," said Drayden, "The alternative doesn't even bear thinking about."

"I'll say." said Cassy, "And, did you notice, when we went to the markets yesterday, that Aragon and Esther were holding hands?"

"Of course!" said Alice.

Drayden and Bronsen agreed.

Eventually, Drayden remembered the meeting, and so, slightly late, they turned up at the meeting room.

Eleanor The Queen:

Late, of course. But criticising them would be like trying to discipline an adorable little puppy.

Or, more like, four adorable puppies.

She looked around the meeting table. Present were the Treasurer, Jane (the captain of the guards), Aragon, Esther, Evereena, Lena, and the Misfits. The orphans were in the next room, with a female servant trying to amuse them.

Evereena is here because she's got nowhere else to go, and Lena is here since I twisted her arm. It will do her good to understand what it takes to run a country. Besides this, I need her moral support since I don't know what it takes to run a country.

"Now, this is a special preliminary planning meeting, all about what Manifestoria needs to do about the slaver manace. Of course, I'm having many other meetings about everything else needed to run a country, so let's not worry about them, OK?"

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An exhausting, endless round of people trying to get some advantage for themselves, and maybe they might leave a bit left over for the rest of the country. Yeah, let's not worry about that.

At least this meeting, I can be confident that everyone present is on my side... Hmm, what about the Treasurer? Probably on my side, more or less. I suppose so.

Worry about that later.

"Basically, we are a tiny, unimportant country whose main claim to relevance is that we are between Crysteth and the rim wall."

She pointed to a map on the wall behind her.

"Most likely, the slavers will fight and conquer their way around the sea, overrun Crysteth, and eventually come for us. Course, when that happens, we are utterly stuffed. Nowhere to escape to, no way any allies can get to us. So, we shall ignore that option."

"Instead, we will concentrate on preventing a small party of slavers from getting to us via the Rimwall or sailing over the sea. Jane, I, and other experienced guards will have separate meetings regarding the Rimwall scenario. This meeting will deal with the invasion-by-sea scenario."

"I suppose you Misfits know about the kilometre-high cliffs that line our shore, from the rim wall around until Crysteth country?"

Drayden and Cassy did; they had seen it with their own eyes as they walked over the wall. But it was the first time that Alice and Bronsen had heard about it. It was also brand new information to Esther, Evereena, and Lena.

Honesty, was Lena this ignorant about the local geography?

"You mean, there isn't any way of getting to the shore and having a swim?" said Cassy.

Every native-born Felixian recoiled at this statement.

"You want to swim in deep water?" said Eleanor.

"What's wrong with that? I mean, we all have the swimming ability." said Bronsen, "Although, of course, only Cassy and Drayden have done any swimming."

Eleanor looked around.

Yep, everyone else looks horrified. Or amazed. Or both.

I had better explain a few basic facts about Felixians.

"Well, kids, obviously you haven't realised, what with being reincarnated from another Ringworld - err, I mean planet, whatever that is - but us Felixians don't like water. Except for drinking, of course. And bathing when required. The people with an actual swimming ability are very few and far between."

"Oh," said Cassy.

"But, never mind, if you want to go swimming, you can. A notch is in the coastal cliff face, exposing about a kilometre of shore and a nice little bay where Manifestoria has its only harbour. There is a switchback trail that allows access from the plateau to down this harbour. There are plenty of opportunities for swimming in the shallow water nearby, but only for those who want to. Oh, and also, definitely don't swim in the deep water."

"So you have boats, ports, and marine trading?" said Drayden.

"Sure. Manifestoria doesn't do much since it is so difficult to get to and from the port, but plenty of boats from other countries bordering the Jaserra Ocean are around. Of course, they are fully sealed with the crew safely inside. I suppose your 'Earth' boats have the crew exposed on outside decks?"

"Well, actually, yes," said Alice.

Eleanor did her best to suppress a shudder. That [Emotional Control] ability didn't necessarily control every emotional reaction, only the ones that caused too much distress.

"There are a lot of big nasty animals that live in the deeps - if these 'Earth' boats have open decks, how do you prevent them from picking off the people?" said Aragon.

The Misfits looked at each other before Drayden finally volunteered a reply.

"I suppose because Earth's sea life isn't quite as big and vicious as here? Like that Crocigator that Cassy and I fought off, I don't think Earth has anything comparable."

Another long silence.

They fought off a Crocigator? And won?

Jane put her head in her hands and mumbled something about 'these kids'.

"Sorry, what did you say?" said Cassy.

"Never mind! Let's get back to the topic, shall we?" said Eleanor.

"Basically, after discussing it with Crysteth, it has been decided that it is unlikely that a slaver invasion will occur by sea. It's just too tricky a logistics operation to get an invading army from the harbour up to the plateau. The most sensible option is via the Rimwall. However, a small group of slavers might make an effort, perhaps in coordination with a bigger group along the Rimwall.

So - this is where you come in, Misfits!"

The Misfits perked up and took notice.

"It's just the job for you. You can go to the port, along with Aragon and a few guards, and act as sentries. Be on the lookout for any spurious ships. If you see anything, Aragon will send some of the guards with high endurance running back to Manifestoria.

Ah, of course, Aragon, with his experience of roaming around the countryside for the last decade or so-"

Aragon flinched just slightly at this. Eleanor, who had been surreptitiously watching, noticed this.

Ha, I got you.

Although I don't suppose I have been all that much better.

"Will be the one in charge. Oh, about a dozen people live there permanently; they service the small number of ships that visit.

Of course, Esther and Evereena will also go with you."

Let's help the budding romance, shall we?

Bronsen smiled at this: "Yep, we're in!"

The rest of the meeting discussed various arrangements, and it was agreed that they would all set off in two days.

The Treasurer:

Afterwards, there was a small meeting with Eleanor, the Treasurer and Jane.

I have no problems with the plan, but...

"M'lady, is it possible that you also planned all of this to get the Misfits out of our hair and to allow time for Aragon and Esther to be together?"

"Of course! Everybody loves a good romance, and as for those Misfits..."

Jane laughed. "Yeah, they certainly need a bit more maturing before they can be useful."

It looks like Eleanor's style of leadership is entirely different from Kalitran's. Who knows, maybe it will be all for the good; after all, look what happened to him.

The question is, what will be happening to my role?

"And now, we need to discuss how to respond to any slaver emergency," said Eleanor.

Yeah, we certainly do.

Also, I need to make my own private plans to run for it if the slavers appear.