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  [colpse]Chapter One Hundred and Forty-One - Broccoli is to Ceremony as Bulls are to a Shops

  Right after a te lund Rosaliriumphaurn from work, Clementine pulled everyoo the lounge and sat us all down on a row of couches.

  Rosaline looked like she hadn’t hugged anyone in minutes, Awen was fiddling with her thumbs, Amaryllis was bored and Clementine looked like a doctor about to deliver some serious news.

  “We o prepare you for the ball,” Clementine decred most gravely.

  “ I do it?” Rosaline asked.

  “No,” she was immediately shot down. Clementine shook her head. “They o be actually prepared. Not... filled with whatever fanciful ideas you e up with between now and then.”

  Rosaline pouted. She pouted hard.

  “Fine. You help them with the dresses and such,” Clementine said, then she raised a wing to calm Rosaline down before she got too excited. “Later. Let me y down the rules first.”

  “Do you really o?” Rosaline asked. “The girls are super cute, no one will do anything bad to them!” She leao the side and ed a wing around Awen, then she reached out and pinched my cheek.

  “Hey! No! Awen is the cute one, not me!” I protested.

  “Awa!”

  “Nu-huh,” Rosaline said. “You’re both adorable! And you’ll be more adorable-er once I get you all dressed up!”

  Amaryllis sighed. “Rose, do stop molesting Broccoli.”

  “Aw-what about me?” Awen squeaked.

  “You seem to be enjoying it,” Amaryllis said.

  While Rosaline giggled and redoubled her hugging and Awen’s face went thermonuclear, I turowards Clementine. I had a whole bunch of questions for her.

  “So, Clementine, um,” I began. “Why are we going to the ball in the first pce? If we’re supposed to be some sort of secret on, then wouldn’t it make a lot more seo not show up at a big public event?”

  Clementine hen she o Gen-Gen who stuck his head into the louhe butler pushed in a trolly a moment ter, one covered in little bite-sized snacks and a big jug of some sort of juice with blocks of ice floating within it.

  “It would make seo keep you hidden,” Clementine said. “If this were the kind of operation where you could show up out of the blue. Unfortunately, it won’t work out that way. For ohe other s would protest if you just swooped in without even giving them a hint. For ahe Sylphs are... stingy when it es to... well, anything. The st thing you need is to get arrested by an overzealous padin because they don’t know who you are.”

  “How would they know if we’re at the ball?” I asked.

  “There will be some Sylphs in attendance, of course, and they will be sending news back via their bank.”

  I poio Amaryllis. “Like when she wrote you letters?”

  Clementine made an affirmative noise. “Yes. Like when my littlest sister deigo actually write to us to tell us she wasn’t dead in some ditewhere.”

  “Okay,” I said over the sound of Amaryllis’ protesting. “So why is there even a diplomatic mission to begin with? Why not just write them a letter and expihing that way?”

  Clementine shook her head. “That’s not how it works. Letters leave too big of a record, there’s less room for bad forths, they also lose part of the home field advantage. You ’t impress a diplomat with your riches and military might if you’re only unig via letter.”

  I sched up my nose. “But does that stuff matter?”

  Clementine sighed. “It does to the Sylphs and it does to the bigger s, which means we have to py along. We’re not the Snownders who would be more than happy to do business from afar without ever leaving their home.”

  In the end there wasn’t much I could say to that. “Okay. So we go to the ball and then we, uh, schmooze with the big rich people and then they’ll be okay with us showing up at the big meeting in the Sylph capital?”

  Clementine closed her eyes, set the cup she was in the middle of filling aside, then started to massage her head. “I don’t know how you do it, Amy.”

  “You would be surprised at how mudurance I had to build up to her... Broccoli-ness,” Amaryllis said.

  I looked betweewo. “What?”

  “First,” Clementine began. “Never... never use the word schmooze again. I don’t know what it means, and I don’t want to. Sed, while referring to the s as the ‘big rich people’ is teically accurate, it might still insult some of them. Just call them the s.”

  “Alright!” I said.

  “You are aware that trying to teach Broccoli here about etiquette is entirely useless, right? The st time she was at a meeting with nobles she kidheir daughter,” Amaryllis said. “That is, after she told a tess that her title didn’t matter.”

  Clemeook a long sip from her juice, the oray before turning to Gen-Gen. “ I have something with more kick?” she asked.

  One of the butler’s eyebrows rose up, but he nodded. “Certainly.”

  “This is actually really great,” Rosaline said. “end the evening dang instead, maybe pretend that Broccoli and Awen are just family friends who don’t know aer. They’re so cute and cuddly that no one would suspeything about them.”

  Clementing rubbed at her face. “Yes, I suppose hoping that ear so stupid as to be overlooked is a stratagem. It’s a stupid stratagem, but I suppose that’s the entire point of it.”

  “Great!” Rosaline said. “Okay, so let’s skip straight to the important bit! How to dance!”

  “Awesome!” I cheered. “My dang skill is almost ready to rank up.”

  Rosaline hopped up to her feet and skipped to the middle of the room before spinning around. “Okay! I tell you about all the worst prudes and jerks you’ll want to avoid while teag you how to dance,” she said.

  Clemeossed her wings up in surrender. “I give up. Rose, do keep in mind that I make your life a nightmare if you mess this up. But I’ll cede that you’re better at the social aspect of things than I am.”

  Rosaline cpped. “Perfect! Okay, I’ll need a partner.”

  “Awen, you should go,” I said to the girl sittio me. “I learer by seeing.” I could practically feel my Matchmaker skill gaining experience.

  “Ah? Oh, okay,” Awen said. She stood a bit stiffly, then moved towards Rosalih small uain steps. She curtsied, ping the sides of her pants as she bowed. “Pl-please be gentle.”

  “Only at first,” Rosaline said.

  “Huh?” Awen said before Rosaline grabbed her hands in hers.

  “We’ll start with the waltz! It’s usually what the evening starts and ends with because it’s an easy enough dahat even the old birds participate. It’s a great way to see who’s e with who si’s traditional to dah the person you came with first. Sometimes boys will dah an aunt or something too.”

  Rosaline asked if Awehe steps, which she did. The human waltz and the harpy one were pretty much the same with a few differehe harpy waltz moved a lot more, and they had more arm flourishes, apparently.

  “If you’re dang with a girl, one of you o take the boy’s part,” Rosaline said. “You don’t mind if I lead, do you Awen?”

  “N-no, of course not,” Awen said. “You lead.”

  I sat on the edge of my seat as Rosaline and Awen danced in quick little circles around the room. Awen had a bit of trouble at first, but she caught on fast and was soon pressed up against Rosaline as they spun around.

  “You look like an idiot,” Amaryllis muttered from beside me. “Wipe that dumb grin off your face or the game will be up.”

  I reined in my smile a bit. “It’s not a game,” I whispered back.

  Amaryllis’ response was a roll of her eyes.

  “What isn’t a game?” Clementine asked. She’d sat herself down on Amaryllis’ other side.

  “You’re as blind as ever, oh eldest sister of mine,” Amaryllis shot back.

  Clementine gred, then she looked at the two girls dang together, took in Awen’s blush and the way Rosaline was smiling.

  She reached over to the sed tray Gen-Gen had brought, pulled the cork off a fancy bottle, and downed a swallow of it. “Not my problem,” she decred.

  The danded with Rosaline sweeping Awen off her feet and leaning her way, way down so that her blonde hair was toug the floor.

  “And that,” Rosaline said as she stood back up and helped Awen to stand. They were both quite flushed. “Was how you waltz. Ah, I was supposed to tell you about people to avoid at the same time.”

  “I-it’s okay,” Awen said. “I would have been, um, distracted.”

  “Right!” Rosaline cheered. “I think I list out all the bad influences in the s.”

  “Because you’ve dated all of them?” Amaryllis asked.

  “Exactly! I’ve grown to know all of them. I tell you all about their weird and terrible habits, whies are handsy when they really ought not, and whies have all the personality of a rock.”

  “Awa, you’re very experienced,” Awen said. She looked like she couldn’t decide whether to be impressed or embarrassed, probably at her own ck of experience.

  “Darn right! I’ve dated just about every bachelor and most of the fun bachelorettes in the kingdom!” Rosaline decred.

  “Oh, wh-what stopped you from, um, finding someone... right?”

  Rosaline shifted from talon to talon. “Well, it wasn’t always the same reason. I got along really well with some, for a bit at least. Sometimes I had good reasons to dump people. Lord Fred I booted out because he was intimidating, for example.”

  “Lord Fred isn’t a very intimidating name,” I said.

  “Yes Broccoli, you’re right, Broccoli. It’s su unintimidating name, Broccoli,” Amaryllis said.

  “Hey! My name’s not supposed to be intimidating, it’s supposed to be friendly!”

  Awen nodded along, but she didn’t seem satisfied with the answer. “S-so many people and you never found anyone you liked?” she asked. “I... sorry. I’m being rude. I’m just worried that... nevermind.”

  Rosaline pulled Awen into a sidelong hug, her head dropping to lean against Awen’s. “It’s not that. I just want to find someohat I love, and I never did. They were always after the shipyard, or my family, or my title. The worse ones are those that just dated because they wao quer me fing rights.”

  “Th-that’s awful!” Awen said. She raised her hands, then lowered them. “. I give you a... hug?”

  I could barely hear the st word, it was so quiet, but I could see the results well enough. Rosaline picked Awen up and spun her around while squishing her close.

  Cleme down her bottle and stared for a bit before leaning closer to me and Amaryllis. “I wonder how long this will st,” she said.

  “We’ll see,” Amaryllis said. “I actually have high hopes.”

  “Hrmph,” Clementine hrmphed.

  I cpped my hands to draw Rosaline’s attention away from squishing Awen’s cheek against hers. Awen looked like she needed a moment to breath and maybe to have her blood circute somewhere other than in her cheeks and ears. “What else you teach us about balls and dang and such?” I asked.

  “Oh, there’s all sorts of stuff. The dresses alone will be fun to figure out,” she said. “How someone preens their feathers tells you a lot about them, but you and Awen here are a bit featherless.” She ran a talon through Awen’s long hair. “But this is a lot more fun thahers! We’ll o figure it out!”

  “There are ways for non-harpy to dress that are sidered proper. Usually clothes that have very loose sleeves that simute wings,” Amaryllis said. “And of course you’ll o get used to wearing pants for a bit.”

  “Aww,” I said. Not that I really minded all that much.

  “This is going to be a disaster,” Clementine said.

  I don’t think that she uood that that was half the fun.

  ***