228, 1/2

The end of the year was close. Two more days and Shadow’s Feast would be upon Veird.

Erick didn’t experience any disasters and he didn’t expect to go to the party, either. He was on another task given to him by Atunir just yesterday. He would drop his current plans and go back to Candlepoint if they asked him to come back, or if he was needed, but Fallopolis’s party was a small one this year and Kiri was doing fine and House Benevolence was getting along swimmingly without Erick.

They would be fine losing Poi for a week or three, too.

“Thanks for coming, Poi,” Erick said, as he sat down in the pub-carriage, jockeying for a seat at the front of the public transport.

Poi sat down beside Erick and held onto the railing. “Of course I would come with you. I didn’t expect that I would need to make myself Unknowable this early, though.”

Erick smirked. “A few people are still looking your way.”

A good thirty more people found their spots on the pub-carriage. A few of them gave Poi a side-eye, looking over the sapphire-scale dragonkin like he was both an oddity and a slight annoyance. Aside from Poi, everyone else on the pub-carriage was human, for the Greensoil Republic was rather bad about inclusion. And so, Poi had needed to begin using his [Don’t Notice Me] aura almost right after stepping through the Gate to Greensoil. Erick had, of course, taken on an entirely different Familiar Form because everyone would notice him right away. Ophiel had enjoyed a few days being visible upon his father’s shoulder, but he was back to being invisible and intangible.

It wasn’t that bad of an experience for the little guy, for all the rest of his bodies were all off doing their own things, as Ophiel desired.

Poi said, “I’ll turn up the Unknowable when we get closer, but we’re safe to talk openly right now. No one will remember our words.”

Erick smiled at that. “I’ll clean up the manasphere, too. Ahh. I don’t know how you do it all the time, Poi. Talking in your head. Seems like you’d have too many thoughts all the time, vying to be expressed.”

“There is a certain order that comes about when people filter from brain to mouth, but using the mind to communicate directly is rather normal for me.” Poi looked around as the pub-carriage filled up, saying, “What’s not normal is all these humans.”

“It’s a pretty singular species up in here, isn’t it.”

Erick and Poi had come to Greensoil through the Gate Network, and there were lots of other races who used that very same Network, but this particular pub-carriage was not headed to the dragonkin side of town, or the very small shifter communities that butted up against the dragonkin. This pub-carriage was headed toward the high-class district, toward the kingdom center and, for Erick and Poi’s purposes, the Grand Courthouse of Legality, here in this capital city of Greendale, on the southeastern coast of the Republic.

And Greensoil didn’t allow non-humans to hold high office, so the pub-carriage was rather filled with humans… And Poi, who seemed to be making himself more and more [Don’t Notice Me] as the moments ticked on, and the bus-like hover-tram filled.

Erick was still human-shaped, but he had adopted a different sort of body than his usual one. Just a different face and a bit lankier, with brown hair instead of black. It was more than enough to hide in plain sight. Poi was not willing to change himself into a different Familiar Form in order to make life easier for him, or for others; he liked himself just fine, thank you very much! So his aura was how he handled the problem of fame. Such an aura was easily seen through by other Mind Mages, but that was fine; Mind Mages policed their own, and Poi was in good standing with the community. He could do this sort of thing without ethical worry.

“I’ll drop it when we get to the courthouse or to whoever we need to get to,” Poi said, “Just like you will with your form, right?” He said the last word a bit strongly.

Erick chuckled. “I just want to see Greensoil through a normal person’s eyes for a while. I’ll drop the act soon enough. And if it gets to be too much for you, you can go back home.”

Poi sighed in relief. “I am content to be looked at like a bug for a little while, but not for three weeks.

“Let me know if anyone tries to fuck with you too much and I’ll fuck with them right back.”

A smile broke across Poi’s face, shadows vanishing a little as he chuckled. “Thank you.”

The doors to the pub-carriage closed with a clang, locking the people inside. Most stood in the center of the vehicle, holding onto rails on the ceiling, or onto bars stretching up, while all the seats were full. The conductor at the front honked a horn, and then engaged the vehicle. With a sudden lurch, the pub-carriage started on down station, gliding along on its rails toward the exit of the Gatehouse.

Erick glanced out the window and watched as another pub-carriage flowed into the docking station that they had exited. A lot of dragonkin boarded that one; a sign hanging off the front of it read ‘Dragalley’, the name for the dragonkin part of town. That pub-carriage itself was almost as nice as the one Erick and Poi were currently riding, but it had obviously seen better days. The metal ribbing was tarnished. The wardlights at the front flickered because there was some sort of power coupling break in the internals. It didn’t seem to have a working [Air Conditioning Ward], either, for some bizarre reason.

As Erick noticed that, he noticed a lot more small, systemic problems of inequality here and there. From the quality of clothes, to the way the human drivers of the dragonkin pub-carriage looked at their passengers… It all painted a rather clear picture.

Erick’s own pub-carriage was going rather slow right now, following its tracks to the end of the station. It would pick up speed soon enough.

Erick said to Poi, “Kiri still hates this place but she’s good about not showing it anymore.”

“Greendale is the worst. All the other major cities are pretty bad, but the countryside is okay. Odaali is making good advancements… It was making really good advancements before the Halls of the Dead killed a third of the people in their Daydropper attack. That action set them back a decade.”

“I still remember when Valok and all the other dragonkin and other migrant workers from Greensoil decided to stay at Spur as soon as we made Spur a full-year breadbasket.”

“You did that,” Poi said, “I merely kept people from trying to knife you in the street for your riches.”

“That wasn’t too often, was it?”

“More often than you know. Most archmages stay holed-up in their towers or hidden from the world for very good reasons.” Poi deadpanned, “I was expecting to work for a half-way hermit.”

With a smile, Erick said, “I’m glad I never became a hermit.”

“Aye; me, too.”

The pub-carriage followed its glowing lines of power off of the Gatehouse station and into the air, finally detaching from the ground, to to ride its lines of power out over the city.

Erick had once thought of making a monorail over at Candlepoint, but Candlepoint had ended up more with a subway system than an over-city monorail. Candlepoint’s over-air rail system was still active in a few places, but mostly it was underground.

Greensoil had copied Candlepoint’s transport, but they put everything in the air, probably because their underground was all filled with private properties. Instead of using actual trains, like Candlepoint, Greensoil used these big bus-like ‘carriages’ that each held about 50 people. Erick felt trains had been a better choice there, too.

But then again, Greendale was a major city of Greensoil with a population in the millions, while Candlepoint and the nearby suburbs had a lot more than that; they needed a lot more quantity than Greendale. Population numbers varied, but last year, counting all of the cities inside the hundred-kilometer ring Kiri had made eleven years ago, ‘Candlepoint’ (and Weald and Gambler’s Rest and Torchlight and all the rest) came in at just under 20 million people.

Erick looked out at the city, at the rooftops. Or at least at the rooftops he could see. A lot of the buildings around here were tall things of stone and glass, reaching several stories into the air. Cultivated trees lined the roads and the pub-carriage flew above those. Greenery rushed past underneath as the vehicle flew forward, following its path into the heart of Greendale, sitting in the distance.

The capital kingdom of Greensoil looked like a pile of differently-shaped and nicely decorated bricks sitting on the horizon. It’d take twenty minutes for the pub-carriage to get there, with the pub-carriage making several stops at the outlying areas along the way.

Greendale’s transit system was slower than Candlepoint’s, but the views were nice.

As Erick looked out the window, he recalled trying to make a Gate Network connection directly between the human-ran Greensoil and the incani-controlled Wastelands a few years ago. For a while, everything was looking great. Fantastic, even! Some of the younger people had even started talking about how the Quiet War might actually end, but then there were Quiet War problems. Some pretty bad and rather suspicious dungeon breaks ended in the complete deterioration of relations between the Republic and the Kingdoms, and so that particular Gate Network connection had come down. Now it took twenty minutes to make it into the city proper. Back then, the Gatehouse had been a lot closer to the city, too, but nowadays one had to take the pub-carriage in from this location 20 minutes away, and there were two pub-carriage systems; one outer-city, like the one Erick and Poi were on now, and one inner-city, which was heavily restricted.

Non-humans weren’t allowed on the inner-city pub-carriages without going through a much more intense scanner than the normal one.

Which was extra-shitty of them—

Poi added, “If you wanted to see how bad it was for non-humans, you could have been one for a while.”

Erick sarcastically said, “But Poi, I’m already doing the non-human thing.”

“Ha ha,” Poi deadpanned.

“Maybe I will, then? Maybe a shadeling?”

“Ah. So you want to be killed on sight.”

Erick winced. “This trip is going to be a whole big thing, isn’t it.”

“Yes, it will. I might not stick around if we have to stay in Greendale too long, but I doubt we will. At least Teressa and Aisha haven’t seen anything extra on the Sky— Except for the storm approaching Storm’s Edge, that is.” Poi said, “With any luck, this trip will go exactly as Atunir asked it to go.”

Erick had only found out about Atunir’s request last night…

– – – –

Erick woke standing in a field of wheat, ripe for harvesting, golden grains weighing down thick stalks, a warm breeze barely jostling the grains at all. The sky was gold and mountainous clouds in the distance cast platinum rain upon orchards and vegetable gardens and pastures. Cows mooed in contentment as their tails flicked back and forth in joy; there was no need to flick away flies but they still wagged their tails, here, in Atunir’s heaven.

“Hello, Erick,” Atunir said, appearing from the corner of Erick’s perception like she had always been there. “Congratulations with Storm’s Edge. That went well.”

The Goddess of Field and Fertility was a dark-skinned human woman with bright amber eyes and long braided hair. Her clothes were the simple sort anyone would wear for harvesting. Erick’s own outfit mirrored hers, here in this place outside of time.

“Thank you, Atunir.” Erick said, “I hope that whatever you would have me do would go similarly well.”

“There’s little need for subterfuge with my request as there was for Sininindi at Storm’s Edge.” Atunir said, “But before we get into that… I want us to be friendlier with each other. Like with you and Phagar, or you and Rozeta or Koyabez, or even… With Melemizargo.”

Well that was surprising.

Erick wasn’t quite sure what to say to that.

She said Melemizargo’s name with restraint but she still said it, because yes, Erick was not close to Atunir at all. Her Champion, Yetta Wheat, had lived and worked in Candlepoint for a few years, but she had moved on back to Odaali several years ago, because the King of Odaali, her former adventuring buddy and childhood friend, Cyril, had asked for her hand in marriage. Apparently the two of them had become more than friends when no one else was looking. Aside from the brief contact Erick had had with Yetta before she moved on, Erick hadn’t really worked together with Atunir on anything at all… Except for the [Exalted Rain] spell, and then only to gift that to Atunir and also the world.

That spell was still used to this day, all over the world, to [Grow] food for almost every major city on the planet.

Thoughts of all of that stuff swirled in Erick’s head as he tried to understand Atunir’s goal.

“… I thought we were…” Erick wasn’t sure what to say except the truth. “I guess we’re not that close, eh? I mean…” Erick asked, “Do you want to come to this years Triumph of Light, at Candlepoint?”

Atunir smiled gently. “Thank you for the offer, but that’s not really what I mean. I mean ‘close’ as in someone you come to, to help solve problems. Every day I wonder how things would have been if you had held fast to being a farmer, to growing food for people instead of managing them. I wonder how much I would have given you, because I want to give you everything, Erick. I want to give you everything you could ever want, partially because you deserve it, and partially because I know you wouldn’t abuse any power I gave you.”

Erick felt more flattered than he had in a long time. And yet… “I suppose… Not to be too blunt, but I suppose I never looked your way because… Field and Fertility. It’s not exactly something I worship.”

Atunir chuckled. “I suppose I’m not the most martial of gods, and I care nothing for borders or governments, but individually, I would help. My worship includes the entire world, on all sides of the Quiet War and every other war besides. Every farmer who has ever plucked a ripe tomato or gathered gourds at the end of fall, or butchered a prized cow, falls under my guidance. If you had asked for me, Erick, I would have given you paladins of the harvest. They’re very good at reaping lives, in addition to grain. I would be your major god, if you would have me.”

Erick wasn’t quite sure what to say of that, so he said, “I have greatly appreciated your blessings on the fields of Candlepoint, and for Yetta’s help for all those years.”

“You’ve given the world a lot. Chocolate. [Renew]. [Exalted Rain]. Potatoes, Erick, potatoes. You deserve more than you have been given. I know you already have a plethora of godly connections, but ask for my help sometimes, and you’ll get it.”

Erick had no idea that Atunir felt this way. “I will, then, if something comes up, I will ask. Thank you.”

“Good. I know you will.” Atunir said, “But I know you did not expect any of that, so I don’t expect any answers on that front at the moment. Let us move on to the release of my part of Yggdrasil’s seal.”

Erick nodded. He was prepared.

“By your completion of two small tasks, I can release my part of that seal. The two tasks I have in mind are nothing that difficult. One you should be able to take care of in a day, if you wish it to be done that quickly, and the other might take a little while longer, depending on how deep you want to go with it. I, for one, hope you go all the way with the second task, for I and my people have been working on it for a long time.

“The first task is to travel to Greendale in the Greensoil Republic, and to finally end this open Kill and Exterminate Quest, by completion of the final part of that Quest, the only part which has been allowed to exist for the last 13 years. The problem of Denutha Odaari; the last person of the three people who created the Daydropper Vine and almost killed the world.

“This task is solved either by her death, or by her true repentance through a [Reincarnation] and a [Blessing of Empathy]. Either is fine. Some people are even calling for justice of a sort. If she gets her day in court, and there is a solid outcome, then I will be fine with that, too.

“What I am not actually fine with is how the Viridian King has locked her up in a cage since her voluntary surrender to the Green Circle all those years ago.

“End her imprisonment one way or another.”

Erick tried to recall what he knew of that situation. “I heard that they didn’t carry out her trial because the completion of that Kill and Exterminate Quest would have granted me 10 points?” It never bothered him that those points had been denied to him because that reward hinged on the death of Odaari, who was some sort of cousin to Cyril Odaali, who was now the king of that major city of Odaali. Back then he had been the crowned prince… “I always suspected that they didn’t kill Denutha because of some political reasons— Political beyond me, I mean.”

“It’s a mess, Erick. I would have you carve through it and end the mess one way or the other. If you choose to see justice done then this first task might take a while, with you doing much of nothing while you wait for bureaucracy to act. If that is fine with you and Yggdrasil, then that is fine with me. But since I suspect that you will want to have some sort of justice happen…” Atunir moved on, “This brings us to the second task.” With a delighted-yet-hiding-it voice, Atunir said, “There is a Grand Dungeon at Greensoil located an hour north of Greendale by pub-carriage.

“That dungeon has an implementation of a Script-like magical interface that I officially present to you as an alternative to a Script in whatever next worlds may come.” Atunir said, “I would have you delve that dungeon, and I would have you tell me what you think. I suggest you go in wearing a different form other than your own, otherwise people might get too excited and they’ll try to show it off instead of allowing you to experience it for yourself. Perhaps bring another person with you? That is of no matter to me. I just want you to see the dungeon for yourself.”

“… Huh. Okay.” Erick asked, “The Gem Dungeon, yes?”

One of the Grand Dungeons of the world, and one of the very few that Quilatalap had had absolutely nothing to do with, because Atunir honestly did not like the man (thinking about that, maybe Atunir was only approaching Erick like this because Quilatalap was out of the picture for the next few years (dammit, Erick missed that big guy already)), the Gem Dungeon was one of the few dungeons that truly went all-in on making a replacement for the Script. Most of the few places that tried for a Second Script did not actually have a Second Script; they adjusted the current Script and put forth those adjustments as ‘better’ than the current system.

Most places, though, actually didn’t try to make anything approaching the complexity of a Script at all; they just imposed restrictions on delvers. That was what the dungeon at Storm’s Edge had done, before this past week.

Atunir announced, “That’s the one! Our wonderful Gem Dungeon!”

“I would love to see what you envision for the Script.”

Atunir started gushing, “My system might even work on worlds without a true Script shield at all! It’s all very low-manatech, too, and reminiscent of the Old Cosmology where the mana waned thin—” She cut herself off. “Anyway. We’re very proud of the Second Script we’ve come up with. It’s different from what you’re used to, but… It might work out really well. Our ideas —if implemented well— should cut down Yggdrasil’s seeds maturation time from decades to years, because the necessary starter mana would be so much less than what is needed now to make a Script. We could transform barren rocks into worlds for people as fast as Yggdrasil wishes to make seeds!”

Erick appreciated her enthusiasm, but… “Hopefully Yggdrasil won’t be a dad for 90 more years.”

“Right right.” Atunir said, “I can help with that restriction, too, once you get the seal removed. Denying Fertility is very much within my church of cause, Erick. You might not even need to do Wizardry yourself to keep that seal intact if Yggdrasil directly agrees to my denial of his Fertility, but then again, that would be putting the power of a World Tree into my hands, and I don’t think I want that responsibility. But it’s a thought, anyway.”

“… Huh. Well okay.”

Atunir grinned. “See you later, Erick. I hope you enjoy Greensoil.”

– – – –

“Back on Earth,” Erick began, as the pub-carriage glided along its node network railing in the sky, with nary a bump in the transit, “There were political dissidents that never got their days in court, so I suppose I shouldn’t be that surprised that people would do the same thing here on Veird.”

“They like to use her as a bargaining chip with you, more than they care about her personal needs.”

“I believe I told them to let her have her day in court so she could explain herself and the Daydropper as she wished to do for all these years. And then I left… And I never followed up on that.” Erick said, “Surely there’s no ‘great big secret’ that she has on Greensoil that hasn’t been said already?”

“It’s probably not that. I’m rather sure they don’t want to bring up the Quiet War and the Decimation of Odaali, because they’re trying not to have all-out war with the Wasteland.”

“Ahh, yes. That makes some sort of sense.”

“But now you’re here to force the issue,” said Destiny, the Wizard of Chaos.

Erick took a moment to look at the woman sitting to his right. She was unremarkable in all ways. Brown hair, average adventurer build with some good tone to her muscles, and a brightness to her brown eyes that made her look smart. She was a common sort of person, who would only appear beautiful to those who knew her.

Erick knew her.

Erick smiled a little. “I failed to invite you over for the end of the Storm’s Edge business, didn’t I.”

“Yes you did!” Destiny said, punching his shoulder lightly. “A forgivable failure, but still a failure.” Destiny leaned forward and nodded to Poi, “Poi. Hello again.”

Poi nodded back, “Hello, Destiny. How long have you been here?”

“Not long!” Destiny leaned back in her seat and kicked her feet out a little, saying, “I heard something about false imprisonment and I couldn’t stay away. I just got here. Thanks for including me in your [Don’t Look At Me] aura.”

“Of course,” Poi said.

Erick said, “I’m rather sure it’s [Don’t Notice Me].”

Destiny scoffed—

“You’re both wrong,” Poi said, grinning.

Erick looked to him, as Destiny leaned forward to look past Erick, toward Poi.

Poi said, “Erick is less-wrong.”

“I’m rather certain I’m completely correct,” Erick said.

“95%,” Poi said.

“Whatever it really is, I’d rather not have anyone use it at all,” Destiny said, “But I suppose you Mind Mages have proven yourself often enough that you’re not too much of a worry.”

Poi laughed. “Thanks, Destiny. I suppose you’re not so bad for a Wizard, either.”

Destiny nodded and pretended to take Poi’s sarcastic joke literally.

Destiny wasn’t a Full Wizard yet, but she had opted for a lot more protections against other people influencing her than Erick had gone for; a [Personal Ward] that prevented all Mind and Fae Magic, was just one of her layered defenses. She even had some spells that annihilated all of those sorts of magics in a very large area.

Destiny absolutely hated authority in almost all ways, which had caused her to initially hate Poi and all the other Mind Mages, and a whole bunch of other large swaths of the population besides. But years had passed, and she was fine with some Mind Mages, Poi chief among them, and she had even taken pleasure in helping the Mind Mages to eliminate various controlling mental and physical threats the world over. These days, because of those interactions, she generally approved of the Mind Mages, and they, in turn, generally approved of her.

It had taken Destiny a while to come around to Erick, too, but she had eventually started to see him as more of a friend and less as a jailer; Erick had saved her and continued to protect her from the world for many years, even after rescuing her from Ar’Cosmos.

For Destiny was the Wizard that the dragons of Ar’Cosmos had captured many years ago, in order to transform her into a Carnage Wizard, in order to use her to free other dragons from the Dragon Curse by Paradoxing them away from normal Elemental Dragon Essence. The Houses of Ar’Cosmos had been using Wizards in that way ever since the advent of the Curse, which was still a part of the Headmaster of Oceanside, Kirginatharp, which still affected all normal dragons out here, in the real world. The Curse had no effect on Benevolence dragons, like Erick, or on any other Paradoxed dragons, of Carnage, Death, or Fae, which was why Ar’Cosmos had targeted Wizards the world over, to capture them, to free themselves of the Curse.

Had targeted.

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These days, Erick could free any dragon from the Curse at-will. Those dragons automatically joined House Benevolence in a loose-affiliation sort of way, or more directly, if they wished. Most dragons actually stayed in Fairie, though, either in the growing city of Ar’Cosmos, or in any of the other cities blossoming just on the other side of reality. For those who remained in Fairie, there was no need to go to Erick for any sorts of Paradoxing solutions to the Curse, for Fairie kept the Curse away from them already.

And thanks to Erick, there were no longer any space concerns over there in Ar’Cosmos, and in the greater Fairie. [Renew] allowed Ar’Cosmos to expand the ‘Gate Space’ across all the rest of Veird… Theoretically. Fairie wasn’t much wider than the Surface these days, but even that was a great, great deal larger than it used to be, back when it was contained to one small land in the center of the Forest of Glaquin.

As for Destiny, she was done with Ar’Cosmos, for now and forever.

When Erick had taken her from that draconic land and [Reincarnation]ed her according to a grand confluence of various forces of the world, he had gifted and burdened her with a [Blessing of Empathy], and taken charge of her as both her mentor, and jailer. It was the only way the rest of the world would allow a Wizard to live.

It had taken Destiny some time to come to terms with what Erick had done to her, but she mostly blamed all the rest of the world for that these days.

It was why she had taken so strongly to emancipating all of the slave states of Nergal, which she had succeeded in doing, and which Erick had helped her with. That land was now known as the Freelands because of her and Messalina, the Lifebinder.

Destiny was rather good at several different spells, and one of them, the one she loved to use all the time, was called [Benevolent Chaos]. That spell was the one that had caused her to appear next to Erick, and which also allowed her to move practically anywhere that there was some problem of inequality to be solved. Due to her own actions through using that spell all the time, she had become known as the Wizard of Chaos.

And now she was here, for some reason.

Destiny had a certain look to her as she asked, “So what’s the full story of us being here?”

Poi raised an eyebrow, and asked the question that Erick was already thinking. “You’re going to stick around? Not ask about what’s up and then leave?”

“Maybe.” Destiny looked at Erick, saying, “You promised to contact me after the trouble at Storm’s Edge. It was unkind to make such a mess at my doorstep without talking to me afterward.”

Erick scoffed. “I sent a letter detailing everything.”

“Well it wasn’t enough!”

“It was an extensive letter. Four pages!”

“Well maybe I wanted to see you again. You’re always so damned busy all the time.” Destiny shrugged. “So what’s going on here in Greensoil?”

“Do you know about the Daydropper?”

“Vaguely.”

Erick began, “The short story is this: The Halls of the Dead was an organization from the Wasteland here in Greensoil. They made the Daydropper Vine using my Particle Magic understanding. Their first real use of that plant caused the Decimation of Odaali, with Arrox Geller and Parox Geller being the main antagonists of that whole plan to kill all humans, with Denutha Odaari as their scientist accomplice. There was a breach demon at the end of that horror, because it truly was a plan to ‘kill all humans’, and they were just getting started with the Daydropper and Odaali, but I and others put a stop to that. Denutha is the only survivor from that time, and she gave herself up willingly to the Green Circle, the assassins of the Viridian Throne. We’re here to see about getting a trial. I still have the Kill and Exterminate box around here… Here.”

Erick said, “Denutha is the only remaining part of that Kill and Exterminate Quest; all the plants and their research and all the other people who knew how the plant worked are either gone, or not a problem anymore. Denutha is a cousin of Cyril, the King of Odaali, who was just the crowned prince back when he went with Champion Yetta into Ar’Kendrithyst to kill Shade Planter, who had decided to take up the Daydropper for his own nefarious purposes… But I suppose you don’t need to know about that part.”

“I heard that story already anyway.” Destiny asked, “She gave herself up to the Viridian Throne, yes? Voluntarily?”

“Yes. They were going to execute her for her part in all this, and especially since the Daydropper was large enough to trigger Atunir’s release of a Kill and Exterminate Quest, but back then Greensoil didn’t like me and I was headed toward capturing one of the top reward slots.” Erick said, “All Denutha wanted was her day in court, which she expected to be able to get, as she was a noble of Odaali and a cousin to the royal family. Due to whatever events happened back then, that I never really looked into, the Viridian Throne decided to drag their feet. Or something. And now we’re here.”