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As it was already nearing Evening, my desired meeting with Rod was going to be my meal with him, again taken in my office, since the solar’s ‘family’ dining room was currently functioning as the War Room.
I say ‘was going to be’, because a military runner knocked frantically on the door just as the maids were putting the finishing touches on my dinner gown (modern Dorian evening fashion, which, when translated to Earthly terms, meant an ornately-embroidered Royal Blue qipao featuring plum branches in flower and butterflies embroidered in gold thread. It was fortunate all the tableware in the castle is iron-free, since gloves would look terrible with such an outfit, so I would have to go without my fairy steel gauntlets.)
The thirty-something Pendorian Army sergeant looked a little pale when she found herself confronting me directly, rather than passing a message through my lady’s maid Genette, but she saluted and recited, “Colonel Morgas’ compliments to My Lady, and she requests me to report that an airship is coming in to land in in the South Yard.”
‘South Yard’ is a shorthand name for ‘South Bailey Courtyard’, the big marshaling and practice yard between the gatehouse and the Main Hall Keep which takes up roughly the same space as the Keep within the curtain walls of Narses Castle. It’s a grand space, certainly large enough room to land something like a large helicopter, or maybe a Harrier or an Osprey, but the airships of Huade are relatives of the Hindenburg. They would never fit.
I’ve acquired some affinity for Wind spirits through my contact with Sirth, although not to the sensitivity she has. Fortunately, she’s convinced them to stay close to me in case she needs them to come to my aid, so several have been circulating in and around the castle. I (clumsily) requested them to send me an impression of the airspace.
To my surprise, the image I received from them was of Miröen’s ‘launch’ descending on Narses Castle. I scanned the castle and learned that Rod was already headed down. If he needed to meet the air boat, then I did, as well.
“Is this a scheduled arrival, sergeant?” I asked the sergeant, who was still waiting for my counter-salute, which I now gave.
“I… I must apologize that I do not know, My Lady,” she stammered, growing pale again. “The colonel ordered me to alert you immediately.”
Her behavior seemed wrong for a mature Army sergeant, but my eye touched upon the bracelet on her wrist, so I ignored it.
Logically, if Colonel Morgas was rushed to inform me, it must be a surprise to her, too. Otherwise, she would have mentioned it in our morning meeting, or at least sent word about it before the thing was actually coming in to land.
Descending four floors to the courtyard actually takes quite a long time, since the ‘floors’ are the height of two normal stories or more. I rushed out to the balcony, then hesitated and looked back at Mireia, who was also just receiving the finishing touches on her dinner wear.
She wasn’t officially a royal concubine yet, but I had been taking measures to elevate her image with the staff. She had been counteracting my measures by acting like an attendant. I doubt it was conscious on her part; she had acted as a servant for too long to easily drop it. But, this was a good opportunity to push back a little.
“Mir, come with me,” I called from the french doors. Behind me, the launch was already lower than our level.
Her eyes grew wary, but she came to me. She was probably expecting me to grow my wings, and carry her, since my qipao had the perquisite wing window in back.
As a fellow youthful woman, her dinner wear was also a qipao, hers being scarlet with cherry blossoms that matched her hair nicely. Also a Mother design, despite lacking the wing window. I knew that from the extra long slit up the side. Mir had some serious sexy going on.
While waiting for her to arrive, I expanded my vessel and had a short exchange with Fan Li. Her response, instead of starting the magic up for me, was to push the skill into my mind with the same teaching technique she had used on Sirth.
She then left me with a reminder to take a proper sleep when night-time came, so she could take up the troubling question I had asked her. It seemed that If your Spirit Core belongs to us all, can you return it to us? did not have a simple answer. Then she ‘went back to sleep’, leaving me in the expanded state that gave me enough spiritual power to use the magic.
Sirth and Fan Li had been using the vessel an awful lot over the last few hours, although in short intervals, and this might have been slightly wasteful, but I somehow felt it would be better for my image than flying down as a vampire. And better for Mir’s image than taking her down in a princess carry.
With invisible question marks floating around her head, Mir came and stood next to me. I slipped my arm behind her waist to steady her, then had the lotus form within the balcony floor and rise, sized to carry two people, lifting us as it emerged beneath our feet.
Mir gasped as we rode upward and over the balcony rail.
“My Lady?” she asked with a tremble in her voice as we advanced into the open air, twenty paces above the ground.
“Shoulders back, chin up,” I directed, momentarily channeling either Benedetta or Elianora, I’m not sure which.
Sirth had relied on her ‘friends’ to control the flight of the [Sky Lotus Technique – Huade Edition], but I felt much more comfortable with controlling it through Will, which I had gained considerable experience with while training in Sky Ocean. I guided the blossom in a gentle descent down into the courtyard just as the launch was settling onto the cobblestones. I could see Pasrue on the quarterdeck next to the helmsman, staring up at me with frank intrigue. Well, she’s a sage and it was a magic that I could guarantee she had never seen before, so I had probably just piqued her curiosity.
The gangway came down and crewmen descended to secure the boat as several people I had not at all expected to see lined up on deck to disembark. For a moment, I felt the old Tiana’s embarrassment of showing off in front of these individuals, then made myself overcome it. Right now, I was the Ducal Heir and the Lady of the Castle. I was supposed to be showing off, for the sake of my duchy’s pride.
When the lotus blossom slowed and touched the pavement, then sank and disappeared into it, leaving us once more on solid ground, my unexpected guests were coming down the gangway. I had landed us at an ideal spot for my greetings, so I simply stood in place while discreetly removing my hand from Mir’s back as they descended.
Well, most of them did that. One passenger didn’t have the patience to wait for the line in front of her. Instead, she leapt over the gunwale, hit the ground with feline perfection, and sprinted in my direction.
I nervously checked my surroundings. Thanks to my unorthodox entrance, I didn’t have a guard yet. I don’t think the house knights had caught on yet that I was out and about. And it was also fortunate that no random soldiers were near enough to come dashing in, ready to defend me. Very fortunate.
Because Dang it, Ceria, any soldier here who saw you right now would assume you are about to attack their boss!
I didn’t actually express that in spiritual voice. In retrospect, I probably should have. But it hadn’t occurred to me yet, before she glommed onto me with a category five hug, yelling, “Lady!!!”
Welp, so much for my dignified image as Lady of the Castle.
As I hugged her back, holding back my retort for her behavior (It’s only been ten days, Ceria!), I watched the rest of the guests following her at a more rational pace.
Arken, Graham, Melione, Brigitte, Bruna, Pasrue… and a man I never expected to see so soon, given the state he was in, the last time I saw him.
“Diurhimath?” I asked, as if wanting someone to confirm I wasn’t hallucinating.
Admittedly, he had been more-or-less whole when I last saw him, at the Fairy Queen’s pool, although still quite gaunt. He’d had one foot in the grave on my previous visit, when we brought him to her for treatment. This Diur, though, was the picture of health. In fact, to my fairy sight, he appeared healthier than I had ever seen him, although I couldn’t put my finger on why.
Ceria finally loosened her hug, in order to give me a fervent kiss on the lips, then looked over her shoulder at the man in question.
“Yeah, that Jurmat guy showed up with the boat when it came to pick us up. Seems like he’s got business with you. Do you really trust him, Lady?”
Mind you, she made that speech with her hands still around me.
‘Jurmat’ is the name by which the asura Trisiagga had called him, and it had been because she spoke Ostish in Northerner dialect, just like Ceria and Bruna do. They don’t seem to be able to manage the ‘Di’ at the beginning of his name, turning it into a J, and Northerners also have trouble with the ‘th’ sound. Being well-taught by their aristocratic mother, Ceria and Bruna can pronounce clearly if they slow down, but if Ostish were English, Northerners would turn ‘with’ into ‘wit’, like some UK dialects.
Melione was watching from a distance, giving her fellow Servant an amused shake of the head as she watched us. Bruna and the other two Hero’s Party members were equally wry. Pasrue appeared to be taking mental notes of Ceria’s behavior, like a sage doing a paper entitled, On the behavior of the Catkin Servant in her natural environment.
Ceria’s distrust of Diur was understandable, I guess. The only times she had seen him were when he attacked us in the Carael Mines, and when he was a half-dead casualty after our battle in the great underworld of Ilim Below. I had told the party members of his massive contribution to our side in that battle, but for them, it had just been second-hand information, without any emotional connection.
“I trust him,” I assured her. “You can ask Brigitte if you don’t understand why.”
Rod finally arrived, with a deep frown creasing his face. But he saw me disentangling myself from the cat girl and the frown turned to concern, which he voiced while completely ignoring the visitors.
“How’d you get down here so fast?” he quizzed like a lawyer doing cross-examination.
I tried not to be too dour while I pointed up and said, “Your Royal Highness, my balcony is right there, above us.”
His brows bunched up. He leaned closer and said in a low voice, “Ti, the babies…”
I immediately snapped, although keeping it equally quiet, “We took a nice, gentle ride down, and hush up about the babies.”
“Babies?” Ceria asked, her cat ears going fully erect.
“Later,” I told her, and returned to Rod. “Your Highness, we’re greeting guests right now.”
“Yes,” he agreed, his expression complex as he turned toward the travelers. With neither Ryuu nor Lady Allia present, the ranking person among them was either Ceria, as a baroness’s daughter, or Pasrue, as a sage.
He chose the one who had not just been acting like a silly child. “Your Wisdom, I take it we are now finally able to discuss whatever it is that has brought you and your companions here without any advance notice?”
“So you didn’t know they were coming, either?” I asked.
“I would have told you, if I did,” he answered.
I gave him a look that was intended to communicate, Your recent track record suggests otherwise. His eyes shifted away, knowing his guilt, but he covered it by returning to Pasrue, waiting for her to answer.
But instead, Uncle Arken requested, “Your Royal Highness, please allow us to be indoors, and under anti-eavesdropping measures, before Her Wisdom answers.”
Rod and I exchanged glances, but he agreed, and we headed into the Keep.
