Page 44 of The Sundered Realms

That was the most invitation Liris was going to get, apparently, so she did too.

“Liris, are you aware of the efforts toward creating a Coalition of Tethered Realms?” Princess Nysia asked her.

“The current efforts? Yes.” It wasn’t the first time politicians in the Sundered Realms had attempted to create an international financial organization, but it was the first time more than a few realms were taking it seriously.

“I see you’ve studied history,” Princess Nysia said dryly.

Historically there had been two primary barriers: incentives for the wealthy countries—since why should they contribute if they didn’t need help?—and security for the poorer ones, who were rightly concerned about what sorts of strings would come attached to centralized assistance. Serenthuar hadn’t believed this effort worth considering, despite, to Liris’ eye, important differences in setup and reception.

She couldn’t help but wonder what strings were more onerous than mortgaging freedom to demons.

“My understanding was that you were leading the initiative personally and already had many key realms in agreement,” Liris said.

Princess Nysia nodded, though her jaw tightened. “I am and I did. Isendhor is one of them, with Vhannor’s support, since establishing the CTR will materially change how Special Operations functions, which is why we spend so much time together these days.”

Wow, she’d given Liris an answer basically for free. Unexpected.

And this wasn’t the classified information?

“But the tide has shifted, and I don’t know why. Serenthuar being overtaken by a significant caster in league with demons shifts that calculus, and the urgency of resolving it, further. Two realms in particular I was sure of before are now stalling—I was hoping since Vhann is between interns he could pay a visit to Tellianghu to investigate, with Shry as backup.”

“See, someone isn’t afraid to arrange backup,“ Shry said.

Vhannor shot her a glare. “There was no reason to believe Etorsiye would be in that state.”

“Reason enough to believe it was worth personally looking into at all, wasn’t there?”

Vhannor scowled. “This is why you’re trying to arrange things for me now without talking to me? Because I didn’t ask you to come with me?”

“Because no matter what I say, you don’t think you should ask me to come with you,“ Shry shot back.

Vhannor’s mouth snapped closed.

“Unfortunately,“ Princess Nysia interrupted, “we missed the window for Tellianghu. Now they’re officially closed to political business for preparations.”

“Ah.” Vhannor nodded.

Liris’ eyes widened. “Oh, it’s nearly time for their ball, isn’t it?”

Invitations to Tellianghu’s annual ball were coveted by the wealthy and powerful across the realms. The ball was a luxurious spectacle, a chance for Tellianghu to show off their enormous wealth as a trade hub due to their plethora of Gates—which also meant the loss of Tellianghu in an international financial alliance would be enormous.

“Exactly. So no one’s investigating anything there yet, but the other realm I’m sure something odd has happened with is Otaryl. Vhann, given Representative Hyorem’s esteem for you—“

“I’m in a unique position to make diplomatic arrangements even without reports of a demon portal.” He sighed.

“So this works even better then,” Shry said. “Vhannor has Liris with him at the ball for immediate backup, which frees me up to still go but operate less visibly and see what I can find.” She craned her neck over at Liris. “You can handle fancy people at a fancy ball, right?”

Oh, sure. Tons of experience with that.

Before Liris could answer, Princess Nysia said, “It works better only if Liris can be trusted. If she isn’t part of whatever is going on with the dissenting realms, or the demon servants, or both.”

Vhannor leaned forward in his seat—just slightly.

Just enough for the princess to note it.

“Liris voluntarily risked herself to dispel a demon portal,” Vhannor said in a mock-conversational tone.

But one that chilled the room as his lavender eyes went hard as chips of ice.

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