All or Nothing

Chapter 65

The council walked down the hall to the teleportation gate room, along with Virion, Aya, Tess, and Arthur. The long awaited day had arrived, the Alacryan peace delegation was arriving. In preparation for this the floating castle had been searched from top to bottom everyday for a week. Every room, closet, and hidden corner was thoroughly examined with a fine tooth comb to ensure the castle was safe for everyone to move back in two months ago.

And to commemorate the return to the floating castle, on that day the last of the Alacryan soldiers finally left Dicathen. It took a little over a month to move all of the thousands of Alacryan soldiers back home through the teleportation gates, and via ship. After a week they formally requested their ships to be returned to them, so they could at least leave a little sooner. The council refused at first, concerned that they might instead land on another coast and launch another series of attacks. However Arthur convinced them to take the chance. Over the last few months they managed to retrofit twenty of the steam ships with new weapons designed by Gideon that used fire salt. The new weapons had a greater range than any conjurer, so they manned the ships and had them escort fifty ships full of alacryans away from Dicathen and then began patrolling along the coast to ensure that if they did come back they would be aware.

As they walked Virion looked to his granddaughter who was walking with her arm hooked with Arthur's, her cheeks glowing.

"Tessia, are you sure you're ok doing this? No one would say anything if backed out," he asked.

"Grandpa we've been over this, the doctor said it's good for me to stay active at this point, just no overly strenuous activity. Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I should be locked up in my room. I'm not even showing yet," she replied defensively, but also smiling.

The thought of being pregnant made her so happy, and the timing couldn't have been better. The war was over, so she and Arthur weren't needed to fight anymore, and because she was only six weeks pregnant she wasn't showing so she could still feel beautiful when she dressed up, like today.

For this week her job was to act as a representative of the council to a group of Alacryan nobles, so she needed to look her best. She was wearing a modern eleven style dress that also held some traditional aspects, with the top half being green with gold detailing, which transitioned to a white skirt. The sleeves were white, with the top green and gold going to mid bicep opening to a white sleeve, then closing back at her wrists.

She never had aspirations of being a Lance, to her it was never an option. After Arthur was announced as a Lance, she imagined going to parties with him, her arm hooked with his as he wore his white uniform as she wore an elegant dress. Unfortunately for her, Arthur almost never wore his uniform. But today with him serving as part of the Dicathen delegation, he was in uniform looking the part for a Dicathen general.

This was part of Arthur's plan to show to the people that even though Dicathen wasn't as advanced as Alacrya, they were far from the barbarians that Agrona portrayed them as. To aid in this a group of Alacryan nobles was dispatched along with the peace delegation to gather images and information to show the common people back in Alacrya. Today they were visiting Zestier, but tomorrow Xyrus, and the next day Vildorial in Darv, with a different guide joining them for the other two cities.

"Don't take it personal," Buhnd said as he walked up beside her. "Virion here is just being a little overly protective."

"He's right," Merial chimed in. "He did the same thing with me when I was pregnant with you. He went as far as to have a team of doctors on standby, and had one follow me around all day every day. So just be happy that you only have Aya with you."

"No offense to Aya, but I'm a Lance too. It's not like I need a bodyguard."

"None taken," Aya replied. "However if there were a threat against you I will be ensuring I get you as far away from there as possible."