"As president of the Azura Book Club I'd like to welcome everyone who showed up for our founding meeting. I hope all of you will learn to love this series as much as I do. So without further ado, let the first meeting of the Azura book club begin!" Shouted an overly excited, brown haired, teenage girl while raising both hands in dramatic fashion.

"Luz" replied her sole companion, a dry edge creeping into her voice, "It's just us." Indeed, considerable effort had been made to decorate the club room. Colourful posters adorned the walls. While a corner was set up with a table and chairs to play the Azura role playing game. This was complete with maps and story cards Luz had spent the last 2-weeks making. Yet in spite of their efforts, they were the only people currently present.

"That may be the case right now" Luz continued, undeterred. "But soon we'll have dozens, no hundreds of members!" She shouted triumphantly, her eyes taking on a euphoric shine. "I'm just getting in a bit of practice to make sure I'm ready for when the time comes." Her sole companion, Amity Blight was amused by her enthusiasm. She could not help but allow a subtle grin to break out on her normally dour demeanor.

"We'll see" Amity said, trying to rain her new friend in at least a little bit as she casually leaned back against a desk. "In any case what exactly do we do in the Azura Book club? We need at least one more person for the game. Do we just sit around and talk about what we thought of the books?"

"Oh Amity'' Luz began, bringing her palms to rest above her heart in a mock presentation of deep sorrow. "Poor, sweet, innocent, Amity" she continued, before startling the pointed eared girl as Luz left up and rushed to her side. Luz grasped the top of her shoulder with one hand while pointing towards some invisible horizon in front of them with the other. "We are sailors on the traitorous ocean of fandom. All around us are hazards we must avoid. To our port side lie the perils of the icebergs of shipping wars. To our starboard there are the dreaded sand banks of cannon violations." Luz stated in an adventurous tone.

Before Amity had a chance to respond Luz had spun her, bringing them face to face. Both hands now firmly gripping Amity's shoulders as Luz leaned forward. The tip of their noses touched ever so slightly. This caused Amity to start screaming 'too close, too close, too close' in her head as a blush rapidly spread over her cheeks. "Will you, Miss Amity Blight" Luz continued obliviously, a devilish look in her eyes, "Be my first mate on our epic voyage?"

"Yep, sure" Amity squeaked out in a high pitched voice.

"Awesome!" Luz let out happily, an obscenely huge grin appearing on her face that somehow managed to show every single one of her teeth. She casually let go of Amity and skipped back to her stool. Amity let out a breath she did not even realize she had been holding. She felt a little wobbly on her feet so took a stool opposite Luz.

"Now that that's settled" Luz started up again, "let me present the agenda!" With that she slammed down a parchment scroll she has written up the night before onto the desk. Amity cocked an eyebrow and started reading. It was an intricate set of bullet points covering various, different aspects, of the series. Everything was neatly arranged into various categories and even sub-categories. There were even time indexes next to each of them, showing how long they had for discussing each section.

"Wow" Amity said, genuinely surprised, "This is a lot more...organised...than I expected." Luz tilted her head to the side, showing a little confusion. "I mean, no offence, but, I didn't expect you to take this so...well...seriously" Amity explained.

"Nothing is more serious than fandom" Luz stated stoically, dark circles seeming to appear under her eyes.

"Okay" Amity said nervously, "Should we start then?"

"Heck yeah!" Luz belted out, punching the air. This elevated Amity's momentary nervousness and instead giggling at her friends' excitement, it was pretty infectious.

Over the next hour the two girls conversed earnestly about their favorite series. Their bond grew as they shared their own highs and lows of the saga with each other. Luz gushed ecstatically about the moment Azura finally mastered the crystal light spell. This had allowed her to beat back the shadow demon in the Swamp of Sorrow.

Likewise Amity complained passionately, like a true fan who knows it can do better, about the utterly contrived revel in the third book. In the last chapter it was revealed that the mysterious cloaked helper, who had saved Azura in book two, was Terrence Claymore. He was a warlock Azura had watched die at the hands of the Maravek the Mad Marauder in the middle of the first book. With this new information it turned out he had not really died. What Asura thought she had seen was just an illusion.

The last item on the agenda was titled, Random Questions, which Luz explained was an opportunity for anyone in the club to pose a question. These were questions about the series that did not fit comfortably into the established categories. Luz had drawn those up to reflect the most common talking points she had encountered in the fandom on social media.

"Well" Amity said, "There is something about the series I'm a little confused by."

"Yaaaarggh!" Luz yelled, slapping a hand to her eye like a patch and standing on a stool. "Does me First Mate Amity have trouble navigating through some terrible storm?"

"What was that?" Asked Amity, completely baffled by this bizarre outburst from Luz. "Are you okay? Is there something wrong with your throat?" Realizing her mistake, Luz averted her eyes as her face turned red with embarrassment.

"It's fine, don't worry about it, just carry on." Luz mumbled as she sat back down. She wished Eda had taught her a spell to make her invisible.

"Okaaay" said Amity, recovering her bearings. "Like me Azura belongs to the Nobility. She's a member of the Pinewistle family. They are one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in the Kingdom. She is also the only daughter of Lord and Lady Pinewistle. With her father's passing and her mother too old to bear children if she remarried, that will remain so. She is also the eldest child and so the inheritor of the estate, their land and businesses when her mother eventually passes on." Amity recited accurately from the series lore. Luz nodded along, this was pretty basic information. She assumed Amity was mentioning it because it was somehow relevant to the question she was about to ask. "So, on that basis, why is she betrothed to marry the gentleman Eugene Ercart?" Amity finally asked. Luz was in all honestly surprised. To her it was a question that never needed asking, the answer was self-evident.

"Well, they are another wealthy and powerful family" Luz answered, "If they marry their estates would be merged, their combined wealth and property would be spread between the two families."

"Exactly!" Amity exclaimed, "It doesn't make any sense!" Luz was completely dumbfounded, what exactly made no sense about what she had just said? When she had suggested starting an Azura book club, discussions of feudal economics was not something she had expected to cover.

"I'm sorry Amity but, why doesn't that make sense?" Luz questioned. Now it was Amity's turn to be bewildered 'seriously' she thought, 'does she really not get it?'

"Well" Amity began, "Their combined assets would be divided among far more people with the families on both sides clawing to get their share. Not to mention the division between them would never truly go away. Behind the facade of union, both families would be doing everything they could to stab the other side in the back. Their enemies would also exploit those divisions, playing one side against the other. At worst, the entire thing could collapse under its own internal pressures. Also custom and practice would not allow them to just turf one side of the family out onto the street. The social repercussions from the rest of high society would be too severe. Even the royal family would be pressured to take action because it would undermine social stability. By contrast the expansion of a Nobel's family's assets at the expense of others through competition, conquest or deception allows for the increase in a family's wealth, power and prestige without sacrificing a single, stable, united family's central hold on it."

In all her years reading the Azura series such thoughts had never entered Luz's mind. Her brain was wheeling from the level of detail contained in Amity's monologue. Clearly Amity, a young Noble herself, was more informed on these issues. To Luz these issues might get, at best, a single, rushed, module in her history studies at school. Yet for Amity, it was no doubt part of normal dinner conversation in the Blight household. It was times like these that the incredible, other worldly nature of her temporary residency in the Boiling Isles was really brought home to her. And yet, as out of her depth as she knew she was, Luz detected something off about what Amity had said. What about the long term?

"Sure" Luz started, choosing her words very carefully as she didn't want to accidentally say something foolish and look like an idiot in front of Amity, "But even taking all that into account, Azura's not immortal. She has to marry eventually to mother a child herself, to continue the Pinewistle line or it would come to an end."

"Oh I'm not disputing that" Amity answered casually, "But it's not like she's an only child, she has four younger brothers. Sedrick and Justin are already old enough to wed while Bento and Lucius will be soon enough. She could be betrothed to marry any one of them. Quite frankly it stretches credulity a bit that their parents didn't pick one of her brothers for her not long after he was born. They could have then prepared them throughout their childhood for their future marriage."

"Wait, what?!" Luz exclaimed, in complete shock, her eyes widening as she fell off her stool.