the regent is too busy to enjoy an uninterrupted brunch
we were frequently interrupted by assistants and such with requests for their attention ... even for stuff that seemed easily handled without the regent's input
it feels like iliana puts most of their effort into coaxing folks to take initiative and make their own decisions
this is too much work for one pony – especially one who never gets to take a break!
they need more than part-time assistance
folks frequently refer to them as "the queen"
perhaps ponies imagine that iliana is a stand-in for queen titania from the old green?
the confusion might come from the country's full name – "the right royal regency of equestria in exile"
we need to stop thinking of ourselves as being temporarily outside of thelanis
we no longer live there and we no longer have a queen – that role of leadership doesn't exist the same way here
the collective denial is strong
we spent most of the meal speaking in dakhaani so the regent could refresh her skill with it and that's been a sort of relief because i'm much easier to understand when i'm not speaking sylvan
dakhaani doesn't require singing
just as we were finishing up brunch barley step rushed in to warn us that the "hungry pest" had returned!
a hungry pest is like a wyvern that likes to eat cattle but normally isn't inclined to raid farms for them
this one was bolder
it'd been terrorizing nearby farmers and consuming everything it could get ... and during its last visit it killed three royal guards!
of course we volunteered to assist the remaining guards
and it was dangerous! it managed to bite barley step and smack zer'atesh in the head with its tail but were able to drive it away
in fact it was surprisingly easy to drive it away – spark said it was no more effort than our morning run!
i have thoughts on that for later
hopefully we've driven it off for good but if it returns again we may have to do more than swat it away
the positive side of the encounter is that the heart&hammer crew are now well established as friendly helpers so hopefully once word spreads folks will be a little less nervous around us
because the others do tend to make folks nervous – even with herding bracelets on they're wildly unusual
as are medya and i now
we all get odd looks
i kind of like it
there's more
after that the regent asked us to meet with the unexpected visitors
"d'tharashk marden" is a khorvaran whose bracelet makes her a rather fetching unicorn but she's happy to be able to drop the disguise around us
she's the expedition's captain
"d'tharashk keb" seems to prefer keeping her bracelet on and is very happy to be a small pig
she's the crew's caretaker
marden explained to us that they found the everglow while tracking down glitterreed
"d'tharashk tsaa" is their finder and according to marden he "asked the glitterreed nicely" to tell him where it was from and it pointed him in the right direction – apparently that's the ability his dragonmark grants him
side note: marden's dragonmark appears as her brand of destiny – leali will be tickled to hear about that
anyhow
tsaa understandably got bored waiting for us to arrive and followed his finding instincts to the eastern town of "sun's tears"
"d'tharashk davan" concerns us greatly
he's a follower of the church of inspiration which might well mean he's been touched by a winterwolf ... or possibly even harbors one
he took off toward wind's rest 2 days after they all got here and he hasn't been heard from since
apparently his talent is that he can't be found if he doesn't want to be found so tracking him down won't be easy
"d'tharashk javi" went to track him down
now that's real confidence!
marden has asked for our help finding them all
the house of finding needs our help finding some of their finders
what's more is that with zer's talent for scrying we may be the most qualified group in the area to do so
even though davan worries me most and is technically closest tsaa is much easier and faster to get to because there's a rail line
keb will arrange tickets for us for tomorrow morning
home after all this travel and we're right back into it!
so i'm still writing in my travel journal for now
i've been writing this while we walk to my parents' place for dinner but we're pretty close now
seeing my parents and brother will be wonderful after all this time!
and as a bonus i'll get to meet catchlight's patron "radiant smile" since he plans to stop by
... i wonder if we'll all fit around the table