No Need for a Core?

Her escort returned, then led her into the main hall and towards the thrones, where he bowed to the king and queen as he introduced her. “Your Majesties, this is Lady Moriko, of the Sakiya Temple.” The hall was not terribly busy, but it was also the center point of business for the court, so there were plenty of people to see her being introduced and hear her name. She’d also spotted Princess Kagami, though she didn’t really have the opportunity to look around for the rest.

“It is a pleasure and honor to meet you, Your Majesties,” Moriko said to them as she curtsied. She’d practiced enough to not be awkward, but she’d always preferred bowing. Court rules were more formal than the rest of life however, and she had been given a recent education to make sure she got the basics right.

“Lady Moriko, it is good to put a face to one of the names I’ve been hearing so much about recently,” King Yoshihiro replied, giving a slight nod to acknowledge her introduction, and signaling her escort to leave.

Queen Phaedra shot her husband an amused glance before leaning forward to give Moriko a warm smile. “I’ve heard much about you from my daughters, they seem quite taken with you. I am quite looking forward to talking with you over dinner tonight.” The queen’s fair appearance gave quite a bit of proof to Princess Kagami’s name, the eldest daughter was practically a mirror of her mother.

“There is some court business to attend to yet, but we will be joining you in our private dining hall shortly.” The king was about to continue when another male voice spoke up.

“Lady Moriko, perhaps I can escort you there and keep you entertained awhile?” The speaker was a young blonde man in his teens, though tall and unusually solidly built for his age, with a moderately tan complexion that contrasted with his fairer hair.

King Yoshihiro smiled slightly as he gestured toward the boy. “Lady Moriko, I should like to introduce you to Prince Gou, my youngest.”

Moriko gave the young prince a shallower curtsy than she’d given the king and queen as she considered how best to respond. “Ah, it is a pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.” Prince Gou’s smile was a touch too warm and eager to please, and Moriko wanted to make sure she defused any vague hopes quickly. She doubted that he had any specific ideas in his mind beyond wanting to show off and be admired, but the young could become over-focused quickly.

Then she spied Princess Kagami looking at her youngest brother with an expression Moriko was certain she’d worn herself, and the perspective change gave her inspiration. “And I would be happy to be escorted by such a dashing young man.” She pitched her voice to make sure that ‘dashing’ sounded more like ‘cute’ than ‘handsome’, and had to suppress a desire to laugh as she took the offered arm with a smile. “You remind me of my younger brother, he’s always so earnest. I do hope you are a better swordsman than him however, it wasn’t too long ago that he lost a spar to a rabbit actor. Admittedly, the rabbit was a dungeon creature, but he’d only been a three-foot-tall humanoid for a few weeks.”

The twitch in Gou’s expression told Moriko that her verbal combo had hit his ego, but the prince only briefly stiffened before he inclined his head. “Well, maybe I can visit your dungeon someday and test myself against the same actor, and we could see.” His smile still seemed genuine enough, just a bit less intense, and Kagami’s smirk looked satisfied, so Moriko was fairly certain that she’d struck the right balance. He got to treat her like another older sister, no more.

As he showed her the way to the dining hall, Moriko replied, “Well, if you have a good showing, perhaps my husband or I could have a spar with you as well. Don’t forget that I am a disciple of the monastery.” Well, that got his interest focused, and the resulting conversation was more about martial techniques than anything else. He really did remind her of Galan, though more composed and broadly educated. They’d either be best friends or consider each other rivals. Though the difference could be hard to tell sometimes.

The dining hall was maybe not quite as big as her family’s home back in Riverbridge, but they also had a larger home than average for their town. It not only held the large dining table, but had enough space around it for servants to pass by each other while pushing carts, with furniture decorating the walls as well. If this was the private dining hall, the banquet hall had to be bigger than her monastery’s dining hall.

The rest of the royal family filtered in shortly after their arrival and Moriko finally got to meet the heir, Prince Ailwin, as well as the royal spouses; Prince Zarod, Princess Amhis, and Princess Catherine. Princess Tiriana’s fiance, Lord Ilimater, was currently in his homeland. He would acquire the title of Prince as well, once they were married.

There were a lot of names and faces to remember, even with having met the royal princesses two days ago and having studied the notes her master had given her. Prince Zarod was a little taller than Moriko was while she was wearing these boots, with curly, light brown hair that was kept barely tamed. He seemed affable enough and clearly doted on his wife, but to Moriko’s eye any apparent softness was an illusion, he had a solid sort of confidence that suggested he was reasonably capable at the least.

Princess Amhis was the least physically imposing member of the royal family. She was dark-haired with dusky skin, and barely taller than Kazue but not as slender, which led to a slight excess of curves. However, she was energetic to the point of effervescence, always ready to join any conversation while managing to keep track of everything going on in the room, and broke smoothly away when she was needed by one of the servants. She was quite the contrast against her much taller husband, but they also fitted against each other charmingly when she had a moment to rest in his arms.

Princess Catherine on the other hand was like a narrower, sharper version of her wife, Princess Kitiara. Both tall and blond, Catherine was more of a ‘rapier’ compared to Kitiara’s ‘broadsword’. Comparing them to weapons seemed apt, as neither took any care to hide their military bearing.

Moriko found herself swept into different conversations, not quite guided along a set flow so much as the center of a concerted effort to ensure that she was entertained and occupied until the King and Queen arrived. Following a bit of advice from Mordecai, she took the time during these conversations to make sure she complimented each piece of jewelry she’d been loaned for the occasion, borrowing some of her terminology from Kazue and Mordecai but keeping her compliments sincere. Her favorite was the necklace, a string of spectacular blue opal beads woven into a rope of gold threads, the beads flashing with occasional hints of fiery reds and yellows.

She hadn’t been certain where they were going to seat her, but she was only a little surprised to find herself seated between Queen Phaedra and Princess Kagami. Her new status as a Lady certainly didn’t put her there, but as an ‘ambassador’ and a specifically invited guest for a private meal, it made more sense.

The dinner that was served was closer to a feast, and it came with the difficulty of restraint. Moriko was certainly not a messy or noisy eater, but eating in careful, small bites at a relatively slow rate was not the same as normal polite eating. It made talking during the meal easier, but it also made eating take at least twice as long, and Moriko tended to eat quite a lot. The conversation was kept social during the meal as well, ‘business’ talk waited until after dessert had been finished and the table cleared, then a selection of lightweight snacks and drinks was placed. The serving staff filtered out, leaving more items covered on the sideboards, but one new person entered. A young man in scribe’s robes, carrying a small portable desk and a couple of folders full of paper as well as a wax tablet and steel scribe for taking notes.

“Well, I suppose it's time to get down to business, then,” Phaedra said softly. The scribe set up his desk and materials a discrete distance behind them. “We would like an official relationship with your family and dungeon. The very first thing we’ll need is an official name for the territory.”

Moriko took a moment to consult with Mordecai and Kazue, who had been spending a fair amount of time on the idea already. “Well, there have been a few thoughts. ‘the twin core dungeon’ was proposed, but dismissed due to possibly creating too strong an association with The Twins, and the same for being called the Kuiccihan dungeon. There weren’t any other descriptive title sort of names that anyone strongly wanted, so going back to geography, we’ve decided on being The Azeria Mountain Dungeon.” She smiled slightly. “Riverbridge is about the same distance as Azeria Forest, but I have to admit it doesn't have quite as strong a name."

King Yoshihiro chuckled. “Should I take offense that you wish to keep some distance from the Kingdom? No, no, I understand. Remaining distinct like that is for the best, it avoids confusion. Hmm.” He gave a thoughtful frown for a moment. “The mountain range itself is the Raincatcher Mountains, but as far as I know nothing is keeping the mountain and its foothills from being named Azeria Mountain. Assuming it doesn’t trip any existing treaties, we have no problems acknowledging that name officially.”

“Speaking of,” Moriko replied, “could you go into some more detail on that? It’s not exactly something Kazue or I paid a lot of attention to, and Mordecai was rather out of the loop.”

Prince Ailwin took the lead here. “The basics are not complicated, though the treaty itself goes into a lot of specifics, exceptions, and conditionals. Throughout the mountain range are many tribes and small nations, plus a dwarven kingdom deep below. Most are considered Independent and are simply in a trade agreement mixed with a mutual defense treaty, as well as delineating their rights to travel freely as individuals inside of Kuicchan. Most of the burden of defense is left to the kingdoms, but the tribes can not let hostile forces traverse their territories without some level of challenge unless clearly outmatched. In addition to those, other tribes are more closely tied to us, and have the status of Vassal State. They rule themselves independently but follow all of our applicable laws. Individuals of those tribes do not owe taxes to Kuiccihan, but the tribe as a whole owes some sort of duty to the kingdom.” He smiled slightly at that. “As most tribes who chose to be that independent and prefer the mountains also tend to have unique traits or talents, they also tend to be suitable for training the Marked, and that availability is usually accepted in lieu of tribute.” The prince paused a moment before he continued. “There are some other arrangements involved with that, but that is where things start to get complicated, and they don’t affect your dungeon, so I think it best if we skip it for now.”

Moriko pursed her lips thoughtfully as she spoke with her spouses, then turned her attention back to the royals in front of her. “Alright, so what form of relationship are you seeking with us?” The princesses had talked about it with her the other night, but this occasion was stating it more formally.

“Something in between,” the King answered, “namely, an Associated State. You would have more duty to us than the independent tribes, but the laws of our land do not automatically apply in your territory, unlike the vassal states. You would have a more complete sovereignty, just a formalized duty to be allies. In exchange for this, you gain our protection, and while our laws would not apply to you or yours inside the dungeon’s territory, they do apply to any of our citizens who are in your territory, and should you have grievance against a citizen of Kuiccihan who has left the dungeon, we can either judge the citizen by our laws or extradite them to your territory, depending upon your preferences.”

From there it became a matter of negotiating the fine points and then reviewing the finalized treaty after the scribe used his notes to edit the papers with an enchanted quill. Once everyone agreed on the finalized version, the scribe brought out a scroll case and a small stamp. He stamped each of the pages in order, then tapped the scroll case. The papers merged and flowed into a single sheet of paper as the scroll case opened up, creating a single continuous document that then wrapped itself into the scroll case. All that was left was to sign and swear oaths to the intent and purpose of the treaty. When completed, the enchantments on the scroll case finished activating and the contents were fixed into place. There was no more editing that treaty, if anything needed to be changed it would have to be a whole new treaty written, witnessed, and signed.

It went a lot easier than it would have if Moriko didn’t have Mordecai and Kazue sitting in her head. Moriko didn’t have to process what she was reading, so she could just quickly scan over the lines and let the cores do the memorization and double checking everything was written correctly. Mordecai was the focus of analyzing it, given his experience, but Kazue’s passion for reading made it easier to take all the information quickly as she was used to reading fast.

It was late into the evening when everything was done, and much of the dessert and snack foods were gone. The King, Queen, Princess Kagami, Prince Ailwin, and his wife Princess Amhis were the only ones involved for most of the process, the rest had relaxed into a more lightweight socialization mode, coming and going as they pleased, though occasionally offering thoughts and opinions.

“Well, one more thing needs to be done tonight,” Queen Phaedra said with a smile. “Give us a moment, we need everyone back here, but they shouldn’t have gone far.”