Chapter 127 - Not So Happy Harpy Hour

Rhys was waiting right outside the door for us.

"Long time no see, sister mine." Rhys quipped, though I could tell his smile was a bit strained.

"Yeah yeah. So you're here to make sure Alta and I don't slip out the back? Despite my being very clear why I'm even here?" Eira sounded deeply annoyed, and I couldn't say I blamed her. The entire vibe of the trip had shifted.

"Yeah, that's the long and short of it." He said with a shrug. "Sorry, but apparently things got wild really quickly. Your little foray into the jungle with Uncle Osian wasn't the only thing that happened tonight."

He motioned for us to follow him as we made our way down a hallway that seemed unnaturally long for the building.

But then, a lot of the building was hidden by the jungle, so as far as I knew, it went on forever. Not in a dungeon way, though. Thankfully. I didn't need to deal with dungeon mana on top of everything else today.

We eventually stopped at a door with a couple of rather intimidating individuals. They were muscular, wore sleeveless jerkins, and had tattooed on their arms the same green hourglass symbol I had seen earlier. The symbol of the Medwin Family pirates and their allies.

Before we went in, Rhys turned to Eira and me. "I need you both to keep your cool in there, and keep your peace as long as possible. Things are going to get complicated, and I don't want them focusing on you two until the time is right. You get me?"

He was the most serious I had ever seen him. Which didn't mean much, as I'd only met him one other time before this. But he generally struck me as a very much not serious person.

Eira just nodded, and I mimicked the gesture. He took a deep breath and opened the door.

I wasn't entirely sure what I expected when we walked in, but it was definitely surprising. It was a room with a large round table with an empty section in the middle, like a big pastry thing whose name escaped me at the moment. The closest thing I could call the head of the table was a raised seat with three others to its sides that were less raised, but still higher than the others arrayed around the circle.

The ceiling was high, and there were no windows, no other entrances or exits that I could see. It was also incredibly well lit, to the point that any shadows had been reduced to basically nothing.

It was very strange and surreal, but it was the assembled personages that really struck me as odd. There was a group of men and women of various ages, and they all had the characteristic green eyes of my beloved Eira, though hair colors varied. No doubt dyed to give themselves some level of distinction from each other. They were a mixture of elf, human, and half-elf, some more obvious than others. They looked at Eira with a variety of expressions, ranging from apathy to antipathy, disdain to delight. I did a quick mental count, and there were nine altogether. With Eira and Rhys, that made eleven, just like they said.

In another section of the room was a group of rough individuals, all bearing the Hourglass sigil, but also looked a bit prouder and had an air of authority about them. I suspected that these were the other captains of the Pirate Fleet. And on the other side of the table were three armored individuals, wearing tabards of blue with a silver trident on their chests. Knights of the Silver Trident. The sworn enemies of the Medwin family, if my memory served me right.

Well, this was a fine mess. I was shocked they weren't already at each other's throats. It certainly looked like they wanted to be.

Rhys directed us to two empty seats, and he took a seat next to us, keeping us from the rest of the family. I gave him a curious look as he settled in.

"Cuts down on possible family drama. We've got guests, and they don't need to see that." He whispered.

"I'm a guest too. You don't seem to mind me seeing the drama." I smirked at him.

"You're close enough to family at this point, as far as I'm concerned. That's lowercase family and not uppercase family. Very important distinctions." He winked at me with a smile teasing at the corner of his mouth.

I returned the wink and sat quietly, holding Eira's hand under the table. She gave mine a gentle squeeze. It was a bit clammy. She really was nervous. I was too, for that matter. I guess our hands were just going to be clammy together.

The door opened, and the tension ratcheted up several degrees. I recognized the bald eyepatch man I met on the first night, and the strange elf woman named Roshia. Between them was the harpy girl. She looked confused, terrified, and as exhausted as I felt. I realized that with the lack of windows or timepieces anywhere, I had no idea what time of day it was. I just assumed it was morning, and my lack of appetite was due to lack of breakfast, but I really was in the metaphorical dark here.

They closed the door behind them and nodded their acknowledgement to everyone in the room. The two walked to the shorter chairs at the center point of the table, and had an extra chair brought for the poor harpy.

I gave her a close look for the first time. She reminded me a lot of Sasa and Lele, but less colorful. Her feathers were a white and grey color, and she had two feathery tufts sticking out from the top of her head. They had thankfully dressed her. She was very fidgety, but I couldn't say I didn't understand. I would be too in her situation.

I was used to being around strange people, especially strange and dangerous people. It was part of being a dungeoneer. And living in Revenstahd, if I was being honest. She was far out of her element, and likely was terrified. She scanned the room, and once her eyes met mine, I saw a little bit of sparkle there.

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"Eira, do you mind if I help the poor thing? The harpy is terrified, and I can't stand it." I whispered to her.

"You have the softest heart, I swear. It's one of the million reasons I love you. Give me a moment. I've got to approach this the right way. Things are tense." She answered quietly.

She took a breath and stood.

"I wish to address the assemblage for an informal request." She said, in a very formal and polite tone.

The bald man, one of Eira's fathers, stood as well. "I, Second Consort and Captain of the Fleet, Renard Medwin, recognize Eira Medwin, 9th Daughter of the Commodore, and will hear her request, informally, before the start of proceedings."

He held out his hand to her.

"The harpy you have brought before us seems to be under some distress. No doubt due to the august reputation of this body. I request that my guest, Alta Alba Marchesi, be allowed to assist the harpy, as their previous encounters may prove conducive to assisting in calming their demeanor, thus allowing for a more productive proceeding." I had never heard Eira use half of those words before, much less in such an officious-sounding way.

If this is how her family meetings usually had to go, no wonder she wanted to leave so bad. Good gods above and below.

Renard was quiet for a moment, looked down at the harpy, who hesitantly nodded at me.

"Very well. Have a pair of chairs moved to the corner, so our guest can be more comfortable." He ordered, before sitting down. Two people entered the room and put two chairs in the place he indicated. The two came and escorted me and the harpy a few feet over. Eira gave me a little wave as I went. This whole thing was so incredibly odd.

I sat there in silence next to the harpy girl for a moment, but she seemed to unclench her whole body just a bit. That was a good start.

"Hey there. I'm Alta. What's your name?" I asked gently.

"I-I-I I'm Nene. I-I-I damn this stutter, fuck!" She chided herself.

"Hey hey hey, it's ok! Just relax, I'm not interrogating you or anything. You and I don't really fit in here, so I figured we might as well get out of the way as long as we can, right?" I smiled at her.

She nodded with a little grin. She turned serious for a moment.

"I remember your face from last night. You saved me from the surfers, or whatever t-t-t-they were." She took a deep breath. "I don't remember a lot, but I remember being scared, and I couldn't get my body to do what I told it to do."

"If you feel up to talking about it, do you want to tell me what happened?" I reached out and offered her my hand. She took it. It was really the first time I had paid attention to a harpy hand up close. Instead of skin like I was used to, it had three fingers, a thumb, was sort of scaly, with some feathers, and instead of nails there were talons. They reminded me of ptarm feet, for lack of a better comparison. Harpies really were basically bird people, huh?

One thing I noticed was that Nene kept her talons dulled and they had been painted with a sort of sparkling polish. It was sort of like the nail treatments some girls in Burgotova and Revenstahd did when they wanted to fancy themselves up. I guess girls don't change that much no matter the species.

"I got invited to a beach party by someone who said they were a Waverider. I don't care about Peloras or any of their religious stuff, but the surfing is fun, and their parties are pretty fun. There's usually good booze, roasted meat, and you know, some of the mainland herbs that get you loopy in a fun way." She looked embarrassed to admit it.

"Hey, I get it! I've been known to use the herb a few times myself. Helps me unwind during rough days at school, yeah?" I said softly. That seemed to help her relax a bit more.

"I was here to have a little blowout vacation before heading off to school myself. I got accepted to be a student at Dungeon School in Revenstahd. One of the first harpies to go! And I almost blew it!" Her eyes started to shimmer with tears threatening to run down her face.

I took a handkerchief I had in a pocket and dabbed her eyes real quick.

"Hey, no tears, yeah? I go to Dungeon School too! You're going to be my junior! That's great! Now, what happened after you got there?" I tried to guide the conversation.

"I got there, and it was a party like normal. It definitely wasn't my first party on this trip, but they gave me some herbs, and I smoked it like normal, but I started feeling really weird. Really, really weird. Everything after that, everything gets weird, but I remember saying they were lucky to find a siren. Which struck me as weird. Sirens aren't rare or anything. Not in the harpy lands anyway." She continued, her words coming out in a flood.

I had no idea what a siren was, but that wasn't important. I was about to ask her further questions when I heard a sudden shout come from the table. I tensed, ready to protect Nene if I had to.

"I don't care why you've all called us here; that is the prerogative of the Medwin family, but why in all the hells are the Silver Trident sullying our table? They are our sworn enemy, and by all rights we should be running them through, not welcoming them! What idiot allowed this?!" One of the people I assumed was a pirate captain shouted. They were an orc, a tall, slender specimen of the species, but muscular in a way I could instantly tell they were a fighter. A quick one rather than a powerful one.

"That idiot would be me." A voice said quietly from the doors, but their words carried into the room like a storm cloud. The pirate orc turned, and even across the room I could see them break out in a cold sweat.

"All rise!" Renard shouted, and every person at the table, even the knights, stood at attention with a precision that would have made any military unit jealous. I helped Nene to her feet, as we didn't want to be the only ones not following along. In situations like this, standing out was not a good idea, and we were already the odd ones out.

A woman strode into the room proper, a silver-haired, purple-eyed elven man in her wake.

I had thought Roshia looked similar to Eira, but that paled in comparison to the woman who stood there imperiously. Save for the rounded human ears, she was a dead ringer for Eira. It was like looking at Eira in her future. She carried herself with the sort of confidence I could only hope to dream of aspiring to.

She made her way to the head of the table, waited for the elf with her, no doubt the last of her harem, to sit, before she ascended to the seat that was her place. Other than being raised, there wasn't much to say for the seat, but she made it seem like the throne of an Empress.

I had met kings and lords with less presence than this woman. Gods above and below, I was intimidated to say the least.

"Be seated." She ordered, and everyone obeyed.

She looked over the assemblage gathered before her, before looking at me and Nene out of the corner of her eye. I swore I saw a little quirk of the corner of her mouth when she saw me. I wasn't entirely keen on what that could mean.

"All hands that have been ordered to this gathering are present?" She turned to Renard.

"Yes, my queen." He nodded.

"Very good. Roshia, you may begin." She turned to the elven woman.

"I hereby call this gathering of the Pirate Fleet and Medwin Family, under the reign of Pirate Queen Artemisia Medwin, Bloody Commodore, Scourge of Hastera, Tarkota, and The Free Waters, and Sovereign of the Pirate Alliance to order." Roshia declared formally.

I held Nene's hand firmly to reassure her. I had a feeling we were in for one hell of a ride, and she wasn't alone here.