Waves (Ash Princess Fan Fic)

Ch. 16- 𝓓𝓾𝓷𝓰𝓮𝓸𝓷

"Well then," Theo says, smoothing her gown as she stands in the cramped room, "if you insist upon refusing my questions, then I will have no choice but to arrange for other means of receiving answers." She stalks out of the room, leaving the ambassador to decipher her meaning. It's a bluff, Maile is not going to torture him, but we don't need Adrain to know that.

"He's all yours." Theo tells me dejectedly as she takes her seat on the other side of the glass.

I hesitate outside the door, and almost laugh when I realize I am repeating my actions from the library. I force my hands to stop fidgeting with my dagger and step into the room.

"Oh, it's only you." Adrain says, letting out a relieved sigh.

"For now." I tell him. "Maile is preparing for her turn. Unless, of course, you have something to tell me?"

"I have a lot of things to tell you." He looks up at me. "But none of them will get me out of this room."

I'm not quite sure what to say to that. So I sit down in the chair Theo vacated, resting one hand on my dagger.

"Where did you go?" I ask him finally.

"Nowhere. Like I told the queen, I was just going for a walk! I didn't take any gems, or try to go to the mines, or anything like that!"

I don't believe him, and he knows it. I decide to switch gears. "Why didn't you tell me you were the prinz?"

"Why didn't you tell me you were the princess?" He counters.

"It wasn't necessary. Answer the question."

"Because I knew something like this would happen! I'd get locked in a room, and used as leverage for the war!"

"So there is the prospect of war. Because in the kitchen, you said you only came here looking for answers to your air gift. And yet, a random Kalovaxian knew this?"

"Did you have a question in there?"

I grit my teeth. "Does Elcourt intend to go to war?"

"Not if we get the answers we want."

"You're not in the position to be giving threats."

"Really? Because the queen told me she'd be happy to make a deal with me, and your friend- the one you sent to stalk me? Well anyway, he mentioned that Astrea'd tell us about the gifts if we made an alliance."

I face-palm. Seriously, Heron? "Everyday, I'm surrounded by idiots who prove evolution can go in reverse."

Adrain laughs, before firing back, "This coming from someone who is a few screws short of a repair store."

"Oh yeah? Well, you're a few ships short of a full fleet."

"A few threads short of a sweater."

"A few bricks short of a building."

"A few watts short of a light bulb."

"A few colors short of a rainbow."

"A few slices short of a sandwhich."

"A few clowns short of a circus."

"A few sheep short of a flock."

"A few fish short of a school."

"Not fair, that one's nearly the same as mine." He says, laughing.

"All's fair in love and war." I smirk.

"And this is a little of both?"

"No, that's way too cliche. This is all war."

The smile fades as his expression turns serious. "Elcourt isn't considering war. As I told you earlier, my father sent me here to determine how best to control these gifts, where they're coming from, and how to regulate who can receive them. Naturally, citizens wouldn't want to hear that their king is trying to micromanage their new-found magic, so we spread the rumor that Elcourt wants war, and he sent me, because no one cares about the prinz when the king is still ruling. Tell me what we need to know, and I'll go back to Elcourt, and you'll never have to see me again. If my father approves it, we can set up some kind of trade agreement, so that our best guardians can have gems. Does that cover what you need to know?"

I nod, shocked that a few minutes of banter convinced him to tell me what thirty minutes of Theo's interrogation couldn't.

"The problem is, we don't have the answers you need. Up until now, only Astreans could get gifts, with the exception of the Kaiserin when she drank from the mine..." My voice trails off as I get an idea. "What minerals does Elcourt export?"

"None that I'm aware of. Why?"

"So you don't have any active mines, or excavations?"

"No?"

"You're sure?"

"Yeah, the ground in mostly rocks so we get cement and clay and stuff from Brakka."

They have gems, then. The thing he came here to find was literally under his nose the whole time. Of course, this is all just speculation, but if they've never mined their earth before then there is a great likelihood that there are caverns of gems underneath an initial layer of bedrock.

"Which gift is most common in Elcourt?" I ask.

"Air, like me, but their are a few water guardians. No fire or earth that we know of."

This validates my theory even more. They probably have a plethora of air gems, with a few scattered water ones. And to regulate and control, as he was asking, the king would simply need to mine the gems and lock them up. Mine the gems. Surely, the king wouldn't do it on his own, which means enslaving his citizens to remove the magic. Or maybe, enslaving others, who have experience with that kind of work, and who Adrain already has gained the trust of.

And just like that, I'm back to hating the ambassador.