MAR 12 Sunday.

I just give Cadance a deadpan stare as she continues to laugh after I finish telling her about the meeting I just had with Viridis.

I sigh. "You could offer some advice, or at least tell me how I did. Actually, did I do anything illegal? I don't think I did but I'm also... You know, ME." I joke a little to try and keep the much lighter mood in hopes we don't return to the previous topic, I already have to deal with Celestia as it is.

She keeps laughing like a mad mare for a few moments before getting some control over herself. "Well, I can certainly say you have surprised me, it's not unwelcome either." She passes me a teacup with some kind of lemon tea and continues. "To ease any worries, not that you deserve it after worrying me. No, I can't see this getting you in legal trouble, even if it's found out." She reassures me while also hanging me out to dry a bit.

I nod and don't try to deny it. "Thanks, and I am sorry. It's odd but I literally never thought of informing you, it's just how I work and it's something Celestia's helped with. I was worse a few years back if you can believe that?" I give a full apology and even open up a bit to be sincere.

She smiles oddly at my words and looks even more amused. "She's told me you used to be even more secretive, I guess she was right." I can tell she wants to ask the obvious question of why I do this, but she leaves it be. "I've been meaning to ask, you and Aunty disappear sometimes and it's curious. But I'll settle for what you think should be done with the favor you earned." She changes the topic with a slightly teasing and suggestive tone at first.

I knew she'd ask about this eventually, I thought it would have happened a while ago actually. I'm not sure about telling her about Gaia's Eden, but not answering will just make her dig more. I don't feel like dealing with answering that though so I'll leave it be for now.

I drink some more tea and lay out several stacks of paper, she knows my plans and narrows her eyes a bit. "We might as well make this meeting somewhat productive. As for the favor? I have no idea. I just thought it'd be better to have than asking for information." I answer honestly as she starts to look over a few papers. "Any suggestions?"

She smiles while reading and writing a few things. "Awww, is the wonder colt not up to politics?" She uses a baby voice and I just glare a little while she chuckles. "I'd recommend you save it for now, something she didn't mention was the fact that the favor won't mean much if this deal fails, something you should ask about if you try this again." She explains calmly.

I pause while flipping through some other pages to get to where we left off. "Huh. And this is why I don't like politics, too many things to consider. Give me a broken spell and my cozy apartment any day." I complain while passing her a page without attempting a rune on it.

She huffs. "Only you would think fixing a spell is easier than talking to others." She chuckles and looks over a list of words I passed her to maybe include in the Runic Context, but she stops after a moment. "Wait? Do you live in an apartment? I thought you would have bought a mansion by now." She asks half-jokingly.

I shrug. "Technically there are some laws preventing me from doing that until I'm an adult." She gives me an unconvinced look. "Laws I'm not asking Celestia to bypass. Anyway, I don't really see a reason to move. I got a bedroom, a workroom, a nice living space, and that's enough." I summarize simply while looking over the Runic Context and trying to think of ways to improve it.

She raises a brow. "How big is your home?" She asks curiously. It's not too surprising she'd find this odd, I do live below my means.

I answer with a little amusement. "I'm not entirely sure, but if I remember properly. Two ten by ten-foot rooms, and a larger ten by twenty-foot room, along with a bathroom." I chuckle at her slightly baffled look. "You know me well enough, I'm not one for fancy things."

She laughs a bit and smiles down at me. "The stallion who gave me enough bits to buy a high-end house, In the royal district, lives in a small apartment. I can't tell if you are humble or just lazy. Have you thought about moving out then? It'd be a good way to change things up after your birthday." She suggests.

I think for a moment and shake my head. "I'll probably travel more, but I think I'll stay, I like it there and my friends are close by. Now, enough small talk, we have work to do and I have a party to mentally prepare for." I smile as she glares a little and I force us to get some work done.

time skip

I finish combing out my short mane and tie it back behind my head again. I've kept cutting my mane short with a knife as it's less bothersome than getting it cut at a barber.

I put away my comb and started to organize the notes me and Cadance made while working on the Love rune. Progress is still being made and the Context is finally fucking done after so much work, but the diplomatic meetings and travel will slow things, I'll also be leaving before her so we'll have to test the rune later as I need to be there to help when we start modifying the rune.

I take a moment to look over the symbol we made for the Love rune. Its base is a simple heart, at Cadance's insistence, and it grows more complex from there. Lines split off from the top and bottom of the heart, they go in four directions from the heart at a slanted angle.

They then turn and twist like vines to overlap each other to form a larger heart of twisting lines around the smaller heart in the middle. Originally this was all that we did, but after some thought the lines were changed to have thorns on them that mimic those of a rose. It makes it a little harder to draw but fits the theme so we added it.

After I'm done copying my notes into my bracelet's illusionary notebook and destroying the originals I take a few moments to go through my saddlebags and leave anything of importance. I make sure to also leave my weapons as that's probably not a good thing to bring, along with any other important items.

I think for a moment before deciding to leave the dagger Phelix gave me as well. It could be useful but I do not understand the political situation nearly well enough to show up with that and flaunt it around. I rather not start a war or some kind of diplomatic event.

Once everything is in order I turn to Entropy. "Ok Girl, you remember the rules?" She hops on my back and nods, while I cast an overpowered illusion spell on Entropy and she now looks like a normal crow again. "Ready to go then?" I ask happily as while this is going to be a shit show it will at least be interesting.

She nods her head again. "Be good. Excited." She's getting better at using her words and I feel a little pride every time she improves her speech.

"Don't get your hopes up, this is not going to be all that interesting. I think." I warn as I leave my room behind and head down to the lobby where everybody is gathered and waiting for our main attraction.

I spot Viridis in our group but all eyes turn as Cadance joins us. Most settle for bowing their head instead of fully bowing as it's not practical in a crowd. Not long after we're all out the door and on the move through the noon city streets, although even with it being noon things are dark.

We're near the back of the city from the cavern opening and back here it's simply dark, and it only gets even darker as we head even deeper into the cavern the city occupies. As we walked I kept looking around while remembering Cadance's advice to me before we finished our meeting.

It was nothing special, she just told me a few simple things to keep in mind. One, be respectful, this one is easy. Two, if the king asks about Entropy be honest but vague, this is also easy. Three, don't ignore other guests even if you want to, I don't like this one but I'll do it. Four, just because you technically can sit anywhere at this meeting doesn't mean you should, this one is just common sense.

As we walk the streets start to be lit by street lamps with fires burning in them, again there are gems that seem to remove any smoke. The buildings get more fancy and well-maintained, I even saw a few mushroom gardens, but that will also have to wait for another day.

As we reach the very back of the cavern we arrive at the palace and main governmental building of Feather Falls. Stone stairs lead up to a large entrance carved into the stone of the cavern wall itself, along with many other windows and openings lit up throughout the stone surface.

When we reach the top of the stairs we are stopped by heavily armored and well decorated Griffon guards, it takes a while for us to be searched and let through. I needed to empty my saddlebags in front of them, which only had some paper and writing supplies along with treats for Entropy.

Speaking of Entropy, she gets more than a few surprised and curious looks from Griffons around us. Interestingly enough I see a well-dressed Griffon noble has their own crow wearing a thin string to keep it from flying off. The crow seems well-behaved but is not as calm as Entropy is.

After we are let in we walk down a large hallway a dozen feet wide that eventually opens up into a small cavern with a massive chandelier hanging above us and preparations for the party being made around us. Several dozen tables are being filled with fancy food and decorations and brought hanging as we enter one last doorway on the other end of the chamber.

The final room is still large but still more quiet and smaller in comparison to the small cavern, it has a long stone table with a stone throne at one end of the room raised a little. Interestingly enough it seems they moved the table here as it's very slightly off-center, or the carvers of this fucked something up pretty badly.

As we enter the room no one bows out of respect for both rulers in attendance as Cadance and King Adosis meet each other and talk a little. Most of our group stayed in the large party room and the dozen who went into this room were here for the meeting. I don't pay much attention to the words said and instead take in the king's appearance.

He holds himself well, but he's a little heavy set in the belly and his age is really showing. Many of his feathers are silvery and he has a few bald spots. His body feathers and fur are a faded deep red, his wing feathers are even more faded, and honestly, I'm not sure if he can even fly well as several flight feathers are missing from his wings.

His head feathers are mostly silver and white while his eyes are a bright yellow that shows his age and experience. He seems pretty jovial and relaxed while talking to Cadance and I spend a moment looking around. As most others watch them talk I move over to Viridis and an older Griffon with her. "Miss. Viridis." I greet them levelly with a nod and keep a professional tone.

She keeps a professional attitude in turn but seems a little pleased to see me. "Mr. Shade. Nice of you to join us." I nearly shutter at that but keep myself under control. "This is Auran Everfalls, my superior." She motions to the Griffon next to her which stands with a straight stance.

I look her over for a moment and she does the same. Light red with fur with deeper red body feathers and very light red wing feathers, along with white head feathers and reddish yellow eyes. I can see her resemblance with the king and it's clear they are related.

The main thing I notice though is the stone cold firm expression face she has. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss. Auran." I also quickly took note that Viridis didn't mention she was related to her boss, and by extension the king. I'll need to be on guard with these two, but not unfriendly.

She gives me a firm nod in return. "Agreed, I was told you'd be joining us?" Her tone is surprisingly blunt and nonemotional. It's not unfriendly, but it's also not friendly, just very matter-of-fact and to the point. I just nodded in response, "Good, read this and copy it in Pony for me." She gives me a blatant order.

I'm a little surprised as there is only one person who can truly order me around, but I do as asked anyway. The paper seems to just be a list of names, nothing even remotely interesting, but it doesn't take me all that long. I just write it out on the floor while keeping an eye on what's happening around me and Auran as she watches me intently. "Here you go, not a bad choice for a test, Griffon names can be tricky." I complement bluntly.

It's obvious she doesn't really need this list and was testing me for some reason, probably because I'm an unknown. She looks it over for a moment before nodding seemingly satisfied. "It is rather effective." She confirms my guess before looking at Entropy. "Keep her under control, I don't want you causing trouble." She again gives me an order, and I decide to just go with it.

I just sit in silence with them after that as the meeting finally begins. At the head of the large table, Cadance and her diplomats sit opposite of King Adosis and his own diplomats. Any other attendants who need to do work but aren't talking at the moment, like me, Viridis, and oddly enough Auran as well, we all sit on the other end of the table not far away.

I'm not the only pony on this side of the table here so I don't really stand out too much if you don't count Entropy. It's only a dozen feet separating our two groups around the table and both sides seem to swap out people when needed. Not long later I got burdened with paperwork and got to work, it's also now that I noticed that Auran sat me at the very end of the table right in the middle so everybody could see me, just lovely.

As I start my work and we all settle in Auran is next to me with Viridis at her other side. Entropy takes this moment to find a comfortable spot to nap, namely on the tabletop next to me. She's not the only one as a crow that the king himself brought stands on the table impatiently, along with two other crows from a pair of nobles.

It's not immediate, but others do start to notice Entropy sleeping peacefully like she's a statue despite all the noise. As I work I'm not terribly surprised that someone starts a conversation with me, I however am surprised by who does speak. Auran doesn't turn to me but speaks to me anyway. "What is their name?" It's a blunt question, but it's more friendly in tone and far less cold than I expected.

I can see she's put on a mask and is acting more diplomatic than earlier. I work and speak at the same time, "I call her a few things, but Shadow works fine. Also, don't touch her, she will bite you." I respond in an equally bland but fake-friendly tone to match her.

It seems we're similar in this way, we'll act friendly and use formality, but only if needed. Her words and actions do make me wonder if she was something like a guard in the past. She nods with some seriousness, "You may get that from others, but I know better. She is remarkably well trained." She comments in some form of a compliment.

"Good, and yes she is." I won't elaborate beyond that and move some papers to the side after translating and copying them with a quick Copy spell. Something she notices quickly and seems interested in.

She looks over as an attendant whispers to her. "I'll be back." She stands and moves over to get involved in the meeting.

I stay there but after a few minutes Entropy seems to get a little annoyed as another crow keeps cawing insistently, much to their owner's embarrassment, and disrupting Entropy's attempt at rest. "Loud." She chirps quietly to me while moving to cuddle on the side of my forelimb as I work.

It seems her moving seems to draw enough attention and the king notices her. Currently, Auran is talking to a pony diplomat about something, and the king's just reading a few documents when he spots me with a little surprise on his face. He stares at me but I don't look up from my work.

His own crow seems very well-behaved, at least enough to not caw or make a scene of itself, but it's still a little restless and needs to play with a toy. In contrast, Entropy just looks around and quietly and watches things silently as I occasionally pet her, this seems to intrigue him further.

He doesn't pay attention for long as the meeting needs his undivided attention again. But Auran comes back not long after, "You got his attention, it's a start, just don't mess it up." She says without ceremony while sitting down next to me again. "Where did you buy her?" She digs for more information.

I could lie, but that just complicates things so I take Cadance's advice and tell a vague truth. "I didn't, I bought her egg and raised her myself," I answer simply and that seems to surprise her enough to break her mask a bit, something that probably doesn't happen much. "Also, I will never sell her. So, how likely is it that he asks to buy her?" I knew someone might ask something along those lines and thought I'd ask about it as saying no to the king might cause problems.

That seems to actually make her think for a moment. "Hmm. Have you ever learned about why crows are so important to us?" She asks and I shake my head a little. "Well, they just got to trade routes and taxes so we have plenty of time, let me tell you a bit of a tale about Feather Falls and my ancestor." Her tone is a bit more interested and she starts to speak.

I smirk a bit at her words and continue my work. :Finally, something worth listening to, or at least something more worthwhile than this meeting:

Author's Note

Thanks for reading. :)
Current year is 995

I really can't stop myself from writing. How many chapters are we into in this ack? Six? Severn? OH GOD, Has it been seven?! I literally don't remember! I really need to speed this shit up!

Also, birb meeting with little birbs.