Chapter 66: The Wilderness Outpost

I now have an editor, so you all shouldn't need to put up with my typos and poor/dyslexic editing skills anymore. :)

* * *

Ethan looked out over the Argo's bow at the scenery below him. To his right, the Ivernian mountains were scrolling past and the Gulf of Sayora was doing the same to his left, and below the airship as well. Also to the right and slightly to the rear was Falkaan's airship, the Midnight Sun.

The vacation had been wonderful, and his wives had convinced him that technically, it should start the day after Myla and Falkaan's wedding since helping the villagers was technically 'prophet work', and it wasn't a vacation until one stopped working.

It hadn't taken much convincing.

Thus, they'd had a whole week of not worrying about anything except enjoying being married. They had eaten good food, gone swimming, slept in late, and done all the other things one usually does on vacation, including spending rather a lot of time 'exercising' in the captain's cabin.

Sarah had led them on more than one expedition onto more than one island to collect fruits, nuts, berries, and mushrooms. She had come up with some very creative ways to cook them too, and they'd done that in the wilderness more than once. His dragon breath had come in handy when starting fires, over which they had roasted many things together. It was really nice to do things like that as a family.

They had even tried a few ball games from the Ten Kingdoms, none of which Ethan was very good at. However, one of them was similar to volleyball and they had spent many long hours on the beach playing it together as a family.

He loved that.

But like all things, and despite how much everyone had loved it, it had eventually come to an end. They had bidden a fond farewell to the villagers, who thanked all of them and especially Talven for their help. Apparently, their crops were starting to grow well thanks to his input. Ethan had had a short conversation with the excitable naiad -- with Alana translating -- and after Thea and Alana had given the villagers a crash course in how to be respectful to her, they seemed to be getting along well despite neither speaking the other's language.

The Argo had departed four days ago, and they had now crossed much of Ivernia's southern border with excellent wind, traveling on the south side of the Ivernian mountains over the Gulf of Sayora. Ahead of him, he could see a small tower had been erected on a rocky outcropping surrounded by the beach. Just beyond the tower, there was a wall reaching from the mountainside across the beach and into the water.

"That's the Wilderness Outpost." A feminine voice said from behind him.

"Hi Victoria." He said after glancing behind him.

"Mind if I join you?" The platinum blonde asked.

"Be my guest." He replied, then moved over to make room for her.

"What are you doing?" She asked after joining him.

"Mostly just letting my mind wander." He replied. "I started reading that book that Lucien lent me about tactics and strategy. It's good, but it's a doozy. I feel like I'm starting from square one and I need to get better, but don't know how." He looked at her. "What about you?"

"I've been thinking ever since Myla and Falkaan's wedding." She replied, and her tone was thoughtful. "They fell for each other instantly, and I think everyone could see it."

He chuckled. "Yup, though Myla was slow to admit it to herself."

Victoria laughed. "True, but it was obvious and she is so happy now. Did you see them swimming that last day of vacation?"

"I did." He nodded, the glow about the newlywed couple had been pretty obvious.

"I think she sorted out her... um, 'intimacy issues' the night before." Victoria said. "She looked like your wives do after you've had a long session together in the captain's cabin."

"I'll take that as a compliment." He smiled.

"It was meant as one." She glanced at him, then looked toward the horizon again. "I want that."

"That meaning...?" He prompted, since her statement could be taken more than one way.

"What Myla and Falkaan have; that passion for each other." She replied, then looked at him. "I faded into the background lately, haven't I? I mean, when compared to Thea?"

"Maybe?" He sighed. "Honestly, when I think about my sixth wife, the only face I can see there is still Selene." He almost winced as he said her name.

He had done his best not to try and contact her telepathically since vacation had started. He wanted to, he wanted to so badly, but in some ways, it hurt too much. He still missed her, and his heart still felt like it had a piece missing. Maybe not a large piece, but certainly an important one, and its absence stung like a splinter in his heart whenever he thought about her.

Still, her absence really made him appreciate the wives he did have. Every single one of them was absolutely incredible and he felt lucky to have even met them, let alone married all of them. It was amazing how missing someone you loved helped you treasure others more.

"I'm sorry." She gave him a smile, but it had a sad tinge to it. "But she will be back to visit. She'll be back and she might not be yours, but you'll see her again."

"Always looking on the bright side." He smiled at her. "That's a good thing."

"Thank you."

"Anyway, you were saying something before I so rudely started talking about another woman."

She chuckled. "I want that, what you and Selene have -- or at least the attraction -- and what Myla and Falkaan have. I want that passion."

"You're leading up to something." He replied.

"I am." She took a deep breath. "Myla said that she thought Illuminar had husbands prepared for whoever you didn't marry. And while I realize that you're a good man and I would be happy as your wife, I don't have that passion with you; I don't have that fire. I want that fire; I want that passion." She took a deep breath. "So what I'm saying is, I think Myla is right. And so..." She took another deep breath. "I realize it's not my decision to make, but I would ask that you don't marry me; that you choose Thea. She actually wants to marry you. I wouldn't mind it, but I want passion, and hopefully from the beginning."

He chuckled. "Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it."

"I want this." She replied. "I've thought and prayed about it a lot, and if Myla is right -- and I think she is -- then I think Illuminar will have someone lined up for me with whom I can have that passion. I might even meet him soon, given how quickly Myla met Falkaan after she decided not to marry you."

"Yeah, it could be soon." He mused, then pointed toward the Ivernian military outpost just in front of them. "Careful, it might be an Ivernian soldier." He winked at her.

She gave him a look. "Given all we've learned about Illuminar and free will, even He couldn't make me fall in love with an Ivernian soldier."

"Jinx." Ethan laughed, and then of course he had to explain the concept to Victoria.

"It'll never happen." She said firmly when he was done. "Ever."

"Tempting fate I see." He winked at her.

She rolled her eyes and after a moment, spoke more seriously. "Is that okay? That I would rather marry someone else?"

"Of course." He smiled at her. "I would never force someone to marry me. Ever. In some ways, this should make things easier on me."

"Should?" She raised her eyebrow. "Selene?"

"I'll get over her someday." He replied, hoping it was true. However, he somehow doubted that the small piece of his heart and soul that he'd given to her would ever truly grow back. Maybe heal a little, and hopefully hurt less with time, but not grow back.

She looked at him for a moment. "I think you should talk with Thea about that."

"Yeah, probably so."

"Someone call my name?" Thea asked from behind him.

He smiled, then looked between the two of them. "I see the new telepathic group chat is working well."

"It is." Thea confirmed, then pointed to the Midnight Sun.

On the Midnight Sun, Myla turned to face them and waved cheerfully with a dazzling smile. Ethan waved back and then she went back to whatever she had been doing. She looked happy; very happy. She'd spent most of her days since marrying Falkaan with a smile on her face and that did Ethan's heart good. It was incredible to see how much she was blossoming from the shell-shocked woman she'd been when Ethan had met her.

"I'll leave you two to talk." Victoria said, then walked towards the stern of the ship.

Thea took Victoria's place at the front of the ship and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, looking out to the horizon. Neither said anything for several minutes, and for him at least, it was because he was lost in thought. Honestly, he thought things with the potential 'wife number 6' candidates had worked out well. Of them, Thea was the one he had connected the most with. Well, besides Selene obviously.

"You always get this certain air about you when you think of her." Thea said.

He looked at the elf.

"Selene, I mean." Thea clarified. "I'm not sure I could describe it, but it's definitely unique to her."

Ethan sighed. "I guess I really am that obvious."

"You are, no telepathy needed." She winked.

He chuckled, but it was a half-hearted chuckle. "I hope that's okay."

"Ethan, I'm not a romantic like Victoria is." Thea said. "It truly doesn't matter to me that we aren't 'in love' now. That's normal where I come from, though there are exceptions like Alana's parents. But, since the cornerstone of elven marriage is bonding, I have yet to see a long-married couple that wasn't truly and genuinely in love, regardless of how they felt about each other before they were married."

"I don't want you to feel like you're a 'second place' girl." Ethan replied. "I'm still hung up on Selene and I wouldn't feel right marrying you while that's the case, especially because..." He took a moment to choose his words.

He needn't have bothered because she guessed. "Because you find me attractive, but you aren't attracted to me; not romantically anyway."

"Exactly." He nodded. "I realize that you're the only one left, but you don't deserve to be treated like the 'only one left', or a last-choice pick; you aren't. No woman should feel like that, least of all someone as incredible as you."

She chuckled. "All that praise and yet still no attraction."

"It is what it is." He shrugged. "Apparently, I have room in my heart for seven women. One of these days, I hope to heal enough to make room for an eighth--" He indicated her. "--but I'm not there yet. Honestly, I'm not even close."

"I know." Thea looked at him for a long moment. "I've been praying that Illuminar would make a way for Selene to return, so maybe she will?"

"You have?"

She nodded.

It was his turn to look at her for a long moment. "Even with as much as you want to live on the Argo?"

Thea made her trademark half-embarrassed, half-sheepish grimace. "I hate seeing anyone in pain. Her being gone hurts you more than you let on, doesn't it?"

He took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, then nodded. "Yeah, it does."

She gave him a comforting smile, then they both looked out in front of the Argo, him watching the waves lap gently against the shore below. There really was relatively little land here. In most places, there was less than a quarter mile between the mountains and the sandy shores. There had been a lot more for most of the trip, but here there was definitely less.

He glanced at Thea, who truly was an amazing woman. Any man would be lucky to have her as a wife, him included. He just wasn't there yet.

"I don't think we should get married yet, but not because what you said about not being over Selene bothers me." Thea finally said after several minutes. "It's because I think it would hurt you if we did."

"You're not wrong about that." He conceded. "Sorry."

"Please, don't apologize." She replied with a smile. "I'm on an airship; I've seen more in the past few weeks than I ever thought I'd be able to see. I think I could settle down now that I've seen all of this, or at least I'll try, and I know you'd be a good husband, but this..." She smiled and waved at the open air in front of the Argo. "...this makes it all worth it. Just seeing things like this, and the orc culture, and the Inohuttan tribe, and everything else is worth it to me."

"You do know that we'll want to settle down eventually, right?" He asked. "I love the Argo and it's more a home to me than anything since I left my parents' house, and I'll never give it up because I love it, but it's too small to raise the family I'll likely have."

"I know." Thea closed her eyes and nodded with a sigh. "But that won't be for a while, and until then, I can sail and see everything the world has to offer."

"You're welcome to travel with us for as long as you like, as long as your guardian allows, but you're right; I'm not ready to marry again." He said after a moment.

"I didn't think you would be." She smiled at him. "The strength of your love for Selene is rivaled only by some of the longest and most happily married and bonded elves that I've seen. It's no surprise that you want to wait; I was expecting that."

"You really do care about everyone, don't you?" He asked.

She made her trademark half-embarrassed, half-sheepish grimace again. "I can't help it."

"I would prefer that you never tried to; it's a good thing." He pointed out.

"Thank you." She replied, after which they returned to staring at the scenery around them.

*Sir, I think you should take a good look at that tower in front of us.* Alana thought to everyone a few minutes later. *I think they're trying to flag us down.*

Ethan looked and his first wife was indeed correct. The small outpost was flying an Ivernian military flag, and yet someone on top of the tower was waving a flag and looking like he was indeed trying to get their attention. A quick check of the airspace confirmed that there weren't any Ivernian airships around -- except for a couple of very small scout airships -- so why did they want the Argo's attention?

* * *

Fiona leaned forward a bit in her chair as Mage Weston began to explain how he would teach her how to purge toxins from her body. It was a bright, sunny day and the wind outside had picked up, not that she could feel it in the stone room. The weather outside had just started to take a slightly autumn feel to it, but only in the mornings and it was still quite warm during the days.

"Blood remains connected to its owner for a short time after leaving the body." The mage said. "Thus, if you drop some into a bowl and introduce contaminants, you can practice purging them for a short time as long as you are extremely close; touching is best."

Fiona looked at the small bowl and tiny polished dagger on the table, then sighed. "Why is learning healing magic so painful?"

"If you come up with a better way to teach it, magical apprentices the world over would thank you." He chuckled.

"I suppose that's why I was needing to learn to heal myself first, because I'm needing to lose a little blood to practice purging poisons and so I'm needing to know how to close the wound?"

He nodded, then held up a bottle with some almost clear liquid in it. "This contains a highly diluted poison that is relatively easy to detect. We'll start with that."

Fiona sighed, then glanced at Tabitha who was standing nearby holding Conner. Fiona could've brought the nurse, but suspected that Tabby liked holding Conner and so hadn't today. Her suspicion wasn't based on much, and certainly nothing the bodyguard had said, but it didn't hurt to let her hold him.

"Were you learning this?" She asked her bodyguard while pointing at the bowl she would be using to learn.

"Yes my lady." She said in the bubbly tone she always used around others.

"Okay, I suppose we should be starting."

It was exactly as fun as Fiona thought it would be, which is to say none at all. Mage Weston pricked the tip of her finger and she let a few drops of blood fall into the tiny bowl before healing the wound magically. The mage then dropped a single drop of the clear liquid into the bowl and told her to swirl it with her fingertip.

She did.

It made her want to gag because it was gross to be stirring her own blood, but she did. Then Mage Weston started explaining how to sense the toxins.

"I'm losing you." He said after a minute.

She nodded.

"Try what you understood; some people learn better by doing." He advised.

Forty-five minutes, three more pricked fingers, and a lot of instruction later she was no closer than she had been when she started.

"Ach! I'm hating this." She shook her head.

"It could be worse." Mage Weston said in an amused tone. "You could be meeting one of the emperor's agents later today."

Fiona's head and shoulders drooped. "Ugh, don't be reminding me."

"Don't worry, he's coming to confirm whether or not your kidnapping ring is a will-breaker ring, not to question you." The mage assured her. "Though, he'll likely want to talk to you."

"I'm knowing that, my husband was telling me last night." She replied.

She suppressed a smile as she thought about how her evenings had been going lately. Apparently, neither Lord Delmar nor Helene had enjoyed oral sex very much. Thus, he didn't have very strong emotional associations with it like what had stopped them from coupling normally. He had let her pleasure him every night since their agreement, even though he told her it wasn't necessary every single night.

But even better than that -- and that was wonderful -- was that he had kept his word and spent five minutes with his attention focused solely on her every night since then. It wasn't much time, but it was a start. And in the past few days especially, he hadn't been quite as quick to end their conversation when those five minutes were up.

Plus, he was still sleeping on his back instead of on his side with his back to her.

"Ready to try again?" Mage Weston asked.

Fiona sighed, but nodded.

* * *

Ethan looked down at the outpost below and in front of the Argo, trying to understand why it was built here. On the one hand, it made some sense as a chokepoint because it was the thinnest section of the beach he'd seen so far. On the other hand, he could hardly imagine a worse place to defend.

It was a beach.

A relatively flat beach that didn't rise much as it went inland until it suddenly turned into the base of a mountain and went nearly straight up. The strip of beach was about a quarter mile wide at the narrowest point, and that was where the palisade wall was. However, it wasn't sunk into the sand of the beach like a normal palisade wall would be. Instead, it was attached and braced to a series of wooden platforms under it. With the stakes from the palisade attached to the platform, it would've looked like a capital "L" laying on its side in cross-section.

The palisade wall was about twelve feet tall and made of thick tree trunks, but judging by the fact that some wood looked well-aged, other wood looked green, and there was every shade of weathering in between, it seemed like they had to replace the palisade stakes regularly.

The platforms to which the palisade wall was staked were about twenty feet square and had large, thick, heavy chains connecting each section to the one next to it. The one nearest the mountain had been staked into the side of the mountain, so the whole thing was relatively stationary.

He assumed this rather strange arrangement was to combat the tides since the platforms could float, and he knew this because they extended out over the ocean. All told, the strange platform-based palisade wall was about half a mile long, half of which was over the ocean. It looked like the platforms over the ocean part had anchors to keep them in place.

A mile or two beyond the palisade wall, the thin strip of beach opened up into what looked like marshland on one side, and of course, the mountains were on the other. Defensively, you could see an enemy force coming from a ways off. However, he didn't fancy entering those marshes on foot unless he had to; there was too much opportunity for an ambush.

On the near side of the wall was a massive camp made of tents, and all of them appeared to be staked rather thoroughly into the ground and as far away from the water as possible. The only exception was a single circular tower that was perhaps thirty feet wide and made of stone that was built on a rocky outcropping. The top of the tower was flat and there were half a dozen lookouts with spyglasses scanning the horizon beyond the wall. Notably, one of the lookouts was keeping an eye on the tents.

There were a lot of tents.

He guessed somewhere between five hundred and a thousand, and each was large enough to house several men.

"The Wilderness Outpost." Kendra said from beside him. "One of two land-based routes into Ivernia from the Wilding Lands. The other is The Gap, which has a wall twenty feet high and almost that thick. Alas, they don't have that luxury here."

"This looks like a nightmare to defend." He said as he looked at it. "The wall gives some protection, but it's not stone or anything. I'd imagine a battering ram could break through pretty easily."

"It's the most dangerous posting in all of Ivernia." Kendra nodded. "And they don't need to worry about battering rams; they need to worry about giants and minotaurs."

He stared at her. "Giants and minotaurs?"

She nodded. "Your world really must be quite boring; aren't there sentient races besides man?"

"Nope, we're it." He shook his head.

She shrugged. "Well, from a purely defensive perspective, Earth is blessed then." She indicated the wall. "This is the main point of attack into Ivernia from the Wilding lands because The Gap is so well defended. Without warning, they will sometimes attack with numbers in the thousands. The giants and minotaurs are the real threat though; if they can get close to the wall, they can create a breach and the enemy can pour through."

Ethan grimaced. "Imagine trying to defend against that with only a palisade wall, even a thick one. It's barely better than temporary defenses."

Kendra nodded.

"There isn't a better position?"

Kendra shook her head. "The next best place defensively opens up into large fields, and many Ivernians live there. It has some defenses, but it's a second line of defense at best. Closer to the Wilding Lands, it's mostly marshland until you actually enter them, but by then you'd need dozens of miles of wall. And that's assuming you can remove all the Wildings from the marshland. The slytherians -- snake people -- love the marshes and would pick off the builders long before they had a chance to build a wall."

"Sir, there's still someone trying to get our attention." Alana said as she walked up to them, the rest of his wives plus Victoria and Thea not far behind. The wood elf pointed to the tower, where one of the lookouts was waving a flag in a clear attempt to get their attention.

Ethan waved back.

Then the man -- who was obviously a Fey given what happened next -- flew up and started heading towards him. Ethan considered summoning his armor and weapons, but Alana, Rachel, and Kendra were here. If the man tried to make trouble, it would likely be the last thing he did, even before Ethan got involved.

"Anthiel!" Ethan called loudly. "Stop the ship."

"Aye, aye captain." The high elf pilot replied. Serif and Raklan started furling the sails and he felt the Argo start decelerating as Anthiel activated the enchantments on the bow that dramatically increased the airship's air resistance.

Not long afterwards, the Fey man landed on the bow.

He looked beat.

His hair was halfway to gray and his skin looked like weatherbeaten leather. His eyes were slightly sunken and he had dark circles under them as well. Unusually, his eyes were bright and even more unusual for an Ivernian soldier, he looked squared away. His uniform fit properly and he appeared to lack the general level of sloppiness that Ethan had come to expect from Ivernian soldiers.

Victoria got a subtle look of concentration on her face for a fraction of a second -- ironically just as the Fey man tried and failed to subtly give her body the once over -- and then her expression turned sour. He doubted that she'd done more than barely skim the Fey man's surface thoughts though.

"Pardon for flagging you down." The man said with a bow. "However, we just got word that a squad of our rangers is stranded and under attack at the forward tower, and a ground force won't get there in time to save them. We need your airship to rescue them."

"Forward tower?" Beth asked.

"Yes ma'am." The Fey man nodded. "It's made of golem stone enchanted to be self-repairing and it's our forward lookout, as well as a safe refuge for our rangers." He looked at Ethan. "They have a new ballista that'll punch right through our scout airships' hulls and kill the pilots on account of the thin wood, at least if they get low enough to rescue our men. But they won't do nothin' to a sturdy airship like this." He patted the Argo's railing. "Besides, our scout airships can't hold enough to rescue everyone. We need your help."

"Are you asking, or telling?" Victoria asked, and her tone was cool.

"I didn't exactly get approval to come here, so I'm definitely asking." The Fey man replied.

Victoria frowned. "Until we say no, then you're telling."

The Fey man didn't answer her and instead looked at Ethan. "I wish I didn't have to ask, shit, I wish that dragon prophet was here so he could help, but we don't usually get what we want in this life."

"You can't always get what you want." Ethan conceded. "But if you try, sometimes, you might get what you need."

He clicked his disguise gem off.

The man jumped and then froze.

Going for shock and awe, Ethan summoned his armor and weapons. They flew towards him and attached themselves to him, latching into place as the Fey man's eyes went wide as saucers.

"Where's the tower?" Ethan asked.

The Fey man stared mutely at him for several seconds before pointing to an area beyond the palisade wall below. "The dark gray tower."

"I'll help your friends, but a warning first." He narrowed his eyes and pushed the tiniest drop of mana into his fire glands. Not enough to breathe fire, but enough to let a little smoke escape from his mouth.

The Fey man swallowed.

"If you touch one of my wives, you'll wish you were stranded in the Wilding Lands. Understand?"

The man nodded vigorously.

"Good." Ethan said, making sure his tone was cheerful and that he smiled, showing all his teeth. "Ladies, I'll be back in a bit."

And with that, he leapt off the Argo and spread his wings, heading in the indicated direction.

* * *

"Lady Fiona!"

She heard the calls long before the one making them reached the door to the nursery and burst through it, panting as he did so. It was one of Lord Delmar's errand boys and he almost looked like he had seen a ghost.

"What?" She asked. She had been playing with Conner on the floor until she heard him calling.

"Lord Delmar commands you to put on one of your best dresses and make all haste to the airship dock." The errand boy replied, still panting slightly.

Fiona frowned.

That didn't sound good.

"Nurse, please be taking care of Conner." Fiona said as she stood, and Nurse Belcosta did just that.

"Tabby, I'll be meeting you in the hall in two minutes." She said to her bodyguard and then dashed into the bedroom to change. She wasn't sure what could make her husband issue a strange command like that, but she was betting it was something serious. She changed as fast as she could into one of the nicest dresses that Glessie and Nessie had made for her since her wedding and then dashed out to the hall where Tabitha was waiting.

The two of them ran to the spiral staircase up to the airship dock and out onto the dock.

Lord Delmar was there with over a dozen different high-ranking members of the Narlotten government, including the entire high council and several people who looked like important lords. Almost every one of them appeared more frazzled than she had ever seen any of them. A large portion of the royal guardsmen were there as well.

"Milord, what's going on?" She asked when she'd made her way to him.

He handed her a small spyglass and pointed to an airship that was heading towards the castle, clearly intending to dock.

"Look at the flag." Lord Delmar said.

She did.

It was a purple flag with ten interlocking golden rings in the shape of a circle, and in the middle was a golden crown; it was the flag of the Ten Kingdoms which she'd seen flying many times in many places all of her life. But that wasn't what caught her attention. No, what caught her attention was the wide golden border of the flag. Flying the Ten Kingdoms flag with a golden border was punishable by death except in one circumstance: when the emperor or a member of his family was aboard.

Fiona swallowed.

* * *

Ethan saw the tower in the distance and thought it looked odd. The stone was a dark grey color and utterly smooth, yet it also didn't reflect the light very well. The forward tower itself was situated a few miles beyond the marshland and on a slight rise, giving it a commanding view of the area around it. It was perhaps four stories tall and maybe thirty feet in diameter with a flat top protected by a crenellated wall.

On that flat top was a minotaur.

An actual minotaur.

It looked exactly like the ones he'd often seen in fantasy too. The reddish-brown skin, the dark horns jutting out from the head, and the wide snout, though this minotaur lacked the gold ring they often had in stories. Its body was powerfully muscled and it stood at least seven feet tall, quite possibly more, and its feet were cloven hooves. It was wielding an immense shield the size of a small door. In its other hand was a one-handed battle axe, or at least it was one-handed for the massive minotaur; for a normal person it would require two hands.

Those weapons were being turned on the two other people on the tower's flat roof. One was a rough-looking man who looked to be on the edge of consciousness, and he was being dragged away from the minotaur by a--

Ethan stared.

It was a cat-girl.

A literal cat-girl. She looked like a perfect combination of cat and woman. She had the fur, ears, tail, and hind legs of a cat, but otherwise she had a lot of human elements in her body. It was the perfect blending of woman and cat, and yet somehow avoided looking strange in the slightest.

This strange cat-girl was dragging the unconscious man away from the minotaur by holding the man's clothes at the back of the neck. She was clearly trying to move as fast as possible and not having much luck escaping, partially because the tower's top level was so small and partially because she was favoring one leg.

At the base of the tower were dozens of other creatures, all from fairy tale lore. There were centaurs, some kind of large and clearly sentient snake, rather a lot of fauns -- who had the lower body of a goat and upper body of a man -- and also several others that he didn't know the names of. He would've loved to ask one of his wives about them -- Beth probably -- but didn't think this was the best time.

The Minotaur flared its nostrils, exhaled forcefully, and then lowered its head. It stomped its cloven feet and then pawed the ground with its hoof once and then twice.

"Damn." Ethan breathed. He would've liked to get the drop on the minotaur, but he would never make it in time; he was too far away. Instead, he did the only thing he could think of to get the minotaur's attention.

He roared.

He opened his mouth and let the terrifying sound fill the air. Almost instantly, every single one of the creatures froze like they had been turned to stone. The minotaur didn't, but he did turn to look, his current quarry seemingly forgotten. Objective accomplished, Ethan ended his roar and put a little more speed into his approach.

Down at the bottom of the tower, the fauns bolted first, followed shortly by most of the other creatures as well. The centaurs stayed, which was unfortunate because they were armed with bows.

The minotaur bellowed.

It was clearly in response to Ethan's roar and carried a firm note of challenge. The minotaur was challenging him. A part of Ethan bristled. A part of him wanted to discard his weapons and fight the minotaur with tooth and claw as nature intended... but only a part. The rest of him wasn't nearly so reckless.

As he approached, he drew his war sword and transferred it to his left hand, then grabbed his dagger and switched it to javelin mode. He was pretty sure the javelin would go through the minotaur's shield, but didn't know if it was long enough to hit the creature afterwards. A human, yes. This thing...?

He couldn't target electrical attacks from his hammer to anything from this far away, and wasn't sure it would work very well anyway because the huge shield was partially held together with an iron rim. If the minotaur had half a brain, he'd keep the shield raised and the iron rim would make a lightning strike difficult, if not impossible.

Behind the minotaur, the cat-girl had dragged the semi-conscious man as far away as possible and was crouching with wide eyes. It didn't take a body-language expert to see that she thought she'd gone from the frying pan into the fire; all of her fur standing on end made that perfectly clear.

At the base of the tower, the centaurs were raising their bows.

Ethan activated his enhanced reflexes to give him time to think and plan. Ordinarily, he would go after the centaurs first to give him room to maneuver. However, he was pretty sure that the minotaur would finish off the man and the cat-girl long before he had finished with the centaurs. Conversely, if he didn't deal with the centaurs, then he would be trapped on a thirty-foot-wide roof with a murderous minotaur and two non-combatants to protect.

He sighed; yeah, this was shaping up to be a great day.

* * *

Fiona smoothed the front of her dress for the dozenth time, felt in between her teeth with her tongue to make sure nothing was stuck there, and took a deep breath. Then she took several more. The imperial airship was finishing its docking procedures and Fiona was having a hard time not hyperventilating.

Her husband was standing next to her and glanced in her direction, then he lifted his arm so it was bent and she could put her hand in the crook of his arm. She did.

"Thank you." She whispered.

He glanced at her and gave her a subtle nod, then returned his gaze to the airship.

"Is it the emperor?" She asked quietly

"I do not know." He replied. "We were not informed that anyone so auspicious would visit. We were only expecting an agent of the emperor."

"They weren't saying that they were coming?" Fiona asked, as the lack of forewarning seemed strange.

"We were not informed." He replied. "The imperial flag was only raised once they were within sight of this castle."

She nodded and then double-checked everything she could again, wishing that she had a mirror on her, or another hour to get ready.

The airship finished docking and its sailors lowered the gangplank. A fit man of about forty jumped onto it and started walking across it. That was too young for the emperor who she knew was at least sixty, so this must be one of his sons.

He carried himself much like Lord Delmar did, only he didn't seem as aloof. He had an easy-going confidence about him and moved with long, purposeful strides. He was wearing what looked like silk, but there wasn't anything glamorous or opulent about his clothes either. It looked like the kind of clothes you might see any well-off man in the Ten Kingdoms wearing, only made from extremely high-quality fabric.

Physically, he wasn't particularly exceptional either. His bearing and demeanor aside, he looked like a normal man, though one in excellent shape. He had a medium-brown beard cut close, hair of the same color that straddled the line between curly and wavy, and brown eyes.

He stopped short as he saw the welcoming committee.

He sighed, slowly shook his head, and then spoke in a loud, clear, and calm -- if slightly exasperated -- tone. "If you weren't planning to be here to greet the emperor's agent--" He waved behind him to where someone else was crossing the gangplank. "--then please leave." He stopped and looked at Lord Delmar. "Unless of course you're Lord Delmar, married to him, or..." He trailed off as his eyes landed on Tabitha.

"Tabby?" He asked.

"Yes Your Highness." Tabitha replied with a slight curtsy.

"I wondered where my father had reassigned you." He chuckled. "My wife was rather put out you know, she had to break in a new bodyguard, which you know she doesn't enjoy."

"I am sorry Your Highness." Tabitha replied, then curtsied again.

His statement about 'breaking in a new bodyguard' had caused a rush of whispers as all eyes turned to Tabitha.

It took a moment for the significance of the short conversation to sink in. Tabitha had once guarded the wife of one of the emperor's sons? And Lord Delmar had somehow convinced the emperor to transfer Tabitha -- who was presumably one of the best bodyguards in the entire Ten Kingdoms -- to Narlotten to guard Fiona herself?

Her jaw dropped.

How?

Why?

She looked at her husband, scarcely able to believe that he had done that for her. Or was it really for her? He might have been just protecting the mother of his heir? Tabitha had been assigned to her early enough in their marriage that that was entirely possible. Still though, that said a lot. She felt a small smile grow on her face as she realized the enormous lengths he had gone to in order to keep her safe.

"So tell me Xander, how did you convince him?" The visitor addressed Lord Delmar, and it took a moment for Fiona to remember that 'Xander' was a common nickname for 'Alexander', which was her husband's first name. The familiarity with which he spoke to Lord Delmar was utterly foreign to Fiona. She had literally never heard anyone address him so informally, possibly including herself.

"I impressed upon him the importance of the line of succession to the continuity of Narlotten government." Lord Delmar replied.

The visitor inclined his head in concession and then turned to Fiona, and she had enough presence of mind to pay attention even though she was still proverbially scraping her jaw off the floor.

"Please forgive my rudeness; I am George Calmarane, crown prince of the Ten Kingdoms, etcetera, etcetera." He gave her a formal bow, and his tone when he said 'etcetera' was dismissive, like he couldn't be bothered with all his titles because he didn't consider them important.

Fiona wasn't so frozen that she didn't remember to curtsy back.

"Now, as I was saying." The crown prince addressed everyone again. "If you aren't Lord Delmar, married to him, guarding his wife, or weren't originally going to meet my father's expert, then please leave. I am not looking for the royal welcome and I'm here unofficially."

There was an awkward moment when no one moved, then slowly, everyone except Lord Delmar, Fiona, Tabitha, Sir Warrick, Mage Weston, and half a dozen Narlotten guards left.

The crown prince looked at Sir Warrick for several seconds before speaking. "Sir Warrick I believe?"

"Yes Your Highness." He bowed.

"You are a fantastic Penté player if memory serves." The crown prince said. "Gave me a thorough thrashing the last time we met, and you didn't let me win once, which I appreciated."

"You sell yourself short." Sir Warrick replied.

"Not at all." The crown prince chuckled. "I believe it was 23 games to 7; a sound thrashing by anyone's measure. I should like a rematch if you fancied and had the time; I've been practicing as much as time allows."

"Of course Your Highness." He gave a head bow.

Prince George looked at Mage Weston. "Ah, the famous -- and some might say infamous -- Mage Weston. You haven't made any more discoveries that will shake magical scholarship to its core lately, have you?"

"Wouldn't you know if I had?" The mage replied with a twinkle in his eye.

Prince George chuckled. "I sense another breakthrough coming."

"Perhaps Your Highness, perhaps." The mage said, his eyes twinkling again.

Prince George looked at Tabitha. "I would ask how you've been, but my wife tells me that getting information out of you is like trying to convince a dragon to donate his gold to charity."

"Thank you Your Highness." Tabitha gave him a small curtsy. Fiona sighed as she realized that Tabby had taken that as a compliment.

"Lady Delmar, you have a thought?" Prince George asked her.

"I'm glad that Tabby here is being tight-lipped with everyone; I was thinking it was just me."

"It's not." The crown prince chuckled. "Unless I gave her a direct order, I doubt she would tell even me."

Fiona's eyes flicked to Tabby, whose face was still emotionless, impassive, and harder to read than a stone statue. Despite that, Fiona got the impression that Tabitha had been genuinely pleased when the crown prince had said it was impossible to get information out of her.

Prince George looked at Lord Delmar. "Xander, if you would lead the way, I do believe there are some rings that need investigating." He turned and indicated a man who had been waiting patiently at the end of the gangplank.

Something about the man seemed slightly insubstantial, as if he could be blown away in a breeze. Despite that though, he looked as strong and fit as someone with a fully gray head of hair and a large bald spot could look. Something about the man reminded Fiona of Tabitha a little. She wasn't quite sure what, but it was something about him. The way he carried himself perhaps, or the nondescript clothes, or perhaps the body language. She would've never given him a second look under most circumstances though.

Prince George then spoke to Lord Delmar. "If you will lead the way, we'll get the important business out of the way first."

The lord nodded once and then turned to leave, Fiona on his arm.

* * *

Alana stood on the Argo's deck near the bow with Rachel, both of them looking at the tower that wasn't very far below them. The Fey man was still on the Argo's deck, being watched carefully though surreptitiously by Kendra. Through Alana's bond with Ethan, she could sense all the emotions that she usually associated with him about to fight.

"He'll be fine." Rachel said.

"I hope so." Alana nodded as she put a hand over her womb.

"Milady?"

Alana turned to see the Fey man standing behind them, along with her fellow wives plus Victoria and Thea. "Yes?"

"You would be welcome to visit the tower." He said. "It's far enough behind the lines that it's perfectly safe."

Victoria raised her eyebrow. "It's filled with Ivernian soldiers; safe isn't possible."

Alana gave the platinum blonde a look. Though, since Victoria had read rather a lot of Ivernian soldiers' minds and some of them had tried -- and thankfully failed -- to force themselves on her when she was younger, Alana decided to give her something of a pass. Not that she disagreed that going into the tower would be stupid, especially with her husband not there at the moment.

"You would be in no danger from--" The man started to reply, but Victoria cut him off.

"This is the Wilderness Outpost." Victoria interrupted. "Do you know what kind of men they send here? Murderers and rapists. Sometimes they give them a choice between death and five years here; you know what most of them choose?" She mimed slitting her throat.

"Um, that's a myth." Sarah spoke up. "I've talked to a lot of travelers and most men choose the Wilderness Outpost. And not everyone here is a criminal; some of Ivernia's best are sent here too."

Victoria gave Sarah a look.

"It's true; not all of us are wicked." The Fey man said. "And besides the good ones, some were politically inconvenient and were forced to 'volunteer' for service here so they wouldn't inconvenience Lord Fatbottom."

"Oh, and I suppose you're one of the good ones." Judging by Victoria's tone, she would more easily believe that the sky was pink.

"No ma'am." He replied, and unless Alana missed her guess, there was a tinge of guilt behind his eyes. If he was here serving a sentence, that would explain why a Fey was in the Ivernian military since Lord Farbrottan didn't like nonhuman races. "But our commander is; Colonel Forsythe is a good man and he keeps the men in line, no matter why they're here."

"If he was a good man, he wouldn't be here." Victoria replied, a note of sharpness creeping into her tone.

"Victoria." Alana gave her a look. "There's no need for the attitude."

The platinum blonde pressed her lips together, but held her tongue and nodded.

"Can we go?" Beth asked. "I'd love to see what the inside of a military tower looks like, and you, Rachel, and Kendra will protect us."

Alana was about to flatly refuse because of the incredibly high bounty on them -- which was why the Argo was still hovering high enough above the tower to be safe -- but the Fey man spoke up.

"Colonel Forsythe won't let nothing happen to you." The Fey man assured them. "Yeah, we know about the bounty and such, but he's made it clear that anyone who touched the prophet or his wives -- should they ever visit -- would have scouting duty beyond the wall for the next year. He won't let nothing happen to you."

"That's a double negative." Victoria pointed out. "Are you saying that he will let something happen to us?"

Everyone ignored her.

"I think he's telling the truth." Thea said, and she'd had her eyes closed for several long seconds before speaking. She then subtly nodded her head towards the tower below. Alana hoped she'd skimmed some minds because otherwise she would've flatly refused.

"Not while Ethan is gone because it's too dangerous." Alana said firmly. "Maybe when he gets back, but we'll see."

Everyone nodded.

"Well, I'll be back when the prophet returns then." The Fey man said, then tipped an imaginary hat and flew back down to the tower.

"I agree it's a good idea to wait, but I think we would be safe." Thea said when he was out of earshot. "I can't get everyone's mind in the tower because some of them have mental defenses; all of the leaders will for example. But of the ones I can read, half of them would rather die than turn you in -- that's mostly the good ones and political prisoners -- and the ones who would love to turn you in are too scared of Colonel Forsythe to try it."

"Well-behaved Ivernian soldiers?" Victoria shook her head and rolled her eyes.

"What happened to the woman who always saw the bright side of everything?" Rachel asked her pointedly.

"Every rule has exceptions." The platinum blonde shrugged.

"Um, I don't think Victoria is right, but I understand why she thinks the way she does." Sarah spoke up, though she spoke a bit haltingly and not very loudly

Everyone looked at her.

"Um, Victoria is from Tesselae, which is Baron Martel's barony." The innkeeper's daughter explained. "He has a reputation for attracting the worst sort of men, so Victoria probably only saw the worst Ivernian soldiers."

Victoria frowned, her tone skeptical. "Maybe."

"Sample bias." Rachel nodded. "That would make sense."

Alana nodded; it did explain a lot. Virtually none of the Ivernian soldiers the Argo's crew had met in their travels were anything like moral. If the ones in Baron Martel's barony were worse, then it made sense why Victoria disliked them so much. Well, that and she would've been reading their minds. Oh, and that would include the minds of the ones who had tried to rape her, though thankfully they'd failed.

On balance, maybe Victoria was actually behaving rather well all things considered.

* * *

Fiona followed her husband as he led the way down to the castle vaults. Apparently, all of the will-breaker rings had been stored there since the council meeting right after they were discovered to ensure they were safe until this inspection. Several of the crown prince's bodyguards had come in addition to Tabitha, Sir Warrick, and Mage Weston. Oddly, her bodyguard no longer appeared to be pretending to be bubbly. Perhaps because the crown prince had 'outed' her?

Fiona slipped her hand into the crook of her husband's arm, smiled at him, and spoke quietly. "You got Tabitha from the crown prince's wife to protect me."

He nodded once.

Her smile widened; knowing that fact made the entire world feel a little brighter.

They reached the vaults, which by her guess were located under the castle's audience chamber, which was relatively close to their room and his office, though again under them. As she thought about it, she realized that her dragon husband would've been near the gold almost all day, almost every day. She had of course known he was a dragon, but as she thought about it, she wondered how powerful he must be if he'd had access to all this gold for so long.

There was a short tunnel to access the vault's entrance, and a half dozen guardsmen were in the antechamber before the vault's door. The door had the unmistakable look of dragon steel, which meant it was probably enchanted as well. It was set into a dragon-steel frame, which was in turn built into what looked like a load-bearing wall of the castle. She didn't think it possible for anyone to break down the door without bringing the castle -- or at least the audience chamber's floor -- down on his own head.

Further, she couldn't imagine how much just the door had cost in dragon steel alone. The riches inside must be incredible to justify such an expenditure.

"Lord Delmar." One of the antechambers guards said with a bow, and Fiona was surprised to see that she recognized him: Ellis Trelane. Apparently, he was trusted enough to guard the vault.

"Guardsman Trelane." The lord nodded his head.

The vault guards all moved away from the door to grant him access to the small antechamber. It was perhaps fifteen feet by fifteen feet, though there were two doors leading to even smaller side rooms on either side. The guardsmen stood at attention while the lord approached the vault door, touched his hand to a completely blank portion of the door, and then the vault slowly opened.

It must be closed with a summoning lock, like the one on their bedroom door.

The vault door hadn't opened very widely before Lord Delmar slipped in, so Fiona didn't get to see the inside. Her husband exited moments later with a small chest in his hands, which he gave to the expert who would see if there was demonic involvement.

"You may use one of the examination rooms." Lord Delmar told the man, indicating the two rooms on either side of the antechamber.

"Thank you Lord Delmar." The man gave him a polite bow, and then disappeared into one of the rooms.

"How long will it be taking?" Fiona asked.

"Probably ten or fifteen minutes." The crown prince replied. "Though this happens rarely enough that I don't exactly recall how long it took last time."

"How are they telling?" Fiona asked her husband quietly.

"I have suspicions, but have never been told the precise method utilized." He replied.

"We keep that secret for obvious reasons." The crown prince added, obviously having heard the question. "Now, I don't suppose anyone brought a penté set?"

No one replied.

"Pity." He shrugged, then leaned up against one of the walls. "Then now, we wait."

* * *

Ethan cursed his luck as the minotaur placed himself at the very edge of the tower closest to Ethan as he flew toward it. That would make landing even harder. Oh well, there was nothing for it. Down below, the centaurs had arrows nocked into their bows and looked ready to draw and fire as soon as he got within range.

He smiled; they didn't know he had a rollable shield.

He aimed himself at a spot about ten feet above the minotaur's head and readied his javelin for a throw. He doubted he'd get to use it more than once in these close quarters, so he aimed for where he thought the minotaur's hands might be holding the enormous door-sized shield he was carrying.

Sure enough, the centaurs all loosed at once and Ethan deployed his rollable shield before the arrows arrived. He was lucky they were good shots or some of the arrows might've impacted his wings. He smiled, then rolled the shield again and snapped his javelin out as he passed over the minotaur. The javelin punched through the door-sized shield, but he had apparently misjudged where the beast's arms were because he didn't hear a cry of pain.

Ethan flapped his wings forward hard with his strength-enhancing enchantments active to kill his momentum, then dropped to the top of the tower, rotating as he fell so he landed on his feet facing the minotaur.

"Howdy there." He said conversationally. "I thought I'd open the door for negotiation." He chuckled at his joke, knowing that it was a dad joke worthy of a rimshot and groans from all his wives.

The minotaur didn't reply, but instead reached around his large shield and tried to extract Ethan's javelin from it, which took him several seconds.

Ethan activated his enhanced reflexes to analyze his opponent.

The beast outweighed him by at least double, probably triple, and it was likely significantly stronger, even taking the strength-enhancing enchantments on his armor into account. The door-sized shield was a massive problem as well, since the minotaur could hide his entire body behind it. Rounding out the problems, the axe it was carrying was a one-handed axe for a minotaur, but as large as a two-handed axe for a man. The mass would be devastating even if it hit Ethan's armor; blunt force trauma was no joke.

On the other hand, the minotaur wasn't wearing any armor. In fact, the sole item of clothing it was wearing was a loincloth. That meant Ethan didn't need to be particularly clever with where he hit this minotaur; he could just stay out of range and hit him repeatedly.

Of course, that would be a lot harder with the two non-combatants in the mix.

The cat-girl had finished dragging the man as far away from the minotaur as she could, which put her about ten feet from Ethan. The man was still unconscious, or at least on the edge of unconsciousness, while the cat-girl was baring her teeth and hissing at Ethan. Her fur was all standing on end too, including the fur of her tail which made it look quite bushy.

He rolled his eyes. "Don't bite the hand that's rescuing you."

She stopped hissing, but still looked like she trusted him about as far as Taloni could throw the minotaur.

He sighed, then turned his attention to the minotaur, who at this point started breathing heavily, lowered his head, and was pawing the ground with one cloven hoof. Ethan was pretty sure this telegraphing was intentional, as the little he could see of the minotaur's eyes over the top of the shield didn't give the impression of a dumb animal.

Quite the opposite in fact.

Ethan raised his war sword, well aware that it wasn't the ideal weapon in sword form. However, he didn't want to ruin the element of surprise by switching it to spear form now. He briefly considered trying to use a grenade, but didn't want to chance it getting knocked back at him, or worse, at the non-combatants.

The minotaur charged.

Ethan waited a split second before moving, and then he dived to his right, the side the minotaur had his shield on. Unfortunately, he had miscalculated just how fast it could move that shield. He well-remembered his fights to prove his strength with the orcs and how they had used their lightweight leather shields. However, this minotaur could move his shield nearly as fast despite its greater size and mass.

As soon as Ethan started to move, the minotaur swung the door out to hit him with it. Ethan did the only thing he could think of: drop his war sword and try to absorb the impact with his own shield as best as possible.

It hurt.

A lot.

Thanks to his enhanced reflexes, he was able to ensure that the door-sized shield only impacted his own shield, but he still went flying. A sharp, searing pain shot through his left forearm, which distracted him from the other pains exploding on his body. He was knocked backwards and managed to avoid slamming into the stone crenelations by tucking and rolling.

The minotaur didn't give him a lot of room to recover.

The moment Ethan caught his bearings, it was charging him again. Ethan adjusted his position, but the moment he moved his left arm, that same sharp, searing pain exploded through it again. He gritted his teeth and started magically healing it, then leapt into the air, using his wings to give him enough height to clear the minotaur and its weapons.

The world slowed as an arrow from the centaurs below streaked towards his outstretched wing and then punched a hole right through it.

Ethan moved his wing slightly to avoid the arrow and managed to only get grazed by the arrowhead. He tucked his wings and landed, turning in mid-air to face the minotaur as he did so. It had already turned around and was looking at him with keenly intelligent eyes.

"So, will you tell me why you're trying to kill these fine folks--" He waved his hand towards the cat-girl and the nearly unconscious man. "--or should we simply start round two?"

"Ivernians invade." The minotaur said in an impossibly deep voice. "They push ancestor out of Ivernia, kill many."

"These Ivernians did that?" Ethan raised his eyebrow.

"They Ivernians." The minotaur snorted like a bull ready to charge, though he wasn't preparing to. "Ivernians push ancestors out. They Ivernians. They push us out."

It took a moment for Ethan to realize that this minotaur didn't make a distinction between ancestors and their descendants. Ivernians had once done something, and the couple on the tower were Ivernians, therefore, they were responsible. That was quite the way to look at the world and made him think of the infamous 'Hatfield vs. McCoy' feud.

"Why dragon fight for Ivernians?" The minotaur asked.

"Well, I have an objection to cold-blooded murder."

"They enemy soldiers." The minotaur shrugged, and it really was impressive how he could do that while holding that door-sized shield. "Soldiers kill in war. Cold blood not matter."

"It matters to me."

"I offer gold to leave, not fight Wildings." The minotaur replied. "My father is chief; he give you gold. He give more gold if Ivernians you fight"

A part of Ethan was very interested, but only a part. "No dice."

"Dice? You want dice?" The minotaur replied.

"No, I meant 'no deal'." Ethan clarified.

"Dragon not want gold?" The minotaur stared at him.

"I do want gold." He corrected. "But I care more about preventing murder than I do about getting gold."

"Strange dragon." The minotaur replied.

Ethan shrugged. "I've been called worse."

"They Ivernians." The minotaur pointed to the cat-girl and near-unconscious man. "They must die."

"You want to kill every last Ivernian?" Ethan raised his eyebrow.

"Every Ivernian that try stop us to return." He tightened his grip on his axe. "We want the land of us back."

Ethan looked at him while he considered. "Well, how about a counteroffer."

"Counter?"

Ethan nodded. "How about you let these two live -- since obviously they won't be stopping you today -- and then you don't have to fight a dragon." He summoned his dropped war sword and gave it a small flourish.

"Why want you to save Ivernians?" The minotaur narrowed his eyes. "You Ivernian?"

"No." He shook his head, though he found himself oddly contented with the idea of being called one. "In fact, Lord Farbrottan keeps trying to kill me and my wives."

The minotaur lowered his axe and shield, then stomped one foot on the ground, flared his nostrils, and exhaled forcefully. "Farbrottan not lord; Farbrottan usurper."

"Have you ever heard the saying that 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend'?" Ethan asked.

"They my enemy." He pointed to the cat-girl and near-unconscious man. "You they friend. You is friend of my enemy." He raised his axe and shield again. "You is enemy."

Ethan sighed, then raised his sword.

* * *

Fiona tried to resist the urge to pace to pass the time in the small antechamber to the castle's vault. The crown prince's expert had entered that side room some time ago, and she had nothing to do to pass the time. Nearby, Mage Weston and Sir Warrick were talking in low tones. Her husband was standing as impassive and unreadable as a stone, while the crown prince himself was leaning against one of the stone walls with his arms folded, and he occasionally yawned.

Nearby, Tabitha stood nearly as impassively and unreadably as Lord Delmar, which was odd since others were around. Normally she had her bubbly personality on, but she didn't now.

Fiona looked at her husband and smiled; he had somehow convinced the emperor to transfer Tabitha from protecting the wife of his son -- the wife of the future emperor -- to guard her here in Karnas. She had no idea how he had done it, but she could feel her heart melt slightly whenever she thought about it.

"Yes?" He said.

She realized she'd been staring at him. "Nothing milord; I'm just really appreciating all you're doing to be taking care of me." She glanced at Tabitha.

He nodded once but didn't reply.

"Old Xander always was a loquacious fellow." The crown prince chuckled.

Fiona laughed. "I've been noticing."

"You should ask him about what happened fifteen minutes after his first wedding banquet started." Prince George said with a twinkle in his eye. "He would, of course, speak endlessly about it."

Fiona looked at her husband, and his stone-statue-like expression appeared even more stony as she spoke. "Milord?"

"That is not a story I will tell." He said.

"I would say not." Sir Warrick laughed.

Fiona looked around at them, not sure what had happened or who to ask.

"Let's just say that no one was in doubt that he was excited for the wedding night." The crown prince said with a barely suppressed smile.

Fiona looked at her husband, wondering what it must've been like to be Helene. She didn't know exactly what had happened, but she imagined that it was similar to her first husband Sean copping a feel of her breast at their wedding banquet when he thought no one was looking. Of course, someone had seen and that had led to no end of teasing in the following weeks.

The door to the side room opened and the crown prince's expert exited the room. "They are all will-breaker rings." He said without preamble.

"It is as we feared." Sir Warrick shook his head. "We cannot let this stand."

"Indeed." Lord Delmar agreed.

Fiona looked at the crown prince. "I don't suppose you can be helping us catch the false prophet?"

He raised his eyebrow. "And what makes you so sure that Ethan Ejder is behind this, or that he is a false prophet?"

Fiona stared at him.

Her mouth fell open.

"Are you saying that you don't think he is?" She finally managed to ask, feeling like she'd just been slapped.

"I am saying that I do not know for certain one way or the other." The crown prince replied.

"The emperor is unconvinced, despite seeing the evidence that Narlotten has collected in full." Lord Delmar said.

"And other evidence collected elsewhere in the Ten Kingdoms as well." Prince George added, then looked at Fiona. "While the evidence that Narlotten has collected certainly isn't insignificant -- either in strength or volume -- it is not the whole picture. The empire remains unconvinced that Ethan Ejder is a false prophet or a necromancer, but neither also can we firmly establish him as innocent or a true prophet. The evidence is insufficient for us to take action, especially without hearing his side of the story."

Fiona wanted to reply, but couldn't think of a single thing to say. The emperor didn't know? How? How was that possible? They had the best intelligence of anyone in the Ten Kingdoms and she couldn't believe that they couldn't see the false prophet for what he was.

Although...

She saw Mage Weston out of the corner of her eye and remembered what he had said about seeking the truth instead of evidence to support her own position. She found it almost impossible to believe that someone as well informed as the crown prince could be unsure; but since he was, what did that mean?

The false prophet couldn't actually be innocent, could he?

"Lady Delmar, I do know of your history and thus understand your aversion to Mr. Ejder." The prince said kindly. "However, might I offer a word of advice garnered from a few decades at the imperial court?" Oddly, it sounded like he was truly asking and would be entirely fine if she said 'no'.

"Of course Your Majesty."

He chuckled, though she wasn't sure why. "The entirety of ruling is two things: knowing what to do, and then having the courage to do it. Of the two, knowing the correct course of action is often harder. It often seems like the entire world is conspiring to cloud the truth in a fog. Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to keep an open mind and -- as the Book of Light advises -- consider all sides of the story before choosing a position. Even then, always allow new information to change your mind."

"Wise words, thank you." She replied, internally seething that three people -- Lady Shara, Mage Weston, and now the crown prince himself -- were trying to convince her to keep an open mind about the false prophet.

Still...

As Mage Weston had pointed out, the very fact that she was angry at the possibility that the false prophet was innocent was a problem. A rather large one in fact. She hated that. She didn't like the idea that she probably should at least try to be objective. She didn't want to do that, she wanted to continue hating the man-- err, dragon who'd killed her Sean. She just had a hard time wrapping her mind around the possibility that the false prophet hadn't.

She took a deep, calming breath.

"Sadly, life at court doesn't ever become less complicated." Prince George said. "It's the curse of leadership, or in your case, being wed to a leader. You should ask my wife about that; she could tell you stories." He looked at Tabitha. "Right Tabby?"

"Yes Your Highness." The bodyguard replied.

"Taciturn as ever." He chuckled, then looked back at Fiona. "My father has always impressed upon me the importance of keeping an open mind; it's equally as important for everyone, from the poorest farmer to the richest emperor."

"I'll try to be keeping that in mind." Fiona said after a moment.

"Good." He smiled. "And besides, your friend Sarah thinks Ethan Ejder is a good man, and she's among the sweetest women I've met in my travels, though perhaps a bit naïve."

Fiona stared at him. "You've met Sarah?"

"Of course." He smiled. "It was a year or two ago, and obviously my retinue and I were disguised so she didn't know, but how often does one get the chance to safely meet a demon-possessed woman?" His smile widened. "She made one of the best bowls of oatmeal I've ever eaten; it was absolutely delectable and I don't even like oatmeal."

Fiona's brain seemed to have stopped working as she stared at him, mouth agape. He had gone to visit Sarah because he was curious? She didn't know what she expected the crown prince of the Ten Kingdoms to be like, but he was so... normal.

"Hearing that Sarah was glad to be betrothed to him is a strong mark in his favor, as she clearly -- and ironically -- holds Illuminar dear." Prince George continued. "There are many things that one can convincingly fake, but I have yet to hear of anyone being able to convincingly fake love." He glanced at Lord Delmar. "A certain lord's protestations of dragon compulsion notwithstanding."

Lord Delmar didn't reply.

"From what I know of Him, Illuminar doesn't seem like the sort of God to allow dragons to be capable of creating true and genuine love via compulsion..." Prince George's expression became more serious. "...but I do try to keep an open mind about everything."

Fiona nodded, both at that and at the implication that perhaps she should keep an open mind as well. It seemed like lately, everything and everyone had been trying to get her to even consider that maybe there was more to the false prophet's story than she had been led to believe. That seemed utterly impossible, but at this point, too many perceptive and extremely well-informed people had doubts for Fiona to ignore. She would've liked to ignore it, but Lady Shara's words, Mage Weston's words, the crown prince's words, the Book of Light, and at this point, even her own conscience were conspiring against her.

Maybe, just maybe, she should at least try to keep an open mind about the false prophet.

* * *

"Damn shield." Ethan growled as he avoided yet another shield attack from the minotaur. This was the third one, and while he hadn't gotten hit by the shield the second two times, he couldn't get close enough to land an attack either. That door-sized shield was simply too big and the minotaur wasn't stupid enough to let Ethan slip around it. Normally, he would take to the skies, but the centaur archers below made that a losing proposition.

He'd so far managed to keep the cat-girl and unconscious man out of the fight, but the top of the tower wasn't large and he wasn't sure how much longer he could keep them out of it. The minotaur snorted, then pawed the ground again as he usually did before he charged. This time though, Ethan took a moment to think about his attack plan, courtesy of his enhanced reflexes.

His hammer was too short-range with striking attacks, and the minotaur kept himself behind his shield enough that Ethan didn't think a lightning strike would work, especially with the shield's iron rim. His javelin could get through the shield, but he'd never have time to throw it at this range. His war sword was better, but that blasted shield was almost too large to get around.

However, perhaps he didn't need to.

The minotaur often attacked with his axe, and maybe Ethan could simply snipe the hand? He discarded that notion quickly since his opponent was careful to keep the axe close to the shield and exposed very little of his hand.

And that was it.

Those were all his weapons, unless you counted his natural ones like teeth, claws, and...

He grinned.

He dodged this most recent charge and rolled back into an upright position, then pushed a little mana into his fire glands. It used more mana than he would've liked, but the result was impressive. A burst of flame shot from his mouth, impacting the shield and setting part of it on fire.

The minotaur didn't seem bothered and simply charged at him again. Ethan was forced to dive out of the way of the flaming shield, not that the fire bothered him much. Not only was his armor enchanted to be fire resistant, but his scales were naturally somewhat resistant as well.

After he'd gotten out of the way, the minotaur swung the shield powerfully at the air, making the flames dwindle and nearly get blown out...

...nearly.

The fire came back after a moment, reigniting with a vengeance since it wasn't fully put out and had just received a very large burst of air.

Ethan grinned

The minotaur made another growling snort, then cocked his axe back, clearly preparing to throw it... at the cat-girl and unconscious man. Ethan made a big leap, expanding his rollable shield as he did and just barely managing to block the axe before it hit the bystanders.

He landed and rolled, putting his back to them. The cat-girl had stopped hissing at him a while ago so he didn't think she was likely to pounce. While he'd been distracted, the minotaur had put out the flame on his shield by pressing the face against the floor and instantly starving it of oxygen.

Undeterred, Ethan launched another burst of flame, painfully aware of how much mana it was taking. Practicing a magical skill usually made it take less mana as you got better, but that didn't seem to be the case here. He'd tried a bunch, and the mana cost didn't seem to be going down. Maybe enchanting himself would help? He wasn't sure, and finding out wasn't a high priority because experimenting with fire was sacrificing long-term permanent gains for a single short-term gain. Enchanting himself to be faster, stronger, and his joints to take the stress from the speed-enhancing enchantment Alana was planning to add to his armor would be permanent gains. Fire-breathing, not so much.

The fire reignited the minotaur's shield, and the shield's owner snorted again. He raised another hand axe -- apparently he carried at least one spare -- and squared off against Ethan again.

"I can do the fire thing all day, but you'll run out of axes eventually." Ethan pointed out. "Not to mention your shield will get brittle fast with the fire."

"We meet again, dragon." The minotaur said, then inched towards the stairs and slowly backed down them, never taking his eyes off of Ethan.

Ethan waited until a minute or two had passed, then walked to the stairs and cautiously looked down to make sure the minotaur was indeed gone.

It was.

He turned to the cat-girl and took a good look at her. She looked relatively young, though certainly an adult. He had never seen one before so he was guessing, but he would've bet money he was right. She was sitting on her haunches as cats do, looking at him intently. Her eyes were a slightly darker green than you normally see on a cat, but otherwise, they looked exactly like a cat's eyes.

"Can you hear if he comes back up?" Ethan asked.

The cat-girl nodded once, her ears turning toward the stairway.

"Great, I'm Ethan Ejder, and you are?"

The cat-girl's tail flicked back and forth a few times and it inflated just slightly as her hackles stood up. "I not have gold."

Ethan sighed. "I'm not looking for gold. Some Fey fellow at the Wilderness Outpost told me that some men were in trouble out here, and I came to help."

"Why you help?" Her eyes narrowed. "I not Ivernian. Why you help..." She frowned. "I is what you calling, um, 'Wilding'. I Ivernia enemy. Why you help?"

"I just explained that." He replied, then nodded toward the man she had been trying to protect. "Why did you help him if you're an enemy of Ivernia?"

Her tail flicked again, but her eyes softened a fraction. "He not like Ivernian. He not savage. Ivernian savage; he not savage."

Ethan couldn't help but smile at the irony; from what he'd just gathered, both the Ivernians and the Wildings considered each other to be savages. The moment he smiled, cat-girl's tail instantly became incredibly bushy and her posture more protective as all her fur stood on end. She opened her mouth and hissed softly.

"I was smiling, not trying to threaten you." Ethan said, then sheathed his sword. "Is anyone else alive in the tower?"

"Not Ivernian." She replied, her posture not changing much.

"He looks like he needs a healer." Ethan pointed at the man. It was funny, apparently he'd been in the Ten Kingdoms long enough that his first thought was 'healer', not 'doctor'. Huh.

The cat-girl hissed and jumped to all fours, arching her back and baring her teeth. "You not take him! You not hurt him!"

"I said he needs a healer." Ethan pointed out. "One of my wives is a brilliant healer and can patch him up as good as new."

The cat-girl's posture relaxed slightly, but only slightly. Ethan was willing to bet that she would gladly fight to the death to protect the unconscious man.

"Look, he might not live if he doesn't get help." Ethan pointed out. "I'm offering to fly him -- and you too if you want to -- to my airship so one of my wives can heal him. Unless you're a healer, which I doubt or you would've healed him already, or you know of a friendly one nearby, that's his best chance."

The cat-girl's back stopped arching and she stopped baring her fangs, but her protective posture didn't change.

Ethan sighed. "Let me put it this way, I'm going to take him to my airship so my wife can patch him up. You can either try to stop me from saving him, or you can ride along, or you can take your chances with horn brain." He indicated the stairs down which the minotaur had gone. "Only one of those options means both you and he survive; which will you pick?"

"We both survive." She replied firmly, but didn't relax.

Ethan sighed; convincing her might take a minute.

* * *

Fiona was still fighting a silent internal war within herself about the false prophet as they ascended into the normal parts of the castle from the vault. She was mostly walking on autopilot behind her husband, trying not to think about what she felt she was being pushed towards.

"My lady." Tabitha said quietly from behind her, and the bodyguard's demeanor was just as stoic as usual despite the number of people around. It seemed that she really had given up on pretending since Prince George had outed her.

"Yes Tabby?"

"You addressed Prince George as 'Your Majesty' earlier." The bodyguard replied, still speaking quietly enough not to draw attention to them. "Only the emperor should be addressed as 'Your Majesty'; a prince is addressed as 'Your Highness'."

"Oh, I wasn't knowing that. "Thank ya for telling me." Fiona grimaced, feeling her cheeks get a bit warm at her mistake. She supposed that's why the crown prince had chuckled when she'd spoken, and she was glad it hadn't seemed to bother him.

"You are welcome my lady." Tabitha replied.

They walked on and -- more to distract herself from the false prophet problem than anything else -- she started paying more attention to what her husband and Prince George were saying.

"We shall only stay for the afternoon, and possibly early evening." The crown prince said. "My family and I are traveling to Nalatia next to see the King of the wood elves."

"Your family is with you?" Fiona asked.

"Not yet." His eyes twinkled. "But they should be arriving here within the hour. My wife -- well, one of my wives -- has been quite insistent that she would like to meet you, Lady Delmar. In fact, that's the whole reason I'm here today instead of merely sending an agent."

Fiona stopped in her tracks. "What?"

"Don't worry, you two will get along famously." He assured her, having stopped when she did. He started walking again and everyone followed suit, Fiona not sure whether she should be reassured or not.

"What is your business with our neighbors to the west?" Lord Delmar asked.

"Ethan Ejder will be returning The King's ward there soon, and I'll attend her coming-of-age ball." The crown prince replied. "But there's other, more minor business as well."

"You know where the false prophet is?" Fiona asked.

"Of course." Prince George had an amused look in his eye. "Given how profound the last prophet's effect was on the imperial family, my father prefers to closely monitor the movements of any potential prophets."

Fiona nodded; that made sense given the history.

"Now, Xander." Prince George turned to Lord Delmar. "If you would be willing, I would love a bite to eat before my family arrives."

He led them to the dining hall, Fiona wondering all the while why one of the crown prince's wives wanted to meet her; her of all people.

* * *

It had taken a lot of work for Ethan to convince the cat-girl to let him pick up the unconscious man so he could fly them out of there. It took almost no effort to convince her to ride on his back though, since it was clear that she didn't want to be parted from him. He was more than a little nervous having her arms around his neck since she clearly had sharp claws, but reminding her that he would drop the man if she attacked did wonders for his concerns about that. He had checked over the side of the tower before leaving, ready to fight the centaur archers. However, they had apparently left with the Minotaur while Ethan had convinced the cat-girl.

Thankfully, the ride back was entirely uneventful.

He approached the Argo and could feel the cat-girl -- who still hadn't given her name -- tensing up on his back. The man of course was still passed out, and his breathing was slow, and slowing down.

*Tee, I'll need your healing skills for someone.* He thought to everyone as he approached.

*I'll be ready Master.* The Fey replied.

He landed not long after, the cat-girl jumping off his back and onto the Argo's deck as soon as she was able. She looked a little green around the gills. Despite that, she was never more than a couple feet away from the man. Taloni was waiting as promised and began to heal him as soon as Ethan set him on the deck.

"He'll be okay." Tee said a minute later, but she didn't remove her hands. "He has a very bad bump on his head and it will take me a while because healing brain injuries takes time."

"He heal?" The cat-girl asked.

Tee nodded. "As good as new once I'm done, but he should rest for a few days to recover properly." Tee glanced at her. "And when I'm done with him, I'll take a look at you."

The cat-girl smiled at Tee, but still looked wary. She would jump slightly at any noise, but he didn't think she'd attack anyone; she was too focused on the man.

"What happened Dominus?" Beth asked.

"Well..." He looked at her pointedly. "I met a minotaur."

"Really!" Beth's eyes lit up, probably because Gabriella had said the blonde needed to wait until Ethan had met one before she asked Falkaan about getting wings on the Astral Plane.

"Yup." He nodded, thinking the blonde's expression looked like a kid on Christmas morning. It then occurred to him that the only one on the Argo -- well, formerly on the Argo -- who would understand that expression was Selene.

Alana gave him a knowing and sympathetic look. "We miss her too."

He nodded, sighed, then looked at Beth. "When do you want to talk to--"

"Now!" Beth squealed. "Can you fly me over to the Midnight Sun? Pretty please Dominus?"

"Absolutely, but give me a minute." He said, then turned to the rest of his wives and explained what had happened, including the minotaur's perspective on Ivernians.

"So, what actually happened?" He asked when he had finished.

"No one is sure where it started." Sarah replied. "The Wildings and humans lived together peacefully in Ivernia for hundreds of years. Then, something changed, but I don't know what. A historian came through the inn once and I asked him. He said that it was a feud between two families -- one Wilding, one human -- that grew into a war."

"That would make sense if the Wildings view all humans as part of a collective." Ethan mused.

"It would make sense, but not everything that makes sense at first glance is true." Rachel pointed out.

"Indeed, there are two sides to every story." Alana cocked her head to one side. "Actually, the wood elves might know more because they keep much better records for longer, they would have good records since they border both, and they should be relatively unbiased."

"Okay, so we should remember to ask them if we get the chance." Ethan nodded.

"Unrelated, we've also been invited into the tower." Alana pointed to the tower that was perhaps a hundred feet below them, and then related the invitation and what they had already discussed.

"You sure they won't try something?" He asked Thea.

"No, but most of them wouldn't." The elf replied.

He looked at Kendra, who spoke. "With our dresses being cut resistant, Thea and Victoria able to mentally attack those without mental defenses, your dragon breath, and our overall combat ability, I see the risk as minimal."

Ethan thought about that for a moment. "You said that the Fey fellow said the outpost's commander is a 'political prisoner'?"

"Colonel Forsythe, yes." Sarah spoke up. "He's actually Lord Farbrottan's nephew, the son of his sister. A few years ago, he and one of Lord Farbrottan's brothers -- the Duke Farbrottan -- made a lot of trouble for Lord Farbrottan by publicly saying that the taxes were too high and roads too dangerous. They were trying to change things for the better, but Lord Farbrottan put a swift end to that. Colonel Forsythe has been stationed here ever since, and Duke Farbrottan met with Lord Farbrottan and suddenly stopped speaking out about it. Most people think he threatened the duke's family if he didn't keep quiet."

"Why am I not surprised?" Ethan sighed, though he was mildly surprised to find out Lord Farbrottan had siblings. Really though, in hindsight, it would probably be stranger if he didn't. "Why didn't I know about this?"

"I didn't know either." Alana volunteered, as did the rest of his wives except for Sarah.

"This seems like an opportunity." Ethan said after a moment. "If we're really going to war with Lord Farbrottan, then we'll need to take him off Ivernia's throne eventually. This Duke Farbrottan is in the same family, but sounds like a better alternative."

"Succession usually goes to the oldest son." Rachel replied. "And if you wanted to change that, you would need to get approval from the emperor."

"One of the emperor's sons will likely be at my coming-of-age ball." Thea volunteered. "You could maybe feel out what the empire thinks of Lord Farbrottan? If they aren't kindly disposed, perhaps that could work."

"It would be much easier to convince the emperor to install a brother than someone outside the family line." Rachel added. "However, it's unlikely that the emperor will make such a change without a good reason."

Ethan thought about Lord Farbrottan and how he'd treated his concubines and the Ivernian people in general. "Well, I hate to sound like the guy that Lord Delmar thinks I am, but the emperor might be forced to step in if Lord Farbrottan is no longer breathing."

Everyone looked at him.

"I approve." Kendra said with a tiny smile. She'd done that a lot less since Selene had left.

Selene...

"I'm just being practical." He said, trying to put the woman he loved but couldn't have out of his mind. "He's trying to kill us. I'd rather leave well enough alone, but since he won't let us..."

"What about my father?" Rachel asked quietly.

"He isn't evil." Alana replied. "Lord Farbrottan is intentionally driving the Ivernians into poverty to gain more power; your father wouldn't do that."

"Um, Lady Ekthros once told me that she was chiefly responsible for keeping Lord Delmar informed." Sarah said. "Maybe we just need to convince him that Ethan isn't a necromancer?"

Rachel nodded.

"We have a plan now." Kendra said. "That's better than we've had before. Colonel Forsythe almost certainly has a way to contact Duke Farbrottan; I suggest we leverage that."

Ethan nodded. "Makes sense."

"You don't sound happy about it." Alana pointed out.

"Yeah, I'd rather use that portal-based mail service idea to start a business and settle down to raise our family than fight a war." Ethan replied. "Still, I hate to see what Lord Farbrottan has put the Ivernians through. They're good people and they don't deserve the lord they have."

Victoria mumbled something under her breath that he didn't quite catch. Then an idea occurred to him. It seemed nuts, possibly insane, but he had a feeling...

Hmm...

Alana caught his eye and then thought to him privately. *Are you thinking what I'm thinking?*

*You mean, how right after Myla said she didn't want to marry me, she met her future husband?* He replied. *And how Victoria just said that she didn't want to marry me earlier?*

Alana got a subtle but sly smile on her face. *Uh-huh; that's exactly what I was thinking.*

*Well, she did say that there was no way that even Illuminar could make her marry an Ivernian soldier.* He resisted the urge to grin. *Wouldn't it be ironic if she fell in love with and married Lord Farbrottan's nephew after that little declaration?*

Alana nodded subtly, the twinkle in her eyes telling him that she'd had the same thought. He loved that they could be so in sync.

"What?" Victoria asked, looking back and forth between them.

"You'll see." Ethan chuckled, then looked around at everyone. "Well, Beth has some business on the Midnight Sun for a bit, so I suppose we could visit the tower while she's busy with that."

Beth was so excited that she was almost literally bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"We'll take full precautions though." Ethan clarified, not that anyone disagreed.

* * *

For the second time that day, Fiona found herself on the castle's airship dock waiting for an airship flying a gold-trimmed Ten Kingdoms flag to dock. Beside her, Lord Delmar was reasonably impassive, and beyond him, Prince George was smiling in such a way that Fiona could tell he was looking forward to seeing his wife, or wives.

Once the imperial airship had docked and the gangplank was down, a tall and absolutely gorgeous woman in a fine gown floated onto the gangplank. She was probably in her forties, but looked much younger and reminded Fiona of Lady Shara in her ability to move seemingly without touching the ground. However, whereas Lady Shara radiated genuineness and warm sincerity, this woman -- the wife of the future emperor -- seemed much more shrewd and calculating.

Her skin was almost impossibly pale and her hair was such a cool-toned blonde that it almost looked silver. Her eyes were an icy blue and her dress matched them perfectly. She didn't exactly look aloof, nor unfriendly either, but Fiona got the impression that she was a formidable woman who meant business.

She reached the end of the gangplank and her husband offered his hand to help her step down, which she took and then did. If Fiona didn't know they were married, she might've thought they were old friends or business associates. Even the perfunctory kiss they shared looked more platonic than anything else. She couldn't detect any particular trace of attraction, but they seemed very comfortable with each other; again, like old friends or business associates.

"The daughter of the emperor of the Winter Empire." Lord Delmar said to Fiona in a low voice. "Their marriage was negotiated many years ago and likely is currently preventing a war."

"I was thinking that the tensions were dying down." Fiona replied as the newcomer shared a few whispered words with her husband.

"After the Telmorite Incident, that is not likely." Lord Delmar replied.

Fiona nodded, remembering her parents fuming about that in her childhood. Thankfully, no one had been willing to tell her the details until she was much older and had a stronger stomach.

"Together, they are a formidable couple." Her husband added.

"Aye, I can be believing that." Fiona nodded

Prince George led his wife over to them and she curtsied flawlessly.

"May I introduce my wife, Her Imperial Highness, Princess Silvia of the Ten Kingdoms."

"Lord Delmar, it is a pleasure." The princess said, every syllable perfectly pronounced.

"Your Highness." Lord Delmar said with a suitably formal bow.

She turned to Fiona. "Lady Fiona, I must congratulate you on your marriage to Lord Delmar." Her tone made it sound like it was an accomplishment and she was impressed that a woman like Fiona could've done such a thing; Fiona wasn't sure if that was a compliment or an insult.

"Thank you Your Highness." Fiona replied, then remembered to curtsey, though hers wouldn't ever be as polished as the princess's was.

"Sir Warrick, it is agreeable to see you again." The princess said as she moved on to the others in Lord Delmar's retinue.

"Come, there's someone who would like to meet you." Prince George said to Fiona, the small smile on his face reaching into his eyes as he beckoned her toward the gangplank, down which another woman was walking.

This second woman was dressed in the same kind of clothes that the prince was, her dress being utterly ordinary other than being made of extremely high-quality cloth. She was reasonably attractive, even 'pretty', but most people wouldn't call her beautiful.

Her hair was light brown as were her eyes, and her freckled cheeks had dimples when she smiled, which Fiona knew because she was smiling now. Her smile looked utterly genuine too. It radiated warmth and sincerity and reminded Fiona of Lady Shara, but without the Timarou lady's reserve.

Prince George offered his hand to her and helped her step off the gangplank. "Lady Fiona, allow me to introduce the Imperial Consort and my wife, Helga Calmarane."

Fiona curtsied as properly as she knew how, but also knew it was a bit awkward. "Pleased to meet you."

"I'm so glad I got to meet you." Helga said with a wide smile.

"Um, why were you wanting to meet with me?"

"Because you were a servant in the castle before you married Lord Delmar, and I know what that's like." She grinned at her husband, then looked back at Fiona. "I was a scullery maid."

"You were?" Fiona asked. Though, that did explain Helga's lack of noble refinements, and also possibly her genuine affection and lack of reserve.

"Would you like to come aboard for a spot of tea?" She asked, then looked at Prince George, likely making sure it was okay.

"Enjoy." He nodded. "I have official business and no reason to think you two won't get along splendidly."

He kissed Helga, and it was the kind of kiss that Fiona had once regularly shared with her first husband, Sean. It was the kind of kiss that she wanted to share with Lord Delmar one day, and the kind of kiss that she imagined he had shared with Helene before her death.

"Send Thomas over directly." The prince said as the kiss broke.

"I will." She smiled at him, and they just looked at each other for a moment, small but contented smiles on both of their faces. He gave her another quick kiss and then walked away toward where the princess was talking with the Narlotten nobles.

"Come on." Helga beckoned excitedly as she stepped back onto the gangplank. Fiona hesitated just a moment and then followed her, Tabitha following as well. She wasn't sure what was going on, but Helga seemed excited and Fiona was glad for a reason to avoid the political discussions.

* * *

Beth did her very best to keep herself still in her husband's arms as he flew her over to the Midnight Sun. She was finally going to get wings! Or at least she thought she would. Gabriella had certainly hinted to her husband that she would and she couldn't wait!

Ethan chuckled. "It's a shame you're not excited about this."

Beth sighed. "Dom-i-nus."

He laughed as he touched down on the Midnight Sun's deck and set her on her feet.

"Mr. Prophet." Falkaan said as he descended the stairs from the quarterdeck with Myla right behind him. Noticeably, the newlywed woman was smiling. Full on smiling, which was more than she'd done almost the entire time she had been on the Argo. Apparently, being married to Falkaan agreed with her. Nearby, Talven waved at him and Ethan waved back

"What can I do for you?" The dark elf asked.

"Actually, I was hoping you could do something for Beth." Ethan replied while the blonde reminded herself to be considerate and not blurt his secret out to everyone on the airship.

"Oh?" The elf raised his eyebrow.

"Yup." Ethan replied. "Do you have someplace private we can talk?"

There was a moment's pause, then Myla spoke. "We would be honored to have the pleasure of your company in the room below the captain's cabin."

Falkaan and Myla led Ethan and Beth down to the room and closed the door behind them.

"Can you teach me how to have wings on the Astral Plane?" Beth blurted out in a low voice the moment the door was closed.

The other couple didn't say anything for a moment, then Myla spoke. "How did you come to know that my husband can enter the Astral Plane?"

Beth looked at Ethan, who explained about Gabriella telling him that Falkaan could help Beth get wings while on the Astral Plane. Falkaan didn't say anything for several seconds, then he glanced at his wife and a subtle smile appeared on his face.

"For decades, no one except my teacher -- now deceased -- knew that I could Astral project; now three people have learned in less than three weeks."

"Um, my fellow wives know too, but not Thea or Victoria." Beth said.

Falkaan shrugged. "An angel saw fit to tell the prophet of Illuminar; who am I to object?" He looked at Beth. "I do know something that might perhaps help, but it would require being on the Astral Plane to properly explain it."

"We could venture up to the hammocks in the forward section of the lower deck so that my husband and Elizabeth might take a repose on them before entering the Astral Plane." Myla suggested.

"Okay!" Beth beamed.

"Have fun." Ethan said. "I have a date with a colonel."

Myla got a sly smile on her face. "I do not believe that you should pursue an eighth wife."

He laughed, then explained while Beth exercised a lot of self-control not to grab Falkaan's hand and drag him away.

"I know of the man by reputation." Falkaan said when Ethan had finished explaining. "He is a gifted military leader, though his talents lie primarily in administration and discipline more than tactics and strategy. Though he is evidently competent in those areas as well given his successful defense of The Wilderness Outpost since he was stationed here."

"Good to know, thanks." Ethan said.

"Might I suggest that you proceed to your 'date'?" Myla said with a smile after glancing at Beth. "Elizabeth appears to be having some difficulty restraining her excitement."

"You're different." Beth said to the newlywed woman. "You seem happier and less..."

"Less like my heart is filled with fear?" Myla suggested. She looked at her husband fondly before replying. "I am. I did not know that a heart could feel as much joy as our union has brought to me."

Beth sighed. "I'm so glad to hear that."

"As am I." Falkaan said, then motioned for Beth to follow him. "Come, I believe I have a lesson to teach."

* * *

Fiona took a sip of the tea that Helga Calmarane had poured for her, feeling slightly out of place on the airship. It was more richly decorated than Lord Delmar's airship, the Helene, but it was done in a classy way, if slightly aloof. She could see the princess's taste in some of the decorations, though none of it seemed to match Helga very well. Helga didn't seem to feel out of place though, and in fact looked quite comfortable.

"So, how did it happen?" Helga asked.

"What?" Fiona asked, conscious of Tabby standing nearby and again, somehow exactly at the edge of her peripheral vision.

"How you and Lord Delmar fell in love of course."

"Oh, I'm not sure that we... um, that is we aren't..." Fiona hesitated as she thought about her husband, and couldn't prevent a small smile from slipping onto her face.

"Ah, so you've fallen for him but he hasn't fallen for you... yet." Helga smiled. "It takes time." She then glanced at Tabby. "Tabby, please sit down and join us."

"I am comfortable here my lady." Tabby replied in her usual emotionless monotone. Fiona was thinking that she might actually miss Tabby's bubbly persona a bit now that she seemed to have abandoned it.

"Oh tosh, I had them make the tea just how you like it." Helga poured a cup and set it at an open place. Tabitha did sit down and take a small sip.

"And?"

"It is good my lady." Tabitha replied without emotion.

Helga smiled and shook her head. "Well, she hasn't changed much." She chuckled and looked at Fiona. "I assume she spends as much time as possible around Conner?"

"Uh, I haven't been noticing that." Fiona replied honestly.

Helga laughed. "You wouldn't unless you were looking for it. Tabby here never missed a chance to watch over the children in the family, especially when they were babies."

Fiona looked at Tabitha, who hadn't reacted at all. Or at least, there wasn't a reaction that Fiona could see. It did make some sense though. Tabby playing peek-a-boo with Conner during Fiona's conversation with Mage Weston came to mind.

"Is that true?" Fiona asked Tabitha.

"I would not presume to contradict the wife of the Crown Prince." Tabitha replied evasively.

Helga laughed. "Please, you have my permission now and forevermore to contradict me as much as you like, as long as you're honest."

Fiona looked expectantly at Tabby. "Well?"

"Young children are not a security threat because they cannot attempt to kill anyone." Tabitha replied, her tone indicating that was her answer.

Helga burst out laughing.

The prince's wife laughed for a solid ten seconds before pulling herself together enough to speak. "Oh Tabby, how I've missed your sense of humor."

"Sense of humor?" Fiona asked.

"She's a great practical joker, though subtle about it." Helga replied. "Does she do that thing where she's always right at the edge of your peripheral vision? Or that slightly unsettling thing where she instantly changes her whole personality? Or have you ever turned around and felt like you were going to collide with her, but she moved out of the way and nothing happened."

"All three." Fiona eyed her bodyguard.

"She's teasing you." Helga said with a chuckle. "But that's a good thing; she only teases people she likes, isn't that right Tabby?"

"I would not presume to contradict--" The bodyguard began.

"Oh tosh, I just told you that you could." Helga shook her head slowly.

Tabitha didn't reply.

"Tabby here has the most personality of any of the bodyguards George ever assigned to me." Helga looked at the bodyguard fondly. "I'm pretty sure that the guard force only tolerates it because she's so good at what she does."

Fiona looked at Tabby, who took another small sip of her tea without giving anything away, either on her face or in her body language.

"Tabby, have you been teasing me?" Fiona asked.

"Testing the response times, spatial awareness, and reflexes of the protectee is important." Tabitha replied, then took another sip of her tea.

"Oh, and she hates lying, hence the evasion." Helga added.

Fiona smiled. "That we're having in common."

"It took two other guards to take her place." Helga added. "They're much more subtle, but not nearly as fun. George hand-picked Tabby's replacements himself." Helga said, and the warmth in her tone when she talked about him was unmistakable.

"How were you two getting married, seeing as he's the emperor's son?" Fiona asked.

"It wasn't easy." Helga replied. "His father objected somewhat strenuously, and only agreed after some legal agreements made it so that none of our children would ever inherit any titles or authority." The smile on her face grew. "George didn't like that, but it was the only way the emperor would agree."

"Why was he objecting so much?"

"I was a scullery maid in the castle." Helga replied with a shrug. "Honestly, I didn't understand then, but having children now... Oh, speaking of." She trailed off and frowned, then raised her voice slightly. "Thomas!"

"He is below decks ma'am." One of the servants standing nearby said. "Shall I fetch him?"

"Oh, that would be wonderful, thank you." Helga replied, then turned back to Fiona. "Seeing all the suitors flocking around my children makes me understand more; I would've been just as concerned." She paused. "I am that concerned."

"Oh, I hadn't been considering that." Fiona replied, thinking about Conner. "My Conner isn't in line for Narlotten's throne though, and he can't be."

"Neither can my children." Helga replied. "Sadly, simply being a part of the imperial family means you attract predators of the financial and status-oriented kind."

"Oh, I hadn't been considering that."

"You had no reason to before, but it's something to keep in mind now." Helga turned as a young man walked up to the table.

The young man was clearly the princess's son, though he had a lot of his father in his features as well. He looked to be in his early twenties, and was dressed closer to Helga and the prince than his mother.

"Mama Helga, you called?" He said, and judging by his tone, he held a lot of affection for her.

"Your father wanted you to join him directly." She nodded down the gangplank.

He nodded, then turned to Fiona. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Fiona." He gave her a small bow and then hurried down the gangplank.

After that small interaction, Fiona got the impression that Helga was more a mother to him than the princess was.

"So how were you and Prince George getting married then?" Fiona asked. "How was he knowing you weren't looking for the status or riches?"

"Because I wasn't." Helga replied. "It never even occurred to me that the emperor's son would be interested in a scullery maid. One day I was sweeping out the ashes around a chimney and he happened to be there, and asked how he looked in his new outfit. it was..." Helga rolled her eyes and laughed out loud.

"I'm assuming he wasn't looking good?" Fiona asked.

"He looked like a stuffed peacock." Helga laughed. "I didn't answer because I didn't want to lie, but he insisted. I was just a scullery maid, so I apologized, told him what I thought, and then apologized again." Her smile widened. "I don't think I'll ever forget that look of shock on his face for as long as I live."

"What was happening next?" Fiona asked and then took another sip of her tea. It was quite good, if a bit strong. She supposed that Tabby preferred her tea like that since Helga had said it was made to her preference. For some reason, that seemed to fit well.

"After that, he occasionally sought me out when he wanted an honest opinion and we became friends." Helga replied. "I didn't realize he wanted more until much later." She smiled.

"I'll be wanting the full story at some point." Fiona couldn't help but smile back. "Now I'm wishing you could be staying longer."

"After meeting you, I do too." Helga replied. "But alas, it's to Nalatia with us, and I believe we're leaving before the end of the day." She turned to Tabby. "It really is good to see you Tabby."

"Thank you my lady." The bodyguard replied without a trace of emotion in her tone.

Helga slowly shook her head. "The only time I've seen her show emotion -- when she's not pretending -- is around babies; who would've guessed that she's such a softy?"

Tabby didn't reply, and Fiona didn't know what to say to that.

* * *

Beth flopped down in one of the Midnight Sun's hammocks while Falkaan got into another one. She could feel herself almost vibrating in excitement and had to resist the urge to squeal in joy. It was finally happening!

"How long does it usually take for you to enter the Astral Plane?" Falkaan asked quietly.

"Only a few seconds."

Falkaan's eyebrows went up as he looked at her. "A few seconds?"

"Uh-huh." She nodded. "Why, does it usually take longer?"

"It does." The dark elf replied. "The man who taught me was considered quite an accomplished Astral Projection specialist and he could do it in less than five minutes. I have almost reached his speed."

"Oh." Beth opened her mouth to say more, but nothing came to her for several seconds. "Why did he teach you?"

Falkaan didn't speak for several seconds, and the blonde thought he was considering whether to answer her question. "That is how the Aldmiri check for demonic curses on will-breaker rings and the like, though as they never knew I was capable, I have never had occasion to do so."

"Oh, that makes sense." Beth nodded. "So why does it take so long for everyone else?"

"I do not believe that is the best question you could ask." Myla spoke up. "I believe a more pertinent question would be how you can do it with such alacrity. I suspect it is because you are bonded to a dragon, since dragons are creatures deeply steeped in magic."

"That makes sense." Beth nodded, then looked at Falkaan. "I'll wait for you on the Astral Plane." Then she laid back, closed her eyes, and then sat up on the Astral Plane and hopped out of the hammock just as Falkaan closed his eyes in another hammock.

It really did take longer than five minutes before Falkaan sat up in the hammock. Beth spent almost all of that time trying not to pace furiously or let herself get too frustrated. When he did sit up, she dashed over to him.

"Okay, how do I do it?"

He didn't reply for a moment, and when he did, his voice was quite calm. "What do you notice about me on the Astral Plane?"

Beth looked him over, then the answer smacked her in the face so hard that she couldn't believe that she hadn't seen it before. "You have both arms!"

Falkaan nodded as he raised both arms, the stump of his left arm no longer ending at the elbow on the Astral Plane.

Beth stared.

"In this place, the rules of what is possible are slightly more..." He paused. "...malleable. I found that through concentration and force of will, I could replace what I had lost." He looked at her. "Once I made that discovery, I tried what you wished; to give myself wings so I could fly and thus move more effectively. I failed."

"Oh." Beth shoulders slumped.

"I tried other things as well, like additional arms, legs, and even a tail, just to see if they were possible." Falkaan continued. "None of them were possible, though I tried quite persistently and frequently. It seems that here--" He waved to the purple hues of the Astral Plane around them. "--while you can replace what has been lost, you cannot create what you never had."

"But how does that help me get wings, unless..." She cocked her head to one side. "Well, Gabriella said that I needed wings, so maybe it'll work for me?"

"I have told you all I know, except how I made my arm regrow here." He replied. "Perhaps I can explain how I made my arm regrow, and then perhaps you can use the same principles to grow wings."

"Okay!" Beth grinned.

* * *

Ethan double-checked that he still had his armor and weapons as Taloni guided the Argo close enough to the Wilderness outpost's tower that they could dock. He glanced at the quarterdeck to see the cat-girl -- whose name he still didn't know -- curled up and sleeping against the man, with her feet up near her face the way cats seemed to enjoy sleeping.

Taloni had said he could be moved since she had finished healing him, but he still hadn't woken up and there wasn't much harm in letting him sleep on the quarterdeck for now. That, plus the cat-girl tended to get over-protective whenever anyone talked about moving him. Ethan figured that they would help the man back into the tower when he woke. On the bright side, Tee would be joining them on the excursion into the tower since she was done healing both him and the cat-girl.

Serif and Raklan dropped the gangplank into place and Ethan stepped up onto it.

"Thank you kindly for saving him." The Fey soldier who had flagged them down said. "He's my best mate and a damn fine man." He paused. "Who's the tail?"

"Tail?" Ethan asked, guessing that he was referring to the cat-girl but not sure if 'tail' was something of a slur.

"Yeah, the Felidae." He gestured at the cat-girl. "He ain't been gone that long, and he sure as Saidow's Lair wasn't picking up strays when he left."

"Beats me." Ethan shrugged. "But she would've clawed my eyes out if I tried to hurt him."

"Huh." The Fey man shrugged. "Anyway, I can take you to see Colonel Forsythe. He's down with the men now seeing to some defenses, but he'll be back in the tower to meet with you shortly."

"Okay ladies, let's go." Ethan said, and he left the Argo followed by Alana, Taloni, Rachel, Kendra, Sarah, Victoria, and Thea. His wives were of course wearing their fabric shields as sashes, as they had been doing since they had been finished. His wives' dresses were also cut-resistant, which helped put his mind at ease.

As he walked onto the tower, he resisted the urge to let his mood sink because Selene wasn't there with him. Or at least, he tried. She had made her choice and he was doing his best to live with it, but it wasn't working. He was missing her more with each passing day, not less.

*I miss her too.* Kendra thought to everyone.

*Yeah...* He said, then roused himself. *There's a possibility that this could get dicey if they attack. I don't think they will, but everyone, keep your heads on a swivel just in case.*

They all agreed.

The Fey man led them down a staircase that hugged the wall and the stone tower seemed a bit bleak for some reason. Ethan had been in stone buildings before in the Ten Kingdoms, but this one especially just seemed more dreary than most.

"We only have the one meeting room that's big enough for all of you." The Fey man said as he led them past another floor. "You can wait in there, but don't get all cozy or do nothing in there, 'cause the Colonel gets a mite uppity if he thinks anyone is pulling any shenanigans."

"Which I'm sure you know from experience." Victoria said, her tone frosty.

"Yes ma'am." The Fey man nodded, though he didn't look proud of that fact.

"It'll be in here." The Fey man stopped and waved to an open door into an unoccupied room. It had a large table, about a dozen chairs around it, and a large glassless window, but that was about it.

Ethan led the way in followed by his wives, with Victoria bringing up the rear and the Fey man ushering them in.

"Damnit Gibbons, no whores!" A stern, masculine voice said from outside the room somewhere. "I'm meeting the prophet here any moment, she doesn't match the description of his wives, and you know the penalty for bringing whores into the camp."

Ethan was inside the room, as were all of the other women except for Victoria since she was bringing up the rear. The Fey man -- Gibbons apparently -- had stopped to hold the door open and Ethan supposed that if someone was just coming up the stairs, it could look like the Fey fellow was ushering Victoria alone into the room.

Victoria's eyes went wide and her mouth fell open and she made an incredulous and obviously insulted noise. She put her hands on her hips and hissed to someone that Ethan couldn't see. "I am not a whore!"

Ethan heard a masculine scoff outside the door and then looked at Alana, who had glanced at him at the same moment.

*Five coppers says that's the colonel.* She thought to him, amusement in her eyes.

*Ten says she marries him.* He chuckled. Thea had said earlier that military leaders all had mental defenses, so he guessed that Victoria couldn't read the man's mind; that would make this all the more interesting.

"Sergeant, get her out of the outpost." The masculine voice barked, his tone the epitome of every military commander Ethan had seen on TV. "And then report to the stockade; you'll clean the whole damn thing from the inside."

"Listen, you pompous ass!" Victoria said much louder than normal. "I am not a whore! I'm traveling with the prophet of Illuminar and could've been his wife, not that a flea-brained Ivernian soldier would ever--"

"Hi there." Ethan said, stepping forward and through the door before this escalated. His disguise gem was off and his armor on, so he thought it would be pretty obvious who he was.

The masculine voice belonged to a man slightly taller than Ethan who was wearing an Ivernian military uniform consisting of a green surcoat with a white mountain in the center over chainmail. He looked a fair bit like Lord Farbrottan, or at least Ethan could see the family resemblance. He was thin and wiry and his hair was an unremarkable brown color. He had a beard, but it was quite short, rather like how Lord Kalus wore his. Interestingly, his and Victoria's eyes were the exact same color.

The man -- almost certainly Colonel Forsythe -- looked at Ethan for a moment, then looked at Victoria. "I must apologize, this would not be the first time that the Sergeant--" He indicated the Fey man. "--brought a woman of ill repute into the outpost. You have my most sincere apologies." He snapped to attention, then bowed slightly.

Victoria scoffed.

"Victoria." Ethan said reprovingly.

The platinum blonde muttered something under her breath.

"You are welcome to disparage my parentage, but you will not do it in this outpost or in front of my men." The colonel said to her. "One more outburst like that and you will spend the rest of the day in the stocks."

"Try it." She scoffed again.

He ignored her. "Prophet Ejder, welcome to The Wilderness Outpost."

"Thanks." Ethan replied while Victoria stared daggers at the colonel, who didn't acknowledge the imaginary projectiles in the slightest.

"Please, come in." He waved towards the room Ethan had just been in, and they filed in.

The colonel went to the head of the table and sat down. "I am Colonel Reginald Forsythe; and again, welcome to The Wilderness Outpost."

The introductions were made, and he spoke again once they were. "Thank you for visiting this outpost, though I cannot help but think that Illuminar Himself has guided you here, whether you were aware of it or not."

"What makes you say that?" Alana asked, taking the words right out of his mouth. Ethan loved that she could do that.

"I assume most of you know the history of the Ten Kingdoms, but I have heard the prophet hails from another land?" He looked at Ethan.

"Yup, first showed up... uh, damn, just over four months ago." He cocked his head to one side; it seemed so much longer and yet like it couldn't be that long at the same time. "However, I don't know much about the history here I'm afraid."

"Do you know how the current branch of the Calmarane family came to the Emperor's throne?"

"Oh." Rachel cocked her head to one side. "That's... that makes sense."

Everyone he'd come with nodded a bit, making Ethan feel a bit out of place. That was one of the little things he loved about having Selene around; it was nice to have someone around with whom he could commiserate about their shared ignorance of the world.

Selene...

"Go ahead and explain." Ethan said, trying to put his beloved Selene out of his mind.

"Approximately one hundred years ago, the then-Emperor Calmarane was a terrible tyrant." Colonel Forsythe said. "The family had been getting steadily worse for a few hundred years, and the then-emperor crossed a major line that apparently, Illuminar couldn't abide."

"What line?" Ethan asked.

"One that's not spoken of in polite company." Thea volunteered, a grimace on her face. Rachel and Alana exchanged a look that told Ethan that Thea wasn't exaggerating.

"Indeed." The colonel replied. "In response, Illuminar raised up a prophet who told the emperor that he was to turn the throne over to his youngest brother."

"I bet that went over well." Ethan grimaced, having a good guess of how it went.

"There's a reason they call it The Great Civil War." Rachel volunteered, unintentionally reminding Ethan yet again that he hadn't a clue about the country's history.

"When it was over, the prophet warned the new emperor that if he didn't amend the Calmarane Dynasty's ways, that Illuminar would end it permanently." Colonel Forsythe said. "The emperor and his successors have been remarkably good rulers since then."

"Ah." Ethan said, the dots connecting in his head.

The colonel watched Ethan for a moment. "I take it that you know of my uncle, the Duke Farbrottan, and his ill-fated attempt to lower the taxes?

"I did, and from what I know of old Fatbottom, it sounds like he got off light."

"Indeed, he was stripped of his lands, but retained his title, a single estate, and a veneer of freedom." Colonel Forsythe nodded.

"It could have been worse." Kendra pointed out. "He's still breathing."

Ethan nodded, then looked at the colonel for a long moment. "So, you're hoping that I -- as a prophet of Illuminar -- will do in Ivernia what that prophet did with the emperor a hundred years ago." It wasn't a question, as the implication seemed obvious.

"I had hoped, but judging by your reaction, it seems my hopes were in vain." Colonel Forsythe replied.

Victoria mumbled something under her breath. Ethan thought he heard something about the colonel being vain, but wasn't sure.

Forsythe ignored her. "Has Illuminar provided any guidance on the Lord Farbrottan problem?"

"Not really." Ethan replied. "He told me that He brought me to this world to solve a problem that I didn't know existed, and I didn't know about Ivernia's troubles back then. Now that I do, I really want to help." He cocked his head to one side. "I was actually pretty miffed that Illuminar decided that I would do this without my input, but now that I'm here, I'm kind of glad He did."

"That's how Illuminar works Master." Taloni spoke up. "He doesn't make people do things, He puts people in situations where they will want to help."

Ethan's mind instantly went to Selene.

"My uncle, Duke Farbrottan, could be a powerful ally if you wish to help Ivernia." Colonel Forsythe said. "His motives aren't altruistic, as he is more motivated by a desire to rule Ivernia than concern for the people, but he believes that a happy populace is the best way to retain power."

"That's an improvement, if an imperfect one." Kendra pointed out.

"He's said forever that if he ruled Ivernia, the first thing he would do is cut taxes in half." The colonel replied.

"Before he lost his lands, his people were among the happiest in Ivernia."

Ethan looked at Sarah for confirmation; her knowledge of Ivernia was really starting to come in handy.

She nodded. "They were."

*Thoughts?* He asked everyone telepathically.

*What happened?* Beth asked, since she was trying to get her wings instead of being there in the room with them.

*I'm sure Master will explain later.* Tee replied.

*Like we were saying earlier, if we are going to do something about Lord Farbrottan, someone will need to take his place.* Alana replied. *Plus, it's impossible to install a non-family member as a lord without the Emperor's permission.*

*Alana is right.* Rachel said. *I don't think we have a better option, and he sounds like an acceptable replacement.*

*A threat from the prophet of Illuminar to rule well or be removed should keep him in line.* Kendra suggested.

Ethan resisted the urge to chuckle at his beloved Kendra and her ruthlessly practical suggestions.

"What do you think?" Ethan asked Sarah, since he had already heard from everyone else present, and she was smart enough to know that he had already asked everyone else.

"Um, a lot of people who came through the inn wanted to move to Duke Farbrottan's lands." She replied. "He isn't perfect, but I think Ivernia would be much happier with him as the lord."

Ethan looked at Colonel Forsythe and tapped a clawed foot on the stone as he thought about it.

One thing he hadn't really thought about until today was what to do after Lord Farbrottan was dealt with. He wanted to settle down with his family and start a business using paired portals all over the Ten Kingdoms leading to a central place to move mail almost instantly. Ideally, he'd settle down in Ivernia to run that business and raise his family.

He looked around at his wives; it would be a very large family.

He would've preferred that Duke Farbrottan was a fine and upstanding fellow who was the picture of altruism and benevolence, but he was at least better than his brother. And if the tyrannical emperor's family could be reformed by switching from the oldest brother to the youngest brother, then maybe the same could be true of the Farbrottan family? Plus, Ethan liked the idea that it could be done without involving the emperor; involving him seemed like a bad idea.

As he thought about it, Illuminar did seem like someone who offered second chances, and even third and fourth chances. He doubted that Lord Farbrottan would ever repent -- he seemed perfectly comfortable being a tyrant -- but maybe the younger brother would be better? Again, it had apparently happened with the emperor's family, so maybe it could with Lord Farbrottan's too?

* * *

Beth frowned. "But how can I focus on regrowing something that I never had to begin with?"

Falkaan seemed entirely unperturbed. "I told you that I would explain what worked for me in the hopes that it had some application to you; I did not promise that it would work for you."

The blonde nodded. "Okay, so you focused on making your arm regrow. I suppose I can focus on making wings grow?" Her frown deepened. "But how would I even know what wings to try to grow?"

"Surely you've seen paintings." The dark elf replied. "Perhaps take those as inspiration."

Beth nodded, a painting that her parents had given her in her youth springing to mind instantly. They had hung it in her room to remind her that Illuminar's angels would take care of her. She supposed it was a pretty typical painting of an angel, but she'd always loved the way its wings looked.

"Okay, here I go." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath -- which she didn't need to do because you didn't need to breathe on the Astral Plane -- and tried to imagine wings like those growing from her back.

For several moments, nothing happened.

Then after about ten seconds, her back started to itch. She tried to ignore it, but it was persistent so she reached back to scratch it, then went back to trying to make her wings grow. Then the itching sensation intensified. She opened her eyes and reached back to scratch again.

She felt a bump.

Well, two bumps actually. However, they didn't feel like skin. They felt like feathers, though they were tiny. She nearly squealed and turned around so Falkaan could see, since her dress ended just under her shoulder blades in the back.

"Can you see anything?" She asked, trying to keep her tone something approaching reasonable.

"They aren't purple." He replied. "I see what looks like white feathers, even though we are on the Astral Plane." When he continued, there was something approaching awe in his tone. "I have never seen anything that wasn't purple on the Astral Plane, though my teacher told me that will-breaker rings have a dark aura around them."

"Gabriella isn't purple, she's normally colored, and Ethan's angelic blade is the normal color too." She craned her neck to try and see, but she couldn't and her back still itched like she couldn't believe.

"Then I would assume that your wings are a gift from Illuminar, or at least the ability to create them is." Falkaan replied. "I spent many hours over many months attempting to create some for myself, but never attained even a modicum of success."

"I kind of like that they're a gift." She replied, then reached back to scratch her back again; the itching hadn't gone down at all.

"I shall leave you to work on growing them, as it appears to cause some discomfort." Falkaan said.

"Thank you so much for all your help!" Beth gave him a huge hug, which he seemed less than entirely comfortable with so she didn't give him more than one squeeze before letting go.

"You are welcome." He replied. "One more thing."

"Yes?"

"It is unwise to venture too far from your body while on the Astral Plane."

"It is?"

He nodded. "I have done some experimentation and venturing too far causes extreme fatigue. In one instance, I only made it back to my body with difficulty and had trouble re-entering it. The fatigue persisted after I left the Astral Plane as well. That time I had traveled a mile away. While I suspect that you will be able to travel farther, I would not assume you could fly many leagues without ill effect."

"Okay, I'll remember that." Beth replied. She had gone further than a mile, but as she thought back on it, she might've felt tired doing so. With wings, there was no telling how far and how fast she could go. However, it seemed like she did have a limit on her range. It would've been nice to simply fly to Paliso or Karnas and spy on Lord Farbrottan or Lord Delmar, but apparently she couldn't do that.

* * *

Kendra had been watching Colonel Forsythe quite carefully during the conversation and she didn't notice anything that made her suspect him of lying. That didn't mean she trusted him of course. However, for the first time, they had a possible way forward in the war against Lord Farbrottan. The situation with Lord Delmar was trickier though, mostly because he was Rachel's father, and also because he was a dragon of Drago-level power.

"What is your plan to convince the emperor to intervene and crown Duke Farbrottan lord instead of one of Lord Farbrottan's sons?" She asked the colonel.

"There are several ways it could be done." Colonel Forsythe replied. "The endorsement of the Prophet of Illuminar, and the argument that -- since his heirs are all either too young or just like him -- to argue that he is endangering his job as emperor if he allows the situation in Ivernia to continue."

"Why hasn't he intervened before then?" Ethan asked.

"The emperor has minimum standards, and my uncle is quite skilled at meeting them technically without meeting them in reality." Colonel Forsythe replied. "Further, the emperor insists on having the same minimum standards for all of the Ten Kingdoms, but Ivernia isn't the poorest of the member countries, and raising the standards too high would adversely affect the poorest."

Kendra was about to ask a follow-up question, when...

*Ethan?*

Kendra froze.

The voice coming to their group chat was faint but intelligible, incredibly familiar, and yet also the last one she had expected to hear.

It was Selene.

Kendra's best friend continued. *Um, something important just happened and I need to talk to you.*

TO BE CONTINUED...

Note: This chapter began and ended on day 128 of Ethan's life in the Ten Kingdoms. I submit new chapters on the last Wednesday of every month, and they usually drop after the 2-3 days review process. Thus I'll submit the next chapter on February 26th, and it'll probably drop on February 28th or March 1st.

I'd like to extend a very special thanks to two of my patrons, one of whom didn't want to be credited by name. So "Anonymous" and Joseph: thank you so much for your support. I really appreciate it.

STORY TAGS: dragon, magic, elf, teen, romance, virgin, harem, blonde, brunette, redhead