Wyn let out a slow breath, stepping back from the wind powered water pump she had just finished constructing. Her eyes scanned over the moving parts that were creaking to life as she brushed the dirt from them on the side of her hips absently. The wind caught the blades, rotating it steadily and allowing the water to be pulled up into pipes and then out into the holding tanks for dispersal into the gardens. Everything was working as it should be.

 She smiled to herself then glanced around the yard, grinning as she saw Lyana sitting on a bench, working with a ledger on some of the more mundane paperwork of balancing budgets and taking stock of the stores as gardeners worked to weed and harvest the gardens that should be producing enough food to feed most of the city's needy population by the end of the season.

The other woman had worked tirelessly, even with little sleep the night before, falling easily to task without complaint. Lyana had already begun to prove herself invaluable with the help she provided Wyn, leading her to question how she got on without her. It had only been a day and already Wyn couldn't remember how she had managed it all, though she suspected it was with a lot less of the hands-on work she had been doing today.

"Nice windmill"

She grinned and turned to Nerini, letting out a slow whistle at the new armour her friend was wearing, "how'd the council meeting go?" 

She half expected Nerini to comment about heading for a ship before the fall out began, bracing herself for bad news.

"Probably not as useful as your morning went, this looks great! Will it be fully able to support the winter?" Nerini glanced around at the gardens, the meal house and the nearly finished school. 

As always, her friend was evasive but Wyn allowed it, beaming with pride for a moment as she watched Nerini survey the work. Rini looked impressed and though she wasn't around a great deal at home, was the first to help Wyn out when she was. Her friend even diverted most of her yearly allowance to help fund the projects. So much that Wyn wasn't sure where Rini got enough money to anything, with how much she still put into Wyn's initiative.

"That's the great thing about it, really, Alliance is warm enough year-round, that once these crops are harvested, they can plant another crop. There's a couple months in actual winter that may be a problem but they should get three crops a year. There should be a surplus." She grinned, then blushed just slightly, ducking her head as her modesty caught up with her. "As you can tell, my life is a bit more mundane than yours"

Nerini shook her head, her eyes meeting Wyn's thoughtfully. "Not at all. I've helped you with this before, I know how much work it takes. And I hear you're going to be taking this to Sellexu this winter?"

Wyn blushed again, her shrug noncommittal. "I just received reports from Aupana's houses, and they're all running pretty well. My sister has home under control with the help of my brother when he decides to show up. So other than going to the Capitol with Rael, I have no real need to say no to the invitation to Sellexu."

"But do you want to go?" her friend was gentle as she pulled out Wyn's real thoughts on the matter. Nerini couldn't resist pulling truth out from where it hid comfortably, and when she was around long enough, she always seemed to want to understand Wyn, to help the world understand her.

"Yeah. I'd love to see it, see all the cities and just imagine if I could get this to be an Alliance wide sort of initiative. I would be a bit nervous presenting this to the Queen, they do have differences that I haven't fully figured out. And you know I prefer just doing the work, not all the meetings and begging that goes with it."

Nerini nodded slowly. "Sounds like a pretty exciting adventure to me, you're smarter and braver than I could ever be."

Wyn chuckled, beaming from her friend's compliment. "Well, it's not fighting sharks and giant squids or anything, but it'll do."

"Do you want company?" Nerini asked suddenly, looking to her friend a little uncertainly, cautiously.

"What?"

Nerini let out a slow breath, glancing away. "Well, I accepted the whole Champion thing. And one of the things they want is us to kind of go out and talk to the people. So, I figured I'd be heading up to Lansen then taking a ship across to Port Couth. There I'd meet up with High Lord Shiar, who has business at home to figure out, then we were going to head to the Capital via all the lands in between. Those lands of his are in the north, he has the whole province straight across, so we'd hit the entire country."

Wyn laughed and nodded, hugging her friend tightly. "Yes! That sounds fantastic! We'll go together, I would love to learn more about the nation before trying to design a program to work. Every city is different, Alliance was its own thing, I can only imagine everything I don't know about Sellexu."

"Great." Nerini smiled and hugged her friend back, letting out a slow breath, offering another hopeful expression. "Maybe you can help me come up with a proposal for a standing Alliance guard too? I was thinking of recruiting on the trip. Say, if the Alliance could decree a wage for any non-noble volunteer and a tax for any noble family that doesn't provide one, we could have a selection by the time next summer comes around. Then maybe put the tournament to good use."

"I'd love to. I have a bit of free time, with Lyana helping me out." Wyn nodded enthusiastically, nodding towards the other woman was still working. "You would need a training program that would get everyone up to speed and fighting within a couple months and a way to weed out those that aren't necessarily loyal."

They fell into the plans then, as Nerini began helping her with the work around the gardens, throwing ideas back and forth as they weeded, adjusted the watering troughs and finished the physical labour of the garden itself.

***

Five hours later, Nerini stood beside Wyn along a wall in the ballroom, watching politicians and courtiers flirt, ingratiate and dance with one another with a dark expression on her face.

Wyn grinned to her friend, elbowing her just slightly. "Stop scowling."

"Why is it, that everything in our world means a ball? Oh, look, we built a boat, ball. Oh look, I bought new shoes, let's dance!" Nerini grumbled, shaking her head. "Why can't it be like, Hey, we did some cool things this month, let's go to the tavern and have a drink!"

Wyn laughed to the point of tears, grinning widely at her friend, taking comfort in the fact that some things would never change and that this conversation was just as funny as when she had first heard it years ago. "This is a ball for you! Be happy, no one has asked you to dance."

Nerini snorted and scowled deeper, though she wasn't nearly as angry as she seemed. She was just perturbed and glaring to keep anyone far away from them. "This is a ball to celebrate the Alliance and say goodbye to everyone and congratulate ourselves and hopefully land a few new marriages to boot."

"Oh? Who are you proposing to tonight?" Wyn teased, laughing as she received a punch to the arm, smacking Nerini back just as hard. "C'mon, enjoy it."

"I don't see you dancing." Nerini smirked darkly to her friend.

Wyn paused, then offered a careful shrug. "I'm keeping you restrained so no one ends up dying tonight. When we stick together and talk, people think we're busy, and no one tries to dance with us, it works better than killing them."

Nerini grinned widely, as if she had just won the argument."You don't like these things any more than I do."

"Granted, I have other ways of spending my time if given the option." Wyn winced and inclined her head to allow that conclusion from her friend. "I don't hate them as much as you do, though."

"True. I just, there's too many moving parts, I don't trust this many people and half the people who should wear weapons, aren't, and most of the people who shouldn't, are." Nerini let her eyes wander, muttering,  "it's a nightmare waiting to happen."

Wyn nodded slowly, noting her friend's lack armour, even as her hands dropped to her own sword hilts. "I got some strange looks, entering with my swords on. Apparently, we should trust that everything is alright."

"Politicians, Princes and Ambassadors can trust that everything is alright. I prefer being prepared, just in case" Nerini said drily to her friend, a dark smirk forming on her face.

Wyn nudged Nerini gently, pulling her attention to Prince Caelur as he approached. The nudge was enough and Nerini managed to meet him with a bow and a slightly less foreboding smile. "Good evening your highness."

"You two looking like you're solving all the world's problems, or planning a military take over, I can't decide which it is." He grinned to them, his tone light, casual. "So I figured I'd interrupt just to be safe."

Nerini laughed softly and shrugged. "Just watching all the pretty dancers, your highness."

Wyn caught her sarcasm and let out a slow breath. "We enjoy the sidelines, usually, Prince."

"I can appreciate that. What I wouldn't do to be allowed to stand back and watch, instead of being watched, constantly." Caelur chuckled, before grinning wickedly, offering  Wyn his hand. "Unfortunately, I need a partner, come dance with me?"

***

Wyn bowed again, accepting his offer and shooting a look at Nerini who just laughed and waved her on as the Prince lead her friend onto the dance floor. She forced herself to relax, to keep her eyes roving, looking for whatever was causing her to feel particularly unsettled that evening until she felt sharp nails dig into her arm through her shirt.

Nerini clenched her fist, half cocking it back as she turned to the woman beside her, a pretty Aupanan courtier with a particularly nasty expression on her face. And the woman was standing far too close to her for comfort. "Let me go, now."

"You think you're clever? I had pretty much had him proposing to me before you started spreading your lies. Now he won't even talk to me."

"What?" Nerini twisted her arm free and pushed the woman away roughly, shaking her head. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Touch me again and it's the last thing you'll do"

The woman stumbled with the push, then wheeled back around towards her, nearly snarling at her. "The Prince. One dance between him and you and suddenly he had no time for me, nor my friends."

Nerini rolled her eyes, not in the mood to deal with some form of courtier drama. "I merely told him that if he were actually looking for someone to help rule his country, to not rely on the women who choose to be taken care of as opposed to useful members of society."

"He's a Sellexun, they don't expect anything of their women. My life would have been set. I could have been a Princess. A Queen. And you ruined it." The girl whined in a high-pitched tone that made her wince, grabbing Nerini's arm again.

 The grip was tight, nails digging into Nerini's flesh, into the bruises and abrasions from the night before, making Nerini's temper flare. As she was restraining herself from all out attacking the woman, Nerini's other arm was grabbed by the Lady's friend who smiled in a rather ugly fashion. Nerini had been so intent on ignoring the first courtier that she had missed the fact that the woman wasn't alone.

Nerini allowed herself to pause to take in the whole room before concentrating on the two with her.  There were movements in the crowd that she was catching and she knew that things weren't as simple as these two having a fit of jealousy. In the greater ball room, she felt the air shift and her suspicions were confirmed by the two courtiers.

"It's fine, this whole thing is going to be in shambles in a few minutes anyways." The first woman said viciously.

Nerini frowned, turning to look out onto the dance floor to see her brother dancing with Lyana, along-side Queen Rael who was partnered with High Lord Shiar. Prince Caelur and Wyn were nearby  and they were all surrounded by a group of armed people that were distinctly out of place.  

Having not been there moments before, the armed group was filtering through the courtiers and politicians to form a ring around the six dancers.  Even beyond all that, there were more people, dressed as servants or lower courtiers, shifting through the ballroom, their expressions various stages of violence and nerves.

"And you can't do anything but watch." The first woman gloated to her, clearly assuming that by holding on to Nerini's arms, Nerini was being restrained by the two of them.

"Look, I warned you." Nerini said darkly, drawing a look of surprise from the two women. 

The next moment, Nerini let out a shrill whistle that cut through the noises of the room. 

The world slowed for Nerini and she saw her friends tense at the sound before they spun into action. Turning her attention to her own issues, Nerini elbowed the second woman in the face then cocked back her fist to punch the first one in the jaw, knocking both out cold in a matter of seconds. 

She had her swords drawn before they even hit the ground, yelling at everyone to clear the room as the music came to a sudden halt before all out pandemonium hit.