Vol.3 Ch.8 – Annabella

Chapter 8: Annabella

Princess Annabella led us through hallway after hallway, up several flights of stairs and then down another long corridor until she stopped in front of a room guarded by two members of the royal guard.

“Princess," the one on the left said, “welcome back.”

“Thank you," she said, then waved over at us. “These are my guests.”

The guard paused and considered. “Your highness, I do not think it would be appropriate for you to let a group of unknowns into your private chambers, especially a man," the guard said and the princess rolled her eyes.

“Sir Helmut, my mother chose these warriors to be my guard detail for the coming days," she said. “If I cannot trust them with my virtue, how can I trust them with my life?”

“But..." the guard said.

“But nothing," the princess cut him off. “Unless you want to second-guess the queen's decisions?”

The guard's eyes flew wide open. “Of course not, your highness!" he said.

“Good," the princess said. “Then be so kind as to inform Matilda to bring tea for five.”

Instead of replying the guard all but sprinted off as the princess opened the door to her chamber and let us in after her.

She gestured to a set of sofas arranged around a small table in one corner of the room. “Please sit down," she said. “I'll just be a minute. I need to get changed.”

We sat down and she hurried towards what looked to be a walk-in closet.

As she was busy I took the opportunity to look around the room. For the most part the room looked... sterile. It looked like how I'd imagined a princess' bedroom to look, but it looked a little too stereotypical. Large, rectangular room, high ceiling, a large four-poster bed, a table with comfortable sofas for entertaining guests, a small armoire, a desk and a bookshelf. The room didn't look so much like a space someone lived in as it did a prop on a stage. The only items that betrayed a hint of personality were several well-read leather books that stood out on the bookshelf and a small, well-used alchemy set next to the desk. Apparently the princess had a hobby.

“Felix?" Alisha asked, pulling me out of my musings.

“What is it?" I asked.

“Why did you ask for that favor?" she asked. “Did you have something in mind?”

Selene and Yume looked curious as well.

I kept my voice low, not sure who might be listening. “Once we manage to get Syr's body back we can use that favor to get her a pardon for everything her body did without her," I explained.

Syr appeared next to me. She'd been curiously absent lately but now she appeared and gave me just enough time to notice her before she threw her arms around me.

Alisha chuckled. “And here I thought you were going to ask her to make you a duke or something," she said. “I should have known you had something kinder in mind.”

“Thank you," Syr whispered into my ear. “Thank you so much.”

“Always," I said, making sure to turn towards her to make it clear I was talking to her rather than answering Alisha.

Just then the door to the walk-in closet opened again and Princess Annabella stepped out and finally everything made sense. I immediately knew that this was the real Annabella and that the woman we'd met in the throne room had been a stage persona.

And the real Annabella was gorgeous.

She wore heavy canvas pants the way the nobles did when riding horses, as well as knee-high brown leather boots to complete the look. On her belt she wore a bag of holding as well as a sheathed dagger. Up top she wore a long-sleeved green tunic and a brown leather vest over it. The tunic and vest were so tight around her chest that they emphasized rather than hid her lack of bust, proving that it had been the tailor who had insisted on the frills on her dress. But the tight fit of the clothes also showed off that she had a very fit body, with toned thighs and not an ounce of excess fat on her frame. And in contrast to her lack of bust her hips were very shapely. She also wore a thin set of wire-framed spectacles. Yes, this was the woman that alchemy set belonged to.

“There," she said, “much better.” Then she seemed to remember something and went back into the closet and grabbed first an ornate longbow, which she placed in her bag of holding, and a satchel that she pulled over her shoulder. Then she came out and sat down opposite us. She began sorting through her satchel and nodded when she was satisfied.

“What did her majesty mean about your satchel?" I finally asked.

“Ah, right," she said. “My family owns an incredibly powerful magical artifact called a duplicator. Any item you place inside is duplicated. It can only be used once a day and we are using it mostly on very valuable items like grimoires and rare potions. And my mother wasted an entire day of its usefulness by passing my satchel full of herbs and salves through it so that I could use up everything during our dungeon dive without actually losing any of it.”

“I see," I said. “That was very thoughtful of her.”

She nodded. “It was," she said. “So, now that we are alone, I can finally speak candidly.” And suddenly her voice became a whole lot less refined and a whole lot more standoffish. “I am not some coddled maiden. I am a seasoned adventurer, with years of experience under my belt. I will be part of your team, not someone you have to escort.”

I looked at her and paused to give weight to her words, to show her that I was taking her seriously. “Of course, your highness," I said. “I have no intention of belittling your abilities, especially with how formidable you look.”

She frowned. “I can't tell if you're making fun of me or not," she said.

“He isn't," Alisha said with absolute conviction. “If he's complimenting someone, he always means it.”

“I did mean it, your highness," I agreed. “Believe me, if there is one thing I know, it is formidable women.”

She smirked as she looked at the women to either side of me. “Very well, I'm glad we got that out of the way," she said. “Now, this whole 'your highness' thing is getting tedious. If we're not on any official business, please just call me Annabella. If you want to shorten that further, I prefer Anna over Bella.” She paused until we all nodded. “Unfortunately, during official business, like the talks you need to accompany me to, I will need to insist on the title but, believe me, it's only to keep up appearances.”

“Alright then, um, Annabella," I said, “I guess if we're going to be working together, I am a little curious what sort of adventurer you are. I see that alchemy set over there, so I assume you have some knowledge of herbs.”

Finally she smiled. “Right," she said. “I'm an herbalist and a halfway decent archer. I've also inherited the unique type of magic of the Trismegistian bloodline.”

I was sure I was being too excited, but I couldn't help myself as I asked: “You mean the magic your family gained from living atop the dungeon, right?”

She nodded. “Right, though I'm not all that good with it," she said. “So, how about the four of you? I've only heard of your deeds, not of your abilities.”

“Sure," I said. “I guess I'll start. You can call me Felix. I am... I guess a rogue is still the best way to describe me, with a bag of holding filled with weapons and magic items.”

“That's a little humble for someone who kills Dark Lords for a living," she observed.

I smiled. “It's the truth," I said. “I am resourceful, but nowhere near as powerful as my companions.”

“Interesting," she said, then looked at Alisha. “How about you?”

“My name is Alisha and I'm a cleric," the elf said and Annabella smiled at her. Yeah, Alisha had that kind of effect on people.

The princess turned her gaze to Selene, who said:

“You can call my Selene, your high---," Annabella glared at Selene and she finished: “Annabella. I am a paladin. Sort of.”

“Sort of?" Annabella asked and Selene looked away.

“She is technically a paladin of Freya but she is still upset with her goddess," I explained.

Annabella frowned. “I see," the princess said and looked over at Yume, who said:

“I am Yume, from the southern realm. I guess you could call me a witch. I am adept with illusion magic and fire magic.”

“How exciting," Annabella said. “I was supposed to receive training from a combat instructor from the southern realms like all my siblings, but he never showed up so I never got to learn much about the southern realm. If we have time I would love to talk to you about your home.”

“Training?" I asked with a look over to Yume. Did the royal family train their children in Qi techniques?

“Yes," Annabella said, “though I have no idea what he was supposed to teach me.” A mystery for another day, then.

Then Selene asked: “Annabella, may I ask you something?”

“It'll be pretty hard to work together if you can't," the princess said with a smirk.

“You said you were an herbalist," Selene said. “What is the difference between that and an alchemist?”

Annabella smiled. “It's a matter of scope," she said. “Herb lore is a part of alchemy, but only a small part. I ignore most of the discipline, but in exchange I am more intimately familiar with my craft because I have only a fraction of the recipes to memorize that a 'true' alchemist would need to.”

“Thank you," Selene said.

“So, just so I understand this," I said. “You are a princess and yet you spend your free time working as an herbalist?”

“That's right," she said. “I travel the countryside to find new herbs and recipes whenever I can make time.”

“Couldn't you just buy whatever ingredients you need?" Selene asked and Annabella shook her head emphatically.

“It's not the same," she said. “I need to know where to find what plants and how different environments affect what plants how. I could buy all my ingredients but it wouldn't actually make me a better herbalist if I did. And I'd rather not use my family's name for this at all. I want to be competent on my own merits.”

Admirable of her. But then I remembered something else.

“So you travel the country looking for rare ingredients?" I asked and she nodded. “You wouldn't happen to travel to a village named Shackled Hollow on occasion?”

Her eyebrows rose. “I do, in fact," she said. “How did you know?”

“Oh, we traveled through there a while ago and helped them fend off a Dark Lord's raiding party," I said. “Along the way the acting ruler mentioned that there was a beautiful young herbalist who regularly came to his village looking for rare ingredients who he thought might be more important than she's letting on. I thought that description might fit you.”

Annabella blushed, which looked great on her fair complexion. “W-well," she said, clearly flustered, “I guess I should thank you for keeping the village safe.”

“No need," I said.

We were quiet for a while and then there was a quiet knock at the door and a maid came in and placed teacups in front of us. We thanked her and she left.

The tea was lovely. Sweet but not too sweet and clearly a special blend.

“Do you like it?" Annabella asked.

“It's great," I said.

“Thank you," she said. “It's a blend I created myself.” She clearly wanted to say more but kept herself quiet.

“What's in it?" I asked, just to give her an excuse to talk about her hobby.

“Are you sure you want to know?" she asked.

I nodded.

“I call it Sereni-Tea," she said. “It calms the nerves. It's made of Hypnos leaves, mandragora leaves, phantom lilies and a special type of nightcap mushroom only found in Shackled Hollow... well, and some other herbs, but they're mostly for flavor.” I looked at her with curiosity.

“Hypnos leaves make you drowsy and give you nice dreams," I said. “Mandragora leaves have energizing properties. If I remember correctly from our trip to Shackled Hollow these mushrooms have a similar effect to Hypnos leaves. What do the phantom lilies do?”

Annabella was about to open her mouth when Alisha said:

“They calm down your heart rate and make you feel content.” Then she turned to the princess and asked: “How did you get them?”

“You can't really be an herbalist if you don't deal with the Wood Elves. Your people grow all the best plants and know all the best recipes," Annabella said and Alisha smiled.

“I didn't know herbalists made teas," Selene said.

“We do," the princess said. “A lot of tea blends were originally created by herbalists. These days people just combine the ingredients the way their recipes say without thinking about the properties, but all of them were once created by someone who knew what herbs did what. And as an herbalist I can make just about any tea blend better by fiddling with it.”

“Like?" Selene asked.

Annabella replied by asking: “I suppose you've had to drink maiden's tea once or twice, right?”

Selene blushed but nodded.

“I make a version of it that doesn't upset your stomach," Annabella explained. “The ingredients are just a bit more annoying to find.”

It probably made me a bad boyfriend, but I had never really noticed Selene upsetting her stomach by drinking maiden's tea. But it did explain why she sometimes asked me to pull out and let her swallow my seed instead. Well, that and because she loved doing that.

We drank in silence for a while before the princess said:

“Now, I would like to sit and chat for longer, but unfortunately duty calls. I assume you need to pack a few things before we set out, right?”

“That is right," I said. “We didn't expect to begin our mission today.”

“I am all packed up," she said. “Can I accompany you?” I hesitated and she explained: “I don't really enjoy being here in the palace.”

“Of course," I said, then thought of something else: “By the way, how are we going to travel?”

“Right, I should have mentioned that," she said. “Since I have a diplomatic mission in Calice to get to, the messenger who informed us of this is staying in the capital. Normally we would have a cleric use the Homeward miracle on the messenger to transport us to Calice immediately, but..." she looked at Alisha, “if you know Homeward as well then we won't need to take another cleric with us.”

“Of course," Alisha said. “This is a very convenient way to travel back and forth. I wouldn't have thought of that.”

“While being a princess is often annoying, there are a few perks to having the royal family's resources to work with," Annabella said with a smirk.

**

Soon we were back at the Plucked Cockatrice Tavern and Inn, gathering our gear for a few days of guard duty. I made sure to take Helios Edge, a whetstone and some polish with me and my girls took whatever gear they saw fit. Everything was perfectly ordinary until Annabella reminded us of her presence as she asked in a wavering voice:

“S-so, you all share the same room? Isn't that a little...?” She trailed off and Alisha grinned.

“What's wrong with it?" the elf asked.

“Well," Annabella said, “I can't help but wonder what your relationship is like since you are all fine sharing a room... sharing a bed...”

“It's exactly as you think," Alisha explained as she squeezed both my ass and Yume's.

“I-I see," Annabella said and looked away. “But... don't you get jealous when he's with the others?”

Alisha smirked. “You assume any of us get left out," she said.

Annabella chewed on that for a while before she asked: “A-anyway, are you ready to leave now?”

“Of course," I said. “When do you need to be in Calice?”

Annabella considered. “Technically, the talks begin tomorrow," she said. “But I'd prefer to arrive today, get to know the city a little and then have a nice meal beforehand. I'm sorry if that's inconvenient.”

I shook my head. “Not at all," I said. “It's been a while since I was last in Calice and I think," I turned to my women, “none of you have been there yet, have you?” I was met by a round of head shakes. Alisha hadn't ever left her forest prior to the quest on which we'd met, Selene had only barely gotten out of her village and Yume had lived in another realm up until a month before we first met. It felt odd to be the most well-traveled person in a group, but I was pretty sure with Annabella along that would no longer be the case. “It's a great place and very close to the ocean. But be warned, it's much more beautiful at night than it is during the day.”

“That's a great way to put it," Annabella said. “Parts of it are rather ugly during the day, but at night with all the lights and the long shoreline it's gorgeous.”

“So you've been there before?" I asked.

“Yes, though I was never free to explore on my own," she said. “It's a bit of a shame, really, but at least I'll get a few hours today to see the sights. You wouldn't be able to show me around, would you?”

I waggled my hand. “When I was there I spent most of my time in the harbor district," I said. “That's where all the taverns and quest boards are.” And smugglers. And pirates. And brothels. And basically any other thing an unattached male mercenary might be interested in, either personally or professionally.

“That's convenient, because the people I need to negotiate with are in the harbor district," Annabella said.

I frowned. “Who even are you negotiating with?" I asked. “Or is this something you can't tell us?”

She chuckled and said: “You'll be there during the negotiations, making sure nobody pulls a knife on me, so it's not as if I can hide it from you.” She paused, then said: “They are a diplomatic delegation from Albion, the realm beyond the seas.”

It was then I noticed Alisha staring at Annabella as though she'd seen a ghost. “Albion isn't real," the elf said in a breathy voice. “It's just a bunch of stories and myths.”

Annabella tilted her head as she looked at Alisha, then seemed to get it. “Oh right, you're a worshiper of the Tuatha Dé Danann," she said. “So, as it turns out no, Albion is very much a real place and all the stories the followers of the Tuatha Dé Danann have been told are true, or at least based on true events. To be honest, we were quite surprised ourselves when we heard that a delegation from Albion arrived in one of our largest harbors because we thought the place only existed in legends as well.”

Alisha's eyes went all sparkly. “I can't wait to meet them," she said. “The gallant knights of King Arthur...”

“Careful," I said. “Your stories might paint them as fighters for good, but that doesn't have to mean they're good people.”

That sobered her up some. “Yeah, you're right," she said. “The stories also paint Ogma as a fighter for good but he's an ass.” That was the first time I'd ever heard Alisha speak ill of any of the Tuatha Dé Danann. Well, besides Bres. “But still, I can't wait to find out which of the stories I know are true.”

“I don't really get what you're talking about," Yume said.

I was about to explain, but then shut up and let Alisha do it:

“In short, most of the myths and legends told to the followers of the Tuatha Dé Danann take place in the magical realm of Albion, an island shrouded in mists. The king there, a man named Arthur, gained his title by drawing a sword that had been stuck in a rock for generations. Once he became king he sought out the cauldron of our fertility deity, the Dagda. To that end, and to unite the lands, he chose a group of knights to work for him and their stories and exploits make up the bulk of our myths, like poor Lancelot, who was magically compelled to look for the cauldron and went insane when he couldn't find it.”

I couldn't help but smirk and affected Alisha's tone as I said: “Your gods are weird.”

She frowned at me and said: “That had nothing to do with our gods, you...” But then she noticed my smirk and growled at me before adding: “And I sound nothing like that.”

“I thought it was a pretty good impression," Selene said.

“Traitor!" Alisha said, poking Selene in the ribs.

“Are they always like this?" Annabella asked Yume as they watched us.

“They get deathly serious when the situation demands it, but otherwise? Yes, pretty much,” Yume said, her tails wagging. Even from where I stood I could tell that Annabella's eyes were following their movements. Yume must have noticed as well because she abruptly said: “You can touch them if you want.”

Annabella blushed a little at having been caught, but then said: “Well, alright then, don't mind if I do.”

Then she reached out and stroked Yume's fluffy tails, feeling the lush fur and stroking up and down, admiring the volume. Yume kept up that same small smile but from the way her facial muscles were twitching I could tell she liked it.

“They're so soft," Annabella muttered quietly and then, without warning, stroked one of Yume's fluffy ears.

The fox girl tried to keep still a little while longer but then let out a tiny little: “Mnnnn...”

Annabella immediately jerked her hand away and asked: “I'm sorry, did that hurt?”

Yume took a moment to compose herself and then replied: “Not at all, but people normally buy me dinner before they start touching my ears.”

The small blush that had crept up the princess' cheeks spread over her entire face, but I did notice that she seemed to be looking at Yume's ears even more curiously.