Chapter One Hundred and Thirty-Three - Of Course You Realize this Maybe War

Tea was the greatest social lubricant known to young-woman kind.

I supposed that alcohol was meant to serve the same purpose, but I didn’t like the idea of being all tipsy and such. My mom had told me that when she drank she would start to cry and hug people a lot. The hugging part was alright, but I could do without the crying.

Crying was for when you were sad, not when you were with friends.

I gently stirred the kettle, letting the leaves steep for a moment until I felt like the tea was ready, then I poured five cups. Each one was placed before one of my friends, One before Awen, then Amaryllis, then Clementine and Rosaline. The last I dragged closer to my spot around the table. “There! Now everyone’s served,” I said.

Rosaline clapped.

Awen smiled and took her cup in dainty fingers.

Amaryllis and Clementine glared at each other, the air between them sparking and burning with hazy magic.

I set my cup down onto its saucer with a click. “Amaryllis, Clementine, can we not do this?” I asked. “You’re both sisters. You should love each other.”

“Oh, I love my moronic sister, alright,” Clementine said. She tore her cup off the table and gulped half of it down in one go. “I love her so much. But not when she betrays the entire family to run off to world knows where.”

Amaryllis scoffed. “I love my sisters,” she said. “But not when they’re willing to sell me off to the highest bidder.”

“We put it off,” Clementine said. “It’s not like the clan isn’t used to cancelling marriage engagements.” She turned her glare to Rosaline who looked away with a bit of a flush.

“You should have asked me,” Amaryllis said.

I locked eyes with Awen and we both shrugged at the same time.

Rosaline smacked the table a few times. “Girls, please, no. It’s over now, right?”

Amaryllis and Clementine huffed and crossed their wings at the same time, like mirror images. I held back a giggle. It wouldn’t be right to laugh, especially not when Amaryllis was genuinely upset.

She hadn’t exactly left her family on the best of terms, so this return might be a bit taxing on her mood. I patted her thigh under the table to remind her that I was there. “So, uh, you guys wanted to see Amaryllis for something important, right?” I asked. “About the maybe-war?”

“The Maybe War,” Rosaline said. “I like it! Much better than the current name.”

“The presses haven’t found a good name for it yet,” Clementine said.

Amaryllis sat a little straighter. “It’s reached the public ear?” she asked.

Clementine made a wishy-washy gesture with a wing. “Not entirely. But people are beginning to notice. You know how easy it is to ruffle feathers when it comes to the sylph. You could crack eggs in the middle of the sidewalk and get less hatred for it.”

“How bad is it?” Amaryllis asked.

Clementine’s expression made her look like she’d bit into a lemon. “It’s not good. There are rumours that the sylph and the cervid are forming an alliance. Just rumours, none based in fact, but it’s quite ugly.”

“We’re getting a lot more commissions for warships,” Rosaline said. “Which is the only good bit of news we’ve had in a while.”

I took a sip of my tea after adding a dollop of honey and two spoons of sugar to it. “Amaryllis said that you wanted us here to help stop things from getting worse, right?”

Clementine’s response was a slow nod. “There’s a dignitary leaving sometime this month. Some jumped up crow from Farseeing and a few lesser nobles for every clan. Cousin Fell is one of the members going.”

“Is this going to be one of those things where every clan has a talon in the pie?” Amaryllis asked.

“Pretty much,” Clementine said. “If the ship they’re taking doesn’t get attacked, blown up, or usurped by its crew, there’s a good chance it will crash because two idiots aboard couldn’t get along for a few days.”

“And you want us to accompany them?” Amaryllis asked. “Usually familicide is the one without a title getting rid of the one with the title.”

Clementine glared across the table, then paused when Gen-Gen the butler placed a plate of little dumplings in the centre of the table. “Thank you, Gen, that’s just what I needed,” she said before taking one of the dumplings and throwing it full-force across the table and into Amaryllis’ face.

My friend squawked and batted her arms in protest.

“Clem!” Rosaline said. “Don’t waste the food! Also, don’t hit little Amy.”

Clementine relented under the force of Rosaline’s big accusing eyes. “She was being stupid... stupider than usual.”

“You must know what it sounds like,” Amaryllis said.

“We’re not sending you on the diplomatic ship. We have others, We were hoping to send you and a hired crew out a week or two before the diplomatic mission leaves. You can pave the way for the diplomats, and can carry copies of most of the important agreements. If they never show up, you can present them yourself. If they do, then you can spy on the sylphs. World knows we don’t know the half of what they’re up to.”

“We’ll consider it,” Amaryllis said.

“I don’t mind helping,” I added.

She sighed. “Broccoli, you’re meant to play hard to get, or else people like my numbskull sister here will walk all over you. You won’t get any concessions if you agree to just do things for free.”

“But you shouldn’t put a price on helping!”

Rosaline giggled into her open palm. “Your letters didn’t say that your new friend was this cute,” she said.

I froze, teacup halfway to my lips. “N-no, no, I’m not cute,” I said.

“The first thing we’ll need is better training,” Amaryllis said. “Broccoli and Awen are both... capable in a fight, but they could be better. And they’re both rank novices with magic. I think some better equipment wouldn’t go amiss either. Ah, and Awen has a keen interest in mechanics and the like.”

“How much training do you think you can cram in?” Clementine asked. “For that matter, how long do you think you have before leaving?”

“I don’t know; how much of my time do you intend to waste?” Amaryllis snapped back. Then, because she just had to, she added, “You idiot.”

Rosaline pushed her sister back into her seat without even looking. “I’m sure we can help you and your friends become even stronger,” Rosaline said. “I can call in some favours, and we have a few good teachers in the clan already.”

“Dammit Rose, you can’t just agree to anything,” Clementine said while ignoring Amaryllis’ smug look.

“Sure I can. How do you think I go on so many dates? By saying no?” Rosaline turned towards Amaryllis, a dangerous look in her eyes. “Speaking of...”

Amaryllis groaned.

“So, Amy, did you find anyone interesting while you were out and about?” she asked coyly.

“No. No I did not,” Amaryllis said. “And if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

I picked a dumpling off the table and started chowing down, only pausing when a question came to mind. “You don’t trust Rose to help you with romance stuff? She’s your big sister!”

“Rose is...” Amaryllis began, but got lost and started making gestures that didn’t explain anything.

Rosaline took it in good humour. “I have a bad reputation,” she said. “I want to find the perfect man--or woman--and so I’ve gone on dates with, ah, most of the local clan’s' most eligible bachelors. People say that I’m a bit hysterical.”

“Oh!” Awen said.

Her little outburst had us all turning her way. Awen was good at being quiet when she wanted to, especially when she was sitting at the far end of the table, a sleepy Orange on her lap.

“I, awa, I have something that might help you, Miss Rosaline. But, um, I can’t give it to you forever. You can keep it while we’re here, maybe?”

Rosaline tilted her head to the side. “What’s this?”

Awen reached into her satchel and carefully pulled out the wand of cure hysteria. “Um. This is very precious to me,” she said. “B-but you’re one of my best friend’s sisters, so, ah, you can have it?”

Awen looked my way as if to make sure I was okay with it, so I gave her a discrete thumbs-up and a big grin.

“Um,” Rose said as she stared at the wand. “Do you--”

“She doesn’t,” Amaryllis interrupted. For some reason she covered her face with both hands. “Neither of them know. Honestly, I’ve been waiting for the most opportune moment to tell them.”

“Tell them what?” I asked.

“Nevermind that,” Amaryllis said. “I’m not losing such good social blackmail on a whim.”

I looked to Awen, but she didn’t seem to understand either. Across from us, Clementine’s face was so far past red it looked sickly, and Rosaline was biting her lower lip and holding back laughter.

“Awa, you don’t want it?” Awen asked.

“It’s, um, a very nice gesture,” Rosaline said. “But I don’t think I need that. I have my own.”

“Rose!” Amaryllis squawked. Now she was turning red too.

I had the impression that I was missing out on something important.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Awen said. She stuffed her wand away in a hurry. “I just, um, wanted to help.”

“So cute!” Rosaline said. She got to her feet and circled around to glomp Awen from the side. “My sister is so lucky to have made so many cute friends.”

Awen was busy blushing up a storm while Clementine calmed down. “Your friends are... so... they’re uncivilised!”

“Hey!” Amaryllis jumped to our defence. “Awen is actually quite well-raised.”

“What about me?” I asked.

“You’re an idiot,” she said without missing a beat.

I wilted.

“Ladies.” We all turned to see Gen-Gen standing by the entrance, his arms folded with a new towel draped over them. “Dinner is served in the main dining hall.”

I patted my tummy. It was definitely nearing empty, and judging by the way Amaryllis jumped to her feet, she was hungry too. Awen might have done the same, but she was being hugged to within an inch of her life by Rosaline.

“Ah, I hope you don’t mind receiving us for dinner,” I said. We had kind of invited ourselves.

Clementine waved it off. “Nonsense. My ingrate, foolish younger sister might have a hard time with basic decency, but I won’t have the rest of us suffer the same accusation.”

“Thank you,” I said. “You’re a lot like Amaryllis aren’t you? All spikey and mean on the outside, but filled with nice gooey niceness inside.”

Clementine’s face took on an interesting shade of red. She turned to Amaryllis. “Your friend is an idiot. We can finally agree on something.”

“Hey!” I protested.

Amaryllis and Clementine both huffed and went on their way.

I turned to Rosaline and cleared my throat. “Um. Rose? Hugging people is nice, but only if they want to be hugged.”

Awen nodded into Rosaline’s side.

The harpy woman let go. “Ah, yes, of course. Sorry Awen!”

“It’s, awww, okay?” Awen said. She stood up in a hurry and brushed herself off. “I’m still not used to hugs and things like that.”

Both Rosaline and I twitched towards Awen to hug her some more, but we caught ourselves.

“Come on, the food will get cold!” Clementine screamed.

The dining hall turned out to be an ostentatious room. One wall had a painting of a mountainscape on it that was taller than I was and had to be five meters long, while the head of the table was placed right before a large bay window overlooking a garden filled with blue and white flowers in full bloom.

The table alone was probably bigger around than some people’s entire homes. It felt weird to sit down at one end of it while leaving two dozen or so chairs empty.

“When the entire clan gathers this room isn’t nearly big enough,” Amaryllis explained. “My sisters and I might be from the main branch of the family, but the estate holds cousins and uncles and aunts and those they married. We have great uncles and aunts too.”

“And one great-great aunt,” Rosaline added.

Amaryllis nodded. “The Albatross clan has done well for itself, despite its small size.”

That didn’t sound small at all.

“We’re rich!” Rosaline added with a chirp. “Speaking of, did you bring more attire than what you have on you?” she asked.

I shook my head. “Nope, I’m afraid not.”

There was a dangerous gleam in Rosaline’s eye.

And a terrified one in Amaryllis’ own.

***