Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Six - Diplomatree II: Treety Harder

“So,” I started. “Are we going to create a contract, or is this more of an informal thing?” I asked.

“Contract?” Oak asked.

Of course, trees didn’t normally do contracts.

“This can remain informal,” Geoffrey said.

Amaryllis immediately shook her head. “No, no it cannot. We will need a contract, one witnessed by everyone here. I would even insist on getting multiple copies so that a few can be sent to certain key people that aren’t at this meeting.”

“What is a contract?” Wisp asked.

“Um, a contract is like when two people agree to do something. You write it down, so that both sides understand it. It’s also binding. So if one side breaks the contract, then the other side can show people and hold them accountable.”

“I agree to things a lot,” Wisp said.

I giggled. “That’s a verbal contract. Like, um, I’d enter a contract about giving my friends hugs every day, no problem, and if one day I forget, then that’s probably okay? But a written contract makes it a lot more serious and stuff.”

Wisp tilted her head to one side, then the other. “Okay.”

“If we’re going to make a proper contract, we’ll need to have it signed by the leaders of the dryads,” Amaryllis said.

“No leaders,” Oak said.

“Not true,” Wisp disagreed right away. “Oak is our leader.”

One of Amaryllis’ eyebrows perked up. “That will need some explaining,” she said.

Sebastien and Geoffrey looked to each other, but I couldn’t quite read their expressions.

“The elder trees are... not leaders,” Oak said. “They are... wise and old, and know many things. But they are not leaders. They tell some what to do, but you don’t need to listen. I’m not a leader either.”

“Oak is a leader,” Wisp said. “We listen to him, and he leads us. That’s all that matters, right?”

I looked over to the side, where the younger dryads were now freely congregating by the water. They seemed to be having fun dipping their roots in the stream and occasionally making a few little splashes.

I could very easily imagine Oak leading them, he seemed much bigger and more mature. He was a lot more handsome with his sculpted chest and sharp chin. Maybe I could get him to wear a big red cape. Maybe some tights.

Amaryllis poked me. “Were you listening?”

“Huh? No, not really,” I said.

“Go get some paper, you moron. And a few pens. There are some in my cabin, by that desk.”

I nodded quickly. “Yup, I can do that. I’ll be right back!”

“If you don’t mind, I’ll accompany you,” Bastion said as he stood up.

Moving over towards the Beaver, I found a spot atop a flat-ish rock, bunched my legs up under me, then shot up into the air with a burst of stamina. My aim was a bit off, so I had to reach a foot way out to place it on the edge of the rail, then my arms windmilled a few times before I found my balance. Bastion, the lucky sylph that he was, just flew up and landed before me.

“Need a hand?” Bastion asked as he extended his towards me.

I grinned and grabbed onto him to help myself up onto the deck .”Thanks,” I said. “Have you been enjoying the negotiations?”

“More or less,” he said. “I’ll be keeping an eye out on things down below. Just in case things took a turn for the worse.”

I patted down my skirt. “That’s kind of you,” I said.

“It’s my job,” he replied.

“It’s still nice of you, regardless,” I said. “And I have the impression that you’d go out on a limb to help someone, even if it wasn’t part of your job. That’s a great quality for a friend to have, you know?”

“Thank you,” he said. “Do you need help?”

I shook my head, then thought better of it and nodded. Changing from a shake to a nod was kind of annoying with big ears. They started by flapping from side to side, then when you switch to nodding, they’d end up going in little circles that tickled a bunch. “I don’t need the help, but I could use the company,” I said.

“Certainly,” he agreed.

We made our way down into the back of the ship. “So, did you understand what’s happening?”

“Contracts and diplomacy aren’t my specialties, but I can make some educated guesses. It sounds as though you pushed for more of a victory for the dryads than the company.”

“A company isn’t a person,” I said. “You can’t be friends with something like an organization, and in this case, they were hurting a lot of people by exploiting them. I don’t think they actually saw that they were hurting anyone. And besides, we found a way for them to keep working. They just won’t be making as much.”

“They might not appreciate that, or follow through,” he warned.

“That’s true,” I said. “Which is why we need to keep an eye on them, make sure everyone acts nice. We’ll be making a contract, and we’ll be sending it to a few friends to make sure that it’s nice and respected.”

“You have some powerful friends then?” Bastion asked.

I shrugged. “A couple? Mostly we’ll be sending a copy to Booksie in Port Royal. Her boyfriend’s a dragon.”

Bastion stopped mid-step. “A figurative dragon?”

“No? He’s pretty literal,” I said. “Very big, blue. Likes lightning and poetry.”

“Do you have any idea how illegal working with dragons is?” he asked.

I shook my head. “No, not really. Is it illegal in Deepmarsh?”

“Well, no,” he said.

I slipped into Amaryllis room and started looking for pen and paper. “In that case I think we’re alright,” I said. “And besides, we never did anything morally wrong.”

“You spoke with a dragon, some could argue that that’s morally wrong.”

“Well, then they would be wrong. Speaking to someone, and getting to know them, is never the wrong thing to do,” I said. “Not if it means that you can learn to get along with them better.”

“And yet no one has ever successfully negotiated with a dragon before,” Bastion said.

I paused in my search to give him a look. “I have. It was... well, not easy, but doable. And I’m pretty much the farthest thing there is to a proper diplomat.”

Bastion blinked. “You did?”

“Yeah, over in Rosenbell. I’ll tell you about it sometime.” I raised a pen from where I’d found it in a drawer and wiggled it about victoriously. I didn’t find any loose-leaf, but there was a nice big sketchpad with pages that were easy to tear out, so I figured that would work as long as everyone had neat handwriting. Lined paper didn’t seem to be a thing on Dirt, yet.

“I would encourage you to perhaps keep that to yourself,” Bastion said. “At least if you’re around other sylphs.”

“Why’s that?” I asked.

He seemed uncomfortable for a moment. “My work as a paladin has me moving to different communities, including out of the Sylphfree mountains, and into other nations. I’d like to think that I’ve grown used to different perspectives. But it’s hard. Our nation is rather isolationist at the best of times.”

“That’s not good,” I said. “It means you lose all these opportunities to make long, lasting friendships.”

“I don’t think we want friends so much as we want safety,” he said.

I frowned at the floor. “I guess that makes sense. Becoming friends with someone means putting yourself at risk, but I always felt that it was worth it, even if most of the time it doesn’t work out.” I shook my head. “Come on, we need to go make a contract to keep the peace.”

“Just to keep the peace?” he asked.

“No, not just that. This will have the dryads working with the humans of Mattergrove, and talking with the grenoil of Deepmarsh. If they’re all cooperative, then maybe things will be better for all of them. But I can’t take credit for that, it’s just how things work out sometimes.”

Congratulations! Through repeated actions your Matchmaking skill has improved and is now eligible for rank up!

Rank E is a free rank!

“Huh,” I said. “I got a rank up.”

“Really?” Bastion asked. “May I inquire about which skill?”

“Matchmaking, it’s one of my general skills,” I said. “Weird.” Maybe diplomacy counted as Matchmaking, but on a national level? It’d be neat to see that skill hit rank C.

Bastion shook his head. “I have to admit, I expected your crew to be interesting, but I may have underestimated just how interesting you would all turn out to be.”

“That’s just how we roll,” I said.

“Roll?” Bastion asked.

Instead of answering, I skipped back up onto the deck and eyed the table below. No one had resorted to punching each other while I was gone, so that was nice. Though it seemed as if tempers were rising. Amaryllis and Geoffrey were gesturing a lot and talking at the same time, and the dryads seemed a bit lost.

I stepped off the side of the Beaver and landed with a ‘hup’ next to my seat. “I have everything,” I said. “What are we arguing about?”

“This greedy human thinks that he somehow has the right to do as he pleases. It’s as if he doesn’t understand that his nation is the weakest around, and only suffered to continue existing on account of how little they matter,” Amaryllis said.

“You can’t look down upon the ingenuity and power of humanity that way,” Geoffrey said. “Mattergrove may be weak, but it’s only because of interference like this whole charade today.”

“Oh please,” Amaryllis said. “We didn’t follow the stench of your blatant hypocrisy when we flew here.”

“Okay, okay everyone,” I said as I tried to wave both of them down. “I don’t know what started this.” I wiggled a finger at Amaryllis when she looked ready to tell me just that in great detail. “And it doesn’t really matter. Look, we want what’s best for everyone, but that won’t work out, it can’t, not when what’s best for one hurts someone else. So we’ll just have to compromise and everyone will leave just a little bit unhappy.”

“We’re the ones losing the most here,” Geoffrey said. “And the Dryads are coming away with the most in turn.”

I felt my ears drooping and my brows knitting together. “How many workers died to the dryads in the last year?” I asked. “How many were injured?”

“Thirty-two injuries,” Edmund said. “Myself included. Some of them fairly bad. Mostly healed up now. No deaths, thank all the gods.”

I turned to Oak and Wisp. “How many dryads died in that same time? Between now and last fall?”

Oak looked down. “Many little ones were cut down,” he said. “The older ones ran. The elders weren’t touched.”

I turned to Geoffrey. “I’m sorry mister Hardnut, but no matter how I look at it, I don’t think you’re in the right here. We tried to find a nice compromise here. If you won’t take it, then, well, then I don’t know, but I don’t leave friends behind if that means leaving them in trouble.” I placed the stack of blank pages onto the table, then slapped a couple of pens atop that. “Let’s do this, please?”

Everyone at the table seemed to consider it for a moment. I wasn’t sure if I’d said something wrong or not. Then Sebastien sighed. “If we’re going to use the terms we highlighted before, then I’m willing to sign on behalf of the East Mattergrove Company.”

“Shouldn’t we discuss this?” Geoffrey asked.

“Frankly, no. I think that Captain Bunch is right. The terms are fair to us, or as fair as they can be while not injuring the other party. I think if we push any more then we’ll find ourselves in a worse position from which to negotiate later.”

Amaryllis nodded. “We’ll need someone to sign on behalf of Mattergrove, I think. I’ll admit that I’m not entirely familiar with the relevant laws.”

“Awa, I can sign as a noble,” Awen said. “We’ll need witnesses, but, um, Broccoli and Amaryllis should do?”

I grinned, a weight lifting off my shoulder. Things seemed to be working out, at least.

***