After reconvening, things seemed a little better. Only a little. Anna thought Lady Thalia and Captain Yamada must have given their respective diplomates lectures on tact, because neither made any more aspersions against the Grealish or one another. They all focused on trying to think up some solution to the bandits.

  This did involve asking Anna if she would be able to lend out her Wisps as protection against the insurgents throughout the continent. She explained she didn’t think they had that sort of control over the Wisps. After answering that, she hoped they’d be able to talk about the Wisps themselves. Instead, they grilled her about methods of creating their own stockpiles of Wisps, as if the creatures were weapons.

  Here, Jeremy, who’d done nothing except look bored so far, slammed a hand on the table. “No. That’s a bad idea,” he said.

  The Ryukyuujin diplomat gave Jeremy a withering look. “Might you enlighten us, sir….?”

  “My name is Jeremy Thornwood. And I spent a week taken by the Wisps.” The table fell silent as his words sunk in. “I don’t think I know as much about them as Anna does in general. But I know if you try treating these things like weapons, try controlling them, it won’t end well.”

  “It seems are dour Dwarven friend here is able to do it,” Mado said.

  “She’s not the one seeking them out though,” Jeremy said. “She’s just helping.”

  “So it is that special Wisp of yours,” Captain Yamada cut in, “the one you call Halcyon which makes your feats possible.”

  Anna nodded. “I wouldn’t have set out on my journey and met the others without him,” Anna said. “Most of what we do is take him to the dangerous Wisps and he soothes them. We may help him a little. Support him. But he and the other Wisps are the only ones who know how to actually do it.”

  “And those others want to stay with your Halcyon Wisp,” sighed the Ryukyuujin diplomat.

  “Is there any way you know of to expedite the process, then?” Daniel asked.

  Anna shook her head. “I think he’s able to work better the more calm Wisps and calm people he has backing him up,” Anna said. “As far as what he’s doing, other than feeling calm himself, we don’t know.”

  “So we are no closer to solving these problems,” Mado said. “All this talk, and the foremost experts on the subject have no solution, save continuing to work on their own.”

  Anna wanted to interject, to point out their more recent discoveries. At that moment, though, the doors slammed open. Prince Lief, stood grinning in the doorway. Half a dozen small fresh cuts stood out red across his arms, and another on his cheek. Two Grealish guards stood at his sides, looking small and nervous next to the large Nordarin prince.

  “That was the best fighting I’ve had in a while,” he exclaimed. “Excepting the dragon, of course. Ah!” he said, noticing Peter. “Shame you weren’t there! I would have loved to try against you again without any of our tricks to help us out.”

  “Tell me about it,” Peter muttered.

  Prince Lief swept his gaze across the table, and he seemed to take some pleasure at the fact that his entrance had drawn the proceedings to a halt. He strode around the table and took his seat in the center of the Nordarin diplomatic party. “I know I’m late and I don’t expect you to recount it all on my part. But would someone mind giving me a quick summary of the meeting so far?”

  “We’ve been trying to think of ways to deal with the Wisp Stealers,” one of his men said.

  “A good whack on the head should be enough for that,” Lief said cheerfully.

  “Only if we can find them,” Queen Talitha said in a tone that Anna thought was as likely to be amusement as annoyance.

  “I suppose that could get a bit tricky,” the prince agreed.

  “Perhaps we should return to the topic, then,” Captain Yamada said. “Are there any further suggestions?”

  “I have been thinking that the best starting point is to cut off their resources,” Sol said. “That is, to get to the Wisps before they do.”

  The Nordarin prince nodded at that. “Good place to start, isn’t it. How do we do that?”

  “Her, as of now,” the Ryukyuujin diplomat replied with a wave toward Anna. “She seems… well, it does not appear possible for her to spread her skills to others.”

  Anna felt her face grow hot, but refrained from saying anything.

  “Hey, we’ve been working hard to keep the Wisps from causing problems,” Peter said. “And we’ve been doing a pretty good job of stopping them once we get there thanks to Anna and Halcyon. And we get there faster than anyone else thanks to Jarn.”

  “Calm down, Peter,” Andrew hissed. But Anna was touched that he spoke up for her. “Part of what my brother is trying to say as well,” Andrew continued, now addressing the rest of the table, “is that we have made discoveries that may help regarding the nature of the Wisps. How they will help is still uncertain, though.”

  “Then perhaps it is time we address these discoveries,” Sol said.

  “Their nature, you say?” said one of the other Selasi advisors, and Anna suddenly realized that it was the mage, Ashon. “Does this mean you know how the High Elves made them? Or are they not constructs?”

  “They aren’t,” Anna said. “They are not just connected to the High Elves. They are the High Elves.”

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  The table fell silent for a moment. Ashon leaned back and stroked his beard. “That is certainly an interesting supposal, but…”

  Anna felt her face grow hot. “Athalfin,” she said. “Gilfirin. Kiarmak. Pridatha. Invasa. Liosfalda.” With each name, a blue Wisp popped out of her bracelet –and one from Peter’s sword- and began circling over her head.

  People all around the table scrambled out of their seats. King Henry and Queen Emily looked a little nervous, but didn’t move. Neither did Daniel, Queen Talitha, or Captain Yamada. Prince Lief and Sol actually leaned in, the one with a look of excitement, and the other with a look of wonder and curiosity. Jeremy and Hannah moved away from the table slowly, as if the Wisps were animals they didn’t want to startle. Some of the others were more concerned with creating distance. “You brought them with you?” squeaked the Ryukyuujin diplomat after shooting out of his chair and putting it between him and the Wisp Seekers.

  “Each of those names is from a list of High Elven names,” Anna explained. “We’ve only found one shared name so far. Tireal.” Two more Wisps popped out of her bracelet to join the others. “They respond to the names with recognition. No other words. Even some of the others we discovered in the old High Elven language. We don’t know what happened to them, but the only thing that makes sense is they were somehow transformed into… well, this. And most of them are not happy about it.”

  The table was quiet for a few seconds. Then Daniel rose to his feet and spread his hands out. “This is fascinating news. Though, Anna, I think having them out might be a bit much.”

  Anna barely felt the embarrassment through the Wisps influence, which she was very grateful for. Still, she realized most of the others were not really listening anymore. So she started trying to coax the Wisps back into her bracelet.

  As she did, Daniel turned to address the group as a whole. “We’ve been here for most of the day now. Most of us, anyway,” he added, with a meaningful look at Prince Lief. “And with such a significant historical secret revealed, I’m sure we could all use some time to process this. Taking a recess now so we can reconvene in the morning seems a good idea to me. What say all of you?”

  “Yes, I think that is a good idea,” said the Ryukyuujin diplomat. He’d regained most of his composure, though his face was still pale, and he kept glancing at the Wisps as if they were animals. Queen Talitha nodded her agreement as well. Prince Lief shrugged.

  “Excited to hear it!” he said. The parties filed out of the room, following their respective leaders.

  The Grealish party stayed behind. Sol and Daniel turned to the royal twins and began asking them their thoughts on the meeting. Queen Emily made most of the replies. Henry’s responses were all surly and low, and Anna couldn’t quite make them out.

  “That was a waste of time,” Peter hissed, low enough that only Andrew and Anna could hear him. “If they were gonna have us be here, they should have started asking about the Wisps.”

  “There was no way for them to know exactly what direction the meeting would turn,” Andrew said.

  “Of course there was,” Peter said. “They could have planned it out ahead of time. Like they did with the rest of the schedule.”

  “I agree,” Anna said. “Without knowing how the Wisps work, talking about the solutions first was pointless. Maybe I should have mentioned that at the beginning,” she added, feeling a spike of regret at the realization.

  “Not sure how much good it would have done you,” Jeremy said as he and his sister approached them from around the table. “Some of those advisors seemed more interested in hashing out old conflicts than solving the current problem.”

  Anna nodded her agreement and looked down at the gem in her bracelet. “I don’t think I should have startled them that way,” Anna said.

  “I don’t know,” Hannah said. She still looked a little nervous herself, but she gave Anna an encouraging smile. “I think you may have just reminded them this is a real problem. Not just an issue in one of their reports or ledgers.”

  “Thanks,” Anna said.

  “We could have done all that tomorrow morning, though,” Peter grumbled. “Between all five of us we said what? Six sentences?”

  “I hear you there,” Jeremy said. “I was looking forward to participating in the tournament.” Jermey glanced over his shoulder to the chair Lief had been sitting in. “Wish I had some of those royal perks.”

  “You should have said something!” The group turned to see the King and Queen looking at them. Sol and Daniel were discussing something by the door and didn’t seem to be listening. Henry got up and walked over to them. “You’re our cousin,” he continued. “I’m sure I could have convinced Daniel to move the time of the meetings if you and Peter were asking for it together!”

  “Hey, I asked a lot!” Peter said.

  “I doubt that would have worked,” Emily said. “If there’s anything Daniel’s a stickler about, its things moving on time.” She sighed. “He didn’t move things when you asked. Why would adding Jeremy’s voice make a difference?”

  “Well, in that case we’re going to need to make it clear to him that the next tournament is a priority on our schedule,” Henry said.

  “Hear, hear!” Peter said.

  The queen sighed and stepped closer to Anna and Andrew. “Well. This was something of a stressful meeting. Henry and I haven’t had a moment to get away,” she said.

  “I was wanting to ask about that,” Andrew said, lowering his tone. “How are we supposed to…” he paused, eyeing Hannah and Jeremy. Jeremy was focused on Henry’s explanation of how they’d convince the Chancelor to fix the schedule for them, but Hannah looked back at him, curiously. Andrew sighed and continued weakly, “to follow the plan?”

  “What plan is this?” Hannah asked.

  “It’s a secret mission we’ve set for ourselves,” the queen said. “I’ll tell you about it later.”

  “I can keep my mouth shut,” Hannah said, leaning in with a conspiratorial grin.”

  Anna trusted Hannah, but she didn’t think it boded well that Emily, in response, gave a soft smile and then divulged their entire plan to interrogate Sheil on their own. Hannah seemed surprised that it was something as serious as that. Her jaw set as she nodded her understanding and agreement to Emily’s request to keep silent on the matter.

  “But like I said, we haven’t been able to get away. Maybe if we hurry now, we can-“

  As if on que, Lady Thalia returned. “Your Majesty. Your Highness. It is time for us to go get our supper. We’ve been in this room far too long.”

  “Of course, Mother! One moment!” Queen Emily called back. The royal mother raised an eyebrow at that, but didn’t object. Emily turned back to the others and rushed out in a whisper, “Tomorrow morning then. We’ll send for you early and carry it out before the meeting.”

  Andrew and Anna nodded their agreement. Then the queen collected her brother and the two left, following after their mother.

  “I feel like I wasn’t supposed to hear that,” Hannah muttered.    “No,” Andrew agreed. “But at least it was just you. Now that you have, you may be able to serve as a go between for us.”

  Hannah nodded. “Yes, I’ll go catch up with them and let the two of them know I can fetch you in the morning. It’ll be easier than one of them doing it.”

  Andrew and Anna nodded their agreement. The Wisp Seekers returned to the main camp outside the palace, separating Peter from Jermey in the process. They had their own supper. Anna found herself going to bed early rather than practicing with the Wisps like she’d expected.

  She woke up to Hannah entering the tent and calling to them. “Is it time,” Anna asked.

  “Actually, there’s a bit of an issue,” Hannah said. “I can’t find Jeremy, and it seems like the king wasn’t in his chambers.”

  “Well, that’s not good,” Andrew said. “Hopefully they’re both…” he trailed off, and Anna followed his gaze.

  Peter’s bedroll was empty as well.