Someone Else's Kingdom, BOOK II - Scene XVII

"Help me out on your way back. Go see the half-tails. Tell them to settle in the city and pay their taxes like everyone else, or be killed. Or just leave the kingdom altogether. They might listen to you, what with you being almost as undomesticated as they are."

"How would it be in my interest to tell them to stop fighting?" answered Eartaria, as ever with a wry smile on his lips.

"I don't need you to tell them to stop fighting, I just need you to pass on the message. By all means try to persuade them to keep fighting if you want. I'd rather not have to wipe them all out though. So your choice."

Eartaria couldn't help but like the jovial King Brijsk, and as he got up to leave the stout castle he inwardly decided he would do him this one favour - though outwardly he gave no word of it. He didn't even thank the king for the hospitality he'd been shown on this second visit. As Brijsk himself slowly got up from his chair he hit Eartaria heartily on the back and followed him to the door. But then, as if from nowhere, the sea-swept woman suddenly walked into the room. The king momentarily braked as he clocked the unexpected visitor. His giant body like a stunned bear. Eartaria stopped too, and as the two men looked at each other there was a comedic pause, each finding the oddness of the situation and the haggardly appearance of the woman mildly amusing.

"You're the king?" she asked, already knowing it was so. Her strange accent and manner adding more to the pair's entertainment.

"Of course."

"I have a message for you ..and for all kings: the sky is falling."

King Brijsk laughed out loud. "How did you get in here?"

He then looked to the guards that were standing by the door.

"None of that matters, you must listen as I speak.."

The wild, cat-like body language displayed as she said this momentarily spooked the guards as they moved to approach her.

The king, unflapped, yet still amused, reached for his purse. "I'm a generous man, I'll give you a gold inghk to leave." He then pulled out a bright shiny coin and threw it towards her. She caught it in her hand then took a step towards the king. Pulling back her hair she then reached up to behind her ear, as if to remove an imaginary necklace. She then stripped away a string of golden ingkhs, as if it they'd always sat around her neck. She held the ingkhs aloft and offered them back to the king. His face somewhat impressed by the magic trick as she dropped the golden jewellery into his open palm.

It failed to impress Eartaria however.

"A harpy, a palm reader. Or a streetwalker from the Three Deserts."

She looked at him with a calm glare, confident that at least the king would now hear her out. "The sky is falling," she pressed again, "..Do you want the whole world to end up on the ocean floor like your brother?".

This weird, but needless comment immediately induced an anger in Eartaria, but it also brought unsettlement. He wanted to reply, but couldn't quite find the words. The sea-swept woman quickly moved on..

"You need to stop this warring and go back to how it was."

"We can't just stop because some fortune teller turns up unannounced," interrupted Eartaria, re-finding his voice.

"Why must we stop?" asked King Brijsk, his amusement now seasoned with a hint of curiosity.

"..because the sky is falling."

"You need to cross her palm with silver again."

"The sky is falling, there's little more to say. You need to put things back to the way they were."

"We all want peace," replied the king, adopting a more serious tone - one similar to the tone with which he spoke about the half-tails earlier - "But we can't go back. The old order was chaos. Up was down and down was up. Yes, the new world will be bloody, for a time, but once we're through this, things will be simpler, and more straight forward. The sky is not falling."

The returning seriousness of the king reminded Eartaria of the message he was going to pass on to the half-tails, and as he looked scornfully at the peculiar woman it occurred to him that daylight was burning. "I'll leave you with your harlot," he remarked as he stepped out the door. He gave a brief nod of adieu, looking again at the woman; her words about his brother marring him a little more than he cared to admit.

"I must to speak to the King of Caster," insisted the sea-swept woman, completely ignoring the departing Eartaria, her eyes firmly fixed on the king.

The idea of sending such a demented woman to the court of King Mizmeam didn't find appeal in his mind, but her dubious message disturbed him enough that he couldn't quite dismiss the possibility. "I'll grant you safe passage through my kingdom, and send you through to the court, though I doubt you'll get the same welcome in the south you've been given here."