[The Norkari Mtns.] Chalet du Sommet Minuit

As Emahra seats herself, Naoki shakes her head, indicating the negative. Gesturing to the paperwork spread across the table, she elaborates plainly, “This isn’t the summit paperwork.”

Indeed, it’s not. The majority of the papers on the desk are still written in the strange wave-script of the codex, which also sits closed upon the table. Gesturing for Emahra to follow her, Naoki rises, leaving everything on the table exactly where it sits; she would come back to it.

A sidelong glance is aimed in Ema’s direction as Naoki watches her stand. She seems out of sorts, which Naoki thinks to be highly uncharacteristic of her. The two of them, Naoki thinks, are similar in that it’s very difficult to catch either in a state that seems unready, much less one that seems so… disheveled.

Regardless, Naoki opts not to pry. Not yet, at least; Grandma is right there. Gesturing again, Naoki keeps her demeanor casual as she leads the way to another portion of the library. At least, that’s how she intends for it to come off. (‘Casual’ is much better than ‘sleepy’.)

It’s only a short walk to their destination: a similar sort of table with chairs around the perimeter and a stack of folders sitting in the center. Crossing over to the other side of the table, Naoki seats herself and begins to idly sort through the stack of folders. None of them are labeled, so one has to check the contents themselves to discern them. As such, Naoki gradually begins to transfer them from one pile to the next after checking, memorizing the order as she goes.

“Well,” Naoki begins, “what’s your understanding of the major issues so far?” As she poses the question, Naoki fixes Emahra with the most casual of measuring gazes, fishing for a bit of insight.

Grandma rose from her chair, gliding after the two of them as they made their way to another room. Book still in hand, Grandma seats herself at the table and goes back to flipping through it. She was always interested in hearing about future plans, but no need not to multitask, it was a better use of her time. Although it wasn’t like she was ever pressed when it came to time...

With an almost excessively casual shrug, Naoki responds, “It’s no trouble. We still have all of today, after all.”

Having finished sorting through the folders, Naoki now begins to reorder them, taking her time in carefully pulling out each one from the stack before sliding it back in another slot. Whether there is any rhyme or reason to her reordering is unclear, but the stack is probably being sorted by some method or another.

“What had you tied up? Anything, fun?”

As Naoki deploys this most offhand and clearly friendlily-intentioned inquiry in Ema’s direction, Naoki’s eyes turn from the folders up to lock onto hers, intending to establish and maintain eye contact, or failing that, simply observe Emahra's visible reaction to the question.

Simultaneously, Naoki reaches out to Skarlet telepathically in response to her inquiry. “I’m in the library with Grandma and Marshal Untyrid. We’re preparing for the summit. Do you need something?”

"Yes, I understand." Skarlet responds and heads to the library after grabbing a bottle of blood. When she entered she waved at everyone, "Hello."

The vampire takes a seat with her bottle and remains quiet, not speaking unless she was spoken to. She knew their work was very important so she had no intention to cause anything to slow down. She would uncork her bottle and take some sips of blood while she sat.

A slight waggle of the eyebrows hints that perhaps Naoki intends to loop back around to the topic later, but for the time being she falls silent, allowing Emahra to read in silence. After Skarlet has sat down, Naoki offers her a one-armed hug, but doesn’t continue the interaction further, instead opting to peruse another one of the folders’ contents which she hadn’t yet spent the time to review in detail.

Looking up as the woman across the table moves again, Naoki notes that Emahra is capable of some very intimidating looks. Goodness.

In response to her question, Naoki intentionally chooses to take on a considerably lighter and more conversational tone, shrugging a bit as she speaks, “Nothing in particular, but I thought that it was something you should most definitely be aware of, both in this context and in that of mentoring Ms. Manira. I don’t intend to share that information at the summit unless that... ‘path’ is ripe for the taking, as it were, but it sets the stage well for the next bit I think you ought to have a look at…”

Without further explanation, Naoki takes a folder off the top of the stack, the fattest of the lot, and slides it across the table. Emahra would find it to be filled primarily with raw, unfiltered information pertaining to Isra’s military, its infrastructure, its capabilities, commanders, structures, and the like. With unfettered access to this information and with so many data points to measure and express, there’s quite a lot of paperwork to sort through.

Next, another folder is slid across the desk to join the first. It contains what information Naoki has regarding Goraia’s military. The majority of it, in truth, is maps of Old Medan and information about their military, interspersed with verbatim accounts given by the group of refugees that Lord Tristian Seryl brought over. What with their closed borders policy and scrying countermeasures, collecting information has been difficult, and as such, this second folder isn't nearly as thick as its predecessor.

“You have received instruction in grand strategy, as I recall. … I have not. As such, I would like to consult you, and spend an amount of time in which we contemplate the theoretical scenario in which war between Isra and Goraia is made inevitable, as well as some of the miscellaneous and general points of grand strategy. I would like to apply a rough and perhaps messy patch over this gap in my knowledge, before the summit, rather than after, and figured you the best source to draw from.” The unspoken continuation goes that Naoki would rather consult Emahra over any of the various generals she could possibly squeeze the information out of.

Nodding slightly in acknowledgement, Naoki takes Emahra’s cue, standing up from her seat to initiate a similar stretching ritual. Hers, however, includes a few tail flexes. After a few moments, Naoki considers the table and its contents from her position standing above it, hands on hips.

The folders that had been gathered for the meeting and ordered so precisely have since been mostly unstacked and spread across the table to represent various battalions and combat groups in the final scenario Emahra had detailed: the siege of Stonevale. Along with the folders, the ink, quills, and even a few books have found themselves into the depiction. To say the same thing in another way, the table is a mess and Naoki finds herself without the willingness or inclination to clean it or continue with summit preparations at all. The past few weeks have been nothing but summit preparations, and honestly, Naoki has had just about enough of it.

With this in mind, she speaks up, addressing her friends around the table. “I’ll tell you what. Skarlet, I have a few personal matters that I would like to speak with Marshal Untyrid. Afterwards, I think you’re about due for a lesson in economics, so unless you’re terribly opposed to the idea, I think we ought to get that out of the way while we both seem to have some spare time today. And then, after that...” Naoki continues, tone rising to imply something of an announcement.

For a moment she pauses- building anticipation.

“I’m going to take a nap,” comes the quietly stated and perhaps disappointing conclusion.