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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Three - Just Remember: Everything is Illegal

  Amaryllis stepped up before her sisters and raised an arm as if to silehem and everyone else. She looked around, taking in all the Sylph nobles and inquisitors and military people, theurowards me. “What did you do?” she asked.

  I took a moment to respond. “I didn’t do anything?” I hazarded.

  “That’s highly unlikely. When I left you, you were helping Awen out her dress because some jerk acted like a jerk. Now I find you here, surrounded by some of the most important sylph diplomats around, and some of them are bearing steel.”

  A gnce over my shoulder showed that Bastion still had his sword by his side. “I really didn’t do anything?” I tried. “Um. I was talking about our trip over to Sylphfree ter, and the odore and Miss Sunshrike and Miss Storm suggested that we take Bastion along with us.” I gestured to the sylph boy behind me.

  “So they want you to carry a spy over to Sylphfree in order to... what, make sure you’re not a spy yourself?” she asked.

  Evalyn bristled at that. “A Padin is hardly something so crass as a spy,” she said.

  Amaryllis snorted. “If it quacks like a dud fps like a duck, then it’s probably a sylph spy in disguise,” she said. “But... it’s not airely terrible idea. Broccoli really doesn’t have anything to hide, least of all on the Beaver.”

  The sylphs really didn’t look fond of Amaryllis, but they were also giving me suspicious looks. “Um, ah,” I went on. “Everything was fiil Mister Bastion shook my hand. Then he accused me of being a criminal.”

  “Oh, for the love of the World,” Amaryllis said with a huge eye roll. “Of course he did.” She gred at Bastion and then Miss Storm. “You two are aware that sylph w doesn’t apply outside of sylph territories, right? I don’t know what ‘crime’ you think she itted, but I assure you it’s likely something that anyone from a civilised try would overlook.”

  “Are you implying that Sylphfree isn’t civilised?” Evalyn asked.

  “That was the implication, yes,” Amaryllis said.

  Bastion shook his head. “We’re aware that our ws, blessed as they may be, do not apply elsewhere. Were she merely... paying a dragon’s tax for the right to fly, then while that would be unwful over sylph skies, we’d overlook it. But the level of criminality she has, even after Inquisitor Storm has verified it... what have you done, Captain Bunch?”

  “Uh,” I said. I tried to think back to anything that I’d dohat was criminal. “Well, I kidnapped Awen here. But that was food cause. And... Amaryllis, did we do anything else that was criminal?”

  Amaryllis sighed. “You fought those cervid meraries sneaking across the Deepmarsh border. I’m certain that viotes some ws. You also participated in a non-sylph saned tour, which is also against their ws.”

  “But it was in Rosenbell?”

  “That doesn’t matter to them,” she said. “And you sorted with dragons.”

  The sylph all pulled away from me. “Please expin, Lady... Albatross,” Inquisitor Storm asked.

  “The town of Rosenbell was going to be attacked by a dragon. Broccoli here intimidated it. It didn’t attack the town,” Amaryllis said.

  The sylph were pretty expressive at times, they had a very strong fused face.

  “It’s okay? I helped try and reform Rhawrexdee a little. He’s muiow? Or, uh, at least less likely to try a people?”

  “Awa, you took out the, um, underworld in Port Royal,” Awen said.

  I shook my head. “That was a group effort.”

  “You’re not a saned w enfort officer,” Bastion said. “By what right did you take apart this underworld?”

  “Uh. They weren’t a saned criminal anization?” I let out a big sigh. “Look, I’m sorry I did a bunch of things you guys think are crimes, but I promise I was only ever doing what I thought was right at the time.”

  Evalyn and Miss Storm looked at each other, but it was Lord Winterfall that spoke first. “I think,” he began. “That the rather obvious solution is very simple. Seeing as we have nhts here, we hardly detain Captain Bunor would I approve of it if we could. If and when the good Captain es to Slyphfree, we keep an eye on her until she leaves, as we would do to any fner. And if the Captain wants to extend a helping hand and allow Padin Bastion to use her services regardless, then he at least verify that she does nothing suspicious between here and our fair nds.”

  Amaryllis looked to her sisters and received a shrug from Rosaline and a small nod from Clementine. “We’ll see,” she said. “Goodness knows now of all times we should be trying to recile our two nations.”

  “But you were mean a minute ago,” I said.

  “Don’t be an idiot,” she said. “I wasn’t being mean, I was mog their inadequacies as a nation.”

  “Amaryllis!” I said.

  “Are you well acquainted with miss Albatross?” Evalyn asked.

  “Of course, she’s one of my best friends,” I said.

  “I see... then perhaps you should rejoin your friends? We tinue our chat some other day, when tensions aren’t running so high. And you should be enjoying the ball, this kind of thing is perfect for a young thing like you.”

  I smiled at her. It was a tiny bit of a sad smile. The tension and the whole thing with the crimes was a bit of a downer. “Okay,” I said. I stepped up to the little sylph dy and swept her up in a tight hug. The other sylph all went wide-eyed at that. “I’ll talk to you again!” I said before moving over to Awen and sliding an arm up around hers.

  Amaryllis o the sylph as she spun around ahe charge back towards the stairs leading down.

  Rosaline slowed down so that she was on Awen’s other side. “You know, I’m going to get jealous if you spend the evening hanging off anirl’s arm,” she said to Awen.

  “Ah, awa?”

  “It’s okay,” I said. “Awen has two arms.”

  “Oh, how daring!” Rosaline said before she grabbed onto Awen’s other side and pressed up against her.

  I giggled at Awen’s steaming face. It was o be with friends who could help me release some tension. Still, I had some questions.

  “Amaryllis? What was all that back there?”

  She huffed. “That was the sylph being themselves. Their nation is very w-mihey have rules for everything, and the idea that someone be free from that kind of thing just rubs them wrong.”

  “They seemed nice,” I said.

  “Oh, sure, they’re civilised when they want to be. They have some of the best medical facilities on Dirt and I hear that their cities are impeccably and orderly. But they’re super uptight about everything and have problems when it es to anything that isn’t traditional.”

  “Hmm.” I scratched at my cheeks as I thought. “What about the focus ons?”

  She barked a ugh. “They hate dragons. Most other races have some issues with them, of course, but dragons are the apex predator and we all uand that. The sylph though? They ’t their minds around it.”

  “It’s worse than that,” Clementine said. Her first words in a while. “The sylph have trol over some of the rgest gold deposits on Dirt. It’s one of the sources of their immense wealth. Dragons, as you likely well know, are rather fond of gold ah.”

  “Oh no,” I said.

  “Ihey’ve been invaded... four times? Five sihey started mining the gold they have. Some of those were smaller, juvenile dragons that they were able to kill or scare off, but they’ve had elder dragons show up in the past too. It’s why they have such a strong military presehat and the golden peak.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  She looked at me for a moment before nodding. “I fet that you’re not from around these parts. The Golden Peak is a mountain. It’s part of the Harpy Mountain . The topmost part of the mountain has, as you guess from the name, a lot of gold. The harpy cimed it first, but the sylph stole the nd.”

  “They did?” I asked.

  “We, of course, recimed it ter, only to be pushed back again,” Clementine said. “Then a dragoled on the mountain for a few decades before a joint harpy-sylph force killed it. A year ter the war was restarted.”

  “Um, who has the mountain now?” I asked.

  “No ohe base of the mountain has forts belonging to both nations. Sometimes a scout will mysteriously disappear from one side or another, or something will get sabotaged in a fort, but it’s beey quiet for the st twenty or so years.”

  I frowned. “Wait, when did this war start?”

  “Over the Golden Peak? Some three hundred years ago? Two? It’s not quite one war. For the most part, it’s been a series of skirmishes between the sylph and harpy, with a new i every geion.”

  “That’s awful,” I said.

  “What’s awful,” Amaryllis said. “Is arriving at our table te and making a se.” She fpped an arm across the sed baly and towards ay table way off in the er.

  I looked around, noting for the first time the number of people around. While there had been a feies around before, mostly in little pockets and groups, now the entire floor was full of people, all iy dresses. Most of them were obviously making their way to some tables, and quite a few were sitting already.

  “Looks like people are looking forward to the speeches. I hope they’re fun.”

  All three Albatross sisters groaned.

  “No, no they won’t be,” Amaryllis said. “When we were trekking in the woods and prairies alone, with nothing for pany but ourselves and a stant fear of being devoured, and when the only thing we had to look forward to was sleeping on the cold hard ground, I just had to tell myself that at least I wasn’t listening to a speech put on by some old bird.”

  “Amy,” Clementine hissed before looking around to see if anyone heard. “You might be right, but it’s not the kind of thing you just say.”

  I giggled at their antitil we got to the table at the far er. It had little pques before each seat with our names written in fancy calligraphy. Rosaline moved two of them so that she was sittio Awen, which prompted Amaryllis to shift two more so that I was between her and Clementine.

  Ohey’d finished bickering over where who sat down, we plopped ourselves in our new pces. “So, did you discover any sort of spiracy?” I asked.

  Clementine’s eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. “We did. The Owl is trying to pull in a much bigger tract than expected. It would mean that the military would buy all of their tug ships and supply craft from them instead of us.”

  “That’s not good,” I said.

  “It wouldn’t be that bad,” Rosaline said as she leaned forward, and a bit over Awen, to talk. “We barely meet demand as it is. Getting them to make a few ships would alleviate some of the stress on the yards. The problem is that they’re refusing to switch over tines, which means that every new ship they make will be an outdated mess.”

  “More repair time, and costs, more downtime, higher fuel costs. And less reliability. That would all fall on the Owl’s back, but they’re being clever,” Clementine said.

  “How so?”

  “As it stands, we’re probably going to win the bid to maintain all military ships for the foreseeable future. If the Owl push out aire fleet that will need stant repair arofitting, at our expense... it’ll bog everything down. Our berths will be filled with their junkheap ships and we’ll be the ones holding the eggshells.”

  “Ah,” I said. Further questions were put off as a big harpy man standing atop a floating ptform cleared his throat into a microphone, and the band pying down below slowed to a stop.

  It was time for the b speeches.

  ***

  AnnouI have a few things to say, so.... bear with me?1. amon Bun's audiobook is out, and it seems to be doing alright! Love Crafted's paperback is doing okay too!2. I've finally kicked my butt and started editing Stray Cat Strut's first volume. If I wrangle up some funds I might hire aor, but those tend to be hel expensive and my current budget is... in the single digits. Pns are for an Ebook and a Paperback version! Maybe an audiobook?3. Finished writing Fluff Volume Ohe epilogue should be out in early Feb.4. I'm 7 chapters into a new project that I think a lot of you will love. It's a Magical Girl story call The Agartha Loop! More info month!