Chapter One Hundred and Fifty-Two - Peace Through Overwhelming Friendpower

  Evalyn led us out of the washrooms with a sweep of her long robes and a flutter of her wings. “This way,” she said. “I’m certain that some of my rades at least will be weling, more so than some harpies, I’m sure.”

  “That sounds nice,” I said as I skipped along. “So, what’s it like having wings?” I asked.

  She gnced over her shoulder at me, then down to her wings. “I never gave it too much thought. We’re born with them, you see. Most of us are flying about before we’re even a year old.”

  “I guess you wouldn’t really think about it, then,” I said. “I hope that my css evolution gives me wings. It would be super .”

  Evalyn made her ughing noise and nodded. “I’m certain that you’d enjoy the freedom of flight. It’s one of the greatest things about being a Sylph. We rule the airs, and have for a very long time.”

  I retty sure someone like Amaryllis would have something to say about that.

  She brought us up a floor onto the topmost baly, then moved towards a shadowy er that was even darker than that table where I'd gotten my food. At this point you probably would stumble into a chair. It was also behind a feardly pced pilrs. “Do sylphs have good night vision?” I asked.

  “No more than humans or buns,” Evalyn said.

  “Then why are your tables all in the dark?”

  “Petty harpy politics?” Evalyn wondered aloud. “Or maybe they just want to keep us out of sight and mind as they bask in their own glory?” She didn’t sound all that happy there.

  “Well, that’s just rude,” I said.

  She nodded. “I won’t disagree.”

  The tables in the back all had a few sylph sitting or standing around them. There seemed to be an order to them. The more decorations they had on their chest, the more likely it was that they were sitting down with a few less-decorated sylph standing behind them.

  Those who weren’t in uniform likewise had those standing behind them, but the differehere was made more obvious by the appearance of their dress. The prettier the outfit, the higher the station, I guessed.

  “Do the sylph have a, uh, caste system?” I asked.

  “Hm? No. We pride ourselves on being a meritocracy. Though I’ll admit that even with as taken to subdue ism, it’s still something that appears quite frequently,” Evalyn said. “I wasn’t born a tess. My father was merely a soldier at the start of his career, and I began as a lesser diplomat a... rather long time ago, let’s say.”

  “,” I said.

  “e, we skip the business people. As useful as they might be, they’ll only bore you with numbers.” We crossed the first few rows of sylphs and headed towards the middle tables. They were occupied by some of the best dressed and most medal-festooned sylphs around.

  There were three groups occupying the tremost table. A male sylph in a well-tailored suit with two guards behind him, a woman in bck pte armour over what I suspected was leather (who also had a pair of equally-armoured sylph behind her), and a sylph that looked like he was dressed like a military dictator out of a satire. That st one had to be a noble.

  “You’re back, Lady Sunshrike,” the noble in the bunch asked.

  “Lord Winterfall,” she replied with a gracious nod. “I am. And I found some iing panions while I was away. It seems as if our kind hosts might have extehem the same courtesy they gave us.”

  “Ah,” I said. “It wasn’t that bad. Just a bit of a slip-up with some wine,” I said befrinning to the table. “Hi!”

  “Awa, hello,” Awen said before she dipped into a curtsy.

  “Always saving is, huh Evalyn?” the military guy said.

  “I wouldn’t call this saving is,” Evalyn said. “More like making iing new friends. Captain Bunch here, and her panion Miss Bristlee, are both taking their airship to visit our fiion soon.”

  “Oh?” the military man asked. “Now that’ll be iing.” He turowards us fully and I had the impression he was eyeing me up and down. “Are you part of the diplomatic mission?” he asked.

  “Not quite,” I said. “We just figured that mission wouldn’t work out so we might as well try to stop any war ourselves.”

  The man bliwice, then roared with ughter. “How proactive! I love it. I’m odore Autumngale. I’m in charge of making sure all these fine diplomats make it out of this harpy-ied hillside and bae in one piece.”

  “!” I said. “That sounds like a great job. Also, your rank sounds cool.”

  “Why thank you,” he said. “I have the impression that you have no idea what it means.”

  “Not even the slightest clue,” I said with a bright smile.

  He ughed some more at that, then turo the armoured dy o him. “She’s an iing one, isn’t she Storm?”

  “She is,” the woman said. Her voice was a croaking whisper, like she was f the words out. I gnced her way and took in the scars running across her throat for just a moment before snapping my attention away. I didn’t want to make her feel bad by staring. “How do you io make it to Sylphfree, Captain Bunch?” she asked.

  “By flying?” I asked.

  She smiled a little as she shook her head. “Getting there is, perhaps, easy. Making it past the patrols without the proper forms arations, oher hand, might prove a little plicated.”

  “I guess just showing up to the port and saying that we’re there to stop a war from maybe happening isn’t going to work?”

  Storm sighed. “I’m afraid not. There is already much debate over whether there is even a hint of warm iure, though the cervid are always rearing for it. We’ve growo peace, and I think we would all rather keep things as they are.”

  “So I’d need some sort of permit to nd?” I asked. I was willing to bet that Clementine had already figured that o. “Where I get one?”

  The Storm woman tapped her , then looked over her shoulder to the younger of the two armoured sylphs standing there. “Bastion, you mentioned having to return to Sylphfree a little bit soohan the main expedition?”

  The sylph, Bastion, stood taller, his armour king a bit with the motion. He retty tall sylph, which meant that he came up to my nose when standing ramrod straight, and his armour, all bd rather on the spiky side, was shiny and new lookiher it really was new, or he took a lot of care with it. “Yes, Inquisitor Storm,” he said. “I was charged t bae important parcels to the homend.”

  “Well there you go,” Storm said. “Captain Bunch, were you pnning on leaving earlier than the main expedition?”

  “Uh,” I said. “Not really, but the Beaver’s pretty much ready except for a few things. He’s gettirofitted right now. Awen?”

  “Awa... I think we could leave soon enough, yes,” she said.

  “Would it be possible for you to rent a room to a couple inquisitors?” Storm asked.

  I looked over to Awen whed at me. I figured that meant the decision was mine. “Uh, we do have some extra rooms on the Beaver. Do sylphs have a special diet or anything? Or we just bring whatever food we would bring normally?”

  Evalyn made her ughing noise again. “We’ll eat anything a human will,” she said. “Or most of us will; there’s no ating for taste.”

  “I assure you, Captain Bunch,” Bastion said as he stepped around the table. “That I am not a picky eater. And I assist your crew if I happen to be taking someone else’s berth.”

  “Well, in that case, I guess you’re wele aboard,” I said. I gri the whole table. I didn’t doubt that they had their own ulterior motives, but that was okay. If I could help them while they helped me a little, then that was totally alright. It was a great way to start a friendship.

  “I look forward to flying with you,” Bastion said as he extended a hand to me.

  I took his hand and shook. “Me too--” I began.

  Bastion’s eyes went wide and his genial, polite look faded into shock for a moment before he tore his hand back, reached for his belt, and pulled out a knife.

  I was caught entirely ft-footed as the sylph stepped up into my guard and pced the edge of the knife against my throat in a motion so smooth and fast it looked straight out of a movie.

  “What?” I asked. The word alone was enough to make the cold steel tickly my throat.

  “Who are you?” Bastion asked.

  By then, Storm and odore Autumngale were on their feet. “Bastion!” Storm rasped. “Expin.”

  “She... this woman has itted more crimes than the worst sdrel I have ever met,” he said. “Her record is as bck as pitch.”

  “Please back away from Broccoli,” Awen asked. She looked like she was torween staring at Bastion and his knife and looking for one of her own oables around us.

  We were gathering a fair bit of attention from them. “Um, Mister Bastion,” I said. “I don’t know what you’re talking about?”

  Evalyn slowly, carefully, brought her arm up between us and pced it on Bastion’s hand. “Sir Bastion,” she said. “Miss Bunch isn’t of or in our nation. I’m afraid that she isn’t beholden to our ws.”

  Bastion’s face torted. “I uand, Lady Sunshrike, but her crimes... they, they’re awful.”

  “Uh,” I said. “ anyone expin?”

  Lord Winterfell shifted in his seat. He, of all those at or around the table, looked the least unfortable. “I think I enlighten you, captain. It’s rather simple: The Royal Order of Padins of the World has a rather unique ability to tell, by touch, whether a person is guilty of a crime. Not the exact crime, mind you, but the level of... I suppose criminality they have itted. It is one of the ways we keep things nid tidy bae.”

  “But, but I haven’t done anything wrong,” I said. “At least, I don’t think.”

  “The interpretation of what is or isn’t a crime is based on the padin’s uanding of the ws. Most are quite well educated and could recite entire w books from rote,” he said.

  “Um,” Awen said. “Maybe Broccoli did something that’s okay here but not in Sylphfree?” she asked.

  “Oh, like that time I kidnapped you?”

  Now I was getting looks again.

  “Captain Bunch,” Inquisitor Storm asked. “Would you mind if I touched you? I’m certain that Sir Bastion’s interpretation of the w is accurate, but perhaps I lend a bit more nuao the situation.”

  “Sure?” I said as I extended a hand towards the woman.

  The sylph, who as it turns out robably the smallest member of the race I’d yet seen, took my hand in hers and frowned off into the air. She hissed betweeeeth and locked gazes with me. “You... don’t make sense.”

  “Uh.”

  “Your criminality is... impossibly high. It’s as if you went around breaking dungeon cores while on-back. But your morality score is exceptionally high as well. Oer alone you would be sidered a paragon of good citizenship.”

  I shrugged. “Okay? I probably expin most of the, uh, ws I broke? Maybe?”

  “Yes,” she said. “Yes, I think we’d all really appreciate an expnation.”

  Then, because the world clearly had it in for me, that was when the Albatross sisters arrived.

  ***

  AnnouGuess what?

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