Celiath took the last sip of the tea and smiled. The breakfast had been the best one she had eaten in a long time. The food aboard the River Blessing had been rather awful, and her hasty breakfasts on the way to the Water Faerie's school in Faerieland were good enough but looked as horrible as the ship's food in comparison to the pancakes that Kierre had made.
"So, now I assume you're in the mood for an explanation," Kierre said, looking across the table at Celiath and Stelakar. No one sat at the ends of the table. Instead, Kierre occupied one long side of it while Celiath and Stelakar sat across from her.
"You bet I am," Stelakar said. "And don't try to give me one of those half-explanations, please. I'd like to get out of here with some idea of what I'm supposed to do so I can get home again. My family's worried sick."
"All right." The starry Shoyru paused to collect her thoughts. "First, the history. Perhaps a century ago, the then current Queen of Cairhel sent an emissary to Ral Mirean, stating that we had stolen a treasure from them and to give it back at once. Our Queen stated, rather simply, that we neither knew what this treasure was or had stolen it from Cairhel. The emissary promised that Cairhel would extract revenge and would regain the treasure."
"Hold on. You're saying that the Cairhellin thought you stole something from them that you don't have? That's pretty delusional to me," Stelakar pointed out. "It's like they're looking for an excuse to start a war."
"I think you're right, Stelakar." The Eyrie smiled, gaining confidence. "Cairhel declared war first. Larkani first gained the friendship of the Emperor of Minyarad, and then the two kingdoms joined forces against Cairhel. I don't understand exactly why the Emperor disliked Cairhel so much. It was probably on a point of etiquette.
"The war was decided from the start. Larkani was much more powerful than Cairhel, and with the help of Minyarad they easily won the war. However, the present trouble was still growing even after the treaty. The Cairhellin were very upset over the terms of the treaty, which was insulting to them. They only accepted the terms on the words of a seer who stated that they would only regain the treasure if they accepted the treaty."
"Just curious," Stelakar interrupted. "What exactly did the treaty say?"
Kierre thought for a moment. "I don't remember exactly what…Larkani and Minyarad might have taken some land from Cairhel, and they might have had to pay us. In any case, I think that was around the time when the Cairhellin started plotting revenge. When the new king was crowned there, he immediately started setting the plan into motion. They started by weakening Minyarad, I think. It's not obvious, since the empire has a lot of problems, but they were our allies and it does hurt us that we can't count on the empress for help. Even if she wasn't having trouble holding the empire together, she comes from a house that is closely connected to Cairhel. Then their agents weakened the Yin Kador…I think Riensi explained that."
"You seemed to understand, Celiath," Stelakar said. "I don't think I really did. He has this strange way of explaining things."
"I did learn a lot about the way this place works during my trip from Thora Mountain," Celiath said. "A lot of people are very suspicious of the Yin Kador. The Cairhellin played upon that suspicion, I think. It probably wasn't hard to bring that to the surface."
Kierre nodded. "It wasn't. The Yin Kador were soon exiled from Ral Mirean. One of Queen Fierrey's most trusted advisors is Yin Kador, but he left when he noticed all the trouble that was happening. She has a new advisor, a shadow Lenny by the name of Yialun Takarla. It's disturbing, how much she trusts him."
"I see," Celiath and Stelakar said in unison. Celiath smiled while her twin laughed.
"So…I assume we have to go after Yialun?" Stelakar asked. Celiath could tell that she liked Kierre a lot more than she liked Riensi.
"That would be good," Kierre agreed. "Find out what he's up to and if he has any connections to Cairhel. We'll be in the Court too, so you can communicate with us."
Stelakar winced again at the mention of Court, but did not object this time.
"I think," Kierre continued, "that the goal is for you to convince the Queen somehow that Yialun is not what he seems. It will be difficult, but if you have been chosen I believe you are up to the task."
"One thing," Celiath said. "Before I left Thora Mountain, there was at least one sign with my name and a description of me, telling anyone who found me to return me to the Lord of Thora Mountain. It was rather accurate. I assume that the word has spread in the last few days."
"How did you manage to pull that off?" Kierre smiled. "I've done some pretty strange stuff in my time, but I never managed to get warrants printed with my name and picture on them."
"A trick of luck. I appeared in the library of the Lord of Thora Mountain's…I think that Briata is a cousin of some sort. I don't know what her plans with me were, but she was very suspicious. I got out of there under the name of Seleika Laitenla."
Kierre looked a little worried, then turned her attention to Celiath and Stelakar again. "We would need to give you new names anyway," she said. "Just to make sure you got enough respect in the Court. Seleika and Stelakar Laitenla…" she said slowly. "It might work. House Laitenla rules an area near the city of Caenta in eastern Larkani, and they do not often come to Court here in Ral Mirean. Occasionally they do send their children of a certain age to Court so they can see more about how the kingdom works and about Larkani in general. The Laitenla name will get you the connections that you need."
Something about the charm bracelet attracted Celiath's attention just then. The mirror charm looked slightly different. Had it just sparkled turquoise?
"Well," Kierre continued, "we should get ready and then go to the Court and begin." She looked at Stelakar's hair. Celiath smiled at her baffled expression. Kierre probably had never seen any girls with hair as short as Stelakar's was, and the purple streaks and her clothes…
Celiath looked at the bracelet again and picked up the second charm, the mask, with two fingers of her right hand. "I think this might be needed."
"The mask?" Kierre nodded. "I think that it is needed to help disguise you. Where do you come from, anyway?"
"I don't think you would recognize the place," Celiath said. There was no way that Kierre would know anything about Neopia City. Or perhaps she thinks we come from Kilinti, wherever that is.
Looking at Kierre, Celiath figured that she needed to invoke the charm somehow. She looked at Stelakar and twirled the mask around several times, wondering how to make it work. I wish Riensi had told me…I just wish that we can accomplish this quest. She focused on changing Stelakar the same way that she often focused on healing someone, letting the mask charm do its work.
"All right, Celiath," she heard someone say distantly. She stopped picturing the lady whose image Celiath had gotten from several old paintings in Faerieland and looked at Stelakar, who now wore an elegant deep purple dress. Her hair had darkened to the point where it almost looked black and was now styled in a braided bun. Celiath had also changed Stelakar's features slightly so she did not look as childlike and added the appearance of makeup, knowing it would be impossible to get it onto Stelakar. She also wore a necklace with a small diamond on it.
The purple Eyrie shifted uncomfortably. "Well, it isn't too frilly, and at least I don't have to wear makeup," she said uncomfortably.
"Still, you're going to have to be extra careful because it's an illusion," Kierre said quickly. "People are going to notice if they can sense magic. Even perfectly 'ordinary' people might notice if you do something that's too out of place, like running sprints in your heels."
"Heels?" Stelakar checked her feet and noticed that she was wearing a pair of fancy purple shoes that made her tower above Celiath even more than usual. "So even if the bad guys are chasing me, I can't run. Well, I'd rather fly anyway. That just might be a problem what with all this, so am I going to have to fake my flying abilities to keep up this mask?"
Celiath sighed. Stelakar had a talent for taking a situation and imagining straight to the worst possible scenario. On the other hand, Celiath only liked to dive back into things that had already happened and wonder how they had happened. It appeared she was getting some practice with that here, assuming that this was either the world of NeoQuest or the past.
"Well, if the 'bad guys' are chasing you," Kierre said with a wry grin, "it probably doesn't matter anyway. Celiath, I'm assuming you want it done the regular way?"
"Yes, please," Celiath said. "I'd rather not trust in illusions, especially if this Cairhellin enchanter is around. And if it's real for me, it might help hide Stelakar."
Stelakar nodded. "Common sense, Celi, what did I tell you?" she whispered.
"Then again, your penchant for abstract thought might come in handy, with these ten mysteries," Celiath said as she shook her left wrist.
Kierre rose from the table. "All right, Celiath. Time to get you ready for our outing."