Stray After Seaquestria Meeting 7/26/17

In his quarters in the Embassy, Stray Shot stares up at the ceiling from where he laid on his bed. His expression was blank, but his mind was running with many trains of thought. Two days ago, he had never even seen an Aquestrian or Seaquestrian. Within the last 48 hours, Stray had been introduced to underwater officials including the King of Aquestria, his General, and the Ambassador of Seaquestria.

He had spent countless hours being briefed and asking Tea Time questions to bring him up to speed on the situation. Although he was still getting the hang of it, he was starting to get a clear picture of what had happened so far, who the important figures were, and how it all weaved together. Unfortunately, however, there were puzzle pieces missing that no one knew yet.

Next to him on his bedside table was his journal, which he had just finished writing down all of information and facts he could recall from his conversations with Tea and the underwater denizens. His jaw hurt from using that pencil for so long this evening...

Yesterday, with the Aquestrian meeting, Stray had realized that the fragile situation was complicated. However, with what happened today in Seaquestria, he now realized that it was something much more than complicated. And from the speculation he and Tea had engaged in together, it might even be *intentional*.

When he thought back to the meeting with the mermares, a few things in particular stuck out as disturbing. First, why was the capital empty? Evacuation? Consciption? It seemed that there was no one there except the necessary officials of the state, and perhaps a skeleton crew of matinenance personell, though he didn't even see those. Second, why was the Queen indisposed, and what did Jewelle mean by that? And the questions only piled on and on.

While Jewelle was certainly good at serving as an Ambassador and was genuinely pleasant today, Stray couldn't help feel like there was more going on behind the scenes that she maybe didn't want them to know about...

He agreed with the tiny mare that the best course of action would be to work with the Seaquestrians in good faith and investigate what they could along the way. If the situation was what it looked like it *might* be, things were quite dire indeed. He only hoped that they'd be able to find out more about the Seaquestrians as they continued talks. He couldn't help but feel a little like he didn't say enough, or make enough of an impression, on the Seaquestrians, but he hoped they would consider his offer to help retrieve their stolen items seriously. He didn't want to speak too much and cause any more tension than the party had already caused with the Seaquestrians when they met on the surface. Overall, however, he was cautiously optimistic about the progress they had made today, that they had successfully delivered Swell and opened the opporunity for more talks in the future. The worries of 'war', however, and what 'war' would even consist of with these underwater kingdoms, kept the stallion tossing and turning hours into the night...