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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Twenty-Five - Bad Implications

  Amaryllis was in a talkative mood. I khis 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 bnks. Holy I... might have been a little x 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 aosition where she wasn’t quite walking fast, nor was she jogging ht.

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

  “Okay?”

  Amaryllis nodded, head bobbing up and down like one of those little pstic bird things. “I’ll start at the start,” she said. “There are five nations on the tihat matter.” She looked to Awen. “Six, if you decide to be generous and t Mattergrove.”

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

  “The Snownds, who are mostly uninvolved in geopolitics. The ing Kingdom, which is more of a -based elective republic with a token monarchy, but that’s unimportant. The kingdom of Sylphfree. The United Republic of the Tres, which is her 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 nguage. “They don’t have kings, mayors, elected officials, or leaders. They literally have no goveral apparatus, which coupled with their abnormally high average level has kept them safe from most political flicts.”

  “Cool,” I said.

  “They don’t matter. I want you to uand the current flict even if it means peg the information into that thick skull of yours.” Amaryllis straightened. “The ing Kingdom has grown to have the most powerful airforce, but we are still, for the most part, stu a small number of mountaintops he tre of the ti.”

  “Okay,” I said.

  “The Sylphfree and the ing Kingdom have been at each other's throats for turies. We both cimed the same mountaintop. The Golden Peak. And wheh discovered that the name was rather literal a war broke out. Then ahen another. It’s almost a formality that we’ll go to war once every few decades over trol over the mountain. We’ve even bee rather civil about it. Even if we hate each other.”

  “’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 uing and politig with very little a. The mountain is basically untouched though, on at of both sides destroying alements or camps on it.”

  “That's awful,” I said. I found e walkio 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 ti. Coupled with their advanced healers and heavily-militarized gover, 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 fidence was true, because none of them tried to stop us.

  “Then you have the Tres. Huge, expansionist, aggressive. They’re backwards and barbaric at the best of times, but they’re rge, 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 retively small, not too populous, but fairly advahey actually have very det mages here. They’re not terribly keen on moving outside of their little deltas though.”

  “And Mattergrove?” I asked with a gowards Awen.

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

  “I... doly agree,” Amaryllis said. “Mattergrove matters if only because they’re on the far westernside of the ti 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 ing 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 tensioweeres and both Deepmarsh and the ing 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 Rai.”

  “Exactly,” Amaryllis said. “Which means that someone, probably not a sior like Rai but either a try anization, is trying to start a rge-scale flict.”

  I licked my lips. “That’s not good.”

  “Yift for moroniderstatements is as sharp as ever,” Amaryllis said.

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

  Amaryllis wobbled her head from side to side. “I suppose I ’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 arked between the ing Kingdom and the Sylphfree would be bad enough, but if the Tres pick a side, and Deepmarsh join in, then it could be a near global war.”

  “A world war,” I said.

  “I suppose you could call it that,” she said. “Though I doubt the Pyrowalkians would join in, and the Snownders are as isotionist 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 colle or small nation-states loosely held together by a rivalry with the Pyrowalkians.”

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

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

  History css was always kind of at school, but they would always go on and on about b stuff instead of the big cool things. I did like the stuff about the battles and the intrigue, but they were far and few iween.

  “I don’t want to say it ’t happen,” I said. “Because it might.” I tightened my fists by my side and gred at the horizon I could see over the buildings. “But we’ll do our daro 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 direight 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, ,” I said. “And then?”

  She frow 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 pace to deliver a history gier while being hounded by assassins like in some drama py?” 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 ter,” she said with a gesture towards the straubby Messenger’s guild with its poles stig out of the roof with moving panels.

  “’t your bank ring seers to people?” I asked.

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

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

  Whe to the Exploration Guild and pushed past the familiar double doors at the front, it was to find a det-sized group within, ohat I reized almht away.

  Five grenoil, all of them ihers, 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 o her. And standing a bit behind Emeric was a nervous Donat, the grenoil having ged 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 direathilde.

  “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 fotten 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 pce after all.”

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

  “I see zat,” he said. “We will have to go for drinks ter, and you tell us about your adventure. We just arrived, we o 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 imagihe director said. She sounded about as amused as she looked. “Is that young dy o you the missing-and-presumed-kidnapped Awen Bristlee?” she asked.

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

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

  The director turned her gre onto me. “I would love to see yuing that in court, young dy.”

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

  “Our news is important too,” Emeric said. “And wiz ze dragons iy... it seems like today is aing 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.”

  ***

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