So much time had passed it felt since she had last been in Hargeon, though in actuality it had maybe been a week, if even that. That was the reality of her fate, the circumstances by which she had last been there being something that she found herself still trying to fully appreciate and comprehend. It felt like a lifetime had passed since she had been there, the events that took place and preceded up in the north still far too active within her mind. It was a rough set of things to endure, life having been lost all throughout, the end result of a meaningless war fought within the east that translated to her being sent north, only to further and further encounter death. It had been for a worthwhile cause perhaps, the idea of removing the elder Lord Barothy in lieu of his younger daughter, the one who know rules, Veronica Barothy. It was hardly a welcome change in the sense of seeing through a time of peace, but it stood to be a more welcome set of circumstances than the other option.

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She thought that maybe it would translate to a greater sense of peace within the North, maybe something good that could have come of things, but it was hard to deny that the notion that peace would stand to come out of something that had been proven to be as lethal and cruel to the world as the conquest to place Veronica Barothy upon the throne was not one in which she would have liked to have had happen. Death was uncomfortable, an attribute to the world that she had started to realize was a fact of life, yet was still one in which felt awful. Awful to witness, awful to endure, awful to be involved towards, there were no world in which Vyra felt good about her involvement in Veronica Barothy’s effort, namely towards the violent route that the Countess sought to have pursued. No road to the throne would not be paved without blood, but the Demi-Human did not expect that as much blood would be spilled to achieve it.

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That had happened, and quite what happened now within the North was not exactly on her mind, though she was interested to some degree. The nature of the North, the wildness of it, to believe that in such a short time that Veronica would be able to turn that region around, it was a bit hard to fully believe, but she wanted to be hopeful of that. It would have been something to look forward to if she were to ever return there, maybe finding things had turned around. That the environment that she had first arrived to under the threat of hostage and execution could be turned around, it was something that she believed would have been worthwhile. Hopeful, perhaps not realistic. But it was still admirable, still something that she could support. Whether or not she herself would have been able to adequately appreciate, maybe it would be the case. Maybe it would be something that at some point she’d return to the North to see, but not today. She was back home in Hargeon, and honestly she was quite pleased about that.

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Being in Hargeon again, it felt almost like she didn’t belong. Maybe it was the Northern exposure, the utter change in culture compared against what she was encountering now that threw her off. Either way, it was something though that she could at least believe was maybe just the required readjustment to things. Things had slowed down a bit since the last time that she first arrived again, the circumstances of things that she most enjoyed within the city, notably that of the Hargeon Docks, had gotten into a steady pace. With the growing demand for the city to address issues that had at times plagued them over the course of the last several months, namely the delivery of goods, the city found reason finally to further invest into the docks and the operations that they had throughout there. As a result of it, it turned things into that of a more stable, consistent machine as opposed to the – at times – makeshift operation that they were operating.

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It was actually impressive to see how things had changed. She had heard of discussion being made towards the nature of moving things forward, the days before where the tried and dragged out conflict between the city and the trading companies seemed to have a horrid reputation and stained the history of the city to some degree. Worse even, it did not seem to matter much, the idea of erasing the wild west behavior of the trading companies being something that became secondary to the entire conflict. Though it had at first been that goal, to try to impede the profit margins of the companies to force them to otherwise impose more humane and practical uses for their businesses, when it became clear early on that that was not going to work, it as much started to become that those who were trying to push going against the companies were at that point just trying to save face. It was realized that it would not be something that they could adequately handle, nor stop. It was far too much of an inbred system within the economy, within the culture of Hargeon even, and to change it would be near impossible, particularly for their second-rate effort taken.

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Vyra saw it very early, the people within the city, even those who didn’t quite agree with the politics that went down at the Hargeon Docks, they knew at least that the politicians weren’t invested in their actual well-being. It was a public relations move first and foremost, one that seemed to generate some level of trust and confidence in initially, if not for the sole reason that it seemed that it was a tipping point of circumstances happening. First there was the matter of the trading companies themselves, whom had become big, wealthy, had no shortage of business either within Hargeon or otherwise in the world, and as such were willing to take risks, knowing that even if circumstances did not go their way that they could still find themselves in a very profitable situation. Secondly it was the nature of the immediate aftermath following the initial riot, the one that seemed to generate all of the attention. Vyra remembered it all too well, being there on the day that it happened, seeing the madness and panic that swept throughout everyone, leaving her to wonder how things could have gotten to the way they were. The more time went though, she started to better understand.

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It was a culture, far more than what she first thought she knew. The people, it didn’t much matter to them so much what ultimately happened with the trading companies, so long as they were not horribly affected, and under much of the circumstances they weren’t. The behaviors of the trading companies had gone on for years beforehand, hardly anything that was different or had any genuine bearing on the lives of the people, but somehow, for some reason, it had seemed that the circumstances surrounding the riots were enough to manipulate and otherwise throw things into a complete state of disarray and madness. What exactly prompted it, why it was that it happened, it wasn’t entirely clear, nor was it even clear as to whom started it or if they were even within the city anymore. It seemed that their involvement, the motivations to incite the people and turn it into something nothing short of a mob scene, just as quickly as it had happened, they were gone, leaving only the aftermath for those like Vyra and the rest of Hargeon to endure through.

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But as it was clear that the shift was not going to go the way that the politicians had first thought, things had suddenly begun to change in how things were approached. It was at this point that things had gotten worse within the Port, that things were becoming more aggressive, more violent, that the efforts put forth to try to shut down the docks were becoming more aggressive, and also sloppy. Obvious things that should not have succeeded, that seldom did, efforts to try to convince the people that the docks and the trading companies were up to no good, it was very apparent that in their half-hearted efforts, they were trying to promote something that nobody believed, that nobody felt that they were going to carry through on. For some too though, they realized the even more impactful thing about all of it, the fact that assuming that the politicians may have succeeded in their effort, there was no plan for what may have happened afterwards. In the wake of the the trading companies being removed from their positions of power, the void left over would only stand to allow a great deal of other people to fill that void and inevitably carry on the cycle.

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People started to realize this though, and the campaign to try to stop the trading companies died down. The politicians started to accept this fate, less nad less of them commiting towards trying to reinvent the wheel, but instead trying to find a calm resolution, something that the trading companies were willing to entertain. They knew they had the leverage at this point, and if it meant that the interference within the docks would end, they were willing to talk. And even at the concessions that they may have had in regards to trying to find a compromise, it would not have been as negative towards them as things could have played out instead. As it turned out too, it just so happened that what came out of the disucssions were actual progress, things that were being done to help improve things. The growth of new efforts and prospects to trade and hire help, things that otherwise were only provided through rough training, instead they were becoming basic capabilities and components to their work.

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For Vyra to have seen such a development over such a short time, it was impressive, if not even just a bit frightening. She was fearful to the idea that such progress had been made so quickly, even though it had only been a short amount of time that she were actually away from Hargeon, the progress seen within the port, something that was as much a place close to heart as the actual Blue Pegasus Guild was, she had a hard time believing that things could have changed so fast. It made her feel out of place, a bit lost even within the city. It was still her home, nothing had changed about that, but for some reason it felt as though it were not quite the same. Whether or not it were just in her head or otherwise having been away for such a time after having spent the past two years within the city, to see this progress wasn’t quite the thing that she hoped to have seen.

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But some things did not change. The processes and ways of work that occurred along the docks may have changed slightly, but not the people. That was all the same, that was still happening just as she remembered it being like, with the same effort and work done. The hard working people, dismissive of those who did not understand the culture, that were frustrated by the entire conflict that had consumed htings for the better part of the past few months, to be rid of all of that was a welcome change. They were working again, not unlike what they had been doing before, but now they were working without the need for them to have to wonder if the situation was going to be get worse or otherwise. A bit more time passed throughout the day as Vyra watched htem, seeing if anything was different, and though she may have felt a bit out of place now, she couldn’t help but smile a bit to see that some things were still the same.

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Though she was looking to have spent a bit of time with the people who were working there, the people who to some degree she found that she might have considered to be friends, there was a real apprehsniveness to Vyra doing that. She didn’t want to take them by surprise, namely with the red hair that she now had, something that was very hard to overlook. The people in part seemed very familiar with her having the light blue hair, but now with the deep red locks, there were no shortage of people who she had seen and interacted with on multiple times before who suddenly did not seem to realize just who she was. It broke her heart a little bit, to believe that something just like that could have been enough for the people to forget about her, if even just for a brief time. No doubt an oversight to some degree, or otherwise something just distracting them, but it felt a bad feeling in her all the same.

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There was one other thing to take note of though, and that was that the behavior of the people did not change either. Beyond those who worked at the docks, there were also those who sought the chance to try to take what they could from those who were working there. With each pece of cargo that was dropped, there was a chance that someone may have sought a chance to swipe whatever may have been within there, maybe getting a nice pay day in the process. The reality though was that with how things were going in the docks now, the risk that came with this was far less than that of the employees than what it may have been before. The traffic was fast enough and consistent enough to where there was little reason to be concerned over goods that may have been taken. But despite that, it was still something that was not wished upon.

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So when there came the two youths that were trying to take from the nearby crate, she couldn’t help but react in a manner that she always knew and cared to respond towards. As they tried to open up one of the crates, a larger one whose height were more than the youths even, the Demi-Human could not help but find a way to stop them, but to drop them in the water, it did not seem appropriate. It did not seem that it was worth it. Instead, she looked towards a large stack of crates, pushing them, causing potential harm to the youths as a loud collapsing sound echoed throughout the docks, following by pained cries. It may have been something that she did not want to happen, nor probably what the people in the docks wanted either, but it was a means that stopped the people from further robbing, and whether or not things had changed much, Vyra knew that that was certainly something that they would have appreciated.

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