The Meeting (3/3)

All the carriages and carts are quickly brought inside the front gate, and Haalfrin notices something rather peculiar. The space that all the carriages are being parked in is… "a giant storage bag?" Haalfrin mutters in surprise.

"What did you say?" Resburn asks.

"I noticed that the room where we're parking the cart right now is enchanted to take up less space than it actually is," Haalfrin explains, "It's a giant storage bag."

Haalfrin originally paid attention to this because he noticed that the front hall is a lot bigger than he remembers it being from his last visit.

"…Oh. Interesting," Jay says wistfully, "I wonder if we could get the schematics for that enchantment…"

"Yes, Jay," Myra interrupts, "It would be very useful to have in the Threshold but I doubt the master of this place would just teach us."

After their carriage is stored in its designated spot beside the hundreds of other carriages, the 5 men and women hop off. They see that the other Rehkin emissaries are going in a certain direction, so Jay goes ahead to follow the crowd with his 4 human companions right behind him.

After they get a certain distance into Fheldin's lair, they see a small booth in the middle of the great hall. There, a tiny, grey-winged bird-man is manning it. In front of the booth is a long line of Rehkin from all sorts of Clans.

Without a word or explanation, Myra immediately hops in line.

"Oi Myra," Haalfrin asks, "What's this line for?"

"Oh, this man from the Pigeon race manages a courier system. I have some friends in the other clans I'd like to send a few gifts to."

During her many years traveling around the Rehkin lands before, learning all the major languages, she's made a lot of friends and connections. It's important to remind these people that she still keeps thinking about them. (Rehkin are bigger on loyalty than humans, so it can't hurt.)

Myra sees her companions all staring at her, so she says, "…What? This place is backed by Lord Fheldin, so it's perfectly confidential. The mail service is reliable too."

Jay, looks around and says, "The meeting doesn't start for a few more hours, so just make it quick. We need to get to our rooms to unpack."

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After Myra is finished mailing her packages to her long list of friends, they walk through the entrance to the palace. Most of the rooms are filled to the brim with various art and expensive-looking furniture… none of which were displayed so openly in the halls last time Haalfrin was here. The only decorations before were the mana stone murals.

Perhaps Fheldin is a lot more prideful than he thought? With so many people visiting from all around the world, he probably just wants to remind everyone how wealthy he is. Or rather, he's afraid of looking poor in front of strangers.

Sure, it all looks rich and sparkly, but Haalfrin thinks it also looks tacky. There's no symmetry or spacing between any of the displays. Even worse, most of the expensive art and sculptures are littering the sides of the halls haphazardly.

It all looks more like a junkyard to Haalfrin than a stylish display of wealth.

As they go further through the halls, a Fox woman in servant's attire politely gives instructions to all the visiting clan elders. Once it's the human's turn, she says something in her jabbering language. Myra translates it roughly to, "If anyone breaks anything, the Master will probably kill you."

After they're led through several long halls, they arrive in a very large room with an absurdly long table - at least 100 feet long.

The representative of each clan is offered a seat, while all their escorts have to stand behind them.

Haalfrin looks to the head of the table and he sees a familiar, 7 feet tall man sitting down. Sitting beside him is a comparatively tiny, delicate-looking woman with 4 feathered wings on her back.

The wings are all so shiny that they almost appear like polished metal or even glass, and they have various hues of greens, blues, and reds. Her hair also reflects the color scheme of her wings. On top of that, her skin is so pristine and clean looking that Haalfrin can accurately say this is probably the most beautiful woman he's ever seen before.

Of course, Haalfrin knows who these people are; they are Lord Fheldin and his wife.

It is barely now that Haalfrin notices that Lord Fheldin is carrying two squirming figures tucked under one arm each.

Fheldin is so big that Haalfrin didn't notice the kids until he brought them out in full display of everyone. Despite Lord Fheldin's intimidating stature, he tries to make himself look harmless as he holds out the children in front of everyone and swings them around playfully while he waits for all the emissaries to arrive and take their seats.

An hour later, all the seats are filled up, and everyone looks at Fheldin to start the discussion. He has the highest status here, so deference in discussion lies with him.

Fheldin starts the meeting off by holding his two children out for everyone to see. "This is Brezza" – pointing to the daughter – "and this is Furrik! They're my newborn children!" They looked more like toddlers though…

'Wait… daughter?' Haalfrin thinks. 'Didn't Hraldin say that there can be no female dragons?'

He looks closer and sees the little feathery wings on the girl's back. 'Ah. So Fheldin can have daughters, but none of them will have dragon blood in them; they'll be pure Felkin.'

Fheldin breathes a gust of hot air in the kids' faces, and he coos in Draconic, "Look my little treasures! They all brought presents for you!"

Brezza looks over to the pile of gifts that are suspended in the air with magic. She brightly smiles and bows her large head while her hand is still stuffed in her mouth. "Thwank you!" she chirps in a soft, melodic voice.

The Fox people beside Haalfrin cup their cheeks with their hands and purr, "Sssoooo adorable!"

Myra and Faylin are also red in the face, and they look like the cuteness is about to give them a heart attack.

Fheldin, however, quickly pulls back his little daughter and says, "Ha…ha! No reason to thank these lower life forms! You have an awesome daddy, and they're just doing what they should!"

Brezza look down, as if she was about to cry. "I-I'm sowwy daddy."

"Ahh…" Lord Fheldin blows on her face again. "You can't do anything wrong little treasure! We just don't want anyone to look down on you."

"O-oh." Brezza obviously doesn't understand. All she knows is that she didn't make a mistake.

Meanwhile, Furrik is growling at his father and gnawing on the lord's fingers. He's trying to act like a scary dragon, but not even the guests think he's intimidating with his young voice.

When Furrik sees that his threats aren't working, he starts freaking out. "Let me go!" the child shrieks. "I can walk on my own!"

Fheldin laughs at Furrik and caresses the boy's head with his thumb. "Ahaha! Look at my little Furrik! He's so young, yet he's already so fierce!"

Furrik looks around and sees that all these strangers are watching him. Seeing this, his confidence shrinks, and he hides his face – clearly on the verge of tears.

Softly, he reaches out to the beautiful phoenix beside him. "Mom… everyone saw me being held."

Fheldin's wife quickly takes the boy in her arms, and the boy immediately calms down as he buries his face in her chest. "What's wrong with being held by your father?" Mistress Arla asks. "You know he does that because he loves you."

"Being coddled is humiliating!" The boy was trying to whisper this, but everyone in the room either has excellent natural hearing or they – like the humans – habitually use magic to augment their senses.

Seeing this, Haalfrin whispers to Resburn beside him, "If I had a child behave like that, I'd slap him on the side of the head."

Instead of Resburn, Dakka replies in his mind, 'Bah! My little uncle is going to grow up to be a fine dragon! Any dragon with a bit of pride can't stand being… taken care of… Oooo. Shudder the thought.'

'…What?'

"Yeah, nobody wants to be one of those loser dragons who never leave his parents' house."

Thinking back to what he's seen of dragons before, Haalfrin concedes the point.

'…Dakka?' Haalfrin just barely thinks to ask, 'Weren't you so scared of being noticed that you hid your spirit and refused to even be conscious last time we were here? Why're you talking?'

'Oh… that?' Dakka chuckles, 'With so many complex auras here, there's no way Father would be able to tell me apart from all the others. It's safe to talk right now.'

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The meeting doesn't even go on for very long before Haalfrin is bored out of his mind. Despite everyone speaking in Draconic (in honor of Fheldin) none of the topics have anything that interests Haalfrin.

So he starts daydreaming – no longer paying attention to the meeting at all.

Haalfrin's reverie is interrupted when Resburn bumps his ribcage and whispers, "Psst! Haalfrin!"

"What?"

Resburn points to Mistress Arla. "The 4-winged woman sitting beside the 5-horned dragon... what is she?"

"She's Lord Fheldin's wife," Haalfrin replies.

"No, not WHO is she? – WHAT is she? What race?" Resburn clarifies. "I mean, don't the Rehkin clans resemble animals...? But I've never seen a bird with 4 wings."

All the other humans appear thoughtful at this question, but none of them can answer.

Haalfrin leans over and whispers, "She's a phoenix. The proper term is Felkin."

Faylin sighs while looking at Mistress Arla. "I can't imagine anyone else being married to such a powerful lord. I think she's the most beautiful woman in the world."

Haalfrin shrugs, "Felkin are regarded as the most beautiful of the 7 races."

Dakka sighs wistfully, 'Ahh… I wish I could find a pretty phoenix girl to marry. I heard that they're the most beautiful creatures under the stars and that their songs can change a man…'

And so, they all make some small talk while they wait for the meeting to finish. Jay is the official representative here, so he's the only one who needs to pay attention.

Well, Myra needs to pay attention too, since she's a translator.