A Dragon's Tale

Chapter 70: I've been here before...

* * *

Fiona took the opportunity afforded by Conner napping to head down to the castle's dining hall for breakfast, Tabitha in tow as always. Ever since the crown prince had 'outed' Tabby as a bodyguard, everyone had kept a bit more distance from her than they might normally. Well, everyone except for Fiona's hyper handmaiden, Glessie.

This morning, as Fiona reached the door to the castle's dining hall, she stopped.

"Problem my lady?" Tabitha asked.

"No, I'm just thinking..." She looked toward a hallway that led to the kitchens as a thought occurred to her. "I'm not feeling like eating in the dining hall this morning. And since Mage Weston is busy and I won't be having a magic lesson, I'll be having extra time..." She thought about it for a moment, then headed down to the kitchens.

No sooner had she opened the door and been noticed than everyone stopped and gave her a respectful bow.

"Lady Fiona." Marge grunted as she worked a lump of dough half the size of her large-ish torso.

"I'm wondering, could I be eating in here and then helping?" Fiona asked.

All of the cooks stared at her, especially some of the younger ones.

"I'm kind of missing being useful." Fiona added to the thunderous silence that had followed her request.

Marge shrugged. "As long as Lord Delmar don't care, I don't." She looked around at all the cooks. "Alright, quit lollygagging; put your eyes back in and get back to work." She turned to Fiona. "Those onions need dicing."

Fiona smiled, grabbed a knife, and started happily slicing away, glad to be doing something useful again. Not that growing the heir to the throne in her womb wasn't useful -- it was -- but this felt more like she herself was contributing. When she had been married to Sean, she'd had a whole house to take care of as well as a newborn. Now that she didn't have a house and had a nurse, doing something useful to keep busy was wonderful.

* * *

"Jason, you may kiss your brides."

Ethan joined the others on the Argo's deck in clapping as Jason kissed them both. He got the distinct impression that the kisses would've been much longer without an unknown airship heading toward the Argo on an intercept course. As such, the entire wedding had been a hurried affair. Though, given that Ethan and Selene had gotten married in the exact same spot the previous day, it was still quite nice.

Ethan and his wives helped the other newlyweds and also his parents collect their things and get them down to the portal below decks. They hadn't brought much because of the short visit, so it didn't take long. Of course, Ethan's parents had all of their things together as well.

"I'm sorry that us constantly being attacked is cutting your trip and wedding short." Selene said as she gave each of the departing ladies a hug.

"We are too, but thank you so much for letting us get married here." Hailey replied.

"Thank you for letting me crash at your place for so long; I really appreciate it." Selene said to them.

"It was our pleasure." Melinda replied.

Ethan turned to his folks.

"You take care of your family." Richard said seriously.

"I will Dad, I promise." Ethan replied equally as seriously.

"I'd tell you to get started on some more grandchildren, but I think you do that regularly." Ruth winked.

"Something like that." Ethan replied, his mother being the last person on Earth

or

the Ten Kingdoms that he wanted to talk to about that.

He gave both of them a hug and then all of his wives hugged them, and the rest of the goodbyes were said.

"My lord, it might be best if Beth uses all of her mana on the portal and then the rest of us just use a little each to finish powering it." Rachel suggested. "She won't need hers in a fight, but the rest of us might."

"Sink me, you're a poet and you didn't know it." Richard said in an exaggerated French accent.

"What makes you think I didn't know it?" Rachel's eyes twinkled.

Everyone chuckled.

"Okay, here I go." Beth put her hand on the portal, followed by all Ethan's other wives when she was done. The Earthlings said another quick goodbye once the portal had finished opening and then they filed through.

"That was quick." Ethan sighed as the portal began to close after them.

"We should return to the deck, meditate to restore the mana we lost, and prepare for a potential fight." Kendra said.

He looked at her fondly. "Aye, aye general."

Beth, Taloni, and Sarah sniggered.

"Come on, you heard General Ejder; it's time to move out!" Ethan barked in a mock military tone.

Everyone chuckled, then a curious kind of silence fell.

Ethan was well aware that the incoming airship might not be hostile. In fact, it might be friendly. However, there was no denying the very real possibility that they might be fighting for their lives in less than an hour. It was a sobering thought and the reason that he himself was silent.

"Come on." He waved toward the stairs to the weather deck. "Stay frosty and we'll get through this."

"Um, Tee?" Selene looked at her. "Could you maybe ask Illuminar to help?"

Everyone stared at her, including Ethan.

"What?" The Brazilian woman said with a tinge of defensiveness in her tone. "It worked when I asked Him for help; that's why I'm here now and married. Why not ask for help with other things too?"

"Why Selene Ejder, are you a convert?" Alana teased.

Selene shrugged. "I'm not sure I would go that far, but we know He's up there, so why not ask for help? The worst that could happen is that He'll say no."

Ethan had to admit that his wife -- Selene was his wife! -- had a point.

* * *

Fiona set the knife down and picked up the cutting board to carry the freshly chopped veggies to the next stage of their preparation. It felt really good to be doing something useful again. She was glad that she didn't

have

to do it, but at least this morning, she was enjoying doing it.

Tabitha was next to her of course and impassive as ever, but Fiona thought she might be even more watchful than usual, probably due to the number of people with knives in the immediate vicinity.

Fiona took a few steps toward an adjacent counter, and those steps took her past a side door that burst open just as she walked past. She barely missed the door, but someone very nearly collided with her. Whoever it was had their arms forward, almost like the plan was to reach for Fiona, but then, maybe it was because the person had just been pushing the door open.

Fiona had just enough time to register how odd that was since the servants had been taught never to fling doors open, when--

Wham!

They

almost

collided

The only reason they didn't was Tabitha. One moment, Fiona was sure they would collide. The next moment, Tabitha almost magically appeared between her and whoever had burst through the door, and her bodyguard gave Fiona an impossibly strong push away from the newcomer.

Fiona was flung bodily backwards as the cutting board and veggies went flying.

It looked like Tabitha and the newcomer would collide for a moment. The next moment, the newcomer was on the ground with Tabitha on top of her. The bodyguard had a knife pressed to the other person's throat. Fiona had no idea where the knife came from...

...then she hit something semi-solid.

"Ooph!" Fiona winced as she landed on several bags of flour that were waiting to become bread, Tabby almost magically having flung her both strongly enough and in the right direction to miss the stone floor.

"Who are you?" Tabitha asked, her knife still at the newcomer's throat.

It was a young woman, probably not much younger than Fiona if she had to guess. She was wearing a very nice dress that somehow didn't seem to fit her quite right. Well enough, but not quite right. She had brown hair and her face was white as a sheet, though that was probably because of the knife at her throat.

"Oh, don't worry about her." Marge said to Tabitha, stepping forward to help Fiona to her feet. "That's Vera, she's been coming to the kitchens to eat breakfast here since she arrived a couple weeks ago; this is the first time she's barged in though."

Tabitha had been pressing the blade lightly into the woman's throat, but she removed the pressure at that statement. Not the knife -- that was still pointed at her jugular vein -- but it was no longer touching her neck.

"Husband? Family?" Tabitha pressed, her tone somehow menacing and almost devoid of emotion as well. Or maybe it was menacing because it lacked emotion?

"B-Bar-Baron Dramel." The woman stammered. "N-no f-family. I-I'm an or-orphan."

"Tabby, let her up." Fiona said firmly.

The bodyguard didn't move.

"She comes through that door almost every morning at this time." Marge said.

"Why?" Tabitha asked the woman she had pinned to the ground, her eyes piercing.

"I... I d-don't like eating in th-the gr-great hall." Vera stammered.

"Why?" Tabby's eyes narrowed.

Vera gulped. "Th-the first morning, the ladies of the court were... were..." She moved her mouth but no words came out.

After a moment, Tabitha's knife disappeared -- seemingly into thin air -- and she stood up. She took a step away and resumed her silent and impassive vigil as if nothing had happened.

"Are you okay?" Fiona stepped forward and offered Vera a hand to help her get up.

The woman looked at Tabitha for a moment, hesitated, and then slowly -- very slowly -- accepted Fiona's hand, never taking her eyes off of Tabitha while she did.

"Don't be minding Tabby now." Fiona said in what she hoped was an encouraging tone. "She's just being overzealous when it's coming to protecting me."

"Okay." Vera replied, her tone mousey and quiet.

"Are you okay?" Fiona asked.

The other woman nodded, but didn't reply. She seemed almost afraid to open her mouth.

"Well, if you're ever needing anything, let me know, okay?" Fiona said, again trying to make her tone encouraging and comforting.

The other woman nodded, then turned and almost fled the room, giving Tabitha a wide berth as she did so.

"Tabby, were you having to be so... you know?" Fiona asked as she started picking up the cutting board and fallen vegetables.

"Yes." Tabitha replied without emotion.

"Well, you could've at least been apologizing." Fiona gave her a stern look.

Tabitha seemed uncowed and she certainly didn't display any emotion on her face or in her tone. "There was a potential threat. Had she been an assassin and I reacted with less force, you would be dead."

Fiona sighed and decided to talk to Tabby about this later because she had a feeling it would go much better without an audience. She also made a mental note to make sure that Vera was okay later.

* * *

"Ahoy!"

"Ahoy!" Ethan called back at the small, canoe-sized airship that the incoming airship had launched. Now that it was closer, Ethan could see that the occupants were all a bit short and had pointy ears. The elf to which he was currently talking was using a cone-shaped piece of metal to focus his voice. Ethan had kept his disguise gem on though, just in case.

"Greetings, honored airship of the honored dragon." The elf called back. "Our honored King sent us to escort you through The Gap and into Nalatia. As long as we remain in formation with you, the Ivernian Military will not waylay you."

"Thank you very much!" Ethan called back, remembering that they would need to cross Ivernian airspace for a short time as they passed through The Gap, which -- as its name suggested -- was a gap in the mountains that covered almost all of Ivernia's southern border. The Gap was almost directly south of the wood-elven capital city of Nalatia, so the escort would be nice.

"We are honored by your escort and faithful service." Alana added loudly to the other airship, her five-foot-frame able to produce a surprising amount of volume.

"May Illuminar -- blessed be He -- guide you on the path of light as you travel." The elf replied.

Ethan was about to reply when Rachel nudged him and whispered to him. "And may the God of Light direct the winds in your sails."

"And may the God of Light direct the winds in your sails." Ethan hollered to the airship, which seemed to please the elf greatly judging by his expression. Ethan turned toward Rachel and grinned at her. "My wise redhead. "

She beamed.

"Sir, now that we know we aren't about to be attacked, there's rather a lot of business we should discuss." Alana said.

"Aye, indeed there is." He looked around. "We should get everyone together and talk about it, but there are some people missing who should be here."

"Master, do you want me to dock the Argo with the Midnight Sun?" Tee asked.

"Yeah." He nodded. "Falkaan and Myla should be here for this."

"Master, did you want Talven here as well?" Taloni asked.

"Um..." He frowned thoughtfully, then looked at his wives. "Thoughts?"

"I think it's a good idea." Alana volunteered.

"I agree Dominus."

"Illuminar put him in your path for a reason Master."

"My lord, I think it would be good for him."

"I agree Drago, and he knows Ivernia well."

"Your Precious agrees." Selene said, since only him and his wives were close enough to hear.

Sarah had a huge smile on her face as she spoke. "I think it's wonderful to include him."

"Tee, let's get docked and discussing important business." Ethan said.

Not long afterward, the Argo had docked with the Midnight Sun, and Ethan, all his wives including Sarah, plus Falkaan, Myla, Victoria, Thea, Talven, Salma, and even Anthiel were all sitting in a circle on the Argo's weather deck. They had invited Luminar Kossel as well, but he had declined.

Thor had gone around to everyone and sniffed them all, then walked to the middle of the large-ish circle and flopped down. Notably, he seemed to approve of them all. He licked a random spot on his side for a moment, then curled up and closed his eyes. He was purring softly.

"We need a table." Ethan said as he looked around at all of them.

"A round one." Selene winked at him and he chuckled.

That of course led to the two Earthlings explaining about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. When they had finished, everyone had amused and slightly indulgent looks on their faces, like a parent who was humoring their child's fantastical story.

"It was oval." Rachel finally said when no one else spoke.

"What?" Ethan asked.

"Moragana the Fey mentioned that table in her account of the other side of the portal." Rachel explained. "The table wasn't round, it was oval."

"But, I thought that was only the first table, and they were building a second table -- a round one -- when Moragana left?" Beth spoke up, then added. "It's not in the histories, but in Moragana's letters to Merlinus."

"I didn't read the letters, only the histories." Rachel frowned.

"Perhaps we can find a copy later." Kendra spoke up. "For now, there is some business to attend to."

"Right." Ethan nodded.

"Prophet, might I speak first and present my report on Duke Farbrottan and Colonel Forsythe?" Falkaan asked.

"Oh yes, please tell us about the colonel first." Alana said, then looked pointedly at Victoria.

Everyone else around the circle had knowing looks and suppressed smiles on their faces except for Victoria herself. The platinum blonde's face was stony and her expression just shy of a glower.

"Did anyone else see him making eyes at Victoria during the wedding reception?" Bee asked slyly.

"He was?" The platinum blonde asked, looking genuinely surprised.

"He was." Alana confirmed.

"Dang, I missed that." Ethan frowned, then looked at Selene with a smile. "I must've been distracted."

Selene smiled her dazzling smile at him.

"Okay, let's start with the good colonel." Ethan said to Falkaan.

The Dark elf nodded once. "By all accounts, going back to his governess at age four, he is a man of impeccable character."

"His governess at age four?" Victoria raised her eyebrow

"Falkaan is

very

well connected." Kendra replied.

Myla looked at her husband fondly, a proud smile on her face.

"He attended Ivernia's finest military academy." Falkaan continued. "He graduated with honors and only a single demerit."

"Demerit for what?" Victoria asked, though her tone didn't seem accusatory, but rather curious and cautious.

"There was a woman to whom he had been attracted for some time, and he even discretely inquired as to what her bride price might be." The dark elf replied. "He showed a school project to her at her request, and she then shared it with two of his classmates, which she had been planning to do when she asked to see the project. They turned in his work as their own, unbeknownst to him. He was reprimanded for copying when he turned in his own project."

Victoria bit her lip. "She was beautiful, wasn't she?"

Falkaan nodded. "She was, extremely so, and still is."

It didn't escape Ethan that Falkaan knew the current attractiveness level of this woman. That in turn made him wonder if he or his contacts had gotten this story from the proverbial horse's mouth.

"His mother passed away shortly after." Falkaan continued. "His father married a woman barely older than he was soon afterward, and she could not abide a stepson in the house. He was evicted and went to live with his uncle, the Duke Farbrottan, and served in his armed forces."

Victoria's face fell at this, then she bit her lip and looked down, a bit of red appearing on her porcelain cheeks.

"Let me guess, also a very beautiful woman." Ethan ventured, knowing the colonel's distrust of them.

"Indeed." Falkaan nodded. "The colonel had a similar misfortune with a baron's daughter that he met while living with his uncle. She used him to make another noble jealous, succeeding in overcoming his guardedness about women. However, she then treated him cruelly when the true object of her affections reciprocated."

"The baron's daughter also possessed great beauty." Myla added.

Victoria was intently examining the decking at this point.

"The colonel then began to take part in Duke Farbrottan's goal of reducing taxes on the Ivernians." Falkaan continued. "He had been insulated from their effect on the people, and once he saw such effects, he spent a large portion of his time furthering his uncle's goal, often at the cost of alienating those who could further his military career."

"He sounds like a good man." Victoria said quietly after a moment.

"If I were human and had a daughter of the appropriate age, I would consider myself fortunate if he expressed interest in her." Falkaan replied.

Victoria's posture became ever-so-slightly more slumped.

"What about Duke Farbrottan?" Selene asked.

"He is more complicated." The dark elf replied. "I do not believe that he possesses the strong moral fiber of Colonel Forsythe. He appears to desire the lordship of Ivernia, and desire it quite strongly. However, he also believes that the best way to maintain power is to cultivate happy and content subjects. To that end, he has spent rather a lot of time ensuring these qualities in his duchy, up to the limits set by Lord Farbrottan."

"So, could we get Colonel Forsythe to be lord instead?" Selene asked. "The duke sounds like he'd work, but I prefer altruism."

Everyone except Ethan looked at her in much the same way that a parent would look at a child who'd just said something silly but adorable.

"What?" She asked.

"The rules of succession in the Ten Kingdoms make that impossible." Rachel replied. "The lord must be blood-related through a man, not a woman. Colonel Forsythe is the son of Lord Farbrottan's sister, so he can never be in line for the throne. The Duke Farbrottan is blood-related to the current lord since their father was also the lord of Ivernia."