Adelphe's Convalescence

Recurrence of a Nightmare

Recurrence of a Nightmare

"It was probably a mudslide," Sybille said simply, shrugging with one shoulder as she took down some notes. Despite the active battles of the war currently coming to a halt, she didn't have any less work. If anything, she was doing even more than she had before.

"A mudslide?" Addie repeated incredulously, staring at her in dull amazement. "The entire city rocked and you're calling it a mudslide?"

"It's precisely because the entire city rocked that I'm calling it a mudslide."

"The city isn't built on mud!"

Sybille let out a sigh, finally lowering her notebook to stare at her. "Yes. The city is built off of the mountain, but the pylons holding it up are not. If the mud shifts and moves one of them, then, yes, there are obvious effects even this high up."

"Your nonchalance is rather disturbing." Addie crossed her arms, surprised as Sybille returned to her notes.

"You are not the first person to come to me about this today. I imagine you are not going to be the last. You want me to get worked up over all of you?"

"Some emotion would be nice, yes."

Sybille gave her a glance before letting out an exaggerated gasp and placing her hand over her heart. "Oh, me. Oh, my. Lord above. Did you feel the rocking of the city last night? Quite a fright it gave to me."

"I said emotion, not sarcasm," Addie chided, laughing despite herself.

It was just the two of them in the war room today. Addie was sure that others had come to her in regards to the strange shifting of the city already, but none of them had been kind enough to tell her what they learned, so she needed to find out for herself. She had asked Valerie to roll her up to the palace just so she could ask. Although Valerie was trusted to keep Addie's identity secret, she was not given permission to be in the war room and overhear potentially sensitive information.

Sybille was not nearly as concerned about the matter as Addie was. As though the entire city moving was just a matter of passing curiosity.

"How do you know it was a mudslide?" Addie asked calmly, her eyes following Sybille as she walked around the room to sift through another pile of notes.

"It's my job to know things like that. And also-"

A loud cracking of thunder suddenly cut through her words. Sybille grinned, gesturing to the window as the rumbling faded away slowly.

"And also, that. It's been raining near nonstop for weeks now. Rain plus dirt makes mud. You make enough mud, you make a mudslide. It probably shifted one of the pylons and that shifted the plate it was holding slightly."

"It sounded like a monster." Addie crossed her arms.

"Yes, I suppose it did. But the plates and pylons are very large, so the sounds they make, even when they're barely moving, are also very large."

"And one shaking plate moved the entire city?"

"Don't be so dramatic," Sybille chuckled. "The only plate that truly moved was the Royal Complex. Gold, Steel, Quicksilver, and the Pleasure District all just shook due to its movements because they're neighbors. That's all."

"You can't list over half of the city and end it with 'that's all.'"

"What do you want me to say?"

"Tell me if I should worry or not."

"You should not." Sybille shrugged again, unconcerned, as she walked back to the enormous map table in the center of the room that depicted the entirety of Vasconia and the majority of both Gascony to the north and Lloegyr to the west. They were Vasconia's only foreign neighbors as the rest of it was bordered by ocean.