"Well?" Quinn pressed without looking up from the stacks of documents that she needed to read before her next appointment.
"Finding information about the delegation is proving to be more difficult than we anticipated. We do not have any Beastkin Sparrows, and the Beastkin's that we do have under our employ are dolls, which may be useful once they arrive, but it might also offend the delegation."
"They don't have prostitutes in their territory?"
"Of course they do," Nyssa speaks up, as Quinn looks at her and her sister Talia. "But nothing like our dolls. Truthfully not all our dolls sought us out, many of them were rescued by us saved from the hell that was their lives. They might be grateful to us, but given recent events the delegation might suggest that we are enslaving these women and men."
"I believe it would be wise if we simply pulled them out of rotation until the delegation has passed," Talia suggested.
"Are they not some of our most popular performers? We can't have them out of rotation for the entirety of the talks. If we're lucky it'll be a week, but I've sat in on these types of talks before and they could last weeks, even months. We'll lose coin, and more importantly valuable information that they bring. They'll be here soon—"
"Not that soon, your highness." Talia interrupts bowing her head when Quinn's pen stops moving and spares her a glance. "They've turned down our offer of transport on one of the airships. I don't believe they trust our technology."
"By our estimation it should take a week, perhaps two to arrive at the capital. I believe it would be wise to send out the royal guard to escort them once they enter the kingdom. It would not do to have them wandering around in our kingdom," Nyssa adds.
"Well, perhaps we should send Charlie and her people to escort them once they enter the kingdom," Quinn suggested, turning her attention back to her papers for a brief moment. When she doesn't hear a response she looks up to see Talia and Nyssa exchanging looks. "What is it?"
"I thought your goal was to avoid war, your highness," Talia responded dryly, only to be elbowed by Nyssa. She shoots her younger sister a look. "I'm merely being honest. Quite frankly Brittany's plan to get her out of the way by sending her to the badlands was ingenious."
Quinn's head snapped up and she rubbed at her temples. "Charlie's heading to the badlands?"
"I noticed her in the Armory first thing this morning, she was muttering something about basilisk venom and leshens. It really is the only thing that makes sense, her drake was also being prepared and there is a flight manifest that will probably be making its way to your desk."
Quinn rubbed her face, she was certain that her father had instructed Charlie to behave herself earlier today, "What do you mean this morning? She was late to the—have I not slept?"
"Well that would explain why you think that sending Charlie to escort the delegation is a good idea," Talia replied, glancing at her sister who cleared her throat.
"She is capable of rising to the occasion," Quinn pointed out before sighing. That was where the gamble was, while she had faith that Charlie could do things correctly, it ultimately relied on trusting her twin to understand the gravity of the situation and act accordingly. The problem was that there were actual deficits in her twin's knowledge. Etiquette, being one of the areas her twin was especially deficient in with diplomacy being a close second. Actually Talia was right, it was a horrendous idea to send Charlie to be the first one to meet the delegation. "Send Sam, Finn and the rest of her unit to meet the delegation at the border."
Nyssa stared at Quinn, perhaps they needed to start drugging her to make her sleep because if Charlie was unacceptable then both Sam and Finn made Charlie look competent. "And which one of them would lead?"
"Neither, they're only there to provide protection. Rachel has been complaining about nothing to do as of late, so I'll be sending her with you Nyssa. You're in charge. I'll make sure that Sam knows that you're in charge."
"And Rachel?" Talia asked, raising a brow. "She was a commoner and I fear that she hasn't taken to her role the way others have."
"I will have that discussion with Rachel. Since we've settled, have you any news about what we discussed?"
"We've begun by eliminating dolls, it's far easier to track their movements then it is our Sparrows," Nyssa explained.
"I have started to look into our Sparrows, I will be conducting interviews with Natasha and visiting our Sparrows outside of the capital," Talia added. "With our network it's bound to take some time."
Quinn sighed and rubbed at her temples, "Given the situation that we find ourselves in, I want to urge you to be quick but thorough. If there is a cancer in my Sparrows, then I wish to excise all of it at once." Quinn reaches for the next stack of papers that she would need to go over when she pauses. "Nyssa, take whatever backup you need to make sure that Rachel is safe, and to keep our guests from wandering off or lagging behind."
~ O ~
"I fail to see the reasoning behind this—farce of a sumit, Lawrence. My father believed that allowing your bastard daughter to marry that buffoon of a king, would prevent this indecent showing. We do not parlay with lesser-beings. Russell was a besotted fool for your daughter, and she has yet to bear him an heir; perhaps she is losing influence."
Lawrence kept his face turned to the ground, as he kneeled before his emperor. He was far too old to be holding this position, and he knew that the former emperor would not have asked him to kneel. This was to make a point, a humiliating one in front of all the other Cardinals. One day he was going to take his daughter up on her offer and retire to the kingdom, and spend time with his grandchildren. He hadn't seen them in quite a while, he believed it was Lucy's wedding that he had gone to. That had been met with such rumors, marrying a commoner, it was unheard of. And now he had to deal with this mess as well, he needed to retire sooner rather than later. "Your Holiness, the Kingdom is in a precarious position; they must play this carefully lest they have a war on multiple fronts. I imagine that the Dwarven Kingdom and the Elven kingdom are watching these events carefully. If war is inevitable then they must make sure that they have the best chance of succeeding."
"We have a pact with them do we not? They merely only ask and we can have our troops there as quickly as possible." Holy Emperor Cleon XIII states, his tone magnanimous and he smiles at the gentle rumblings of the conclave. There were many who would wish to see Cardinal July's stewardship meet an untimely end.
"You forget about the threat to the West? The Beastkin and the Agron Kingdom have a mutual defense pact against the Badlands, it won't just be the Beastkin, Elves, Dragon's and Dwarves against all of humanity, it will be the monsters that they've managed to suppress for centuries. The Orcs, the things that go bump in the night. As distasteful as it is, the Agron Kingdom at least needs the time to decide what their next move is. They will probably reach out to us after the talks have started."
"I am the Holy Emperor, I do not forget anything, though you seem to have forgotten your place Cardinal Lawrence. How far you've fallen since my father's time, a disgrace and a beast sympathizer." Emperor Cleon said with a wave of his hand, killing him would cause issues that they couldn't deal with at this time. He was still a war hero to many.
"I apologize—"
"Enough, send word to your daughter that the Empire stands ready to offer military assistance should they have need. With their technology they might be able to repel the beasts on their own. But do inform her that we are watching."
"I will at once," Lawrence stated, placing a fist to his chest, but still keeping his head bowed and his knee bent.
"You may leave Cardinal Lawrence," Emperor Cleon said after a momentary pause before turning to his attendant so they could go over the next business of the day.
~ O ~
Lena looked down at the forge when she heard a string of very colorful language that would make most dwarven mothers laugh in amusement. It's followed by a loud bang followed by even more impressive colorful language. She looks down at the blueprints that she'd been sketching out and mentally debates whether or not she should stop what she was doing or check on Kara. There's another bang and the heavy sound of footsteps coming up the stairs and she sighs before getting up to pour her lover a drink, it didn't matter that it was still the morning. A nice stiff drink would probably put Kara in a better mood. When the door to her office opens up and Kara marches in and slumps on her couch, Lena rolls her eyes and places a drinking horn in her hand, "Do you need my help?"
"No," Kara groaned, flopping on the seat as she brought the horn to her lips and drained it, leaving a foamy moustache on her lips which she quickly wiped away with the back of her hand. "It's not turning out the way I want it to. I finally have some time to work on some personal projects and I'm about as talented as an elf with a hammer. It's embarrassing!"
Lena nodded along trying not to smile as Kara pouted, she took a seat beside her half-dwarven, half-giant girlfriend and wasn't surprised when Kara decided to rest her head in her lap, this position usually led to other things but she was currently busy working on a project with Brittany. "Why don't you go and spend some time with your best friend."
"Kal? Why would I want to spend time with that whelping?" Kara grunts.
"Kal isn't your best friend, you don't get over your blocks by drinking and fighting with him," Lena reminds Kara, watching the gears in her head spin, before a look of annoyance and disgust crosses her face.
"You mean the slack-sworded, fungus sniffing lightweight?"
"Didn't she win the last drinking contest that you two had?"
"She cheated! That loathsome—"
"Yes, I know she's the worst, but you always feel better after you've hit her with your hammer," Lena interrupts before she gets Kara started on all the way her best friend was the worst person on the planet. It would be tiring if she didn't find it amusing.
"I do always feel better after I hit her in the face with my hammer," Kara muses sitting up. "Well, I think I can convince the queen that it would do me good as his heir to be a witness to the talks."
"Kara, you can't start an international incident. The Dwarven Kingdom might get dragged into this war. You need to be on your best behavior."
"I'll only hit her once!" Kara grinned looking at her favorite hammer. Maybe this time she could knock out another tooth.
"Please don't get kicked out from the Agron Kingdom, they have wine that doesn't taste like dirt," Lena sighed. Charlie always made sure to send her home with the best wine that the kingdom had to offer and she wasn't going to lose her supplier because Kara wasn't capable of not attacking Charlie on sight. It would be alarming if they hadn't figured out that it was like two children trying in a game of one upmanship that was only getting more and more intense.
"I can't make any promises."
"Kara."
"Fine. I'll go easy on her. But you should really talk to her, because if she starts it—"
"I know you'll finish it."