The sun had passed late afternoon and was slowly approaching early evening when Gerardo and Slipstream entered the central plaza, strolling out of the commerce building with looks of satisfaction and making for a bench where Starlight, Maple and Valey waited. The batpony's mane was slightly tangled from being soaked and left to dry without care or brushing, but not much more than its usual appearance, and everyone but Starlight waved or saluted in greeting.
"It seems we were the later ones after all," Gerardo called out the moment they were in earshot. "Miss Slipstream and I were taking bets on who would find themselves back first! Had an eventful, insightful or merely relaxing day, friends?"
"You could say that," Maple hummed once they drew a little closer. "We met Sirena out here in the plaza, but spent most of the day in Percival's mansion learning about the staff. It's... an interesting place, apparently."
"Oh? Do tell," Gerardo asked, politely restraining himself from babbling about his own epic adventures.
Maple giggled slightly at the eager look on his face, but Valey beat her to the narration. "Basically the place is run by this total fraud who spent several hours insulting me, poking me with a rolling pin and forcing me to make sandwiches, but also hires a ton of messed-up batponies who can't get work anywhere else 'cuz she feels like it's the right thing to do. It was pretty weird."
"It was like a place for getting ponies who needed it back on their hooves," Maple added. "That wasn't at all what I expected from such a high-up place as the ruling lord's house, and I'm not sure how I feel about some of the boss's mannerisms, but we got to spend the afternoon with a maid who was crippled by a land mine telling stories about Riverfall and Ironridge, and have a standing invitation to go back. It was actually very nice."
Gerardo chuckled. "Well, it sounds like your outing was most worthwhile, indeed! Slipstream and I spent our day far on the north side of town, sorting out some trouble involving uncompetitively priced goods at competing grocers and a possible conspiracy in the supply chain that turned out to be a misunderstanding in land use rights between an apple grower and a cattle rancher. While we failed to come across any dastardly deeds in need of righting, everyone involved was ultimately satisfied, which is proof that diplomatic solutions can be just as heroic as any. And behold! Our reward."
He swept a large bag off his back, showing a bushel of freshly-picked apples within. Valey licked her lips. "Ooh, those for sharing?"
Gerardo nodded. "I was thinking of getting a head start on replenishing the Dream's storeroom once it arrives. A month of good eating with no stops whatsoever did do a number on miss Shinespark's stockpile, alas..."
"Speaking of which, is she still supposed to arrive soon?" Slipstream asked, glancing back toward the river behind the commerce building. "Last I heard, it was some time this evening?"
"That is what Morena informed us," Gerardo agreed, hoisting the apples back on his back. "Though I recall there being some variance in the estimate due to imprecise travel times by boat. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to go down by the river and stand vigil so we're sure to be there when she arrives?"
"Eh. Might as well." Valey got to her hooves with a shrug and a stretch, arching her back and yawning. "Let's see what the docks this place has look like..."
Izvaldi Central's docks were located where the steep riverbank sloping down from the commerce building would have been, had it not been cut away in a massive levee of wood, platforms and restraining walls holding the hillside in place. The building's sublevels, rather than buried underground like a maze of dank tunnels, were open to the air, so that the moment one descended below the level of the plaza on the other side, a wall fell away, leaving a sea of open-air market floors exposed to daylight and built all along the reinforced walls and down to the water at the bottom. A few bridges even spanned the river high above to the hill on the far side, though the land there looked more like sparse countryside housing than a continuation of the waterside bazaar.
That bottom level held the docks and boating services, and Maple, Starlight, Valey, Gerardo and Slipstream stepped off a roped lift platform as it lowered them into place. The flowing of river water against wooden dock supports filled the air, and a cooler breeze accompanied being so close to the bottom - Starlight figured it would be even nicer on the docks themselves, but they stopped in a sitting area one floor up with a couple of benches no one was using and a perfect view of incoming water traffic.
"Ahhh," Gerardo proclaimed, settling himself onto a log that had been split in two, the curved side fixed to the ground. "Well, I can't say we're late this time. Who here has a preference on what we do while we wait?"
Starlight wrinkled her nose, an odor she couldn't identify passing in occasional whiffs on the breeze. "Don't care," she mouthed, glancing around for the source.
Gerardo blinked, reading her face. "A smell...? Ah!" He raised a talon and pointed to some vendors upwind. "I believe what you're noticing is fish. I can't quite remember if I know this group's stances on meat as a food, but there are some opinions surrounding it, and some love it enough to never take a meal without."
"I don't know..." Maple murmured suspiciously. "I tried something at that place Wallace took us in Stormhoof that someone said had meat, and it was interesting but I didn't feel very good afterward. I might have to pass. It doesn't smell very nice, either."
"The scent gets better when cooked, I assure you," Gerardo promised. "But yes, I've been told such a diet can be a very uncomfortable transition for those who have been vegetarians all their lives."
Slipstream sniffed too. "Are you sure?" she asked, closing her eyes and sniffing harder. "It smells almost alluring to me..."
Gerardo chuckled. "Yes, well, griffons and pegasi tend to be fish's biggest proponents. I presume there's some sort of biological component relating to wings at play, though I can't say I'm aware of any exhaustive studies on the food's effect upon different species."
"Meh." Valey looked away, a shadow in her eyes. "Wings or no wings, remember that this stuff reminds Sparky of her sister, what's-her-name... Uh, Grenada. Her. If you wanna talk about it, might as well get it out of the way now."
"Oh." Maple's ears fell. "The one who died in the skyport... right. Thanks for reminding me."
Slipstream raised an eyebrow. "Way to look out for Shinespark, there. How did you remember that?"
Valey shrugged. "Just thinking about some stuff that reminded me about it. Not all that important, though."
"Need to talk about anything?" Slipstream asked, checking just in case.
"Nah." Valey shook her head. "Eventually. Keep having fun for right now."
"I hear it's a holiday," Maple offered, trying to change the subject. "Giovanni Goldfeather's birthday. Or was it the day he got a house?" She flicked her ears and tilted her head in confusion. "Sirena told us, though. I wonder how you get a holiday named after yourself..."
Gerardo grinned. "Ah, the legendary Giovanni Goldfeather. He was my great grandfather, you know. I don't suppose none of you have managed to hear the entire story?"
"I don't know it," Maple replied, and Slipstream and Valey nodded in agreement. "You sound eager to tell?"
"In that case!" Gerardo loudly cleared his throat. "While we wait for the good Shinespark to arrive with her ship, sit back and listen to a tale that has been passed through the Guillaume family for generations..."
"Once upon a time, quite a few decades ago, there was a high prince known as Giovanni," Gerardo began, dramatically narrating from his half-log bench. "He had a daughter, Glacies, and by extremely rare occurrence she was also a sphinx. This granted Giovanni considerable power, since even a single daughter can be betrothed to any noble family wishing to prolong their line for an exorbitant sum of money. Remember, only houses who produce a male heir can continue to rule beyond the ruling lord's death, and having both parents be sphinxes is the only realistic way to get such an heir as such children are highly uncommon otherwise."
He drew a talon in a wavery line through the air, continuing on. "However, Glacies was headstrong and disliked the idea of a future with a lord she didn't love, and cared nothing for anyone in the Council of Lords at the time. In fact, she conducted an affair with a secret lover directly under his nose. There was great tension between the two, and everyone knew something dramatic was going to unfold. After all, a fortune vast enough to make or break a lesser house was on the line. It was set to be the family feud that would define the decade..."
His eyes narrowed, and his voice dropped ominously. "Until one day, Giovanni mysteriously ceased to care. Not long after, Lord Goldfeather perished as the last of his line, and Giovanni took his house and title, leaving behind Glacies and delivering a promise to the Council that one day soon they would all kneel before him for not taking his side more overtly in the feud. For months, he went about his own business administrating his new province and seemed to drop from significance on the national stage... and when he finally returned, it was with another daughter, once again a sphinx born to a non-sphinx mother, held in his paws."
The river rolled by in the background, a ship that definitely wasn't Shinespark's churning its way past. "And then he had another. And another. Giovanni had no wife, but he took concubines, and by coincidence or something greater every last one of them bore him a daughter and a sphinx." Gerardo's eyes flashed darkly, and he covered his face with a wing for effect. "How had he done it? Odds that would already be in the single-digit percentages slipped infinitesimally low, until only two possibilities remained: he had been blessed by fate itself, or somehow discovered a way to control the genetics of Garsheeva's holy species. Another year flew past, and Giovanni Goldfeather had yet more daughters, until his household was filled with so many infant sphinxes that once they reached maturity, he could wed every house in the Empire even if half of them went the way of his first daughter and rebelled. No one understood it. It seemed the statistical balance of power that backed succession and the transfer of power throughout the nation had been upended, leaving Giovanni at the very top."
With a whoosh, Gerardo leapt from his bench, beginning to prowl between the members of his audience. "The Council knelt, as he vowed. He declared that he would become the richest lord in the history of the Empire, and began to collect dowries then and there in the names of his daughters for when they were of age. Swiftly, he achieved that goal by more than threefold, propelling his backwater province to more than the rest of the Empire's wealth put together, Garsheeva's province of Grandbell included. In the span of a single year, a new world order was begun."
A nearby flame flickered within its glass lamp enclosure, and Gerardo continued to prowl. "Giovanni's name was whispered on the street corners, from aloof Wilderwind to well-off Everlaste. He set his sights on an even higher goal: the yearly fighting tournament, for a wish from Garsheeva. In his infinite hubris, ego and greed, Giovanni used his wealth to bribe fighters all the land over, reaching as far as Varsidel and Yakyakistan in his search of talent. He bought out the most powerful warriors for his own side, bribed or sabotaged the star fighters of other houses, and flooded the competition by recruiting the loyalties of over half those who entered with Golden Regents. What was once a sport, he forged into a military exercise."
Starlight jumped slightly as Gerardo appeared behind her. "Many were afraid, appealing to Garsheeva that he would conquer the Empire through his wealth and supernatural luck alone, but she seemed indifferent, restricting his influence from her grand temple but otherwise letting her empire go the way it would. The tournament passed around, and Giovanni's fighters advanced just as quickly as everyone feared they would. The last holdout not working for him made it three fights away from the championship; beyond that, every contestant was in it for him. Most assumed his wish would be for control of the entire Empire, or something equally heinous. Understand that after Giovanni ascended, he did not do so as a virtuous and generous ruler, but as an emblematic figure of money and avarice who treated his fortune as divine providence and a right to do as he wanted. He won the tournament, stood before Garsheeva, and was presented with his wish."
Gerardo returned to his bench, seating himself like a feathery specter. "Something you must understand is that Giovanni Goldfeather had sphinx daughters, and only daughters. While there was speculation he had unlocked the secrets of sphinx genetics, there was one thing some gradually began to realize he could not do: have a son who would continue his house line, as daughters are only allowed to rule as Empress of the entire continent. Now, Garsheeva's power is immense, but the mystical side of it is poorly understood next to the political and there is no precedent for her being able to control the offspring of a sphinx, and thus wishes for an heir are something that are never seen. Some expected Giovanni, in the ultimate show of waste befitting his power and disposition, to wish it regardless, to throw away his wish on an act that could not be performed as a way of displaying how he held himself above Garsheeva. Those some were correct, suspecting he would wish for a son... yet still underestimated quite how far he would go."
With a last rustle, Gerardo unmasked himself, wings returning folded to his sides and dropping some of the drama in his narration. "Giovanni Goldfeather wished to have a son with the Night Mother, patron goddess of all batponies, or sarosiankind. A being that has no physical incarnation, as far as any concrete proof can go, and is revered by a great many inside the Empire and even more beyond it. And when he made that wish, Garsheeva looked at him, with the entire audience to the final tournament battle looking on... and devoured him whole, the manner of execution reserved exclusively for heretics who break her divine laws, and that was the end of that."
"Wow," Maple whispered, eyes wide. "And that all happened? This isn't a story like one of Wallace's?"
Gerardo shrugged. "Enough of it happened that my ancestor took his place in folklore as the patron saint of greed and avarice. What's certain is his passing, the manner of his passing, and his house's dissolution upon it, left without an heir and a great deal of wealth expended on rigging the tournament."
"And his daughters?" Slipstream looked impressed. "Does that mean your grandmother was a sphinx?"
"Glacies herself, his first daughter," Gerardo proudly replied. "Indeed she was, proud and headstrong enough that she took over as the leader of the remnants of his estate upon his execution at the paws of Garsheeva. After its dissolution, the Goldfeather house estate was plundered for much of the wealth left to it as various provinces attempted to recoup their earnings, and his various younger daughters went about their ways and many wound up marrying into powerful families regardless. I can tell you Lord Stormhoof's wife is one, as is Lord Everlaste's. As suddenly as Giovanni appeared, however, his legacy seemed to vanish with the wind, as though history was determined not to remember the sphinx who nearly conquered the Empire and instead relegate him to a historical oddity with a single holiday to his name. It really is quite the tale, and genealogies and birth records can prove the important parts all happened."
"I just wonder how he did that," Slipstream remarked. "Having so many daughters and only daughters, and couldn't even have a son, I mean."
"So do historians throughout the ages, as well as his own family," Gerardo said with a shrug. "As far as I am aware, Glacies is still alive, though getting on in age, and even she doesn't know for certain. There are rumors and only rumors, and they encompass everything from scientific ambitions gone wrong to some sort of curse."
"Well, that was interesting," Maple sighed, getting to her hooves and stretching. "I don't think I've heard you tell a story like that before," she told Gerardo with an approving nod. "The performance, I mean. It was interesting."
Gerardo fanned himself modestly. "I merely copied my grandmother's style from my time as a young child in a recused country manor. Though I must say, what Wallace hasn't done, she was no small part in my inspirations of travel, wanderlust and heroism."
"Huh," Slipstream said, nodding. "Well, got any other stories like that for while we wait for Shinespark?"
"You won't have to wait much longer," Valey interrupted, pointing down the river. "Looks like someone's just about here."