Butterfly Reign

20. Its Crazy What I Can Do

Back in his office, Tommy finds a white envelope. Somebody must have left it when he and Beau were out for the tea party. Tommy wouldn't even glance at it before tossing it out to the rest of unsorted paperwork if it wasn't for two things: the seal and a grinning golden jester pressed on top of the envelope. The one that Quackity had given him over a week ago should've been still resting in the same place he had left it, but Tommy doesn't find the coin in any of the drawers.

Friend or foe, enemy or ally. Today Quackity decided to send him a gift.

Tommy pockets the letter and strides out of the room.

***

Esempi is well-known for producing precious gems and jewels, so when Dream initially arrived at the palace, Tommy had gone out of his way to assign him chambers that would be appropriate for the nation's wealth. Like most chambers in the palace, it had three separate rooms: a parlor for receiving visitors, a bedroom and a bathroom, coming one after another in this order. One wouldn't be able to enter the latter without coming through the prior, unless they somehow managed to climb up five stories of smooth stone walls and haul themselves into the window.

When Sapnap leads him into the parlor, Tommy notes that most of the furniture - a table with base carved in the shape of a swan, candelabras of pure gold, glazed porcelain vases - are collecting dust in the corners, leaving the middle of the parlor practically bare.

"Dr- I mean, Patches likes to have some space to run around," Sapnap explains.

Tommy nods, slightly lost. Arrangement of furniture is not the only odd thing about the room. On top of a large hand-knotted rug, couches and armrests and padded seats are generously swaddled in cushions of so many different colors and patterns that it hurts to look at them for too long. Pieces of clothing are abandoned all around; Tommy counts three different cloaks thrown on top of each over the back of an armchair. If Dream himself is hiding somewhere in this room, he wouldn't be able to tell, let alone something as small as a housecat.

"Is Patches not here now?" he asks, just in case.

"He and Prince are out for a walk... Or a flight, I suppose," Sapnap says. "I'll see if I can find them. In the meantime, make yourself right at home. Dream should appear shortly."

With those words, Sapnap is gone. For a minute or two Tommy just stands at the doors, shifting from foot to foot, but soon his arms get tired of carrying folders so he moves step by step towards a spruce table. Open books crowd it like moths resting their wings. Dream must have raided the library at some point, but instead of finishing one book he read it to a third at best before getting distracted and moving onto the next one.

Tommy frees some space for the papers he brought with himself. The river routes suggested for the trade with Badlands would require new ships for transfort. Esempi among other things is famous for naval engineering, born and perfected through centuries of ocean travel. King Foolish himself is said to be a talented architect, seeing five to ten vessels to sea each year. Tommy shies to contact him directly... and also secretly hopes that the design will cost them less if a request comes through the king's own brother. Not that the Empire's treasury lacks gold otherwise, but years of managing palace bookkeeping made Tommy mindful of every spending.

The longer he sits there, however, the less he can keep himself concentrated on work. His thoughts keep slithering back to the tea party. Normally nobles would refrain from rumoring around the members of royal families for the fear of kings and emperors' wrath... But it was Tommy who ruled high society in the Empire, and his one comment followed by impassiveness to slandering Wilbur's name was all the approval they needed to keep the discussion going.