RavensDagger

  Chapter Two Hundred and Sixty-Nine - Royaltea

  The pace was a grand building, long and tall, with carefully id stone walls with huge windows. ly trimmed hedges encircled it, only broken up when there was arao the mansion-like building.

  All along the exterior wall were small guard posts, not visible from the outside, where sylphs in uniform were standing at attention in the shade provided by their stations.

  “This way,” our padin escort said. He took a sharp turn to the left and led us along a cobbled path around the estate. There were little rock gardens, some more normal flardens, and a couple of enclosed greenhouses. The padin stiffened just a bit as we crossed one such greenhouse.

  I looked past the green gss walls and saw a young sylph girl, maybe a year or two youhaaring up from where she was trimming something looking like a rosebush. I grinned and waved, and she eventually waved back, though she looked fused about it.

  “That’s princess Gabriel,” the padin said. “She’s the you member of the royal family.”

  “She likes gardening?” I asked.

  “Her flower arras are admired and often treasured,” he said. “Don’t repeat it, but she’s often doted on by the staff and her guardians. She was frail when she was younger. Gardening was an attempt to get her outside to take in some fresh air, and she seems to have taken to it quite well.”

  “That’s cute,” I decred.

  “This way,” the padin said.

  He led us over to one of the side entrahis one fnked by twuards with plumed hats and halberds by their sides. After speaking with them for a moment, they opehe door a us into a long corridor. There was a long carpet across the length of the room, with tiled floors visible along the edges. Every meter, there was a light sce, with picture frames between each.

  I noticed even muards at the end of the hall. “There’s a lot of guards here,” I said.

  “It’s sidered a great honour to be a guard at the royal estate,” uide said. “They receive additional training, as well as additional pay, though the real prize is the right to wear the uniform and crest of the royal family.”

  I didn’t quite get it, but I nodded along and followed as we crossed the length of the corridor, tur a jun, then came to a stop before a pair of double doors.

  The padin kwice. “Guests, for her highness, Princess Caprica,” he said.

  “Enter!” someone called out from within.

  The door ened and we were ushered inte, high-ceilinged room. There was a small shelf to one side with some few dozen books, and half of the room was taken up by a small stage on which sat a grand piano. The other half of the room was occupied by plump looking sofas as, as well as a small table in the tre.

  “You’re here, wonderful!”

  The girl that I assumed rincess Caprica stood with the grace I’d expect from a princess. She wasn’t wearing a very princess-y outfit though. Instead she wore a uniform not too dissimir from the one I’d seen soldiers wearing. It looked like it was made of a finer cut, and instead of being the same bck as all the other uniforms I’d seen, this one was a deep, nearly-burgundy red.

  “Hello!” I said with a cheery wave.

  The princess approached us and paused a metre or so away from me. She stared at all three of us before chug. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’m Princess Caprica, but please, just call me Caprica.”

  “In that case,” I said. “I’m Broccoli, let’s be friends!”

  CapricaDreams: To marry her crush and live a long, happy life.Desired Quality: Someone who will accept her for who she is, another romantic soul.

  “Hello,” Awen said . “I’m Awen.”

  “And I’m Amaryllis,” Amaryllis said. “It’s a pleasure.”

  Capriodded, almost a short bow. “It is! I hope you don’t mind, but I suspect I know more about you than you do about me. Unless Bastion said anything?”

  I shook my head. “Nope, he didn’t speak too much about his work with the royal family.” Actually, I could remember him telling me a story about one of the princesses breaking his foot, but that sounded a little embarrassing. “How e you know about us?”

  “Oh, nothing sinister. Bastion handed in his report and I had a quick peek at it. But e, let’s sit down. There’s tea being brewed as we speak, and the staff make excellent little pastries.”

  Caprica led us over to the seats, leaving a rger sofa on one side for us while she sat primly on the edge of a seat opposite.

  “So, what did the report say?” Amaryllis asked. “I have to admit to a certain level of curiosity.”

  “Oh, I imagine,” Caprica said. “I have never beely keen on gossip, that’s the purview of some of my sisters more than myself, but I ’t imagi being curious about a dot that mentions me.”

  I nodded along. Caprica seemed very nice so far. A bit excitable? She still had the poise and bearing of a noble dy, but it felt like she was just brimming with excitement uhe surface. She was boung on her seat, sitting right on the edge, and her wings were fluttering every so often. Quite the opposite of Awen, who was more of a born introvert, aainly nothing like Amaryllis who was all sharp and rough oside with a soft squishy inside.

  “I hope Bastion didn’t exaggerate our adventures,” I said.

  “Oh! I hope he did. The report was a little light, owing to the limited time spent on it, I suppose, but it ositively terrifying to read. I ’t imagine Bastion fag so many challengers, and you with him, of course,” Caprica said.

  I nodded. “He was a great friend. We were lucky that he was there with us.”

  “He is pretty great,” Caprica said.

  “Have you known him for long?” Amaryllis asked.

  Caprica shifted on her seat. “Oh, for some time now. He was mostly attached to my older sister when I was a little younger. He’s always been someohat I admire, of course.” She smiled demurely, but I didn’t miss the faint blush toug her cheeks.

  “You called us over for tea, are there any tea-drinking traditions in Goldenalden?” I asked. It wouldn’t just be o know, I also wao shift the subject just a notch. It would be embarrassing to be caught bragging about our adventures.

  “Oh, nothing too plicated, I don’t think,” Caprica said.

  Tea arrived, served by a pair of sylph dies in maid outfits who set a tray down oable between us and then poured us four cups of a fragrahey left some honey oable, o cream and milk in little por saucers.

  “Thank you,” I said as I took a cup and breathed it in.

  A ountain berry and sweet leaf tea, steeped ht and served with aged honey. Professionally brewed. Provides a boost of energy and assists in stamina regeion.

  “Oh, this is great,” I said as I took a sip. It was sweet, even without the hohe honey did help, smoothing it. “Do you think I could buy some sweet leaves?”

  “Yhe tea leaves from just a taste?” Caprica asked. “That’s impressive.”

  “Oh, I have a Tea Making skill,” I said. “It’s great for making good tea. A big part of my, ah, build, is about buffing and helping make new friends.”

  Caprica ughed. “That’s excellent. I don’t think you’ll find many people here who have skills of that sort. We tend to have a more martial focus, though you will find some excellent craftsylphs. My littlest sister is sidering dippioes into potion-making, for example.”

  “Oh, that does sound nice,” I said. “What’s your css? Mine’s amon Bun Bun.”

  One of Caprica’s eyebrows rose. “You didn’t i me oering?”

  “Isn’t that impolite?” I asked.

  “Oh, it is, but that hardly stops people.” Caprica said. “But if you ermission, then you have it.”

  I grinned and fired off my Insight skill at her.

  An Indomitable Bastion, Level ??, Intrigued

  I blinked. “Your css is Bastion?” I asked.

  “It is,” she said quite demurely. “It’s a respectable though unon css. Mostly it means that I’m quite hard to move when I don’t want to be moved. I think a few of my siblings have some unkind things to say about the hardness of my head, for example.”

  “That’s a css!” I decided. “I bet you’re tough in a fight.”

  “I stand on my own, though there hasn’t been too much fighting in my life. Being a princess doesn’t lend itself to many life or death battles. Though, from what I uand, two of you are noble dies in your ht, and you certainly haven’t shied away from any fights.”

  “We’ve been in our share of scraps,” Amaryllis said. “Though I wouldn’t call any of us expert fighters or battants.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Fighting isn’t usually any fun, it’s all scary and you spend more time w about your friends and thinking you might get hurt rather than enjoying it. There’s stuff that’s fun around it, though. It’s o be able to really trust your friends with your life, and expl dungeons is super cool. I’ve seen pces and things that I’d never have seen if I didn’t take that risk.”

  “Iing,” Caprica said. “I never really had too many opportuo go out and explore on my own, or in a small group, like that. I must admit to a certain amount of envy.”

  ‘Aw, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean t things up that way,” I said.

  She waved the ent off. “It’s entirely fine,” she said. “So! Bastion’s report didn’t mention why yroup flew all the way over to Sylphfree. Though I imagi has something to do with the summit ing up.”

  Amaryllis nodded. “Indeed. We’re here to deliver a few letters and such. The usual political riff-raff.”

  I blihat didn’t souirely right. Was Amaryllis doing something?

  “Speaking of, what do you know about the summit? We might attend, especially if there’s still room for a few extra people to be present,” Amaryllis tinued.

  “Holy, not all that terribly much,” Caprica said. “My is tend to lie more on the military side of things, which I know has had some small ges as of te. But I ’t say that I’m well versed with the political side. Some of my brothers care about that a lot more than I do.”

  “We’re a bit worried,” I said. “That's why we came.”

  “Worried?” Caprica asked.

  I nodded. “Yeah. A lot of the nations on Dirt, or this part of it anyway, seem to maybe be thinking of fighting each other. A war would be terrible.”

  Caprica shook her head. “No one would be foolish enough to challenge Sylphfree in an open war.”

  Amaryllis snorted. “Some harpies would be eager to do just that, and the cervid outnumber any force Sylphfree could muster ten to one. Your nation has an impressive military, but only when viewed in a vacuum. I think a war on the scale now possible would be a disaster for everyone involved.”

  Caprica looked genuinely fused for a moment. She took a slow sip from her tea while sidering it. “Maybe I have been a little naive,” she said. “I suppose it’s easy to believe stories about your own nation’s greatness.”

  “I’m impressed you look past that so easily,” Amaryllis said.

  “I happen to know that a lot of the stories that are spread around are quite inaccurate. You wouldn’t believe eople think of the royal family. It’s almost as if my siblings and I do n acc to some. They’ve never seen little Gabrielle siy father trip over a loose bit .”

  I ughed at the mental image of a fancy king losing his to a crooked carpet. “I guess not. We should talk about hings though! Being all sad isn’t any fun.”

  ***

  RavensDagger

  Caprica, by Lar!

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