Iobel opens the door, finds herself speechless, and winds up just sort of staring at him.

"Hello," he says. "... May I come in?"

"What do you want?"

He sighs, closing his eyes. "To discuss a subject I've been avoiding for months?"

He's not even angry, he just gives Cricket a sad, resigned look. In he goes. He finds a seat, carefully sits, and then says quietly, "Would you like me to be gentle, or frank?"

"Frank."

"Okay. We need heirs."

"You weren't really thinking this part through when you proposed, were you."

She gets a confused look. "... Er? It was something I thought about and was not looking forward to?"

"Ah, of course, my mistake."

"A conscience?" she suggests.

"It's intact and present, thank you," says Edarial, dryly.

"Are you sufficiently sociopathic that you haven't a clue why I'd be upset with you?"

"It was poisoning and kidnapping my cat!"

"... Um. No? Why would I demand that you show up here?"

"And I suppose the fact that while I was packing to flee the country my Cricket got too sick for any healing spell I know to even alleviate his symptoms has nothing to do with you and the guards at the fountain who wouldn't let me through but would happily take him and not give him back till I married you is the result of some conspiracy operating under your nose without you having an inkling and you thought that one guard Cricket got his claws into had a fight with a gardening implement."

"Cricket says he never saw you till after the wedding, so I am just barely able to believe that it's that and not that you're trying to pretend your innocence so you won't have to fight your way into bed with me."

"Oh, I'm quite convinced you're not attracted to me, fear not, but it crossed my mind that when you got impatient about the heiring business - what son of a bitch, exactly?"

"Did you, at any point in time before the - farce that I'm sickened to call a wedding - happen to talk to a spellbinder that goes by the name of Nataliem? Raven familiar, probably had the familiar investigate you, then him show up later?"

"I met him at a party at my great-aunt's."

"Mhm. And did he talk to you about, say, politics?"

"Not for that long, but a little."

"Okay," mutters Edarial. "So it might not be him, but it's probably still him, because he's a wretched bastard and a fucking sociopath!"

"Who's fucking sociopaths?" asks Zevros, poking his head into the room with no sense of personal space and Edarial's familiar on his arm.

"Mind. Gutter. Not the time, Zev," growls Edarial.

"... Wait, okay. Scale of one to ten, how badly are you freaking out?"

"Solid eight. Iobel was coerced into marriage with the threat of being unmade and someone pinned it on me."

"Oh my god," deadpans Zevros. "It's almost like marrying someone you don't fucking know is a bad idea! Who the fuck would have thought, right?!"

Iobel laughs bitterly into Cricket's fur.

"Oh, spare me the fucking lecture, Zevros! Not about us!"

Zevros rolls his eyes. "Yeah? 'Cause I'm seeing it is, you're the reason she's involved at all! Fruity drinks on an island! We could have had them!"

Iobel hugs Cricket and starts crying.

"Oi!" says Zevros to the snake. "You can't use that on me, I'm the one who taught you it!"

Edarial glances at Iobel, then says to Zevros, "Skip it. Lecture me later, hell, you can punch me if you want, fuck do I deserve it right now. Zev, remember the - how did you describe it... Miniature bear?"

"You mean the guy that looked like he got attacked by an angry pocket sized bear?"

"Yes. Retrieve him," growls Edarial.

"... In one piece, ooor...?"

"It's fucking me asking you, what the fuck do you think, that I want him strewn about the courtyard?"

"You want me and Cricket to leave him in one piece too?"

"I would prefer it, but you're the wronged party here so if you leave him in multiple pieces I will only make disapproving faces at you."

"What are you going to do with him if I tell Cricket to restrain himself to hysterical growling?"

"Tried for treason, tossed into the tallest tower with all of his friends and then I throw away the key."

"I'll take it." She starts murmuring to her familiar, who seems disgruntled but compliant.

"I guess this explains why you didn't try to punish Zephrys when she slapped you. You are not in fact a sociopath."

"Not in the slightest," agrees Edarial. "Mind you, I'm a huge fucking idiot, because I fucking noticed things that were off and I didn't investigate, but a sociopath, no."

"I suppose that flustered survey-taking fellow never got to you in person, either."

"Flustered survey-taking... What, did he show up, hear that your familiar was poisoned and kidnapped and then give you the fucking survey anyway? Please tell me that is not what happened."

"That is exactly what happened. I gave him real answers because it was faster than coming up with incompetent-sounding lies and I wanted him on his way being helpful as soon as possible, and then spent months kicking myself for not saying I would solve the housing crisis in the eastlands by printing more money and giving it to the poor."

Edarial laughs one of the most pathetic, wretched laughs possible. It's not a happy sound, more similar to a sob than actual laughter. "Oh my god, this is all my fucking fault!"

"Maybe thirty percent. It's increasingly clear you didn't actually orchestrate it."

Iobel pets her cat and doesn't say anything.

Edarial's head gets buried in his hands and he makes a sound that sounds similar to an actual sob.

Cricket snarls but makes no attempt to escape his binder's arms.

Iobel is watching Edarial curiously.

Zevros's eyebrows shoot up, but he hands his sword over.

"If he doesn't answer I can let Cricket at him," says Iobel lightly.

"... Well that was the most pathetically fast interrogation I've ever seen."

"Me or Cricket would recognize a number of other involved guards who might or might not belong to those names."

"Yes," agrees Edarial. "So our friend here should pray that he remembered them all correctly, shouldn't he?"

"It seems like it would be best if he has, yes."

"Iobel's choice," says Edarial. "So Cricket would probably get first pick."

Iobel murmurs a summarized translation of the proceedings to Cricket, who purrs in her lap and lashes his tail and extends a paw delicately in the guard's direction, claws slowly extending.

"Yup," agrees Edarial. "Unless Iobel has objections?"

"As long as he's going to stay there for an exquisitely long time I can think of no place better."

"He'll fit right in with the rats," snorts Zevros, who grabs his arm and gets to dragging him off to the dungeon. "Be back in a bit!"

"And I suppose next we look at a lineup and next you throw Nataliem in with everyone we point at?"

"Yes," agrees Edarial. "Then they all go to either the tallest tower or the darkest dungeon, haven't decided which yet."

"And," says Iobel, "then what?"

"... Divorce?" offers Edarial. "I'm not holding you to a - whatever the hell our marriage is when it was made under threats of violence."

"And then what?"

"With me? Or you?"

"I imagine I see if the landlord has rented my apartment and my store to anyone else in the interim even though I paid for the whole year just a few weeks before Cricket was posioned. You, what do you do?"

"To whom?"

"According to what selection process? Nataliem can be locked up. But I doubt even if you were doing your due diligence for once you'd detect every minor noble whose - parents were pressuring them to try to marry you, or whatever. For that matter, did I really earn my tiara on the basis of that survey, it was a reasonably well-made survey, how good was second place?"

"And," says Iobel, "what if we do not get divorced: what next?"

"I also don't know," sighs Edarial.

"Let's focus on locking various people up for treason first, then."

"Yes," he agrees.

Zevros returns, a little while later. "Okay, let's go kick ass. Edarial, you're my backup."

"I have a forty-one second knockout spell. If it were faster I could've got Cricket out when I first tried. Will that do?"

Edarial gives Zevros a pained look. Berathyme hisses.

"Suck. It. Up. Don't act like you fucking can't, you're the smart diplomatic one and I need you."

"Fine," says Edarial quietly. He stands, shakily.

Iobel gets up, Cricket draped 'round her shoulders. "Let me know when to start charging."

"He's got a house in this city, if he's in the city it would be there."

"Do you know anything about what spells he knows? I can be invisible if I'm not going to be doing much else and he might not notice me."

"No idea," says Edarial. "But I'm treating it as 'he should not get any spells off' - they could be lethal."

"I'll turn invisible, then. Lasts an hour, should be plenty of time."

Iobel goes to the gate, Cricket left safely behind so she doesn't have to blow two spells on the invisibility.

Zevros arrives a bit after them both, followed by seven people. "'Kay, we're overdoing it but you never know with spellbinders. Iobel, what can you do besides knocking people out?"

"Invisibility. I have decent healing but it's not perfect. I finished one to walk through walls a few weeks ago. I have a shielding hex on me but it won't hold up to a well-made offensive spell or prolonged physical battering. All my offensively purposeable spells besides the knockout take longer to charge, so while it might entertain Cricket if I came home with stories about boiling Nataliem's brain in its own juices or something, it's not tactically useful."

"Fair. How many walls can you walk through in one go?"

"I can stay wall-walkable for about twenty minutes. Or put it on someone else. It specifically excludes floors, so if he's not at ground level you still have to find stairs, you can't just haul yourself up through the ceiling."

"Useful. Can you charge while invisible, no problem?"

"Yes. And it covers the eyeshine. I'd still zap anyone who touched me, though."

"Oh, I like you, you're useful. Okay, game plan - Iobel, invisibility to start out, then wall walking, sneak in while we are being large distraction. Charge up a knockout spell, hit Nataliem with it. If there's any problem at all, book it through the walls and yell. Edarial - protection duty. Iobel in particular, she's vulnerable, you got that invisible shield set up?"

"Yes," says Edarial. "I'm not sure how it will interact with wall walking, though."

"Hmm. Okay, perception spell instead. On Iobel, and me. If it looks like she is having difficulties I will tell you to do stuff."

"Charge it now?"

"Yeah. Perception spell, put it on your wife first, she needs some time to get used to it."

"Perception spell?" inquires his wife.

"Sees outlines of people through walls. Really freaky at first, but useful as all hell for this kind of thing."

"Okay. That'll dovetail with mine, I'd like to see a copy later."

"Sure," agrees Edarial.

"Let me know when you're about to do the spell, Ari. While it's charging we'll head there. Iobel, start charging on invisibility. Don't freak out and lose it when Edarial's spell goes, your vision will change, just try to adjust and get used to what size of people mean what distance."

Iobel nods. Her eyes go brilliantly white.

Edarial nods, and then starts leading the way.

Iobel follows in silence, eyes aglow, braced for the perception spell.

It goes. The world seems to dim and the people around them turn to bright, translucent silhouettes. It's hard to identify who's who - their faces are now shrouded by varying shades of lighter colors. It will take a bit to figure out, but Edarial is a light blue, Zevros a pale green, and their various companions different colors between them. If Iobel inspects her own hand, she'll see it's a brilliant white, and possibly be able to figure out what the colors mean from hers and Edarial's.

"One of the prison guards knows it," says Edarial. "But she's not about arresting people, just - keeping binders in a prison without them walking out through wall walking or something. So we'd have to bring him to her."

"The knockout will hold that long, I just wouldn't bet on it sticking till midnight."

"So no stopping for tea and crumpets on the way back, got it."

"I could renew it before it wore off if the guard in question has already cast it today, or if we stopped for tea and crumpets. Just making sure."

"Mhm. No, you're fine, thanks for warning us."

"Of course."

"Okay, Ari! Spell on me, next, do the chargy thing."

Iobel starts charging her invisibility. "I don't have a premature ending contingency - I wrote one, but couldn't cram it in with everything else - so when I start being invisible I'll stay that way for an hour," she warns.

"If I hand you a thing to identify yourself with, like a cloth or something, does it go invisible, too?"

"That part I'm very proud of - I can incorporate new stuff into the invisibility if I want to at the time it's attached or given to me. So if you want me to carry a cloth after I've done the requisite wall-walking I can not-invisible it."

"Aha. Okay, then after we're done we give you a cloth and use that to not run into you. No downsides, we're good."

"And it means the 'dump a bag of flour on her' trick doesn't work. Except by making me sneeze, anyway."

"Clever! You're useful and smart, keep it up!"

"That's the plan. It's a nine-minute charge, though."

"That's fine. We can wait, we're already waiting for Ari's. Six minutes, right?"

"Right," says Edarial.

Iobel charges and waits. "What's the layout of the house like, and what's his eyeshine color so I can recognize him through the perception spell?"

"I've never been on the inside of his house, so I've got no idea, but his eyeshine color is a lavender."

"Well, how many floors is it, do you know that?"

"Three, I think. Maybe a fourth as an attic, but I doubt that would come up."

"Okay."

"How long does the wallwalking spell take to charge?"

"Just two minutes, I got lucky with it."

"Ooo. Okay, in that case - when your invisibility spell goes, you go look around the house while charging the wall walking spell."

"I might not even need to go into the house to knock him out, if he's on the first floor and there's a window open."

"If you can manage it, go for it. You don't even need to bother with the wall walking spell."

Iobel nods. "If there's anyone else in the house how much should I worry about them?"

"If they're identifiable as a spellbinder, a lot. Otherwise, don't. We'll handle guards, you and Edarial are for dealing with spellbinders."

"So I down anybody who's got a critter with them or starts charging, right."

"Pretty much! If you run out of spells... Hm, we should make a signal."

"Such as?"

"Uh - something that wouldn't tip off you were there but would let me or Ari know. Of course that narrows it down quite a bit on what we can do..."

"She could probably just whistle," says Edarial, quietly. "Hard to place where that's coming from and I doubt anyone will guess who did it while things are being all - dramatic."

"Okay. I'll whistle if I'm out. But I didn't cast anything before this."

Zevros shrugs. "Just a measure of paranoia. I hate fighting spellbinders. They never play fair."

"You could have been a spellbinder if you wanted. Technically you still could, although I imagine at this point you'd have a hard time talking to your familiar. How's that not fair?"

"My spirit animal was a turtle, and I did not get along with him."

"That's a pity."

"Yup! Also, unmaking freaks me out like nobody's business."

"Well. Yes."

"Also, honestly I don't think I have the head for it. Like, I've seen Ari's spell-charts and ugh, they gave me a headache just trying to read them, let alone fit everything in my head all at once."

"It takes practice."

"Eh," says Zevros, shrugging. "I like how I am now. With no stupid turtle that I hate for reasons I don't even remember."

"I got lucky with Cricket. He hates almost everybody but he loves me."

"Huh. What'd you do to make him love you?"

"He's mostly just really judgmental. He thinks I'm smart and reasonable."

"Oh, well then. Congrats to you!"

"Thanks."

"Spell," warns Edarial.

"Thereabouts, yeah."

"Cool. Guess we will just sit on our asses until then," shrugs Zevros. "Unless there's any topics you want to talk about in three minutes?"

"I'm not exactly overflowing with ideas for small talk, no."

"Eh. I guess I have a question, are you going to stop glaring at Ari all the time, now?"

"Yes."

"Okay, good. That got a bit awkward, like - he was running from you, basically the entire time."

Iobel doesn't really have anything to say to that.

Edarial gives Zevros a bit of a look, but doesn't comment.

Zevros looks at his brother, then says, "And you! Are you going to apologize and say I was right?"

"Am I missing some story about your heroism behind the scenes?" wonders Iobel in Zevros's direction softly.

"I was the one that noticed the results of your cat and the strange convenient headaches at the same time. Went to tell Edarial, he blew me off and went back to pouting. Not to mention, I was against the whole 'get married to someone you don't know' thing from the beginning."

"But you didn't, for example, ask me what was wrong, or present a sufficiently approachable face that the survey-taker went to you with my story, or double-check the intake procedures of queen candidates, or keep a close enough eye on the guards to know that at least half a dozen of them are taking orders from someone else."

Edarial laughs, bitterly. With no actual humor.

"Hey, you didn't exactly come to me and tell me that something was wrong. I was just going to leave you alone because your life is none of my fucking business. This shit is all Edarial's territory for dealing with, and guess who dropped the ball?"

"Oh, believe me, I'm kicking myself for my own missed opportunities. I could have gone to you, I could have gone to Edarial, I could have simply thrown enough magic and screaming at the top of my lungs around during my rescue attempt that I would be guaranteed attention outside of a handful of bought and paid for guards and helpless servants, I could have burst into tears at the wedding, I could have kept hold of Cricket in the first place, downed those guards, and dunked him myself, I could have worked faster on my wall-walking spell, I could have prioritized cramming my idealized teleportation spellchart into my head last summer instead of setting the project down to pick at an immortality hex, I could have done so many things. And so could any of us, so why are you being more judgmental than my cat?"

"Because if Edarial had listened to me in the first place, none of this shit would have happened. You'd be in your magic shop working on an immortality hex, and we'd be anywhere but here. The two of you would never have met, I wouldn't be pissed at my brother, your cat wouldn't have been kidnapped and poisoned, and Ari wouldn't be a quivering mess of misery. Everybody wins."

Edarial is currently demonstrating that he is just as good at death glares as his brother is. Look at him, looking like he wants to wish death on his twin.

Zevros sort of growls and shakes his head. "Don't care. We'll just deal with Nataliem and then go back to biting each other's heads off."

"Mm-hm. What's the address?" Iobel asks, starting to charge the wall-walking.

Edarial rattles it off for her.

Iobel goes to wander around the environs of this house and see what they're dealing with.

It's a large, fancy house, with pretty gardens and a few fountains. Iobel can see lots of people inside it, some whose silhouettes look like they're carrying weaponry. On the third floor is a lavender figure who's isolated from the others, and who seems to be sitting at a desk. That's probably Nataliem.

Iobel circles the house, guessing layout based on how people are clustered and plotting a course in so she can sneak up the stairs. If she's lucky there will be a ladder or a climbable trellis or something.

There are neither of those things, unfortunately - but she can find at least one set of stairs through the walls by looking at how people move. While there are what look to be servant passages for out of the way deliveries, they might be too cramped for comfort if someone else is in them. The main hallways have guards in them, but at least Iobel would have the ability to go around them if they are walking towards her.

She sidesteps into another room on the same floor, looking through the wall in case anyone approaches who might be another spellbinder. She charges another knockout.

It doesn't seem like there's another spellbinder arriving, but Iobel can tell that the assault downstairs has begun. She can hear yelling, and several of the guards leave Nataliem to go defend the place. But the others move to pick him up and carry him off while everyone downstairs is busy.

There's three of them; Iobel could get them all, but it's probably safer for her to quietly stalk them while they try to drag Nataliem through a combat zone and only knock one out if they get farther than the front door. If she sees the raven she wants to get her, too.

The raven is still in the room with Nataliem. She pecks at a window for someone to open it so she can fly away to safety, but the guards are currently busy trying to drag her master out. Fortunate for Iobel, not so much for the raven. She gets to trying to open it herself, struggling a little with a device not built for use with a beak. If Iobel's fast enough, she can manage to knock her out.

Iobel is fast enough.

Iobel tentatively suspects that she will get to hang on to her last two spells.

Iobel picks up a doily, does not incorporate it into her invisibility, and waves it around in the air. "I got the raven, too," she says, "she's upstairs. Does anyone need healing, I have two spells left?"

"Hey, Iobel. Thanks for grabbing the raven - there's a guy downstairs that got some shallow cuts, another who's going to have a massive headache in the morning and will need to be dragged out, and Ari got punched in the face, but other than that - we're all fine."

"Except for the dead, I suppose. Do you want to tie people up before I patch them?"

"... Wha? Oh, no, I was talking about the guys on our side. Loads of the other guys are hurt, fix em if you want, I guess. Tie them up first."

"I'd rather not leave excess corpses if anyone's bleeding out and I could save them, but I don't know how to safely tie up people likely to be hostile."

Zevros sighs. "Okay, fine, I'll help."

"Thank you."

Zevros helps. Grudgingly.

Edarial has found bandages and is currently using them for a mission called 'let's not have more people die.'

Iobel triages, identifies the two people at the worst risk of death, has Zevros tie them up, and applies healing magic.

"If you have spells and know any healing that fellow's probably next worst off," Iobel says to Edarial, pointing.

He nods, then gets to healing them. He's not the best with healing spells, but - hey, they're useful.

Iobel goes up the stairs to fetch down the unconscious raven.

The raven is fetched without problem.

She puts the bird on top of her binder and waits for the party to be ready to go.

When everyone who was found at the house has been handled, Iobel says to Zevros, "What would be the best way for Cricket and I to check over the palace guard and identify the other involved parties, ideally without causing further injuries?"

"Uhh... I could make up a fake training thing that's mandatory for all guards ever, then have you and Cricket show up and point people out to me?"

"That works. How long will it take to set up?"

"Well, normally this sort of thing takes days of planning and coordination. But I'm a prince, and I scare people, so - give me a few hours."

"Okay. Thank you."

"Mhm," shrugs Zevros, who goes off to do that.

Iobel goes up to her room and pulls out a notebook and writes, Cricket on her shoulder. It's his language she writes in, but he's illiterate, so no one can read her thoughts except for her.

"All set?" Iobel inquires when she has answered the door.

"All set!" he agrees. "I will actually be training them, because half of them are okay but not great at poking things with sharp objects."

"Okay." Iobel picks up Cricket. "And we'll tell you which of them we know were involved with taking my cat."

"Yup! And then I will throw them to Edarial and he will handle it."

Iobel nods. "Lead the way."

Iobel brought her notebook along. She makes notes. Cricket helps.

Iobel produces them. "Although it's possible there are some we didn't see, who were on duty outside the closet at times when I wasn't there and Cricket couldn't see them."

"I have no objections whatever to your methods. Nicely done."

"Thank you!" says Zevros, with a bow.

"How long do you estimate he'll sulk? I'd like to plan my schedule around when he'll want to talk to me about - whatever's next."

Zevros shrugs. "I've got no idea. Honestly though, it will probably take a while. If you want to get anything done in the next week or so on the front of talking about where your... creepy double nonconsensual relationship political thing is going, I would recommend talking to him."

"Is he much use at discussing that sort of difficult topic while in the process of sulking?"

"Eeeeeeh. Kinda? Why, want me to be nearby and translate Edarial-speak to Marlese?"

"Maybe. I don't know. I suppose it's not urgent on the scale of a week, anyway."

"Okay. But you should probably actually talk to him about something, because he thinks of you as 'wife who hates him.' That not being a factor anymore might affect what the end result of his sulking is."

"I can go tell him I don't hate him right now if it's likely to help."

"It might. But then again, he's never quite been like this before, so maybe it's a special case and he'll end up freaking out and agreeing to flee the country and drink fruity drinks on an island with me."

"If you flee the country to drink fruity beverages please first arrange for me to sit regent for and legitimize any children I manage to have or I'll have a mess on my hands."

"... Oooo! Oooo that might persuade him, let's go tell him that right now!"

"...Sure, why not."

"Okay, get off of your period for like, five minutes, Iobel had an idea and it might mean we can just flee the country!"

"Please don't start that again."

"The suggestion is that if you make the right arrangements I can sit regent, work out how to have a child some way or other, and legitimize him or her."

"I assure you I am not attempting to start one. Since no one has troubled to give me queen lessons, perhaps things are indeed that delicate, but I have been queen for several months now, so I don't think I'm quite that random."

"So much for that idea, then. Zevros also opined that it might help if I tell you that I do not hate you."

"... Thank you."

"Edarial. Edarial, seriously, can we just -"

He sighs. Then he interrupts his twin's inevitable pleading with, "- You mentioned, earlier, how 'Everybody wins' if I would have never forced myself into marriage."

"... Uh, yeah, like all of the problems ever would have been -"

"- No, nope. False. All problems for you would have been handled. All of the personal problems that you are having in your immediate family right now. Those would have been handled. But do you know what it would have done for the people that were not us?"

"Jack shit?"

Edarial laughs. It's the same not-actually-a-happy-laugh.

Iobel glances between king and prince, unsure that she's getting all of the content of this exchange.

"Do you realize," says Edarial softly, "just how quickly this country would devolve into civil war? Do you comprehend that? There are multiple people who have a claim to the throne, several of them would try to use it."

"Kinda not caring, if a country needs one of two people to get married it's kind of a stupid country. Like, just bend the rules a little and let someone make some decisions, not that hard."

"Yeah, and?"

"And? And those would be the people that would be most hurt by a civil war. Those would be the people that would really suffer. It would be their homes that are getting pillaged for supplies for armies, their fields that are getting emptied, their children that are conscripted to join one side or another - I could go on. There's a lot of material about how wars are bad. I'll spare you."

"Gee," drawls Zevros. "I am so lucky."

"I do," says Iobel.

This answer seems to calm him down, a little. "Thank you," he says to Iobel.

"So having established that you don't think Marlatia is stable enough to survive the departure of the only available royal blood even with a queen consort trying to hold things together, what is the plan?"

"Should I go back to staying out of your way while you do that?"

"I don't know. Sorry."

"Then I suppose I'll guess, and if you later come to know, perhaps you will tell me."

Iobel looks at him for a moment, then reiterates: "I don't hate you."

He manages a little, sad laugh. "That makes one of us."

"I seem to be in much better emotional condition than you. If there are any - royalty-ing matters - that you could do with having off your plate so you have time to work through your issues in whatever way works for you, I'll take them."

"Okay," he says, attempting a little smile. "Thank you."

Edarial looks down. "Yeah. I - am extremely bad. At political marriages and - and feeling like everyone in my close family hates me."

Hug.

"Do me a favor and - fix yourself? Also hit me if I poke you too hard."

"I'm also not really good at hitting things."

Iobel makes no attempt to approach Edarial again. She attends meals, she takes the list of names and addresses of the other queen candidates mentioning that some treasonous behavior that might have affected them has come to light and asks if they suffered from any coercion prompting or prolonging their stay at the palace, and she keeps an eye out for any queening that she can do.

When Cricket finds out that Zevros is willing to teach him to swear in Marlese more than the incidentals he's managed to acquire from Iobel, he is most pleased.

"Does he actually have anything worthwhile to say or does he just want attention?"

Zevros shrugs. "Probably the second thing. Though I wouldn't know, I didn't go in there and ask him, 'Hey, do you have anything worthwhile to say?' So I could be wrong."

"I might look in on him at some point just in case, I suppose. It would be nice to know - why."

"I suspect that it had something to do with a twisted desire to help Marlatia. Because obviously everything he did is exonerated because he was doing it in the country's best interests," deadpans Edarial. Sarcasm is also a thing he proves to be capable of doing, as demonstrated here.

"It's the escalation pattern that confuses me more than the result he aimed at. That and how he expected to go unpunished, assuming he did - as it happened we didn't notice for a very long time, but he didn't know me well or do much to prevent any impulse I might have manifested to go to you with my concerns directly."

"Could just be crazy. Crazy is a thing this place can do well."

"Should I be concerned about contagion?" inquires Iobel dryly.