Chapter 36: Job Training

Spring 50

'Dear Lest,

'How are your injuries healing? I'd think you'd be at the point where you could lose the cast now. I bet that's really driven you nuts, being restrained like that. Hope it all healed well so you have no troubles in fulfilling your mission. And have fun in leading your people.

'I met up with an old friend on the road. I told Art right off that I was surprised to see him still roaming the Norad lands, then he said he had the same reaction to running into me. While we were exchanging stories, he told me that the Norad knights had offered to take him back recently. But since they still haven't changed the policy that made him quit, he wouldn't take it. He's going to keep protecting the land in the way he's been doing all these years.

'While I was talking about you, I mentioned that you'd run into someone with the exact same pair of names. He recognized the high king's son as another one named after him. Interesting story there, maybe another time I can tell you about it. He doesn't think he's worthy of the honor twice over, but you know him, he speaks of a knight's pride when being the most humble man around.

'Art's joined me on my pilgrimage now. We've found Terrable so far. Now I know that we're pilgrims, so we should be respect, devout, and whatever. But Terrable was a jerk, probably the reason this kind of journey isn't popular these days. Possibly why those that try can't finish. He dislikes pilgrims, saying they're self-righteous posers, blind unthinking zealots, or pesky annoying petitioners. He especially dislikes those who come to ask for solutions to problems that have nothing to do with his realm of responsibility in resurrection and rebirth. He kept leaving but on the seventh time we found him, he said he'd listen he to us if we agreed to fight him.

'I think he was trying to intimidate us, not expecting us to agree to the fight without thinking on it long. Terrable did say that he would fight us at a reduced level of power so he wouldn't immediately destroy us, but he still thought it was too much for mortals. If he would have just asked, we would have told him that we have fought some pretty powerful dragons before, together and apart. Never a divine dragon, but it didn't matter. We managed to meet his challenge and win.

'Thankfully, Terrable kept his word and listened to us as we explained that we were simply pursuing a childhood dream for both of us, to meet and speak with all four divine dragons. No bigger reason than that, just to say that we had done it. He found that amusing, then talked with us about how silly religions can be but how they could help people all the same. At the end of it, he gave us each a silver charm with his mark on it to prove that we had met with his approval and told us to leave him be to do his work. Like I said, a jerk but neither of us want this to turn out to be an easy thing. This suits us fine.

'We're in Alvarna now, asking around town about Feirsome as he's supposed to be living around here. Even though just about everyone has told us not to do it, we're still going to find him. Apparently he's never been heard to speak and is fond of blasting things to cinders (kind of like your sister at times). Not surprising since he's a god of destruction, but we're prepared. We plan to stay in town for a week, to the 55th, so this is your chance to write and actually get the letter to me. Already, I've been hearing that Frey's been through here. Do you know where she's currently at? If I have to, I can send you my letter to her to hang on to until she comes into Selphia.

'I'm doing well, living how I want, traveling around with a friend, remembering Joyce from time to time. But it makes me happy now. Art tells me she still has my heart and I still have hers, which is quite true. I feel like she watches over me, so I smile and look for an adventure that she'd enjoy too. Though she'd be watching you two as well; it must be quite exciting for her to see her family doing great things.

While I'm enjoying this pilgrimage, I'm also looking forward to seeing both of you again.

With love, Corrin Nolan'

Lest and Frey had started meeting up in the kitchen to eat breakfast, often joined by Volkanon, Clorica, and Vishnal. Usually business wasn't discussed. Instead, things like Clorica's birthday being today or this letter that arrived yesterday got discussed instead. The latter led to the funny moment of Frey saying, "Okay, so if Dad says 'living how I want', that means we need to start using feminine pronouns with hi... her. Geez, that's going to be hard."

"She said before that she doesn't mind if we still call her Dad, so I guess she'd be okay either way?" Lest said, trying it out for himself. The other three at the table had varying degrees of 'what the hell?' in their expressions, from Volkanon's wide eyes to Clorica's squint of trying to follow them. "I think it'll be easier once she comes around to visit."

Frey was trying hard not to laugh at the other three, although a smile crept on her face. "Right, it does tend to be easier when she's being that way." Then she looked at Volkanon and asked, "What's with the looks?"

"Well Lest had mentioned something like that, but I wasn't sure how serious he was," Volkanon said.

"I don't lie about important things to me," Lest said. "Although if something never gets asked, it never gets answered."

"So your father lives as a woman then?" Vishnal asked, not used to the idea even if he'd seen Lest cross-dressing before. But he didn't seem bothered by it beyond unfamiliarity.

"Yes, she's always seen herself as a woman and our mother is a lesbian," Lest said. "But that kind of thing really doesn't go over well in Grelin because of conservative folks making up most of the population. Dad agreed to live as a man for her sake, as Mom wanted to keep the house and everything else she inherited as part of our family's work."

"They did tell us about their situation when we were old enough," Frey added. "Along with their plans to go live how they wanted once the two of us were able to come out here. Compared to them, we turned out practically normal even if they said we should live how we want and how we really are too."

"Aw, they seem like they'd be sweet people," Clorica said with a smile.

"They were so cute together when Dad got a chance to be how she liked," Frey said, smiling back. "Eternal sweethearts, really."

Lest noticed that Volkanon was coming up with some idea. It worried him, but there were lots of things he wanted to get done today. At some point, though, he might come at odds with the master butler, something he didn't want to end up doing. He started talking to Frey about writing back to their father, trying to steer the conversation into topics that wouldn't cause as much conflict or shock.

But the conflict that came out was one he didn't fully see coming. Towards the end of their meal, Vishnal asked him and Volkanon, "May I have a full day off and borrow the royal airship this Friday? I'm trying to help Doug and Sven visit their old hometown for a few hours."

"I'm not sure about that," Volkanon said.

"I'm fine with it," Lest said. "Surprised Sven's willing to go back already, but that could be good."

"He didn't seem sure, but he agreed to it," Vishnal said.

"It's quite a lot he's asking for, though," Volkanon said. "If you were going with him, that'd be a different story since his duty is to serve you and Lady Ventuswill. Since you're not, he can't just take off on a trip with your property and some friends."

Vishnal wasn't sure what to say, so Lest spoke firmly to Volkanon for him. "It's not like that. There are reasons that I can't go which I can't say. However, I can say that in doing this, he is still serving both of us indirectly. Vishnal, you're following up on a request that Ventuswill gave you several weeks ago, correct?"

He nodded. "Yes, but she told me not to speak openly about it until something changed. Things have changed, but not enough."

"We've discussed about it too and just from what Vishnal says so far, I can tell this could be an important move," Lest told Volkanon. "It may even become clear when they return. He should take them there."

"If this is Ventuswill's request, then I'd be willing to go along with it," Volkanon said. His armband immediately flickered with some lights before a gust of wind picked up a paper from a nearby stack and smacked him in the face with it.

"I believe that's wind dragon speak for 'yes it is, dammit,' with or without the swearing," Frey said.

Spring 51

Back to learning. Amber thought there'd been a lot to learn when Natalie and Heather taught her things like planting, counting, reading, and writing. Now Lumie had lots more to teach her, like arranging flowers in a vase, using potions and powders to help plants out, taking a customer's orders and filling them out, and advising indecisive customers based on what their garden needed rather than what Amber liked.

"Some flowers will just grow anywhere, but others prefer certain conditions and won't look as nice if they grow outside of those," Lumie was explaining after she had to correct Amber's suggestions. "The amount of light and shade, the acidity of the soil, the composition and density of the soil, the presence of other plants... all of this can help or hurt any plant. Plus you need to think about the look of the garden as a whole. Will the flower blend in too much and be overshadowed, or will it stick out like a sore thumb? You'd want something in between, a good part of a great whole."

"How do you keep all that information in your head?" Amber asked, astonished. "I don't think anybody's head is big enough for that."

Illuminata laughed, waving her over to a bookshelf. "It's not about the size of the brain, but the quality of it! Still, even I can't remember every little detail about every plant I've worked with, just the ones I sell and raise a lot. But here, I have collected notes from over my whole lifetime about what conditions each flower, shrub, and tree love best. There's quite a few on cacti too, but I haven't worked with them in a while and not long enough to have as good a collection on them. And those notes are right here, nothing else, all in alphabetical order."

It was a lot of books, all crammed into a huge bookshelf that had shelves from the floor to nearly the ceiling (and there were even a few on the very top). Amber got dizzy just thinking of all that stuff to learn. "Wow, you must've had a long busy life!"

"Oh yeah, you could say that," Lumie said, crossing her arms over her chest. "And I've been growing flowers this whole time. If you're not sure about one, feel free to find my notes on it to check."

"Thanks," Amber said, but something she said struck a chord with her. She'd lived that long too but had been awake the whole time. "Um, Lumie? If you've lived a really long time, um, what do you do about your friends that wilt away?"

It took her a second to get what she was asking, but then she looked sad for Amber. "Oh, you mean the ones that die? Well, that is a tough thing to learn how to deal with. A lot of elves simply don't and stay away from shorter lived beings, never making bonds with them. But I've always been fascinated by humans. They get so emotional and passionate even when they try to hide it and be logical. At the same time, they can be really logical and clever. Like the ones who write stories that never happen but seem like they could happen. Elves are supposed to be the hugely creative race, but we wouldn't have thought to write fictional novels if humans hadn't done so first. So even though it hurts when they pass away and I'm sad for a while, I still make friends with humans and treasure those who are. And they'll always be my most precious treasures, memories of friends deep in my heart." She smiled, so it must have been worth going through the pain when they died.

"That sounds nice," Amber said. A lot of the people from her old time were more valuable than any treasure to her.

Lumie nodded. "Yeah. And while I remember my friends, it's like they never fully left me even though they're gone from the world. Plus, I get to make new friends all the time, like you, and see where you all grow. Like Volkanon! I first met him as a little boy, quite the little mischief maker. We got to be friends and I've watched him grow up, become a butler, get married, watch his children grow up and move away to be married... and now he's considered a master of his trade, one of the absolute best in the land. It still amazes me even though I've watched others grow up just the same." Then she gave Amber a hug. "I can't wait to see what comes of you now! It may seem hard at first, but you can make yourself a master too of whatever you're passionate about."

Amber grinned and hugged her back. "All right, Lumie! I'll be sure to do my best." Then she thought of another thing. "Were you ever married?"

"I was, to another elf, but it ended up not working out after a century," Lumie said with a shrug. Apparently she didn't think much of her ex-husband but it didn't bother her. "I do have a son out in the world; he comes by to see me occasionally and I went out to his wedding a few... no, had to be twenty years ago. Gosh, it seems so long ago now that I think of it. I should write him, my son I mean. See what he's up to."

There was a jangle as someone came into the shop. Amber wondered for a moment if it was Lumie's son out of coincidence: he had red hair almost like hers, just shorter. But then he took his straw hat off and she could see that he had rounded ears, the sign of a human. "Hello? I'm looking for Illuminata."

"That'd be me," Lumie said, going over to greet him. "Welcome to Carnation's! How can I help you?"

The man smiled as he shook her hand. "Actually, I'm here to help you on Lest's request. I'm Rylan, a flower-bound earthmate. He said you had an old rose that you were trying to bring back."

"Yeah, the Rose of Ventuswill!" she said, now completely excited. "Wait a minute, I'll be back with it." Then she bolted out into the greenhouse.

"You're the one who taught the prince how to talk to plants?" Amber asked. "I want to talk to plants!"

He chuckled. "It's not so much talking to them as listening to a living thing that knows no words nor thoughts. It's not an easy thing to do; you pretty much have to be able to hear them in the first place in order to learn what they're saying. I can't teach just anybody how to do it."

"Aw, that's no fair," Amber said. She really wanted to know what plants thought. Although, how did you know what they were thinking if they couldn't think in the first place?

"Sorry, although such gifts do come with downsides. I barely knew how to talk to people for much of my life until my wife helped me out. Since I couldn't hear people like I do plants, I never knew what to say or how to say it. On the other hand, Lest can hear everyone and I feel like it's much worse for him in the end."

"What do you mean by that?" Amber asked. It really didn't make sense. "Anybody can hear each other."

Rylan rubbed his head. "Well, maybe you can get Lest to tell you more if you get enough of his trust. Are you friends with him?'

She frowned. "I guess because he didn't agree to marry me after he rescued me. But I'm starting to think that might be okay. He's a good friend too."

"Well you be a good friend to him too; he's had a rough time of things and even I didn't realize it fully until he was gone."

"Sure thing!" Because she might be able to convince him to marry her after all if she could get him to like her enough. That was how that worked, right?

Lumie then came back in with a basket that had been in the greenhouse. "Here, I've been trying various things to get them going but I stopped after nothing seemed to work. There's still a few left. When I showed them to Lest, he said he wasn't sure of what to do."

"He has more of knack for vegetables and trees," Rylan said, taking a seemingly dead bush by its roots. "Roses are one of the tougher flowers to know. Particularly ones so old." He closed his eyes and brought the rose bush to his chest, singing softly to it.

"What's the Rose of Ventuswill look like?" Amber asked Lumie.

She shrugged. "I'm not sure. That's why I wanted to try growing them."

"It must be pretty and cute if it's named for Ven," she said, smiling at the thought.

"I think so too."

"Do you know how to make an Earthheart Elixir and an Elven Forest Fertilizer?" Rylan asked, looking at the rose now.

"Of course," Lumie said, confident in it. "I'd have to write some friends back in the elven homeland to send me some ingredients, but past that it's a cinch for me."

He set the rosebush back in the basket gently. "Good. I think between elvish methods and earthmate methods, we can get these roses to live and thrive. I'm only visiting for the day, but I'll teach Lest a few other songs he'll need to know to encourage them. Then we have to get a good spot for them; they should do best in spots that may be rough on other roses. Baby these ones too much and they won't bloom well; give them some adversity and they'll bloom like crazy."

"I wouldn't have thought to try that," Lumie said, thoughtful. "I was trying to be careful of them, I guess too careful."

"Well you should still be careful since they are so old, but as I said, too much won't make them happy. They seem like independent hearts."

That sounded so cool, Amber thought. She couldn't wait to see what they'd look like in bloom.

Spring 53

"The windmill here hasn't been used as a mill for many years," Forte said. "The viewing telescopes were placed up there too, so it's now called the observatory. It's open to the public as well unless the wind are too powerful."

"You have so many places that people can go in and out of freely," Sven said, looking up the windmill from the base of the stairs. Hearing him, one would have thought that was an unusual thing. The things he didn't know or found strange were suspicious.

However, she had to bite down on that suspicion. Lady Ventuswill and Lest both trusted him. Technically, he was a political refugee and some things about him weren't being made open. Yet they'd asked her to train him to help protect the town. That caused some other worries she didn't want to talk about. "Not really, since the unused houses are locked up and still private," she said to his comment. "We will need to start checking in on them to make sure no monsters or pests have been hiding inside. There's a regular schedule to that and a portion of them are coming up to that seasonal check."

"It's nice to know people feel safe, but even the castle is wide open straight from the south gate," he said.

"I don't believe this place was made with security as a high priority," Forte said. It certainly didn't make her job easy some days. How long was she going to be able to keep it, though? She and others had to fight Central Norad bureaucracy in order to get her placed as a dragon knight, as the capitol had long been against accepting women as knights. It used to be because she was a placeholder for Kiel after their father passed away and Kiel kept turning down their offers since he'd been fifteen. However, now there was another young man in town who was far better trained than Kiel for being a knight, one who showed a desire to protect Selphia even if he didn't seem familiar with it. Was she going to be forced to put up her sword?

Only hearing her words, Sven put a hand to his chin. He had some simple chain mail armor now, but he still had those mysterious chains on his wrists. The chains were sparkling at the moment. Due to the sun? "Not that having a closed gate or other obstacles would matter as the empire has excellent warships. A small one could even land in town, and then..." he noticed the sparkling himself and gasped.

"What's the matter?" Fore asked, glancing around in case Kiel or one of the earthmates was around. They might know.

"Th-the voices of the fallen," Sven mumbled, right before a shower of black and white sparks was emitted from the chains. They flowed away from Sven and swirled up into a strange uncolored gate, something that matched Lest's description of the hell gate that had appeared in the inn.

Taking her sword even before her mind identified this peculiar gate, Forte was ready for battle when a shield much like what Kiel had on his alchemy lab appeared. It cut them off from going into the windmill or up the stairs back into town. Sven fumbled trying to get his scythe unfolded, even though during practice he could do so with grace. Six sparks flew out of the gate, one producing a metal monster (machine?) she'd never seen the likes of. The other five all brought one of the most unnerving monsters around (at least of those that weren't ghosts): false humans, with bodies that blurred the lines between orcs and humans. Their empty white eyes and clawed hands betrayed their true nature.

These unarmed false humans didn't come to attack, though. They shivered on the spot, wailing in an unnerving way and gripping their ragged clothes.. Floating above the gate, the machine monster hissed before it began speaking. "Time for another band of prisoners to die! How long will they last before you mercilessly strike them down? These are your orders, you must fight unless you wish to enter the gateway to despair."

Sven immediately dropped his scythe in a panic; his chains were growing new links, trying to reach the gate. "N-no, it's over, I'm not doing that anymore!"

Thinking quickly, Forte ran for the gate and the machine monster above it. One of the false humans lashed out at her desperately, cutting off its own hand on her sword. It looked so much like a real human... no, kick that thought out of mind. The machine monster was clearly a leader, so dispatching that might dispatch the false humans without having to fight them. With her father's sword, she was able to strike the machine just in range, knocking it down towards the ground. She cut through its propeller shaft before it could get back up.

That was enough to cause the false humans to stop wailing and warp into more monstrous forms, with lumpy green skin and protruding bone spikes. "Sven! They're monsters, get with it!"

"Y-yes sir," he said, still frightened. But the change and shout was enough to snap him out of it. He got his scythe and cut down the toughened false humans while she kept striking the machine until it vanished like any other monster. The gate threw more of the green-skin false humans out, but by that point they could both work on destroying the gate.

When the battle was over, the shield around the area broke. Sven was still pale, clutching his scythe close to his chest and looking warily for a reforming gate. Maybe he wouldn't be replacing her yet, not like this. If he got over it, he would be a threat to her tenuous position. Right now, Forte couldn't help but see a scared child there in him. "You all right?" she asked.

"It's gone from here, but it's still waiting," he said, stepping back. "He knows my despair. I don't want to go in it. But it's going to appear again, maybe hurt someone, I should... get rid of it..."

"We just did," Forte said, puzzled.

He shook his head. "No, it's connected to these chains, and my heart I think. It won't be fully gone until I can get rid of the chains like Dylas did. But just then, it was like being back in the arena being ordered to fight those prisoners from the war. I didn't want to, but the armor had a mind of its own that only followed orders and I watched them die at my own hands and this..." he looked at the scythe with horror even if he'd just been clinging to it for protection moments before.

Meanwhile, Forte was thinking. Prisoners from the war? Norad was being threatened with another war with the Sechs Empire, but the last war was won about four years ago. Sven was younger than Kiel. Then someone had made a child kill off helpless prisoners with the aide of a strange armor? That was a chilling thought. Yet if she helped him with this, she might end up helping him replace her.

Even so, she would be terrible to not help him. "You won't have to do anything like that again by staying here in Selphia," Forte said, hoping to reassure him. "We fight to protect others and make sure no one can harm someone like that." He started to calm down, but was anxious enough that she didn't think he'd be up to another battle. "If you want, you can stop for the day. I could walk you back to the general store."

"Th-thanks, I'm not sure I'd keep calm if other monsters showed up," he said, closing his eyes in relief. But some thought made him look back to her. "Oh, but, you were great there. You kept a cool head when I couldn't, and saw the solution right off."

She wasn't sure if she should feel flattered by that, since it wasn't a hard concept. Kill off the leader in a pack of monsters to make the rest easier to dispatch. "That's just how I was trained to be," Forte said. "You can't get slowed in thinking when it comes to battle; train yourself to react appropriately to threats as the battle will move too fast otherwise."

"I mostly had the armor reacting for me, I'll have to learn," Sven said. "Um, Forte? Could I call you master?"

She stiffened at the request. "Wh-what? I still have a long ways to go before I could be considered a master."

"Well you're a lot better than me," he said. Which was wrong; she'd seen him using his unusual weapon to take out a whole crowd of monsters before, much faster than she'd be capable of doing with her long sword. "And you're in charge of my training." He smiled sheepishly at that. "You're a lot better than my last master because you just lecture me on mistakes, much more reasonable." His smile disappeared into an unease over bad memories; Sven was an easy person to read in that way.

"You can just stick to addressing me as sir," Forte said. It was nice he had confidence in her, but she didn't want him calling her master and it getting to her head.

"Yes sir, as you want," Sven said, giving her a salute. "Although, I'm not so sure now's a good time to go back to the general store. They can get busy in the afternoon."

"Let's go stop in at Porcoline's, he won't mind someone resting there to sort through thoughts," Forte said. "Or maybe Arthur's office if you want somewhere quieter, not sure how he is on that."

They decided to try Arthur's office first, partly because that was the closer door to where they were. While he always seemed busy, Arthur managed to keep his office perfectly neat. Not even the stacks of folders and papers were out of alignment on his desk. The antique globe and some statues (including one of a large turnip for some reason) were kept polished and dust free, while the plants were healthy and green. It was something of a wonder that he managed this while doing a huge amount of work in trading and being the prince's adviser.

Luckily, both Porcoline and Arthur were there when Forte and Sven entered. "Good afternoon," Arthur said in greeting.

"You're here just in time," Porco said, a playful look on his face. "Arthur's going to take a short break from his work, so why don't you join him for some snacks and talk? Right?" He looked down at Arthur at his desk with a warm smile.

"When you put it like that, I don't have much of a choice if I don't wish to be rude," Arthur said, smiling back. He got up from the desk and glanced at the clock. "Please, we can sit at the table over here."

"Sure, that's sort of what we were doing here," Forte said, an unfamiliar feeling trying to creep into her. At least, it had been unfamiliar until the love potion incident. That particular day was still hazy in her mind, save for the giddy sense of being over the moon with happiness because Arthur was paying attention to her. It hadn't been real love and she knew it. Yet every time she saw him now, there was that feeling of being shy, curious, and hopeful for him to talk with her. It just had never seemed proper, but there was what Lest had said the other day as a messenger of love.

"I'll go grab some more snacks, but there should be plenty of tea to go around," Porco said, heading into the restaurant area.

"What were you coming in here for?" Arthur asked as he sat down with them around a small table near the entrance of the office. The seats were comfortable, although not quite enough for sinking into and relaxing fully, like her brother did when deep in reading books.

"We had to destroy one of the hell gates just outside of here," Forte said as Sven twiddled his fingers, noticed, and tried to stop fidgeting. "Have you heard about them? They're connected to the guardians who still have those spirit chains, and Sven here too. It wasn't like any other gate I've encountered, quite disturbing really. He really needed to rest after that."

"I've heard," Arthur said, sympathetic to them both. He took over pouring hot water in cups for them to make the tea. "Just the name alone is foreboding. Although in my opinion, Sven, I think you'll be left alone now that most of the Executioner has been broken down. None of them should recognize you without it."

"Thanks, I think," he said.

"What do you mean by the Executioner?" Forte asked.

Arthur raised his eyebrows while Sven said, "Um, that was the name of the machine armor I was wearing. It was one of the best weapons the Sechs Empire made before the last war, but for some reason they weren't satisfied with activating it with a golem stone. But mine was the only fully functioning one made because the project was deemed too inefficient and costly. Not because it killed most human hosts that were put in it until I survived the first day."

"We didn't know much about it, but we knew it could be devastating," Arthur said.

Made before the last war... that made her angry. "How could anyone even think of doing something like that? And if what that hell gate monster said was right, such a terrible waste on top of that."

"Um, they weren't thinking of people as people," Sven said, looking down at his lap. Porcoline then disrupted them a bit in bringing in a basket of crackers, sliced cheese, sliced sausage, and cookies. Once he was gone, Sven asked, "You were supposed to be at that one meeting, right? Where they decided to let me stay. Do you think that was okay for Selphia? I don't want to put the people here in danger; nearly everyone has been nice to me so far."

From the brief embarrassed look in Arthur's eyes, Forte guessed it was that incident that made him miss a meeting. But he covered that over and said, "It has been a risk on our part to take in a refugee from the empire when they're trying to provoke us into a war." He put on a pleasant smile to say, "But I would have still agreed to let you stay. The worth in helping someone is greater than such risk. And as I said, if they've even noticed you missing, they're more likely to demand the return of the Executioner, not you yourself. Not that we'd give over either at this stage. Central Norad has recognized them sending it into our lands as an act of aggression and is using it to convince other nations to stop all trade and assistance to Sechs."

He'd probably thought that the news would relieve some of Sven's anxieties, that he wasn't at risk of being returned. It was news to Forte that he was from the empire, as she'd simply been told he was a political refugee (although that made it very likely he was from there). However, that news made him even more anxious. "Am I starting another war? Because the last one got started in part because of my kidnapping, I don't want to fight like that again."

"It wouldn't be your fault, in either case," Arthur said quickly. "Emperor Ethelbard has been known to be ambitious and aggressive; he'll take any excuse he can get to advance his agenda. We're hoping this won't lead to war, rather that the pressure gets Ethelbard to back off out of caution or the situation gets his people to demand change so his attention isn't on Norad lands. Politics on a national level rarely get shifted due to one person alone."

"I hope it comes out okay," Sven said. "And sorry if I'm being a drag, I've just got a lot on my mind."

Arthur nodded. It was impressive how smoothly he was handling the situation. "I'm sure of it. We could speak of lighter things if that helps. Oh wait, I know what we need." He left the couch to get something from one of the bookshelves.

"I had no idea that's what your situation was," Forte said, unsure of how to work around this. Had he fought in the last war too? It sounded cruel, that he was younger than her brother but he'd already been in a war and fought in a cruel-sounding arena.

"Um, I hope you don't hate me for it, having worked with your nation's enemies," Sven said.

"No, I wasn't even thinking of that," she said. "I hope you can find a peaceful life here."

"Thanks, I hope so too," he said.

Arthur came back with something surprising, and absolutely adorable. It was a Wooly doll that had real Wooly fur on it to be fluffy and huggable. For some reason, it also had a pair of glasses on, ones that seemed like they'd belong to a child with their small size and round green frame. "Here, I don't think we could talk about something serious with this little guy around," he said, placing the doll on an unoccupied corner of the table.

It worked in the sense that Sven immediately smiled at it. "Guess not, but why does it have glasses on?"

"Well doesn't that make it the cutest doll around?" Arthur said with a really happy smile and affectionate tone. Forte had a brief thought that they were both cute, the Wooly doll for being a Wooly and Arthur for gushing about it without embarrassment. "Woolies are so adorable as they are and this doll captures that completely. But once I had it, I thought it could be even cuter with some glasses and these happen to be the smallest in my collection. Still a little big for it, but it's irresistible enough that I leave them on the doll."

"You have a collection of eyeglasses?" Forte asked, partly to hold off an agreeing that it was that adorable. She didn't think she could say that without getting embarrassed.

He nodded. "Yes, I know it might sound odd, but I guess a lot of collections start the same way. I had one I was hanging onto and found a couple others that seemed interesting, then before I knew it, I had collection going." He looked at her, then took a box from a nearby shelf. "Actually, I think... yeah, this pair I have here might look nice on you, Forte."

"Wh-what?" Forte said, a little flustered at the idea. There were at least a dozen eyeglasses in the box he had open that she could see. "I don't need them and I was never much into fashion." Plus she really shouldn't be so pleased that he said it. He might not feel the same way she did, only talking with them out of polite social graces.

"I need them, but plenty of people wear them for looks," Arthur said, holding out a pair that were oval shaped and silver in frame. "This has the same kind of color as your armor, so why not give them a try?"

"If it's just a try, I suppose it wouldn't hurt," she said, taking them. She had to remove her helmet first as it fit snugly on her head, not allowing the frame to fit over her ears. It didn't trouble her vision at all as not even a speck of dust was on the lenses.

Sven was amused at the sight. "If you ignore the armor, you look like a school teacher with those on."

"I don't think glasses alone make a teacher," Forte said, but curious about it. "Is there a mirror around?"

"Uh, yes, in the box," Arthur said, his cheeks a little pink. "I think you look lovely in them."

Why was he getting embarrassed? She was the one wearing them for the first time. Finding the mirror on the bottom of the lid, she angled it to have a good look at herself. It was a little strange seeing herself without the helmet on, her blond hair tied up and now with a pair of eyeglasses on her face. Like a vision of what might have been if she'd grown up differently, maybe even as a school teacher.

"It's nice, but I don't think I'd make it a habit," she said.