Prince Henry was suspecting that his sister would be feeling a little disappointed. It wouldn't though stop the day from going ahead and with some luck positive steps would come out of it. The
barges had been set up to ensure the final stage of the journey was comfortable and hopefully a nice insight into the city of Westlinton. The parts near the canal itself where still evidently from the industrial revolution that the nation had passed through in the late 1700's. While hundreds of years ago the warehouses stored wool, coal, iron and a variety of other materials for use in the factories that dominated the skyline once upon a time, today they were offices, or trendy appartments, one or two were even bars. Today a few curious onlookers peered out to watch the barges pass by, each one bearing the flag of Eskdale off the rear portside and the guests on the starboard. An off branch of the canal ran straight past the bottom of the garden of Queen Anne's
Palace and down by the dockside Queen Diane waited to greet the delegations. There were a series of benches alongside the dock and she sat with the slowly growing number of guests until all had arrived and then walked as a group up the beautifully cared for lawn, past the small herb garden which at this time of year was just beginning to get aromatic as the mint mixed with the wild garlic. They entered the Palace and made themselves upstairs to the Paget Drawing Room, so named after the Palace's founder's family. It was a room now filled with large comfortable chairs tucked under a freshly varnished oak table. Little name tags showed where each person should sit and a specially prepared bank of headphones to various translators were handed to each party as they sat.
Satisfied everything was in place Queen Diane began. "It is good to meet each and every one of you. Its my hope that today we can put into place a series of measures that will allow us to co-operate to ensure that this piracy problem is eradicated. Between the five of us we can ensure that our trade shipping is unharmed by this threat. While so far we have had a single incident I am keen to ensure that is all that happens. With this in mind I would like to make a proposal. It sadly will need some reworking. I had drafted a plan that would have seen the Krimeon split into
areas of safety. Each of us would have taken a portion of the sea to look after two trade routes, one in the south, the other the north. We would run patrols along these routes thus helping trade shipping have confidence in the region being secure for their passage. We will of course now have to revisit this idea as we lack some key attendees if this plan was to work. Can I therefore ask each of you what you propose?"