Valerie took a sip of tea and looked up afterwards. Bery couldn't glimpse anything from her expression, yet she could still guess what the dragoness would say. And her guess proved true.

"This tea is good, but it doesn't explain why we are here. Why have either of us been called here, and what is going on in this kingdom?"

The empress chuckled and sat down her tea. "Always such a stickler for things aren't you? What if I simply wanted to meet the Kanai'n paintress?" The elf's eyes flickered towards Bery. "After all, I am very interested in your paintings."

Valerie cut her off with a stern glare and a snap of her fingers.

Aqua sighed and slumped in her seat. "While it is true that I am interested in the both of you, it's also true that the state of things are not agreeable right now."

The elven empress pulled out her fan and actually opened it this time. Mesmerizing patterns formed on its surface, but she only opened it enough so that Bery saw a singular white dot in the middle of those patterns. A sphere of magic erupted from the fan and rushed to coat the walls.

It appeared as if the entire room was encased in a large pool of water, yet nothing in the surroundings got wet.

"You can never be too certain of things, so I've taken measures to conceal our conversation." The empress sat back down and gazed back at Valerie. "Can I assume that you met Myriam before arriving here."

The dragoness raised an eyebrow. "That's correct, so you had your faculties about you this whole time? Is there a reason she's here?"

Aqua nodded. "I had no idea that you would come here, so I made arrangements for her to be there. Naturally, I would never let her come into contact with any of my people, but she serves my purposes well."

"And what are those purposes?"

"You really know nothing about the state of affairs around here, do you? This archipelago is not in a good state currently. There are too many unknowns, and recently, there have been attacks from pirates. What's more is we have reason to suspect that one of those pirates will target this place."

Valerie shrugged. "I have no idea how pirates relate to me or Myriam."

"That's the part I was getting to. This pirate is not normal. For one thing, preliminary scouting says he's a dwarf, but have you ever seen dwarves as pirates?"

Valerie shook her head. "Even still, there are eccentric people among the dwarves too. Maybe one of them had the gall to leave home and sail the high seas?"

Aqua clicked her tongue. "That may have been the case, but this dwarf is surrounded by lizardmen."

Valerie's eyes widened. "Lizardmen?"

"That's right. Imagine it, a whole crew of lizardmen with a dwarf at the helm. Moreover, the sea serpents obey this vessel. Rather than being pirates, they strike me as something far worse."

Valerie sighed. "I get it. You surmise that it's a dragon, but you know that it's better to contact a dragon in matters of dragons."

Aqua rolled her eyes. "Your kind aren't exactly forthcoming. What did you want me to do? March to the north and try to look for another dragon? Sail to the south past all of those storms to meet up with you? Would you even greet me if I had landed there? I am pretty sure I sent a direct envoy to the kingdom of those nature elves, but guess what, I saw no hide or tail of you."

Valerie chuckled awkwardly. "Alright, I understand. You sought help from Myriam?"

"To be more precise, I sent a letter to Dryadilis, since this concerns them as well. We have no idea where the enemy comes from, and they are not far from the dwarves. They'd always been neutral before, and I thought that maybe they had a dragon among them."

"Why didn't you seek out the vampires? They certainly have a dragon there."

Aqua sighed. "You know as well as I do that it takes much longer to reach that frozen hellscape, and why would I want to go somewhere where I am likely to be hated?"

Bery listened to all of it while sipping her tea, but she was proven yet again that the political affairs of nations go way over her head. She looked at Valerie, wondering if there was some covenant of dragons she didn't know about. But it was Valerie herself who said she hadn't talked to another dragon in ages before she slew that recent one.

Valerie nodded and reached out to clasp Bery's hand. The dragoness looked back towards Aqua. "I get it now. I was basically an unknown variable that happened to show up at the right time."

Aqua swirled her small mug and nodded. "That is more or less how it went. I will not ask you to do anything. Rather, I wanted to spend time with both of you. If you like this place, perhaps you would be more willing to defend it."

"I see, so that's the ulterior motive."

"Yes, you caught me. I want you both to stay here as a deterrent for a while. I will not ask you to stay inevitably, but perhaps we can strategically delay any attack. I am not foolish enough to think I'm strong enough to take on a water dragon by myself."

Valerie chuckled. "You are much wiser than a king I met recently."

"Ah yes, The Foolish King. You know, people are already making poems and songs about that guy. The other day, I heard a mermaid minstrel singing on the streets, and she had quite some lines about him."

Bery's ears wiggled. "You met a mermaid minstrel?"

The empress nodded. "Mermaids are frequent visitors of the city. Those channels that pull people around are also a way into the sea from underwater. It's common for mermaids to sometimes visit the plaza."

Bery found herself impressed by the recollection. "That was much different than our experience with mermaids. They essentially shooed us away from their city when we tried to enter."

Aqua placed a finger on her chin. She looked at the little fairy on her shoulder and smiled. "Will you get me a Water Medallion?"

"Of course, My Lady!" The fairy saluted and flapped her wings. She flew behind Aqua to a desk and opened a drawer. From there, she pulled out a round blue metal object and brought it back to Aqua. "Here."

"Thank you, dear." Aqua reached the medallion towards Bery and grinned. "Take this as a piece offering. Should you offer it to the mermaids, they may allow you passage." She paused. "However, you are also likely to see one here if you stay long enough."

Bery smiled and took the offered piece of metal before inspecting it. It had a small fairy emblem on it with several star shapes surrounding her. Pretty…

The kitten looked towards her dragoness finding that Valerie was not as impressed. Bery recognized the problem right away. Her selfishness in taking the piece of metal had essentially ensured that the dragon would want to stay here because of her.

"You remind me of merchants," Valerie said. "You are so unscrupulous and quick to take advantage of kitten hearts. Don't you feel bad for what you've done?"

Aqua laughed and crossed her arms. "I am not taking advantage of any kitten hearts. I believe in what the Kanai'ns believe, which is the freedom to make your own choice." The elf looked towards Bery and nodded. "Do you feel as if I'd taken advantage of you?"

For the first time in a while, Bery found herself wanting to choose chaos. She looked at the medallion before crossing her arms and pouting. "You've definitely taken advantage of me. Your only goal here is to have more paintings in your castle."

Aqua gasped and reached her hand out desperately, clearly not expecting such an answer from the seemingly harmless kitten. "Wait! I thought you would be on my side."

She looked towards the small fairy next, but the fairy shook her head.

"You did have me fetch the medallion after all. That is proof enough."

"You too, Elody?"

"That's right," Valerie said with a grin. She ignited flames in each one of her fingertips. "Prepare to be erased for this folly."

Aqua panicked and waved her hands in a frenzy. "No wait, I can explain! It wasn't like I needed either of you two to stay or anything...It's just…"

Bery smiled innocently. "Just?"

"It's just that I would love the two of you to stay because I am so incredibly bored. Do you have any idea how boring it can be in my position? Won't you think about the royalty for one second?"

Bery started laughing from the comedic display of the frenzied elf. She tried to adopt a serious tone, attempting to mimic the voice of a father. "Is this what you think being a queen is like, princess? You would simply abandon your duties for the sake of this thing called 'fun'?"

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