Sun Marshal Headquarters

"Correct. Touch the badge, think of who you want to talk to then think your message."

Alden nods at her assessment of The Frost Queen's next move. He doesn't comment on whether or not Isra will be providing aid. A large chunk of the military was sill dealing with the undead issue in Aedan. On top of that, with conservatives like Rayden on the council pushing for limited action it was doubtful Isra would intercede. Not that the high marshal really cared one way or the other, it was just the way his mind had to work now. Since The sniper seemed to be ready he dismisses her and then returns to his work.

The Sniper, unsure of how to address him, bowed before turning around and leaving. She went straight back to her room, gathering up a series of iron-tipped arrows and some iron twine that she had been saving for some other experimental arrows. She also grabbed the things she needed to inscribe the fire and explosive runes into her arrow shafts. A sack of gold and several warm furs later and she was ready to go. She left quietly out the front door of the Headquarters once she was done.

   Elsewhere in the city, Whir used his communication crystal to make contact with Takhana Veil . Miss Veil, I have just heard the most peculiar rumor. It seems that the city of Sakand is free of, or at least has been given more autonomy by Goraia. Since this Alban island is off the coast that Sakand sits on, I thought I might head there first, get a lay of the land and see what the current political atmosphere is. If that strikes you as a useful idea, I can be on my way immediately.

On a somewhat humid but otherwise unremarkable Wednesday afternoon, Lady Naoki makes her way to the Sun Marshal Headquarters. In one hand, she holds a pair of paper bags, both rolled shut. Not in any particular hurry, she meanders her way across the grounds, taking her time to both to appreciate the impeccable landscaping and formulate her thoughts.

Soon enough, however, she arrives at the double doors, nods in greeting to the doorman, and proceeds into the foyer. Proceeding directly ahead toward the staircase, she offers another nod to the secretary, and addresses her in passing, “I am going up to see The Administrator.”

It’s more of a courtesy notification than anything else. Considering that the secretary is responsible for who comes and goes and other such matters related to the running of the building, Naoki considers it polite to inform her.

Regardless, Naoki proceeds past, and up the stairs. Up to the second, the third, and finally to the top of the stairs, to the mansion’s distinctive tower. On the landing just before the door leading into the tower, she stops, spends a moment to smooth her blouse (though she supposes that it’s a meaningless gesture given who she’s going to see), before knocking on the door. Two knocks, one after the other in quick succession.

Pushing the door open and striding up into the room, Naoki takes a moment to glance around, and upon sighting the room’s occupant, raises her empty hand in greeting, her own lips curving to form a similar smile. “Hello, Takhana.”

By this point, Naoki finds herself- if not perhaps accustomed to, at least not unsettled by the way Takhana ‘looks’. So much communication- body language, is based around the eyes. It’s more frustrating than anything else, really. It makes Takhana’s expressions hard to read, what with not being able to see her eyes or eyebrows. And there’s always the question of if to make ‘eye contact’ or not. Because Takhana can See, but she can’t see. As Naoki understands it, Takhana wouldn’t really be able to tell where she’s looking, beyond observing the direction her face is pointed in- or even if Naoki were herself wearing a blindfold. So. A bit awkward.

Nevertheless, Naoki does turn to look towards Takhana as she moves off to the left side of the room, toward the armchairs. “I brought some muffins. I’m setting them here on the table.”

True to her word, Naoki does indeed proceed to set one of the paper bags down on the table, making a point of jostling it slightly to crinkle the paper and pointing down at it after she’s placed it. Hopefully, if Takhana’s spatial awareness and depth perception are on point- and they ought to be, Naoki figures- she wouldn’t have much trouble finding the bag.

If and when she does, she would find it to contain three muffins, each about three inches across. One blueberry, one vanilla with powdered sugar, and the last chocolate with chunks of chocolate interspersed.

With the bag placed, Naoki proceeds to seat herself in one of the armchairs, settling her tail up over the right armrest, and taking a half-moment to cross her legs at the knee- more out of habit than anything else, and smooth her skirt. Her own paper bag is placed on her lap, where it sits upright, unopened.

Having gathered her thoughts, she begins to speak, “I’m here today both for a social visit- it’s been awhile since I’ve seen you, and also to hurl a few questions I’ve been harboring for a while in your direction. Nothing to be concerned about, but things I’d rather discuss in person, if you understand.”

“Before that, though, allow me to offer the mandatory personal inquires, to get them out of the way. Are you well? Is everything proceeding smoothly enough with the Sun Marshals and your own personal operations? How is Mr. Brytris faring? Is there anything in particular you’d like to ask or tell me about before I begin?”

As Takhana begins, Naoki swivels one ear to listen while reaching into her own bag. Pulling out a muffin at random, she finds it to be some manner of apple… thing. Perhaps with cinnamon. Or is it brown sugar…? Her eyebrows squint a bit. Apples are... not her favorite fruit. Regardless, it would be a bit awkward to offer it for trade or put it back into the bag at this point, especially so as Takhana is still speaking, so Naoki opts to bite the bullet.

Or the muffin, as the case may be.

She finds that for whatever reason, the muffin has chosen to accentuate the portion of the apple’s taste that she dislikes the most, the sour sort of tang. Idly, she wonders whyyyyyy. Regardless, she manages to internalize all feelings of disgust, and listens politely as she picks at the muffin, nodding once Takhana has finished. “That’s all good to hear. I would rather things be going smoothly and largely uneventfully than otherwise. Interesting times and all that.”

“Things with me... Are... Not necessarily eventful, not any more so than they have been. I expected this level of… of happenings and events and such as I was coming into this. They are beginning to get tiring, though. I’ve lost some portion of the enthusiasm I started with. The difficult decisions are starting to come in, along with the political complications.”

She pauses for a moment, constructing her thoughts before continuing, “If I might draw a metaphor for a moment, it’s as if I’m juggling. I cannot, actually, but it is as if I’m juggling, and though I’m not necessarily being thrown new balls to keep in the air, it’s as if the balls are constantly, subtly changing. Getting heavier while they’re in the air. Staying up for longer than they did the last time, floating around a bit, becoming cubic, or developing a coating of slime, that gets onto my hand and then onto the other balls and then all the balls are slimy and my arms are tired I don’t want to juggle anymore as much as I would like to go clean my hands and attend to personal matters, such as marrying Kate, and running away to go live with her in some little cottage in the middle of nowhere where I wouldn’t have to worry about such things as public opinion, my image, the wording on laws and which words I choose to use when speaking, the city’s perception of the ideals it was founded under, what foreign dignitaries think of the dress I’m wearing, and just speaking broadly, politics in general.”

She pauses, realizing that she’s breathing heavily. Consciously, she slows, and takes a few deep breaths for good measure, fully composing herself before continuing, “So I suppose it is all rather stressful, is what I mean to get at. The issue comes in wherein if the balls hit the floor, civilization as we know it stops functioning, and nobody else in the room knows how to juggle to the degree I think is necessary to juggle the balls.”

“I’ve been trying to prepare successors. Our mutual friend Ms. Untyrid, Jun- who I’m not sure if you’ve met, and to a lesser extent, my Skarlet. But I can’t shake the doubt that none of them are ever really going to be prepared, and well suited enough that I would be willing to entrust the nation to them. So I suppose I’m having difficulty accepting the fact that I’m going to be doing this until either I break under the pressure, I die, or am assassinated.”

“And then I start trying to think about which one of those is most likely to happen first, and it’s a downward spiral from there. … The worst bit- or rather, one of the worst bits is such that I’m not even doing the job to the extent that I’d really like to be doing it right now, anyway. There’s room for improvement that I can see, and aspire to do, but simply can’t push myself to spend time on. ... I’m sympathising with Ildesias more each day- even with the extensive network of delegation I’ve established. It’s all really quite terrible, if I’m to be honest about it. But there’s nobody else to do it, so I do, and I manage, and the nation functions, and I don’t think I’m insane yet.”

“... Though if I were, I suppose I wouldn’t know, would I.”

Again, she pauses. Briefly, she considers apologizing for laying all of that onto Takhana’s shoulders, but assumes that she would wave off her apology anyway, and doesn’t bother. Thinking that she’s just about covered the city as well as personal matters, she opts to continue addressing Takhana’s questions.

“As for Miss Green, things are going well, both with her individually and between the pair of us. Aside from not having as much time to spend together as we’d like, there haven’t been any major complications or issues so far, and I’m thankful for that.”

While Naoki doesn’t exactly trail off, she does avert her gaze from the other woman, opting to instead gaze out the window, her mind’s eye having slid to another topic, at least for a moment. Whether that subject is her dearly beloved or, “Why are there windows? She’s blind,” is anyone’s guess.

Naoki waves her hand dismissively, not all at concerned that Takhana doesn’t have any advice to offer. She didn’t expect her to.

“That’s fine,” Naoki begins, “All I’ve done here is accurately identify the reality of the situation, articulate it, and state that I’m not pleased with it. There’s nothing to do or be done besides what already is. I’ll continue to look for someone to succeed me, even though the odds of success are low, and you’ll continue to do what you do and listen to me rant every so often. It’s helpful for me to simply say all of that, to speak nothing of how much pride I have in the accuracy of that metaphor.”

“With that said, though, allow me to continue to the first and only matter of strictly business that I have to bring to your attention. I didn’t need to come all the way over here to tell you this, but this is a social visit. Anyway, as you’re well aware, a few months previously, a dragon attacked Isra. The big one with the table in the central plaza, where Miss Jun lost her pants.”

Smirking slightly to herself in reminiscence, Naoki continues, “And as you’ll remember, we subdued and captured it. It was placed in the descriptively-named ‘Cube’ beneath the Citadel, and there it has slept, these past few months. … Recently, however, there have been stirrings. It’s becoming more active, and we suspect that it might wake soon. I suspect that it’s going to become a problem again. A problem that will need to be dealt with.”

The sharpness in her tone implies that if a permanent solution is required to protect the city, she wouldn’t mind too terribly much.

“And, in typical fashion for myself, I would like to assign the problem to someone else so I don’t have to deal with it. That would be where you come in.”

At this, Naoki inclines her head to the side, in Takhana’s direction, referring to ‘her’ in the sense of The Sun Marshals, and whoever she might care to assign to the issue, if she’d not prefer to handle it personally.

“Technically, of course, it’s the responsibility of the Judiciary Department. But they’re a department that is designed to deal with pickpockets and thieves. Not so much ancient dragons of questionable allegiance and mental state. I think that Minister Deathforge will be able to recognize that he’s not equipped properly, and accept assistance, provided that it is provided politely, and doesn’t throw its weight around to muddy up his procedures and protocols. How you’d like to handle it is, obviously, up to you. I don’t even know how to begin approaching the issue.”

Here, she pauses, expecting Takhana to nod, and perhaps articulate the first step she might take.