Cheya appreciated the opportunities Blue provided but sometimes she wished that he’d give them a little more lead time. It was a nearly insurmountable task to find and clear through traders both native and foreign in hours or days. So far as she understood, the trade hub wasn’t going anywhere, but the Leyn caravan at the very least wasn’t permanent. Thankfully, she could hand off the actual diplomatic communications and logistics to someone else.

For the first time in years, Cheya had room to breathe.

She used that breath for a sigh as she drifted through the shadows in the wake of the Silver Crest Trading Company, one of the ones that had actually qualified to be let into the trade meet. Partly because of their scale, partly because they were deeply tied to Crown interests already, and partly because Yamal Gen had several relatives employed there. Despite that, she would be remiss in her duties if she didn’t snoop around and make sure there weren’t any issues fomenting. She hadn’t had time to deeply inspect everyone.

In truth she was more worried about the people who weren’t going to be allowed into the trade hub. Maybe they could open it up, eventually, but she knew that Blue didn’t want to deal with any of the usual issues with that many people milling about. That meant absolutely draconian control over who went in, and even more draconian punishment for anyone who did cause problems. Possibly administered by actual dragons, considering where it was.

Cheya figured that if anyone was likely to cause issues, it was their foreign visitors. There were some delegations coming from Ir and Nivir and Haerlish to take part, not so much to bring their own trade goods, but to see what was on offer that was new. Obviously she couldn’t object overmuch to any of them, even if she didn’t necessarily trust most of them.

Especially the Esox family. After their performance with Keri at the summit, she had a pretty clear idea of their character. Keri reminded Cheya a little bit of her own granddaughter, and even with the post Cheya held she would never think of trying to pressure any of her family the way the Esoxes had. Someone who showed poor judgement in one aspect would show poor judgement in others.

Flicking from shadow to shadow, she hitched a ride through the portal into the Caldera itself. She hadn’t actually been there too often, for all that Iniri seemed to skip over whenever she felt like it. Cheya just didn’t have access to the teleport points, which was just fine with her. Iniri having an ability to move about that nobody else did was actually quite reassuring.

The trading company milled about in front of the portal for a few minutes, at least partly in awe of the location and partly because they weren’t really sure where to go. The enormous open area Blue had created had too many choices, and they had to send runners out to survey the available areas. Of which there were quite a few, but the Leyn and Chiuxatli had already filled up some of the plaza.

It irked her somewhat that the Chiuxatli had been faster to get their goods out than Tarnil, but Tlulipechua had a very firm hand – or talon – on his people, stronger than most humans could manage or would prefer. No doubt that every single person he let through the portal was someone he knew personally. Considering that, thus far, there hadn’t actually been any real economic contact between the Chiuxatli and Tarnil, she was actually quite interested in what they could offer.

She materialized from the shadows and went walking about, showing herself openly since she was satisfied that the Silver Crest Trading Company, at least, was sufficiently aware of their role. There were some others she was less sanguine about, but none of them had anyone even third-tier among their guards or support Classers. She was happy to let the merchants deal with other merchants on their own terms, regardless of level.

More and more people came through the portal, slowly filling out another section of the trade plaza. They’d all been cautioned to be on their best behavior and warned about Blue’s monsters, though she didn’t see any Scalemind in evidence. There were people from Blue’s Village however, and while their offerings were humble they were of suspiciously high quality. Even if their crafters were of second tier or so, it was obvious they were benefitting from being a Power’s own people.

She caught up with the delegation from Ir as they made their way toward the circle of Leyn offerings. One of the problems of dealing with an empire as large as theirs was that they actually had so many personnel she hadn’t met any of the trade delegation before. To be fair, most of the people she’d met from Ir were the imperial family themselves, rather than the subordinates.

Someone had probably needed to sit on Wright to keep him from coming up himself. She didn’t envy poor Hanzell his job. Iniri was fairly low-key and listened to Cheya for the most part, looking up to her like an older aunt, but Wright was Hanzell’s elder and more boisterous besides. She hoped that Wright’s fourth-tiers helped the poor raven-kin handle the Emperor.

Her eyes were drawn to the far end of the plaza, where the massive lake rippled ominously. She knew that the Leviathans had been invited, but she wasn’t sure if they’d actually involve themselves or just watch from a distance. Aside from their [Wayfarers], they weren’t even supposed to interact with other races that much. It probably wouldn’t change things overmuch, since aside from Nivir everyone had their own dealing with Leviathans.

Cheya had been to more than a few markets in her time and Blue’s plaza was the quietest and most respectful that she’d seen. Probably because nobody wanted to incur any potential wrath, but also likely because there was nobody there but traders. It wasn’t a city, where random citizens and passers-by could enter, but more like a private auction hall. Everyone there was there to do business.

For the next few days she drifted in and out of the trade plaza, partly out of curiosity, and partly because she didn’t trust all of the men that the trading companies had vouched for. They passed a sigil stone test, of course, but that didn’t tell her where their loyalties ultimately lay. There was nobody in particular that she suspected, but just the fact that there were so many unknown faces meant problems could creep in.

It was also a little bit of a vacation. She found herself stopping by the Village booths more than once to sample some foodstuffs on offer, and she wasn’t the only one. They had the advantage of bringing fresh food in daily, mostly trading for little trinkets, but doing a brisk trade overall. The Leyn and Chiuxatli had a larger stock of magical items; mostly cloth for the Chiuxatli and gemstones for the Leyn. Cheya had to admit to some stirrings of avarice looking at a glimmering black wristband that could store shadows. Not just shadow Affinity mana, but specific shadows of people and things.

Still, the presence of some people who had decidedly unfamiliar features wandering toward the Village portal made Cheya break off her meanderings to intercept them. Getting closer she saw their body language was obviously suspicious and her shadows reached out to snare them and hold them in place.

“Now, what are you up to?” She walked over to them, ready to start questioning them when a thunderclap of noise echoed across the plaza and smoke billowed into the air. Cheya bit back a curse and turned to run across the plaza, leaving the suspects trapped in a tangle of shadows. Obviously she’d missed something, and she could damn well guess where. She knew that there were too many people coming in with the trading companies, but there wasn’t time to dig into everyone.

“Blue, close the portals!” She called, though she didn’t know if Blue was listening. If there were people with malevolent intent around, the portals were the most obvious target.

It took her only moments to reach a group of booths in the Tarnil area that were burning with a strange green fire. Fire Affinity wasn’t her expertise, so she didn’t know exactly what was on fire, but there was some Classer in the middle of it flinging the flames about. She took quick stock of situation and decided her talents would be best used for spiriting bystanders out of the way, the ones who had been knocked flat by the explosion. Her sort of shadow expertise didn’t play well with fire.

Even as she pulled back half-burned and burning merchants, a column of water arched out from the lake at the end of the plaza and splashed down on the fire and Classer both. Such a deluge should have absolutely smashed the wood and cloth of the booths, but all it did was put the fire out with a hiss. She could feel the water Affinity mana radiating from it even at a distance, the result of whatever Skill or spell the Leviathan had invoked.

Cheya almost stepped forward to take control of the situation afterward but stopped as One-Eye-Green popped into existence nearby, along with a bunch of other Scalemind. A group of Scythe-Sisters surrounded a trio of Brothers of Burden, all of them looking ready for war. It occurred to Cheya that she didn’t know what provisions Blue had made in case of trouble, even if it was just asking his Companions to keep an eye out for things.

“Stop,” One-Eye-Green said, and Cheya felt one of the Scale-Mind brush at the edges of her thoughts before continuing onwards. Everyone nearby froze in place, unmoving, and Cheya was glad she’d been excluded from that. While the Scalemind had generally used their mind magic for helpful things when it came to human-kin, they were definitely skilled enough to use it offensively, and that was more than a little terrifying.

One-Eye-Green bowed deeply in the direction of the lake, and the water that had put out the fire, instead of puddling and running over the marble, returned to it source, leaving scorched and burnt metal and wood and cloth behind. As well as the Classer that had been in the middle of it all. Cheya let the half-conscious merchant she’d dragged away sag down onto the marble, and figured that Blue probably had Keri arriving to deal with the healing. Or Shayma did.

Some people were beginning to arrive from the other camps, Leyn and Chiuxatli circling in curiously, but the Scalemind seemed to warn them off because none of them got all that close. One-Eye-Green simply stood as the Scythe-Sisters fanned out beyond the destroyed area, making their way along the human-kin booths. Cheya watched them go, feeling at a loss because she didn’t have any actual duties. She’d been in charge so long she’d almost forgotten how to be a bystander.

“Miss Cheya,” One-Eye-Green said, which snapped her out of her bemusement.

“Ambassador One-Eye-Green,” Cheya said, and hid a smile as One-Eye-Green visibly preened at being addressed formally. “I stopped two over toward the Village portal before this happened. I suspect they’re all tied together.”

“Yes, Miss Cheya, you’re right. They’re all together,” she said, pointing at the fire Affinity Classer who was still frozen in place. “Him and four others.”

“What were they thinking?” Cheya asked, shaking her head. With Scalemind, that wasn’t just a rhetorical question.

“He hates Tarnil and Blue and everyone.” She tilted her head slightly as she regarded the man. “He mostly just hates. He and the others signed up three weeks ago. They wanted to destroy the warehouses but thought this was a better chance.”

“Thank you for the information,” Cheya said politely, inwardly marveling at how easy it was for the Scalemind to extract information. Also it made her feel that she’d missed something major, though she already knew that the refugees were looking for ways to make trouble. She’d just thought that they were all confined to the camp, when that clearly wasn’t the case.

The trade company had also lied because they’d promised that all their employees had been with them for years. Cheya could understand that to some degree, because to admit otherwise would be to lose a chance at something utterly novel. Though they could have just brought fewer people. She sighed. There was going to be trouble with this.

“Does Blue want to take care of them? Tarnil is willing to take custody if he doesn’t want to bother himself with it.”

“You’d have to ask Miss Shayma,” One-Eye-Green said. “I think she’ll be here soon? She sent us, anyway.”

One-Eye-Green was right and they didn’t have to wait long. Shayma appeared with Keri and waved at Cheya and One-Eye-Green both as she approached. Keri immediately went to the wounded as Shayma sort of waved her hand and the injured drifted over into neat rows. It was an absurd display of power for someone who hadn’t been even second tier less than two years ago.

“So what happened?” She frowned at the Classer in the middle of it all. Off in the distance, two Scythe-Sisters were shepherding a Classer each in her direction. “Blue wasn’t actually paying attention. Thank you for warning him about the portals, by the way.”

“He’s welcome, but I think we caught them all in time anyway. I got the two angling for the Village portal, but I’m not sure how everything else went down,” Cheya admitted. “One-Eye-Green is the one handling everything.”

“Oh!” Shayma turned to face the Scalemind. They didn’t talk, so Cheya assumed they were communicating through mind magic. Her ears flicked, and she looked back to Cheya. “Yes, you can have them. Blue would just kill them so you can probably get more out of them.”

“We can help!” One-Eye-Green said. “My sisters and I.”

“I would be grateful for your help, Ambassador,” Cheya said, and One-Eye-Green beamed again. She found it rather endearing how One-Eye-Green flipped between an official personage and an eager-to-please child without notice, though she imagined it would throw most diplomats.

“All right, go ahead and take them with you. I’ll hang around here for a while, just in case.” Shayma wandered off to talk to people, and a pressure that Cheya hadn’t realized was there went with her. It wasn’t anything like Blue’s Presence when it was properly unleashed, but there was still a heaviness in the air whenever his attention was focused on something in particular. She probably was just used to it considering how often Iniri had Blue’s attention.

The Scythe-Sisters made for far more effective restraints than anything Cheya had on her, even her shadow Skills, so she let the Scalemind take the pair she’d found as well. The portals flickered back into existence and she walked toward the one leading to Tarnil alongside One-Eye-Green. Cheya did want to order the offending trading company out as well, but they’d been given permission directly from Queen Iniri. With the immediate threat dealt with, she didn’t think it was appropriate to undercut royal authority by rescinding that permission herself.

Their little procession got noticed in short order after they crossed through the Tarnil portal, and Cheya sent pages and Queensguard on ahead to apprise Iniri of the situation while she escorted their prisoners to the cells with the Scalemind. Considering the difficulty of keeping Classers contained, the cells were actually extremely expensive, all of them being seamless cubes of rune-engraved [Sunmetal]. There were only five of them, so it encouraged Iniri or her duly appointed representatives to judge the fates of the prisoners with dispatch.

“We have an area you can wait, if you would,” Cheya offered. It was meant for judges and witnesses, or specialists if there were a need for them, attached to the prison rather than the palace proper. It was still quite nice, and the Scalemind would probably appreciate it more than the glass and windows of the palace above.

“Yes please,” One-Eye-Green said, and Cheya ushered them into a waiting room, which thankfully had nice thick rugs for the Scythe-Sisters to relax on in addition to normal, human-kin-friendly chairs. Then she went directly to Iniri, probably bypassing a few messengers on the way.

“Well?” Iniri said as Cheya slipped into the room, though quietly, as Marin was asleep.

“The White Harbor trading company falsified some of their information, and had five Orrelin refugees on staff,” Cheya said without any preamble. “I advise ejecting them from Blue’s trading plaza and starting a full audit.” Iniri nodded along, as that much was obvious. “We need to know who was responsible for letting them into the company in the first place, and who it was that falsified the employee information.”

“Yes,” Iniri agreed. “I can feel some of these people scattered throughout Tarnil, like an itch that you can’t quite locate, but without meeting every single one of them myself, I don’t know I’d be able to tell. Unless we just ban everyone who looks like they come from Orrelin.”

“That might be on the table,” Cheya said ominously. “As Orrelin comes apart we’re going to have to either do something about it, or ask Blue to just wall Tarnil off. Though that won’t do anything for Nivir or Kinul.” Iniri nodded agreement.

“It must have been on the brink of this for a while if all it took was one visit by Blue to destabilize the country.” Then Iniri pursed her lips, considering. “Then again, it is Blue, so maybe not. What does it look like over there?”

“With the understanding that the intelligence I have is probably outdated…” Cheya waited for Iniri’s nod before continuing. “The Inquisition and the army are fighting, the nobility are trying to quell them both, Princeps Alakeim is completely missing, and some of the cells are trying to break away from everyone. So, overall, a complete mess. Some assassinations and counter-assassinations left the army and Inquisition without their most effective leaders early on, so both of those have internal cohesion problems as well as each other.”

“That is worse than the last update,” Iniri said, just stating a fact.

“I thought the Inquisition was going to take back control, until the assassinations,” Cheya agreed. “Now, it’s really anybody’s guess.”

“I suppose…” Iniri heaved a sigh. “I suppose we need to discuss what we’re going to do about this. It’s possible we could entice Ir to take care of it, but I don’t know if Wright wants to send the sheer number of Classers it would take. I know Nivir isn’t capable of it, nor is Kinul.” Cheya nodded along. Neither of them mentioned the Tonstrad region on the southeast border of Orrelin. They were so disorganized and fractious even Wright didn’t want to deal with them.

“Orrelin was a great buffer, up until it wasn’t,” Cheya said wistfully.

“I’ll put it on the schedule for Basil and Ina,” Iniri said. “And Shayma, too. Our interests are supposed to be Blue’s, not the reverse. He’s going to be the one to ultimately decide how this plays with Tarnil’s safety versus his interests.”

Cheya nodded. She didn’t much like the restriction on their foreign policy that their Bargain with Blue created, but it was far better than the alternative. In truth, Blue’s lack of interest in expansion or acquisition was a blessing, considering how much internal rebuilding was still going on. It really wasn’t on him that Orrelin just needed a little push to start falling apart.

“What shall we do with the prisoners?” Cheya asked.

“Interrogate them, then deal with them accordingly.” Iniri scowled. “If they’re really foreigners here to make trouble, we need not grant them any clemency.”

Cheya nodded. Considering the state of Orrelin, there was no real way to send the four who hadn’t managed anything back there, which would have been the normal way to deal with that. The Classer who had actually managed to damage the trade plaza would have been a more ticklish situation, had Orrelin been intact. As it was, there was no reason to keep him alive after they’d gotten all the information they could.

“I’ll go see to it right away,” Cheya said, standing up and bowing. Iniri inclined her head, brow furrowed in thought, as Cheya took her leave. She went to her own section of the Palace, picking up a scribe and a junior agent by the name of Cale, briefing them en route back to the cells.

“I want to know everything about them and everything about the Orrelin refugees that bypassed the camps,” she told them. “Is there some organization, anyone behind the scenes, or just a bunch of disgruntled Classers running around looking for trouble?” Cheya vastly preferred that there was some shadow organization, maybe a remnant of the Inquisition or its programs, but she had the feeling it was just people being people. People who had been fed propaganda about the evils of every other kingdom, and had been inculcated with hatred toward them.

“Yes, Spymistress,” said Cale. There hadn’t been much call for any of her people to train their interrogation skill much yet, let alone get a Skill for it, but that wouldn’t matter in this case. The mind magic of the Scalemind, while absolutely terrifying for operational security, was fantastic for extracting information. If they weren’t Blue’s, she would have tried to get some of them to work for her.

They went back down to where the Scalemind waited, finding the Scythe-Sisters stretched out on the carpet like enormous scaled dogs or cats, and One-Eye-Green waiting patiently in a chair. Cheya glanced at the lounging Scythe-Sisters but didn’t say anything, because it was really their fault for not providing appropriate furniture. Not that she knew what the appropriate furniture was.

“Ambassador, I think we’re ready to interrogate the prisoners,” she said. “We’ll take the one who actually attacked first. If I could prevail upon you to have one of your companions escort him to the interrogation room, Mister Cale here will take charge of the questioning.”

“Very well, Miss Cheya,” One-Eye Green said, and turned to look at the pair of Scythe-Sisters on the carpet. While it was difficult to read Scalemind body language, it seemed to Cheya they looked rather put out by having to get up to go with One-Eye-Green. There was some silent discussion between the three of them and eventually one of the Scythe-Sisters huffed and raised herself up, small feet tapping as she moved to One-Eye-Green’s side.

They went off to the cells and Cheya had the guard open the one in question. Whatever ranting and ravings had been on the prisoner's lips were cut off as the Scythe-Sister incapacitated him. Cheya wasn’t sure if the man was being puppeted, or just given suggestions, but either way he walked docilely along to the room set aside for interrogations.

It was a slightly larger version of the cells, and had taken ten times the work besides, but Cheya could supervise from the outside. Normally the subject would be rather more restrained, but with the Scalemind that wasn’t necessary. The cell itself didn’t have any runes aimed to counter mind magic, since that wasn’t something any of the experts they could find had expertise in, but it was definitely something to investigate.

The scribe joined Cheya outside the cell looking in, while a page hastily brought in a chair for One-Eye-Green. Then, after some brief consultation, a rug for the Scythe-Sister. Cheya was actually quite proud of her people for taking the Scalemind’s presence so in stride. Of course her people knew about Blue’s monsters, but that was different from being suddenly confronted by a large, scythe-armed monster that could read and maybe even control people’s minds.

Once everyone was settled in, Cale started with the questions. He did a credible job, though no real acumen was necessary since the Orrelinian was not capable of either silence or lies. The scribe took down everything that was said, and Cheya stewed on the situation in general. There was no grand scheme, just a load of people with a chip on their shoulder and not much to lose.

She would much rather it not have been their problem, but it was. The question was how much they could convince Blue to help.