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[Nova]

—NOTHING—

[RobertAgira]

To:- Doge Augusto Tyre,

The Union is always happy to extend a welcome to visitors. It seems that we have much that you would like to discuss and so we look forward to you arriving in Opatija at your convenience.

Best Wishes

King Đurađ IV
Grand Master of the Drenovian Order


The Assembly Hall complex was rather modern in its appearrance but its function was a rather ancient one. Drenovia saw seven religious orders that were central to government, to society and culture. Every aspect of life in Drenovia was in some way influenced by the Orders. Even those not a member of the Druantian Faith would find that most schools were run by the faith, even sports clubs were affiliated to one of the Orders even if they weren't exclusively membered by them. The complex gave each of the Orders a set of offices from where they could conduct their business and attend meetings with the King and his council. The space between the buildings was full of trees and flowers, the Druantian faith after all worshipped a God of the Forest so it was rather fitting.

The choice of venue was also important as it stopped the problem of determining which royal venue to use, picking one would tend to favour certain Orders and may make it difficult for certain members to attend. As it was a centre of unity for the nation it was a venue without problems. The King had invited all of the leaders of the different orders all of which had attended in their ceremonial garb, for most this consisted of some of form of tunic with emblems and patterns on, the stand out group though as always was The Order of Krešimira which was the only all female Order. They dressed as ancient huntresses in either long green skirts or brown trousers, hooded jackets and even a bow slung over their shoulders. Each Order had been permitted to provide four members to form a kind of honour guard as the guests arrived.

At the end of the honour guard King Đurađ IV was stood. He had been torn between the ceremonial blue and yellow tunic of his Order, his military uniform or a civilian suit and in the end a smart pinstripe had done. His first wife Queen Terezija stood to his left. She was a member of the Drenovian Order, the oldest and largest of the Orders. She like her husband wore a normal business suit yet to the King's right was Queen Jožica. She was tall blonde woman wearing the huntress garb of the Order of Krešimira, her bow was polished black wood tipped with gold. She was a Legate (equivalent of a Captain in the Army) in the Order and exceptionally proud of it and despite Terezija trying to convince her otherwise she wouldn't wear a business suit.

As the Vinitsian delegation arrived the King made his way down the corridor of the Order and extended a hand to the first of them to approach. "Welcome to Drenovia" he said with a large smile.

[RobertAgira]

Đurađ was rather surprised by his guests choice of outfit, but wasn't perhaps as surprised as Jožica at flowers being handed over. Its seemed frivilous to her for an individual to take beauty from the natural world, kill it and think it beffiting a gift of greeting. She fought an urge to say something remembering what her husband had warned her about these foreigners. To Jožica the natural world was a gift from the God and as such mankind mere custodians of it, taking only what was absolutely needed for mankinds development and she for one could get by without slowly dying Vinitsian flowers. She had a reputation for being rather icy anyway and so the King wasn't surprised at her lack of real words other than what he could tell was a just polite enough "Thank you."

The King offered an arm to Sabrina and made their way into the central building. It was nothing more than a large hall with a series of seats set out in a large triangle. The point of each triangle was a single seat with a table in front which had a shield hanging from it showing the Sigel of the Order whose members would sit behind it. In the very centre was a large almost wooden box in which the Knight Commander would stand, a combination of Prime Minister and Speaker. Today a man dressed in a smart dark suit with thinning hair seemed focused on a book in front of him within the box that came up to waist height. During debates his chief advisors would sit alongside him and hand him documents that he required but today he was alone, he liked to work in there on speeches at times. "Knight Commander Luca Asanovich" the King called to get his attention.

The man stood bolt upright. "Your Majesty please accept my apology I lost track of time." He looked up at the large clock above the entrance door.

"Please welcome our guest from Vinitsia." Đurađ ordered and dutifully the man did so coming from within his enclosed box desk to greet her and her party. "Luca will be sitting in on our meeting which will be in the garden of The Drenovian Order. The King headed for a door on one side of the complex and knocked. It was opened by two men wearing guardsman outfits, "Each Order is permitted a small militia force." The King was saluted and the men stepped aside and allowed the King, Luca, Queen Terezija  and the guests in but as Queen Jožica approached the guards blocked her way. "Little silly traditions" Đurađ told Sabrina.

"I request permission to enter as a Legate of Krešimira on official duty with the King." She fished into a pouch on her belt and removed an arrow head made of flint. It had her initials on and she handed it to the guards. "Each of the Orders have some kind of symbol of their honour, for ours its a horn made from stag antlers." He pointed to where off the cross belt of the guardsmen a small polished horn hung. "If you enter the property of another order you're expected to hand it over as a sign you come in peace." he explained as the guards stepped aside and bowed to the Queen. They were now out in a garden, green and well kept. A circle of head high hedges was in the middle and in their was a stone table and seats. Đurađ waited for everyone to sit before taking his seat. "You're initial letter asked to discuss many things and I'm looking forward to those discussions. Before we start though it would be useful for me to understand what authority you exactly have here. My knowledge of Vinitsian politics is not what it should be. From our side whatever I say is thought to come with the same authority as if the God Druantia said it, is what we agree a done deal or is it likely to have to be approved back home?"

[RobertAgira]

Seeing Sabrina getting wrapped up in the Colonel's uniform jacket he signalled for one of the militia men who walked the yard to come over and after giving some instructions the man reappeared with a Sheep pelt which would allow Sabrina to be fully wrapped. "The Orders know their place." Đurađ said with a sideways look at Jožica. This order was set up by a descendant of King Florijan who in turn was a demi-God born of Druantia, therefore we are the original and largest Order. We carry the authority of Kings and the God. Meanwhile the others, well they followed knights, warlords, warriors intent on separate missions, some to defend specific regions from incursions or in the case of my 2nd's wifes Order protect the sacred groves. While from time to time their would be competition it was always to help the nation or faith, today it exists more in the form of competition. Even our football league is dominated by rivalry matches between some Orders."

Conversation turned to where the King wanted to proceed, "Everything I try and do serves three aims. The first is to make sure my people have more money in their pocket, a people able to provide for their family are generally happy people. The second thing I want to achieve is to make sure my people are safe, both in terms of things like public health but also from war. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I want to make sure our faith is never in a position to feel under attack again and to achieve that we must be a nation able to follow our own path in our own way, but realistically in the 21st Century no nation stands alone. We've found a few likeminded friends in S.U.N and maybe another today." He nodded towards Sabrina. "So I suppose the easiest place to start is aim number one, how can we make each other richer?" he asked.

[RobertAgira]

Đurađ was delighted that the Zarptica was getting some foreign interest. "I'd be more than happy to sell you the Zarptica but that is not a decision I can make on my own. As you well know the project is a joint one and each of us control 25% of the aircrafts production. It was a way of saving funds on research but obviously means export may be a little more tricky. I am confident though that this can be overcome, I mean as far as I can tell your nation does not have any problems with the other members of S.U.N. Now we have taken delivery of some of our first so if your Colonel friend here wishes to go and see the aircraft we can arrange that while you are here. They are only single seat otherwise I'd have suggested you go for a ride." Đurađ waited for a moment and then began talks on other matters.

"As for buying things from each other I suppose that depends what Vinitsia has that may be of interest to us?"

[RobertAgira]

As Sabrina asked about his piloting the King chuckled, clearly the woman had done her research. "While the idea of zooming around the sky in a fast jet is appealing the members of my security detail are not entirely happy with such a thing as as such it's not something I'll experience, beside from my own Air Force days I flew helicopters and sadly the skills are not transferrable. They still occasionally let me fly my own helicopter but even that is rare. Sadly I think people in such prominent positions as ours don't really get to enjoy such guilty pleasures that often, or maybe its just me. Do your own security give you that much freedom?" He asked

"All that your offering sounds fine, naturally on the idea of tariffs we would reciprocate in kind, tourist visas is something easily achievable, however with the gas issue I can assure you we'll have no taxes on it leaving our nation. The only tax payable would be on the initial purchase from a Drenovian operation and that is exactly what happens when anyone here buys it. Once you own it I really don't care where you take it and use it." he shrugged his shoulders. "I also suspect that if there is a gas field in need of exploiting we can find people to do it and we'll do a good job so if your open for investment we'll be investing." He had not forgotten about the Zaptica fighter, "In terms of sales of the Zaptica we'll need the approval of the others which shouldn't be an issue, after all parts come from many nations and if you got on the wrong side of one of them then your supply of parts would dry up.  At present though I can't see why any nation would stand in your way. In fact should you make a purchase I'd like to invite some of your pilots to come and spend three months over here with our aircrews. They'd be well taken care of and it would be a good step forward in our nations co-operation."

[RobertAgira]

"I'm sure Queen Atlanta, Emperor Benson and old man Karlis would be delighted to meet you when the time comes." The King was sure the group probably wouldn't need to gather the Heads of State to approve a sale but it was probably best to be diplomatic. Beside who knows maybe some point down the line Vinitsia could end up in the Union. The King wondered why Cinca was acting as a kind of translator, while Sabrina might not have been the most direct speaker it was pretty clear what she had meant and it now seemed there was some kind of rift between the two guests. While at the moment this was more Sabrina's problem than his own it was something worth keeping an eye on. Queen Jožica had so far been silent in the talks simply acting in capacity as a representative of the Orders owning the venue where the meeting was taking place. As Sabrina enquired about food she stood and leaving her ceremonial quiver of arrows disappeared inside her own orders Headquarters.

The King continued. "So beyond gas, what kind of industrial exchanges could I expect from Vinitsia? What should I prepare the markets of Drenovia to experience?" He asked keen to see more about his guests homeland specialities.

As Sabrina answered Jožica returned followed by several teenage girls, wearing the same green trousers and shirt many of the Order of Krešimira wore when on duty. These girls were merely Probationer's learning the ways of the Order. Their status as such distinguished by their white aprons. The girls carried several trays which were placed on the stone table. Jožica had a stack of wooden places with bone cutlery. "As a nation we're very tied to the forests" It was the first real words the Queen had uttered. "We as an Order make it our priority to preserve those and as such we live in harmony with them, taking just what we need." She lifted a pot lid, it was stuffed with onions, "We have beer cooked onions, they're simply halved covered in ale and then simmered, they then just fall apart." She then pointed to another dish , "Many of our order will gather Mushrooms, so we next have various types cooked in butter, garlic and just a little brandy." She moved along the tray, "While we don't hunt for sport we are skilled at it as a means of providing food. Rabbits are abundant and so we rather enjoy them deboned and then deep friend in buttermilk." Finally there was a large grey metallic looking bucket. "Our younger order members however are fond of something they call Game in a Bucket." The Queen shrugged showing she didn't really understand their ideas. "They gather pheasant, venison, rabbit, quail and even wild boar, its slow cooked then dipped in a mixture of milk, eggs and flour, and a lot of herbs and then deep friend. They then just serve it in a bucket with corn on the cob and a lot of butter." The lid of the bucket was taken off and a rather enticing smell left in a cloud of steam. "Please help yourself." She took her seat next to her husband and restrung the bow across her back.

[RobertAgira]

 Đurađ thought that perhaps Sabrina was better read than he expected on Drenovia by the way she had brought up her own nations ship building. "Well we're a nation that is full of a love and passion for our folklore, its a folklore inspired by our past with ties to the forests and to the seas. You could argue then that boat building is in our blood. You don't get to thousands of islands without knowing a bit about the seas." He bragged, although there was not a thousand islands in the Union there was a large number and while some were uninhabited many had their own little hardy communities thriving on them. "We've boat manufacturers ranging from two men in a shed who'll build you a nice sea worthy rowing boat to huge dockyards churning out our latest naval addition in the guise of our aircraft transport vessel. Now as for what your youngsters back home would see if they came here would be a warm welcome and some stunning countryside. "Is this something your looking for, a boat maker?"