Aly leaned back in her chair, her fingertips going to her temples to try to rub away the incipient headache.  The Yamani delegation was scheduled shortly, and there seemed to be more problems associated with it than usual.  She'd do anything to be able to borrow Keladry from Uncle Jonathan for a few days to get a close-to-Yamani perspective on ( Read more... )

There was that time after a mission when Aly was completely exhausted but still too keyed up to even try to relax or sleep.  Sleep.  Sleep would be nice.  It had been a long two weeks - well, longer even since the rumours of the plot had come through almost immediately after Ghani had left for Fandom.

...which would have made her wonder if Ghani had ( Read more... )

Aly had promised Lianna a day of wandering through the city.  They'd spent the morning playing the games they played in every city - memorising the streets and people and racing each other back to noted points.  Notably absent from the games were both pickpocketing and lock picking.  Some things probably shouldn't happen in foreign cities ( Read more... )

This day wasn't anything special in the rest of Tortall, but at Pirate's Swoop, the table was loaded with the fruits of the harvest and the guests had arrived for a Thanksgiving Feast.

It was just another indication of what happens when you make a crazy outsider like Charles Kawalsky a Baron all those years ago.

[For Tortallans and those they've ( Read more... )

Aly was slightly amused to be back in Tortall for Thanksgiving. It was another one of those holidays that her Da had implemented at the Swoop, and the villagers had taken to it with a passion. Even though the famines had been about thirty years ago, they were remembered, and each harvest was celebrated and blessed because it meant another winter ( Read more... )

Yeah, so the problem with randomly turning into a guy (again wtf) when going to visit your boyfriend was twofold ( Read more... )

Even on a Sunday - not that the Copper Isles saw Sundays as different than any other day - weapons training proceeded apace.  The majority of the Queen's Guard, whichever of Aly's pack was around, as well as Queen Dovasary and some of her ladies assembled in the training yard to go through exercises and spar together during the early morning.  The ( Read more... )

Her train was leaving in less than half an hour, and Aly had finally packed her bag.  It hadn't helped that someone was apparently set on distracting her.

"Can I trust you to come with me to the train?" she asked.  "Or are you going to try to make me miss it."

Aly leaned back in her chair as she stared at the reports sent through from the Isles.  It had been a long enough day that the words were starting to swim in front of her eyes even when they weren't in code.  She eyed the small pile of coded reports she hadn't gotten to yet and made a face at them.  They'd have to wait for tomorrow ( Read more... )

It was a windy but sunny afternoon in Central, and Aly hadn't had to talk Roy into taking the afternoon off so much as show up at HQ and suggest it.  It was weird how it worked that way ( Read more... )