“I’m done. I’m so sick of this,” Ann said, standing up and throwing her chair back, the backrest bouncing painfully off the base of her tail. “And now that hurts, too!”

“We will take a break,” Bren decided. “Your speech is coming along well, but you need to work on the diction. It is important to be clearly heard by everyone in the audience. Any mealymouthed pronunciation will muddy your message for those listening.”

“Look, I get it,” Ann grumbled, pacing with her arms crossed. “I do, just, holy shit it’s frustrating, and I’m already freaking out enough about how much pressure is on for day after tomorrow. Sure, Rowena, Kat and Rosalyn are working on the final bits of the dress, Lucia is scoping out the venue. Just feels wrong being cooped up and studying more.”

Bren nodded, then stood. He neatly packed the papers they’d been going over along with his journal and writing equipment. “Come.”

“Where?” Ann asked, feeling a now natural excitement at moving.

“Out,” Bren said without explanation.

“Taking speaking lessons from Lucia?” Ann teased as she followed the man.

“Brevity, I have learned, has its applications. Where several words may be used, often one word may work.”

“Ah, so she’s rubbing off on you,” Ann laughed.

“Possibly,” Bren sighed. “Though I feel the process is occurring in both directions.”

“You’re right. She’s had longer sentences lately. Not much, but she can string like… five or six words together?”

“She could do more if she applied herself, but that is not her way. I have learned to accept this.”

“Still haven’t told me where we’re going.”

“And I will not. Just follow, please.”

“Always up for a walk,” Ann laughed, hooking her hands behind her head and following.

They made their way out of the palace, down into the more industrial area of the city, and even further through to the outer wall of the cavern. The squat, square, unmarked building that housed the lift to the peaks of Korvas greeted them with all of its mundanity. The guards stationed provided winter wear to Bren, and they were allowed to ascend. Bren was quiet the whole way, making Ann squirm as they rode.

Finally, they stepped out onto the wind-blasted peaks of Korvas. Nothing but clear blue skies and howling winds. Ann’s hair, ears, and tail were blasted straight back as they made their way out to the tundra landscape. Bren led her on, past where they’d stopped to look at one of the dozens of lenses set up to bring life giving light down into Korvas. A short hike later, he settled down, brushing off a flat outcrop of rock, and sat. When Ann made to do the same, he held up a hand.

“No, you will be speaking here,” Bren said, voice loud and clear even over the wind.

“I thought you said we were taking a break!” Ann yelled back.

“The walk was the break,” Bren advised.

“I don’t see how screaming my speech at you is going to help!”

“We will not be using your speech. This is simply to get you used to projecting your voice and speaking clearly in a din. We’ve been practising in silence, and you need more practical experience. Today, let us talk about history. Whatever history you wish to speak about but focus on projection of your voice. Speak from your diaphragm and really push your words out. A change of subject is likely to help.”

“Like you are?” Ann asked, trying to do as he said. Her voice was carried away immediately by the winds.

“What?”

“Like you are?” Ann asked again, yelling.

“Yes. Now stop yelling. It will only hurt your throat in the long run. Project!”

Project, yeah. Cause I had all the theatre kid experience. They always went on about this shit. Ann sighed and resigned herself to the unusual exercise. “Can I walk?”

“It would be better if you didn’t, but small pacing is fine,” Bren nodded.

“Cool, so what do you want to hear about?”

“Let’s go with a culture. That should give you far more material to speak about than most. What is a culture that impacted you?”

“Alright, then we’re going with either the ancient… wow, ancient means something way different now. Alright, Ancient Greeks, or Ancient Egyptians?”

“I have a preference for neither, because I know nothing about them. Choosing at random, I will go with the Greeks.”

“Good choice, scholar boy,” Ann laughed, giving him a thumbs up.

“I could barely hear you. Speak up!”

Ann sighed, then stood up straight. Doing her best movie professor impression, she puffed out her chest and did her best to project her voice.

“The Greeks were one of the first democratic societies we have a record of,” she began. “They were governed by a council. Well, to be more specific, the Athenian period of Greece was ruled like this. People voted for their representative who went to the Senate to argue their people’s needs and wants. It was a model many other civilisations adopted over time. The open forum of discussion brought a time of philosophy and scholarship that the world only rarely saw. In my day, we were still quoting some of those philosophers.”

“A land of scholars sounds like paradise,” Bren said, still somehow speaking over the wind without shouting. “Keep it up. You are getting there. Pull in your chest. Too much extension will overexert muscles needed elsewhere.”

Ann relaxed slightly, still keeping her back straight, and continued. As she did, she focused on her breathing, trying to cycle breaths to have her voice always at peak strength. “Not everyone was a scholar. The city-state of Sparta was known for its warriors. Honestly, a lot of it is mythologised, but they definitely earned their laurels.”

“Laurels?”

“A crown made of leaves that was used to signify an achievement. It’s a saying that started in Greece and endured the ages. Anyway, they were some of the fiercest fighters out there. At one point they led the combined Greek forces against a neighbouring nation, Persia. Then, they decided they wanted control, did some shit stuff, took over, then got kicked out again, and assimilated into the rest of Greek society.”

“As a military culture will do,” Bren nodded. “So why did this culture stick around in the annals of your history?”

“Well, first it was the philosophers. Their thinkers were some of the best out there. It was one of the times where recording people’s speeches was common, and that allowed their words to live on forever. One guy named Socrates was a particularly prolific man. One of his that I love is, ‘The only true wisdom is knowing you know nothing.’”

“How can you know nothing if you know that you know nothing?” Bren asked. “It sounds paradoxical.”

“Not really. What he means is that to be wise, you have to know that there is an infinite amount of things that you don’t know. Basically, be humble, because that farmer is going to teach you a hundred different things about the land you had no idea existed, or that fisherman with the sea, or that potter and the qualities of clay. To truly understand how little you know means you can learn so much more.”

“That makes more sense. Thank you for the clarification.”

“Anytime. How’s the hearing?”

“Still getting muffled by the stronger gusts. Keep it up, you are getting closer. I am shocked at your aptitude for this.”

“I’ve always been a fast learner. So, the philosophers weren’t the only things. Their gods were also a fascinating subject. They had an absolute ton of them. Honestly, the pantheon that’s working around us right now is pretty close. Only thing that I’ve seen as a major difference is that these gods were dicks.”

“A correction on this part,” Bren said. “First, please move your lips more. It will help enunciation. Second, not all of our Gods are benevolent. Not entirely. We have already seen that Orenous can be a jealous one, and then there is Nylir, embodying the darker side of emotions. These are not the only major Gods in existence, either. Others, such as Intyom, God of Ingenuity, are worshipped by many inventors. He cares not what direction those inventions are, or their uses, but that they exist. Intyom is rather popular in Indelholm, but also in the Bortislav Empire.”

“A knife that cuts both ways.”

“Precisely. Much like Nylir supports warriors and those who deal death in a way that helps them with their lifestyle, she also can be a conduit to more extreme bloodlust. Murderers and sadists also find their way into her flock.”

“Is there a darker side to Illdall?”

“You have already seen it in Katlyn,” Bren said.

“Oh, the overprotectiveness, bit of possessiveness?”

“Protection is good in moderation,” Bren nodded. “However, life is rarely that simple. An overprotective parent would still be favored by Illdall. A king who seeks to protect his people to the point of suffocating them? Him as well. Darkness and light exist in concert, a fundamental lesson in life.”

“I guess that makes sense,” Ann shrugged. “It was less clear in the Greek gods. There was Zeus, god of the skies, thunder, lightning, all that stuff. He ruled Olympus, their home, with his wife Hera. Keep in mind, a lot of this has to do with creation myths and explaining natural phenomena like the weather. His closest analogue would be Eas, I’d say. Problem was, despite all his power, Zeus was a prideful bastard with a cheating streak. He had kids with pretty much anything that moved. One myth had him giving a woman a child in a golden shower, which everyone assumed was piss. That might have been a modern interpretation, because we started calling pissing on someone for sexual things a Golden Shower. Point is, giant piece of shit.”

“It would appear that way.”

“From there, Hera was the goddess of marriage, childbirth, women, family, all that stuff. Obvioiusly she hated Zeus’ guts, but that didn’t stop anything, so their fucked up family dynamic kept going. Giant dysfunctional family. Oh, forgot to say that their dad, what they called a titan, ate them all, so they killed him.”

“Apologies, these Gods had parents?”

“Kinda. It doesn’t work how mortal parents really worked? Cronus was technically his father with another titan, Rena? Reba? I can’t remember. So they got all scared of these new gods they were having as children, so Cronus ate all of them except Zeus. Zeus decided that was fucked up and killed Cronus and pulled his brothers and sisters out of the titan’s stomach. It was really gnarly. Since they were all immortal, they were still alive and overthrew the rest of the titans. So yeah, things were already fucked up from the start.”

“Let me get this straight,” Bren said, holding up a hand. “Zeus overthrew his father, who was the father of the other gods, but then married Hera, who I am assuming is one of the new gods?”

“Yup.”

“Meaning she was his sister?”

“Yeah, incest was not an uncommon thing with all this,” Ann shrugged. “Zeus and Hera. Aphrodite and Hephaestus, though I can’t remember if Hephaestus was just Hera’s when she cheated on Zeus out of revenge, or if they had him together. It’s all a lot of inbreeding.”

“That sounds extremely problematic as a thing to be worshipped. Was the Greek culture so accepting of something that causes known issues with children?”

“Eh? So royalty, and this isn’t even unique to the Greeks, would try to keep things within the bloodline to consolidate power. That happened pretty much everywhere whenever someone wanted to hold all the power. For the Greeks, they thought parent and child incest was awful and should be condemned, but siblings had mixed reactions. Could be accepted, could be vilified. I have no clue why or what the line was.”

“Sounds… inconsistent. Keeping things in the bloodline, however, has been practised several times throughout our written history. Bortislav had a period of that, and a few of the southern tribes had dynasties that ruled using this method. Eventually, they broke or were overthrown.”

“How it worked in my time, too. Getting back to the gods,” Ann said, then staggered as a particularly strong gust almost knocked her off her paws. “Shit. I’m so glad I don’t have to worry about as much cold as you do. Alright, so Zeus is a dickbag. Hera deserves him and doesn’t. Hephaestus would be the god of the forge and husband to Aphrodite. Aphrodite is the goddess of love, sex, beauty, desire and, at one point, war. She’s honestly damn close to Orenous. Hephaestus would be… was it Voltid that did that kind of thing?”

“God of the Bultrong, correct,” Bren nodded, pulling his hood tighter against the wind.

“Yeah. Ares was the god of war officially, but most of the gods dipped their toes into the domain. Take Athena. She was a goddess of wisdom, inventions, all that stuff. She was also usually carrying around a shield with a decapitated monster’s head on it along with a spear.”

“If this reflects the nation that worshipped it, then Greece was a major military power, yes?”

“Oh absolutely. One of their great generals, Alexander the Great, conquered a large portion of the Middle East. There was plenty of land left that they didn’t control, not to mention the rest of the world, but they were a major power. It was something about their strategies that allowed them to absolutely demolish the countries around them. Can’t remember the specifics of what. So, yeah.”

“And all of this without a hint of magic. Truly incredible,” Bren mused.

“Oh, they thought they had magic. That was the funny part. There were these people they called Oracles they thought spoke with the gods. Now we’re pretty sure they just had some lady in a temple hopped up on drugs who just said a bunch of random stuff that they interpreted as prophecy.”

“But… that’s completely illogical,” Bren sputtered. “A civilisation with such great thinkers that listens to that? And they couldn’t confirm the gods were real? It was all taken on faith?”

“Listen, faith can do a lot for people,” Ann said. “I’ll get into Christianity another time, but just take my word for it. Religion, when not backed up by a tangible god, can make people do some stupid and really hateful stuff. So, besides the ones I’ve mentioned, there was Poseidon, god of the sea, ocean life, horses, and earthquakes.”

“Horses? Earthquakes? How does that fit with the sea?”

“I know he made horses out of the froth of a wave, and that’s where they got their manes. Earthquakes, though, I’m not sure. Maybe it was offshore earthquakes?”

“Understood. Please continue.”

“So Hades was the other brother. He got the underworld, where spirits went after death. Historically, he’s not a great guy, but also could be depending on interpretation. There was a game I really liked that made his relationship with his wife, Persephone, really cute. The original was that he kidnapped her, her mom got pissed off and made an eternal winter. Hades tricked her into eating a pomegranate seed, a fruit of the underworld, and that made her have to go to the underworld for a third of the year. That’s how the Greeks explained winter, because her mom was depressed whenever she was gone to live with Hades.”

“There are a ridiculous amount of questions I have about this, but I feel like this could go on forever,” Bren laughed. “On the bright side, you have improved significantly. Not only are you speaking confidently, you are audible even over this wind. Remember how this feels the day of your speech. You will have magical assistance, but that bolsters your natural skill. Come, let us get out of this frigid wasteland. My hands hurt.”

“Aw come on, it feels great out here!” Ann laughed, helping Bren stand.

Together they made their way back to the outpost, Bren shivering as he handed his borrowed coat over to the quartermaster.

Once they were back in the city proper, they made their way back to the palace. The city was in a furious buzz as people set up decorations, carts, signs and everything else. Normally crowded streets were nearly impassable, and the guards were out in force to make sure everyone behaved.

“Is it like this in the outer city, too?” Ann asked, squeezing past a parked cart behind Bren.

“In some areas. There is much more room out there, so the density is less of a problem. Pardon me, madam. Just need to get by.”

“Oh, of course dearie. A wonderful Everfrost to you,” a jovial Bultrong woman said. “Rrrrmkkkkll, dear, get out of the nice people’s way.”

A Grrn, shaped like a serpent, turned its head, nodded to Bren and Ann, then shifted its bulk out of their path. A loud grinding noise came from its mouth, and Ann chose to interpret that as an apology.

“You as well,” Bren returned, nodding back to the Grrn.

“So excited to see the festival with Kat and Rosalyn. You taking Lucia?”

“I plan to do so. It would be a shame for any of us to miss festivities that only come once a year. With all the seriousness that is coming the next day, we all deserve the distraction to lift our spirits.”

“Totally not a date? You talk to her about the feelings thing?”

“Not yet,” Bren sighed. “I just have not found the right moment or words. I can tell she intends to do the same from the emotions crossing the Bond, but we are stuck in a slight stalemate.”

“You’ll get it right,” Ann said, patting his shoulder. “Just keep your chin up and don’t let the opportunity pass. Sometimes you just have to go out on a limb.”

“I will let you know how that goes. If it happens. If not, well, I will rely on you to continue being a constant reminder.”

“Damn right I will,” Ann chuckled. “I’m rooting for you both.”

“Ann! Come look at your dress!” Rosalyn yelled, hopping up from the stone in the centre of the courtyard. It had quickly become their meeting point when the group split up. “It’s so revealing and sexy!”

“Rosalyn? In public?” Ann groaned.

“You’re wearing it in public, so why not talk about it in public! Come on, Kat’s back in the room. I wanna see you in it! It’s so billowy and flowy and shows off so much of what makes you pretty. Come on, come on, come on!”

“See you later, I guess,” Ann laughed, being tugged by the Druid.

“I will see you for dinner,” Bren chuckled, watching Ann be dragged into the depths of the palace.