The world is a bold one, a brave one, where adventure reigns, and magic flows freely, full of wondrous vistas, powerful feats, and impressive people.

For good or for ill, Azerosa is much like Oz - for it is both Great and Terrible, in equal measure.  The greatest heroes must contrast themselves against the most horrible villains.

Like the ones that even now should soon awaken within the almost bucolic realm of Villarosa - the Heroine, and the Villainess, of a romance that will shake this world to its core.

...Though, if she has any say in the matter, the Villainess of Villarosa will be opting out of the world-shaking part of this plan.

Speaking of world-shaking...

The Kingdom of Villarosa is, by most definitions, not a world power.  It doesn't have huge stretches of land or huge armies or take part in many huge wars.

What it does have is magic.  Well, everyone has magic, but Villarosa has schools of magic.  The Royal Academy of Villarosa is famed around the world for the archmages it's produced.  Several other schools in the kingdom are scarcely behind it.  A lot of the graduates stay in Villarosa between their adventures - not anywhere near all of them, but enough that wise rulers and generals and archmages make sure not to get too far on the wrong side of Villarosa.

And the King of Villarosa is happy not to disturb that balance.

The Crown of Villarosa is an elective monarchy.

The King or Queen is elected by the Grand Assembly, which's chosen from the various Shire Assemblies (elected in turn by the people) and the Archmage Conclaves and the nobility, according to... well, it's a complicated system that's added on encrustments and epicycles over generations.  And then, the Grand Assembly is usually called every several years during their reign to put in their word on whatever they want to.  No one said everyone gets an equal voice or vote, but everyone gets a voice and vote, which is far and above most other places in the world.

King Ambrose Laertes wouldn't have it any other way.

(Otherwise, they probably wouldn't have chosen him king in the first place.)

The Royal House of Vaudelle dates back to Queen Aurelia, King Ambrose's mother.  She was Duchess of Thorn before being chosen Queen, but she passed on that title to her brother and chose to name her family "Vaudelle" to signify a new beginning.  She trained her son Ambrose in hopes the Assembly would give him the crown after her - and they did, which wasn't at all to be taken for granted.

He's hoping that one of his children will be ready to take the crown in turn after him, but... well, that certainly isn't to be taken for granted, the way Princess Alicia's been behaving.

(Aurelia's brother almost immediately passed the title to the woman who had long since been rumored Queen Aurelia's Left Hand - but the sleight-of-hand of titles obscured the now-Her Grace Ophelia Ferrule's installment from open scrutiny, which she quite preferred.  She has always been more comfortable in the shadows.)

...yes, Dad, how has Alicia been behaving?

...Dear gods.

...Really, as far as spoiled royal brats go, this one was positively tame - if a bit full of hubris, which has at least ensured her illicit experiments with Light and Chaos have had Light in more than sufficient quantity to keep her safe from Chaotic backlash and the consequent mutations.

"Your Highness?"

A young woman's hesitant voice comes from outside the curtained bed, in the early morning sunshine.

"Mhrmgl?  I mean - yes?  Is it morning, again?  ...I mean.  Of course it is.  You'd hardly be here, otherwise."  She yawns, blearily rubbing her eyes.  "...I have been having the worst nightmare, I'm not going to be quite right at all, today.  And given how vivid it was..."

She sighs.  "But that's hardly your duty."

(Her Highness only wakes up promptly when she's not on her usual schedule.  Much has been tried to fix that; little has proven worth the effort.)

"...Is there something I must attend to?"

"I'm sorry, Your Highness?" she ventures.  "You'll remember your parents did invite you to breakfast together today, if you feel willing to get out of bed now..."

She's not going to phrase it as a "must"; she doesn't want to try forcing Princess Alicia to do anything.  Unless the Queen tells her to, which isn't that unlikely here now that she thinks about it...

"There's not anything you should be apologizing for, I should think."  She pinches the bridge of her nose.  "Laying in never works anyway; I'll get up.  Despite the part of me that wishes I could justify delaying, out of petty spite for people expecting me to function in the morning.

"...That would be inexcusably rude to the chef, though, so...that's just right out.

"...Mother's not done it formal, has she?"

She's already rolling out of bed, with a quiet grumble.

Alicia doesn't want to be rude to the chef?  No, it couldn't be; she's obviously quoting what her mother would say.  And explicitly naming her petty spite here in private is like Alicia.

"Not formal, Your Highness.  But perhaps the red or blue dress?"

She did say she was going to be out of sorts!

"...The blue, I think."

...She has dresses!  ...She has memories of wearing dresses and not spontaneously combusting!

That's...pretty good!

Rill takes the blue dress out of the wardrobe and helps Alicia into it.

(And Rill helps her out of her nightgown if she isn't slipping it off on her own.  But, if Alicia tries to put on the dress on her own, she's going to have some nasty surprises - even the Princess's less-formal dress has some lacing in back which needs to be undone before it's put on, and then redone afterwards with two hands that aren't craning around your shoulders.)

Alicia will notice her nightgown is pure white with a rose embroidered on the bodice, and the blue dress has several flowers embroidered together with lacework around the neck and skirts.

Well, that's what magic is for!  And-or slipping your hands around the back under your shoulders.  That also works.  Sometimes.

Rill's help is appreciated, regardless; she hardly wishes to step on it.  "Thank you," - pause - "Rill."

...Oh, she has a bodice!

A small one, as of yet, but...

The gender!

Rill is surprised at Alicia using magic to help, and several times ends up tugging one way on something Alicia's already tugging the other way with magic.  It doesn't help that Rill is a lot more used to actually lacing up this sort of dress than Alicia is.

She's even more surprised at the thanks.

"- Of course, Your Highness," she says after a moment.

"Oop, ah - oh, there we go - it's all done up alright?  I can hardly see back there...well, if I did an ice mirror, but, no."

...She thought she might hear a response like that.

"...That nightmare - put a lot in perspective.  So.  I'm...trying to be better.  Kinder.  Less...thoughtlessly presumptive.  And more - personally capable."

She doesn't know what to say to that.  "Thank you" would probably be rude; "best wishes" would probably sound too sarcastic...  What would be something the Queen might say?  No, no, that definitely wouldn't be the right answer.  All right, what's something the King might say?  Or one of the stewards?

After a couple dumbfounded moments, Rill says, "I hope your plans work, Your Highness."

A moment later, she picks up the Princess's hairbrush, wondering what will be different next.

...This she would like Rill's help with.  Hair is...annoying.  Though she probably could...  But...no.  She will let the grooming instinct work.

"...I hope they do too; so much will eventually ride on them that I almost flinch from contemplation thereof."

Is the Princess thinking several years ahead to the Royal Academy?  Or hoping to eventually take the throne?  Or become an archmage and render extinct whatever that nightmare was about?  Or has she overheard some plot of Duchess Ophelia's she's trying to twist?

... Whatever.  Rill isn't asking.  At least not yet.

Soon, everything's ready, and Rill opens the door and stands aside to let the Princess go first.  "The Tulip Patio, Your Highness."

And she shall join her family there.

...It's not really the best sign that this feels so familiar from both lives.  She wonders how Lila's holding up...

Good question!

For all the magic of Villarosa, it hasn't invented magical long-range telepathy.  At least not anything that two twelve-year-old girls can do when they haven't met each other yet in these bodies.  So she'll need to wait.

The Tulip Patio does look like a patio fit for a king or princess, between its ornate brass railings and busts of different animals around the edges and an ornate flower garden spilling off from almost every side and ornate wooden table and chairs with twining vines carved in.

The table is set comparatively simply, though - with eggs and several types of fruit and breads, along with juice and tea and water.

Alicia's father and mother are both there (dressed similarly-not-so-formally as her, without any crowns), as well as a couple attendants standing back by the railings.

"Alicia," her mother says with a smile, as well as what might be a trace of pleasant surprise.  "How good to see you.  I trust things are well with you?"

"...To give an honest answer to that question would be complicated beyond belief," she murmurs, with a look of faint concentration upon her face as if she is picking her way through a trapped hall, "but - certainly I am not worse than I was, in any real sense."

The Princess had a nightmare, or so she said, and positively terrified young miss Kergrove with an outbreak of courtesy in its wake.

Were this not the Kingdom's daughter, she would be interrogating her if she had her way.  Something's off.  No mere nightmare would cause this, not the nightmare of a spoiled Princess.

Then again, the Princess clearly isn't hiding whatever it is as well as she could have.  She admitted something changed, if in a rather deniable way, when she said what she said how she said it.

...Perhaps she'll learn more than she thought she would about this.

(None of this line of thought shows on her face, which is perhaps itself evidence that she is thinking something - the other attendant twitched, despite their discretion.)

Something is up that's visibly worrying poor Alicia more than any of her previous schemes or projects.  Jethelia has seen Alicia in the middle of dangerous magic experiments that might corrupt her; she's seen Alicia in the middle of schemes to slander and socially ruin other people (even though other people said it wasn't that bad); she's never seen Alicia looking like this.  Just based on that, she'd think Alicia had been stymied in whatever she'd been up to - which would probably be a good thing; as much as Jethelia hates to admit it, most of what Alicia's up to is bad for both the Kingdom and for herself - but then Alicia's saying it's good!

"I'm glad to hear that," she says aloud.  "And we can definitely make time for some complications this morning?  But here, have some breakfast."  She gestures over the table.

...That is certainly an expression upon her mother's face.

She is going to eat breakfast before she goes poking at that, though.

"Not complications.  Complicated.  There's a difference."

Annnnd how does breakfasting work around here, Princess --

...It's breakfast.  You do it like this.  Duh.

Jethelia isn't going to avoid this opportunity to talk with Alicia.

She takes a few bites of breakfast, wipes her mouth with her napkin even though there isn't any food visible on it, and says, "Things are rarely as complicated as one immediately thinks them.  They're often simpler if you tell someone else."

"Or else you find they're a lot more complicated than you think," King Ambrose remarks.  "Like that project trying to build that new railcar engine."

(He's also concerned about whatever's up with his daughter, but he's happy to keep a level head and let his wife try to get it out of her.  At least until she fails, or emotions threaten to get too heated.)

"Unfortunately, both of you are right about this one," she says - after making sure she's eaten a reasonable enough amount of food that fleeing the table is tactico-strategically viable.  "It's a very simple thing - but with implications...

"Implications that are at least as complicated as the rail, as spooky as Great-Aunt Ophelia when she's angry, and -" she is holding on to her composure by the skin of her teeth - "probably as dangerous as -" pause, consult Demon Lord Pronunciation Guide, "K'xabriguthak cultists."

Oh horrors, did Alicia get involved with demon cultists - "Alicia, demon cultists are evil!  They're happy to destroy everything, even you!"

(Surely Aunt Ophelia wouldn't get involved with them.  Jethelia doesn't care for her, but she knows there're some places even Ophelia wouldn't go.)

"Or if there is something else with implications that dangerous..."

Ambrose lets the sentence hang in the air, guessing that "we should know" wouldn't encourage Alicia to actually tell them.

"Dear gods, mother, do you think I do not know that?"

(She thought Alicia probably did, but whether she'd remember it or be carried away by emotions is another question.  She'd thought it wouldn't come up for another several years at least.)

Ambrose answers first.  "Of course you do.  So what is this complicated issue that I take it isn't literally demon cults and isn't literally Aunt Ophelia or railcar engines either?"

...This does not bode well.  She knows that name.  Everyone knows that name.  K'xabriguthak is supposed to be very dead, after a reign of terror that was put to a very decisive stop by a party of (mostly-Villarosan!) adventurers - most of whom married into nobility, whether here or elsewhere, and one who won the Ruling Seat.

Its cultists have never gotten the memo - but the theory she expects the Queen jumped to is rather contraindicated by Alicia being more kind after the inflection point.

(Morals are the most important things demon cults want to strip you of.  You can't burn unwilling souls for fell power in the name of your demonic overlord of choice while having any significant compassion for your victims, after all.  Not that she'd know.)

"I had...

"Let's call it a nightmare.  It was too real to be a nightmare - but a nightmare it was, is.  And in that nightmare...

"...Well.  There were K'xabriguthak cultists, plotting to - entrap me, and release him.  Several years from now, when I'm Royal Academy age.  They've learned subtlety, apparently.  And things went very wrong, very fast, from the point I encountered them, onwards - until all I could do was give everything I had to actually kill the Demon Lord.  At the cost of my own life, and likely the lives of - too many others.

"And then, I woke up."

...That is...certainly the sort of nightmare that could make one think.  For once in her life.  But - there's much more she hasn't mentioned.  Why have the cultists learned subtlety apparently?  Why is she so confident in this dream as to fear it?  What is going on?

That was the nightmare the Princess had?  Rill stares, despite all the talkings-to she's gotten before about staying in form.

... Yeah, if anything would disrupt her and maybe start changing how she's acting, that probably would.  Maybe it's genuine; maybe she just wants to recruit a better class of minions into her plotting.

Suddenly, Rill gasps.  Maybe the gods sent a prophecy to scare her onto the right track!

Her daughter's had a nightmare.  Of her death.

The question "is this informal enough for it not to be improper" flashes through her mind in a moment before being answered "yes", and Jethelia stands up and steps over and hugs Alicia.

(Is it a prophecy?  How can she encourage Alicia in good resolutions from this?  She'll be talking about all that soon, but not now.)

"Concerning indeed," Ambrose adds, reaching his hand across the table to squeeze Alicia's.

(The other side of his mind is musing:  Demon cults usually don't have much subtlety, but then the ones who don't would be the ones he'd hear about more.  Still, it makes sense they'd move fast... if that wasn't just an artifact of the dream...)

...The hug is not unpleasant, but her father's hand-squeeze worked better at calming her.  It comes from a place of - better understanding.

"There's things we can do about this.  I already changed that future, by telling you it existed.  The vision-me - well, didn't.  Possibly couldn't; I doubt she had this vision herself.  And if my guess is right -

"The Palace should receive a letter, soon, from the girl whose story this actually was.  Because - it wasn't my story, is the thing.  The vision was - about - her.  I was just...Also there.  Importantly entangled in the plot.  And...I think that's why I had this vision at all.  Aside from my fondness for Great-Aunt Ophelia meaning I'd know that it was one."

"Wise of you," he says at the comment about telling them the vision.

He's surprised (and lets himself show it) at the comment about its not being her story.  That, more than anything else, makes him think it's a real prophecy.  If Alicia's making up a story with a positive protagonist, she'd make it herself.  Unless maybe she's getting a huge favor; not that he's seen that before but he wouldn't be surprised...

"Who is this girl?  What did she do in the vision?"

"Lila Roisen, daughter of Ser Kosvin Roisen; she, well, investigated the K'xabrighk -- kfah, I'm just going to omit that one's name for now," she coughs, and continues "-- the demon cultists, working off of Ser Kosvin's recorded suspicions.  ...I think they've already gotten him killed over it."

Let's see...

If she just...this there this there and this there, branch timelines by character like so...

"Not entirely to scale, but -"

- add a touch of Light to the Arcane, and, "...yeah.  He's dead."

Jethelia glances over at her husband - he's taking the dream seriously as a prophecy?  All right then.  If Alicia's getting prophetic visions, it'll be all the more important to keep her on a more moral course.  Fortunately, it sounds like seeing her death has frightened her in the right direction...

"You know of Ser Kosvin?" she asks her husband.

Ambrose frowns pensively and scratches his bearded chin.  "Yes... I remember hearing about his death a few years ago; sad story.  Killed investigating a branch of some puritanical Light-drunk crusading order; his friends finished the job for him.  Didn't remember he had a daughter."

"Did she look - in the dream - like she could be a friend?" Jethelia asks Alicia hopefully.

Friend or inspiration, or hopefully both.

"...I don't think you want me to answer that, mother.  Because if I do, then that opens the possibility that I'm lying, and we'll end up going round in circles playing 'I know you know I know'.  I don't think either of us want to have to deal with that.  So please just keep hoping like you presently are, rather than - inquisiting.  That said...I do think that she'd be worth quite a lot, as an ally.  A prodigious spirit-speaker, not to mention that her father's friends have been tutoring her in various useful skills.  She could well rule her barony in her own right, right now, and not make a hash of it, if it came to that.  Not that that's a good idea."

...How would she know that?  The family-dynamic read is...painfully accurate, but that's not what Ciara finds herself wondering about, no - how does Alicia know that a kid her age could run a barony, when that isn't what she's implying happened in her vision?  There's something strange still missing from the picture, and she's convinced it's to do with the sudden and total flip of the Princess's behavior - the way the Princess deflected, instead of just bristling, is also interestingly novel.

"...Please forgive my impertinence, your Highnesses - if I might ask a question of your vision that is confusing me, or request that we not be exposed to this danger without true necessity -

"How did you see it?  From your own eyes?  From another's?  In stranger ways still?"

That reply - doesn't sound like Alicia.  She half-expected Alicia to protest and refuse to answer, but she didn't expect her to... call out how the conversation might go, like she did?  And maybe (sadly) not totally wrongly?

She's not going to press more; she doesn't want to risk Alicia avoiding Lila out of spite.

"What were you doing in the vision before the cultists arrived?"

... and then she narrows her eyes at Sia.  "Interruptions are impolite and best not done, no matter how curious one might be."

Ambrose raises his eyebrows at the "rule her barony in her own right, right now."  He hadn't thought about how useful prophetic visions could be at identifying useful people, but now that one's delivered to him... he'll definitely take a look at her.

He puts a hand on his wife's arm.  "Sia's questions are good, though.  How did you see it, Alicia?"

"...Define 'before the cultists arrived', please; they are already here.  ...Well.  In Villarosa.  Not the Palace."

...

"Before your vision started focusing on them?"

Were she less in absolute control of herself, her face would twist like she'd bitten into a lemon.  As it is, she is possessed of incredible self-control, so all Queen Jethelia sees is a painfully real earnestness.  "Your Highness, Queen Jethelia - I am not only curious but concerned; if you wish not for your staff's input, we should not be here.  It is dangerous to involve oneself, however peripherally, in plots involving demon cultists; I would take that risk, were it for the kingdom's good, but many would rather not and I cannot blame them.  ...Rill, don't be a romantic."

Oh, the irony.

"...I'd like you to stay, if their Majesties permit it, Ciara.  You seem to have your head screwed on right about this whole thing."

...Wait, what?  What?  "I would be honored to be of assistance" slips out of her mouth nigh-automatically, but her thoughts are racing.  This is not how things work with the Princess.  She doesn't pay attention to the help, let alone invite them into her confidences.  No wonder Rill is feeling like things are off; they are!

Yes, something has definitely changed about Alicia!  She's starting to think of old stories where someone got sent a vision to mend their ways and save them from some disaster - Alicia definitely seems to be taking this that way!

(And if she's important enough, or lucky enough, to get that sort of vision - and if there're going to be demon cultists involved in things - some small part of Rill wants to be in on that.)

Jethelia frowns.  She's also thinking of those same stories, but trying not to think of them too much yet.  She doesn't want to be in one of those stories.

"Was she in your vision, Alicia?"

"...I believe so," and that comes with a suppressed grimace, "but I'm curious why you ask."

Then she'll take that as "Ciara could be important," and not object further.  Even though this should have been properly announced beforehand.

"What else did you do in this vision?  And what did this Lila do in it?"

She eats a bite of fruit, to give herself time to not bite her mother's face off about infosec and the importance of proper planning.

"Mother, haphazardly picking my brain isn't going to help; we need to actually sit down and think about points of leverage.  And we shouldn't do that with anyone we don't trust implicitly present; Ciara is certainly loyal to the kingdom, of that I'm sure, but the circle of trust is already too wide and we're having this conversation in the garden rather than somewhere secure."

...Did the Princess just have so much experience, in her vision of what was to come, that she grew up overnight?  But what taught her thanking the staff?  Visions and prophecies are usually about important things!

Ambrose nods.  "All right... yes, Sameth (he gestures to the third servant), tell Earl Kenver that I'm postponing our meeting till my free slot this afternoon.  Alicia, that'll be at half-past-third; hopefully you can organize your thoughts some by then?"

Jethelia has to stop and bite back her first several responses, remembering that this isn't just her daughter talking about her dream, but it's a prophecy as well.

And then her husband intervenes, taking it totally seriously.

So then she decides the least-bad approach is just to change the subject altogether.  "I hope you slept well despite that, Alicia?  And do tell me what you think about this melon; it's from last year's crop in Southreach..."

"I've slept as well as I ever do, I think.  And, yes, half-past third...that ought to suffice.

"...The melon is very good!  Not so watery it compromises on flavor, but still juicy in the way you want a melon to be."

"Yes, the juice is nicely rich.  I do think the aging barely compromised anything at all."

She's... not happy, but fine... with talking about lighter things, like melons and an upcoming ball, for the rest of the breakfast.

King Ambrose doesn't have much time after the breakfast before his next meeting (with the Provost of the Royal Academy, in fact, to talk about some politically-sensitive students from abroad).  But, he tells his understeward to go pull all the files about Ser Kosvin, and anything about his family too.  Also, find a good treatise on prophecy.

After that meeting, just before the next meeting (with the Speakers of three Shire Assemblies), the understeward brings back the files along with Anthopon's Handling Foretellings.

King Ambrose has just enough time to skim a bit about Ser Kosvin.  Talented in Light magic, he graduated with honors from the Yarmouth Academy, took a knight's commission, and handled these various cultists and criminals and beasts, together with these other people; for which he was invested with a barony.  Married Selma Hatham (no particular notes), daughter Lila (evident magic observed when she was just five years old).  Here're the notes from Kosvin's barony's Assembly; statistically-normal level of complaints for a brand-new Baron.  After a year as Baron, he reaffirmed his knight's vows and did these things... and then he died on mission.  His friend and comrade-in-arms Ser Mattan Hyas is currently serving as regent in Lila's name (Selma having refused.)

King Ambrose nods pensively.  Lila clearly has magical talent, for it to be visible so young.  And he could definitely imagine her feeling a drive to fight demon cultists in the future (or Light-drunk maniacs, for that matter.)  Without Alicia's vision, he'd expect to have heard of her maybe five years from now after she's at the Academy.  But now...

... well, he wants to know who she is, more than just this bland background.

But first, he wants to hear more of the story from his daughter.

Well, first, the meeting with the Assembly Speakers.

...Alicia, meanwhile, has swept Ciara off to be her sounding board as she picks apart the plot of Roses of Villarosa for important events and useful macguffins.

...She is rather bemused by this.

"You think better, as a rule, when you can have a conversation - or think you are.  And I realize you have duties that need attending to, but you should know most of this stuff if we're going to act upon it.  So.  I'm asking you for thinking help."

"Then I have something you ought to think about: While you clearly share intimate knowledge of the royal family's internal dynamics with Her Highness, not even a prophetic vision would enable the sort of personal development Princess Alicia Thorn Vaudelle has exhibited today to occur so instantaneously.  And you should know that I've made arrangements --"

-- Alicia can't quite stifle the giggle that Ciara Beraen's memetic preparedness, and its catchphrase, evokes when placed in such juxtaposition to the rest of everything - and then she cannot stop herself from apologizing, because that's really inappropriate.  "Oh, gods, I'm sorry, I didn't mean that, it's just, I - you always will have - 's why - please don't hurt me I really do want to help - and the demon lord's real, sorry about that -"

...Okay.  So the Princess has been replaced by...someone who believes she has enough responsibility to apologize for a demon lord existing.

Or had some sort of Voidfucked mental break, but that's just...so implausible to consider as a cause of this.  It's not ever this nice.  (Mostly, she suspects, because nobody thinks of it.  She doesn't touch it herself, but there's some theory books in the castle's library, and somebody has to dust them.)

"...I hardly intended to hurt you, unless you posed a threat to the kingdom of Villarosa.  I think that's mostly proven false beyond my ability to reasonably doubt."

"...Well.  ...That's...good?  I don't understand how you came to that conclusion.  Especially because - I just claimed the demon lord was my fault and that's not even a lie.  From some points of view.  I mean I didn't literally put him here.  But I made choices that led to this and I just don't get how you're not --"  She trails off, gesturing frustratedly.

"But I guess I'll believe you."

"And when you had the chance, you immediately proceeded to take action to avert the thing you knew would otherwise happen, trying to maximize your chances of success even at significant perceived personal risk - putting yourself in a quiet room with me, despite the fact that you know I have the capability to hurt you, for example.  That, and you showed consideration for Rill, even when you were barely awake.  No matter how she was rather confused by it, it speaks well of your character."

"And I get credit for trying to solve a problem I am in part responsible for in the first place?"

"Yes."

"But it was my choice to have the demon lords exist in the first place!"

...This is certainly a claim.  "...They happen naturally, for values of naturally that permit the inclusion of heavy chaotic mutation."

"And I designed the metaphysics permitting that!  Because some fucker wanted me to have a romance plotline and I'm no romantic and the heroine of it all wanted to save the world and have a grand adventure and all that and I let her endanger - collaborated with her and also the fucking random omnipotent being -" she spits, like she wants to use much harsher language, "on endangering all of us and you should be upset with me!"

"...No, I don't think I should.  You're doing more than enough for the both of us, and you're fixing it.  You will be fixing it, as soon as you calm yourself enough to lay out what you know.  Now.  Take a deep breath, calm your mind, and let's do what we came here for instead of self-recriminating, how does that sound?"

She's sure the Queen would disapprove of every single word she just said, but frankly, this is her child now, and if the Queen wants her back, she'll have to notice that something's wrong and actually try to fix it instead of papering over the façade of normalcy with appeals to decorum.  She gives the first step a coin-toss's odds, and the latter - less than a hundredths-breadth.

...She's just going to sniffle for a bit.

There is a handkerchief available.  She made arrangements for this, just in case they proved necessary, and she is glad she did - for she'll be using them, to dry Alicia's tears before they can get on her pretty blue dress.

"...Why," sniffle, "are you being so kind to me?  The Princess - she was so -" she sucks in a breath, with effort, her face veiled behind the handkerchief's cloth "- mean - and surely that's - I wasn't here by choice but I'm not here by chance - this was designed and surely I could have --"

"-- no.  Hush.  You are not responsible for the Princess's prior actions.  You did not undertake them, and it seems to me that your ability to even shape them was circumscribed by a power higher than yourself.  You are not to blame for that power's actions."

"B --"

"No.  Not even in whatever situation you're dreaming up."

"...okay."

It takes an effort, both mental and physical, to straighten herself out and get ready for what is to come.  But she can make it.  Will make it.  She's not going to disappoint Ciara, not after this.  Not with all this belief behind her.

"Let's get to plotting, shall we?"

King Ambrose still hasn't had a chance to more than glance at Handling Foretellings by when it's time to meet Alicia.  But he doesn't want to put off this conversation any longer.

He nods to her as she comes in.  "I'm sure you've got a long story.  Where do you think we should start?"

"...Practical matters: There are certain items we both can and should secure for the kingdom's sake, and others that should be destroyed if at all possible.  K'xabriguthak's soul jar comes to mind."

She has some helpful documents prepared to detail these things!

"I've also taken the liberty of assuming that future thaumatology is of interest to the kingdom; unfortunately the details I can recall are more sparse than I'd like, but there were a few items shown in sufficient detail that I believe they're replicable.  A couple novel sigils, as well.

"And then there is the matter of people.  I've written down everyone I could recall as a member of the Academy, everyone I know or suspect was involved with the summoning plot - and whyso - plotted them along the timeline of events.

"Ciara was very helpful preparing this, by the way, despite this not really being in her job description."

...Her presence here is presumably explained by this, though the way Alicia is standing, relative to the woman who is only older than her, might suggest that Alicia is drawing more from Ciara's steady presence than just support in planning.

Queen Jethelia has been pointedly not objecting to anything here - such as Ciara's presence - so she nods.  But she's very relieved to look at the notes on people.

One of the first people she notices is Lady Gwennyth Tyrell, noted as one of Lila's best friends and a major figure in frustrating the summoning.  "Oh my," Jethelia says in surprise.  She's seen Gwennyth, heard her mother despairing of her patience for study, and thought she might possibly make a good second-rate knight or trader.  She'll need to think how best to respond.

And then, there's also Baron Morimer - a demon cultist?  Jethelia gasps; she'd talked with him at the ball just last week!

King Ambrose nods happily at the mention of future thaumatology.  "Thank you; and thank you Ciara as well.  Alicia, I'll send the spells on to the other archmages...  or should we redact them first?  I'm inclined to not spread any news of this prophecy for now; did you leave any mentions of how these spells came to be learned?"

...Why is Queen Jethelia so surprised?

And then her father asks about proper attribution.  "I could write up what I know, but I don't believe I do know very much about who came up with what, nor how, when it wasn't me.  Well, there's a couple sigils Lila invented.  Those came up in some detail, too.  But not enough to properly reverse-engineer their creation without some wild mass guessing."

"Please do.  It might not be enough for an archmage to reverse-engineer them, but then with some luck it might - you weren't an archmage yesterday, after all.  And regardless, we all know the proverb about the distinguished archmage who insists something's impossible."

He looks down at another of Alicia's papers.  "And... the cultists somehow broke through the security on the Royal Archives?  And took out K'xabriguthak's soul jar?  I'm honestly not getting any good ideas where else to put it..."

"In the high-security wing, perhaps.  But, ah...Mostly this one is already solved.  The Alicia in the vision...did some very stupid things, for equally boneheaded reasons, not helped by her - our - now-counterfactual lack of knowledge that the object in question was a soul jar to begin with; it's very well-disguised if you don't know what to look for.  I'm quite sure this, at least, will not be repeated."

"You were taking - things out of the archives without knowing what they were!?  In the vision?  Why!?"

... Yes, unfortunately, he could see Alicia doing something like that if she'd continued down the course she'd been on yesterday.  But he's also wondering why.

(Maybe he'll change the label to a different false label?)

"Because I was a child, mother, and the people who had insinuated themselves as my so-called friends in that timeline were capable of obfuscating their motives.  And I am not a child now.  Not after what I've seen.

"I don't think they knew that what they were looking for had been under their noses all along, until late in their plot.  They just wanted it because they thought it would have a clue.  Not an answer.  And I hope I would not have been stupid enough to give it to them, if I'd suspected they did know what it was and weren't telling me, even - before.  They had been presenting themselves to me as seekers of lore, not an apocalyptic cult."

"And you didn't even ask why they were talking to you and asking for such underhanded things!?"

"..."

"Mother, I filled out the paperwork for it and nobody thought twice.  Nobody thought it was important, except as a metonym of our gallant history that was worth preserving.  It wasn't even in the secure wing."

The Secure Wing of the Royal Archives is, in fact, an entirely separate building.

"And you didn't even wonder why they were asking you!?"

"Hmm, perhaps I should be putting it in the secure wing, then.  Or at least putting more warnings on it."

"Mother...The shouting isn't helping, nor can you change my behavior in the vision by aggravatedly questioning me now.  But as it happens, I did think to wonder why, and --"

She cuts herself off, before she can say the incriminating words - 'It was your advice on social norms that pushed that me into doing it!'

"Investigating the thought process of that Alicia won't help any."

It even sounds like it's a plausibly relevant continuation of the sentence!

...Ciara, despite her practiced deportment, cannot help but find herself exchanging a Meaningful Look with the King.  'Is Her Majesty actually helping?', she doesn't - she pretty much cannot, not openly - ask.

"If I might interject - shall I perhaps fetch some tea?  I find that it is quite useful to keep one focused on the important things," she says, looking directly at Queen-Consort Jethelia.  She is quite living down to that particular appendment at the moment, in Ciara's opinion, though for...

...Reasons.

She doesn't believe that they're particularly good ones, though.

...She would actually like some tea, but she's going to let her mother answer first.

"Unfortunate."

She taps her hand on the table, frowning.  Maybe the prophecy didn't say, in which case the logical conclusion is - indeed - investigating her thought processes won't matter and the point of the prophecy is something else, like everything that Alicia did tell them.  Or maybe it did say, and Alicia just doesn't want to tell them that.

"Yes, please, tea."  It would at least get Ciara out of the room while she thinks of how best to proceed, which wouldn't be a bad thing.

King Ambrose, guessing what she's thinking, interjects, "What did you find in her notes about the people in the dream?"

Queen Jethelia turns to him, her previous surprise rising again.  "Several people I can hardly believe are cultists, and some more who seem surprisingly able - and I haven't read half of it yet!"  She shakes her head, smiling.  "I'm sure I'll have recommendations for the Academy's teachers shortly.  But with some of the younger people - we know what they would be like in several years, but perhaps the best thing now is to simply give them a better environment and education?"

Ciara does not, actually, need to leave the room to prepare tea.  She will, because it is vaguely uncouth for the royals to observe food preparation, or so says Queen-Consort Jethalia (who is losing yet more of her estimation by the minute - really, can she even see the nose in front of her face, Alicia bit back a potential argument, there, you can tell by the way her language got strident -)  so she will be gone for precisely thirty seconds and two spells.

(One is her own deathly-certain anti-poison methodology; the other, much more standard, hastens the progress of the tea-water - poured from a spirit-vessel - to the correct temperature and mixity.)

"Better by what standard, is the question that needs answering.  And, Father, we never did properly address security measures - I believe I'll be able to figure out how to non-catastrophically detonate the damn thing, but til then, keep it in high-security storage."

"Yes - now that I know some cultists know about it, it's definitely worth the call to put it in higher-security.  As soon as I think up a suitable excuse that doesn't just call more suspicion to it..."

"Yes, absolutely, how to tell how it's better.  Like that Miss Kaitlyn - she definitely deserves a better environment, but from what you say, she's far too prickly to just accept it coming from us..."

She pauses for a moment, mentally sorting through some of the names on her mind.  "I do want to meet Lady Lila at some point soon.  I think we could figure out a good excuse for it in commemorating some of her father's noble deeds?  Or maybe something about her barony?"

She turns to her father, as Ciara comes in.  "A re-evaluation of fel artifacts finding something that could blow up, perhaps.  Oh, tea, thank you, Ciara."

Then she turns to her mother.  "...Not a commemoration, not without action - she's suffered enough.  Her father died and people praise her for it.

"As for the Barony, she's still only the heir, not a Baroness in her own right.  But we could probably justify - something for young and new nobles, maybe teaching practical administration..."

Ciara looks like she might actually have some ideas for how to teach that sort of thing, based on her pensive (but almost amused) expression.

"Oh my, that must feel horrible -"  She takes a teacup.  "Thank you, Ciara.  But I don't know what action we can do, except teach her."

"Yes, something about budgeting and overseeing things well.  That'd even tie in with what the Speakers were just complaining about - and you say she'd like that?"

"I think it would be pleasant for her.  And I'll go, too; it's... perhaps not going to be as enjoyable for me," an understatement if there ever was one, especially if it turns out to be shaped the way she's predicting; she remembers the anime's baking competition, and it was an absolute disaster, really - "but if I am to ever live up to my duties, I need to know how to run complex projects.  ...The Speakers were complaining about something, Papa?"

Yesterday, if she would've asked that, it would've been out of simple irritation, and he would've replied dismissively.

Today...  "Complaining about their barons overrunning their budgets, and claiming emergencies.  They think most of them should've been anticipated.

"So I'll make the soul jar more secure, and also," he taps the paper, "I should send someone to retrieve this powerful gem-belt.  Do you think you can describe better where it is, or do you want to be on the mission to get it?"

"...Surely that should be something the Assembly itself can address; its power of summons is precisely for this purpose!  But I do think they're right.

"As for that mission...  I - am very tempted to go, I must admit.  The Tora gems represent an ability to vastly increase our crafting capabilities, if they can be reverse-engineered.

"I'm not sure whether that would be a good idea, though.  Would you go, if it were you, as a prince, who had had this vision?"

"I don't know.  I was a different person than you.  I was happy to leave questing to others - I still am.  But if I got a vision?  Before I left that quest to others, I'd want to figure out why I was the one to get the vision."

"It seems clear why you got that vision, though.  But if you want to go on that quest now, after having seen the vision?  By all means, go!"

If Alicia now wants to go on quests, Jethelia isn't going to protest.  If Alicia wants to go questing so much she becomes a knight-errant, she's not going to protest that either.

"All I can say is that - I really think that the main reason I had this vision was because I could receive this vision.

"...How do you mean, mother?  What do you think is clear about this, other than - averting the obvious catastrophe?  Or was that what you meant?

"I just...

"I'm a somewhat unique source of knowledge, and that's not something you casually risk.  And that's what I'm - having trouble weighing the costs and benefits of."

"...Risking you in well-known, controlled, circumstances, is better than risking you when our enemies catch on without the benefit of prior experience surviving adverse circumstances, Princess Alicia.  Nor will you truly be happy in a gilded cage."  She knows this, with a strange and deathly certainty.  "If I may, your Highnesses - I think she should go."

Well.  Fuck.  Looks like she's going, she can't refute that.

"...That's - an insightful way of putting it.  I'm convinced.

"...I suppose we'd best assemble an adventuring party, then."

"She does speak correctly," Jethelia says reluctantly.

At least she doesn't need to tell Alicia the obvious answer to "why she got the vision" is "to stop her from constantly being mean to people and eventually stupidly freeing a demon lord."

"How soon should we do this?  It does seem important, but then the belt has apparently stayed in place for over a century.  Should we get adventurers from the people we have here, or should we wait for that meeting" (she gestures to Ambrose) "and bring in Lady Lila?"

"...You shouldn't send both of us, if we've both had the vision.  That's risking far too much.  I think I should go, and maybe Diana Pallas-Smith - er, Smith-Pallas - if we're just talking about Lila's people.  Lila's not combat-trained at all yet, I don't think, and she's not - really inclined to study mysterious artifacts; I am.  Diana's more prepared for adventures, casts Light as capably as Lila, and is also a stellar craftswoman."

Ambrose nods.  She's the one who's had the vision involving Lila; if she isn't pressing for including her, that decides it.  "Very well; I'll set up the expedition at once, unless you really think we should wait.  I expect we'll be ready the day after tomorrow.  I don't see any other urgent business, except for dealing with the various demon cultists?"

She nods, and then her thoughts drift onwards. "Proving they're demon cultists seems like it's going to be the hard part.  'I saw it in a dream' is hardly evidentiary."

"Not persuasive, of course.  If we do find this belt where your dream says it is, then we could enter your dream into evidence as a prophecy... but I would prefer not to have to publicize it like that.  So, I expect I'll tell the Watch I've received a confidential tip about them, and remove them from overly sensitive matters when I can.  Hopefully they'll find some more evidence soon."

Jethelia looks up again from the report, making a face.  "Given what Lord Ratrimir apparently does, it shouldn't take long for him."

Oh, yes, him.  He was bad enough in the anime, let alone as a hypothetical real person who existed and did things.  Ugh.  "You're quite right about that, mother.  And, yes, father, I'd rather not be put out as having had a prophecy; I'd much rather be an arcanist than a priest and I'm sure the faithful will demand I become one if they get the news like that."

"Did your dream tell you anything about whether to share it?"

"Not directly."

Then they should decide for themselves, and - even given her sudden change of heart - it wouldn't be good for Alicia to be immediately regarded by everyone as a seer.

"Then I agree; we shouldn't tell anyone.  We should keep it to ourselves, and the Archmages, if possible."

"I wouldn't be so sure of even them; even if they themselves are loyal - too many people knowing, and the secret shall make its way out.  And then we lose surprise.  We shouldn't speak of my having had a vision until we make a move we aren't hiding.  And these low-hanging fruits...We're hiding them."

"Not to mention the possibility of a Peabody.

"...Excuse me.  Not to mention the possibility that their staff is suborned somehow."

"I don't know everything, and we can't be sure."

"So we must be extremely careful."

...Ciara's face, always ever so impassive, slowly starts contorting under the strain of hiding her grimace as Alicia delivers an impromptu lecture on operational security.

She hopes that this is some sort of literary reference - 'a Peabody' sounds like a character more than a person - but she can't rule out the possibility of worse reasons to plan for these things.

She certainly has some.

"Would you mind being slightly more specific about the sort of subornment this 'Peabody' character represents, if they exist?  Just...if your mind jumped to them, I expect you had a reason, and I'd like to know what that reason might be.  Was there any such person in your vision?"

"Wha -- oh, no!  No, no, they're from a book.  They were a clerk of a council of wizards, that used their position to, effectively, dose those wizards with mind-control poison through the ink they wrote with, which he was giving plenty of opportunities to take by increasing the bureaucracy of the organization.  I think you'd have to be really creative and sneaky to pull that off to the sort of depth he managed with the sorts of magic we have, though.  Not just hit on a neat trick.  The sort of mind control stuff that exists here is much more obvious."

"...I mean, I do think it's theoretically possible, but, like, in the same sense that the moon could suddenly jump to the opposite side of the planet.  It'd take me a while to figure it out and I already know it's possible."

"Don't figure it out, please."  She's a bit terrified of the possibility of this sort of thing, if she's honest.

"...Yeah.  Yeah, I don't want to know how to do that.  Brrr.  That's just.  Horrible."

"It would be pretty inefficient, anyway.  I think you'd have to route through, like, three separate principle infusions to get the necessary subtlety - or be so overwhelmingly good at Void-casting that you have the option of just asserting that this guy is your guy now and there is nobody on this planet or in this whole entire galaxy that is that good at Void.  ...Excuse me while I try to not think about pink elephants.  I do not want to eat those words.  But really, no, it can't be reasonably done and if someone is being that un-reasonable about their espionage...

"...Hmm.  On second thought, I am somewhat concerned about subornment of critical assets by thaumaturgical means; you'd only need to master a couple skillsets to get someone to copy their notes for you without their ever knowing they've been affected.  And alchemy.  You'd need to get it into the medium, or possibly the pens - no, if you have the pens - or, no, if they're sneaking enchantments onto the pens then we've already thoroughly lost at counterespionage.  ...We do have countermeasures in place, but we should probably encourage more Light or Spirit casters - anyone who can recognize subtle magics by feel instead of with divinations - and counterconcept research; we have a glut of Order and little else bar the farmers.  Who're terrifying, but also mostly sedentary.  Insular, too, which is a bit of a double-edged sword when you start thinking about cults.  And we should probably think about cults.  They're surely thinking about us, after all."

"...Anyway.  That's getting into our long-term goals.  We can let the long-term planning wait until we have a secure meeting with the people we can trust.  We should.  I don't want to make stupid plans, and the more trustworthy eyes, the less mistakes we'll have in the end.  ...Right now, we're after - things that need doing before we unleash the butterflies and get caught up in absurd I know you know I know nonsense."

Surprisingly, that's a local saying too.

"...We should invite Aunt Ophelia over for tea, or something.  It's not an inherently suspicious action.  And I have things I want to talk to her about.  Probably going to dump my notes on her, actually, she knows how to handle the nominally forbidden magics better than most and, while I don't think I'm ever going to have as much a facility with the Light as I did before this moment - having your entire foundation of the universe upturned does things to one's conviction, after all - I do still want my research to mean something.  And she knows who can actually be trusted with magical secrets."

Not her, not with these.  Not anymore.  And she wants nothing to do with the combination of chaos with purpose, anyway.  She's much more an ordered possibilities kind of gal.

"To be explicit, I mean to disinclude myself from the list of people who should be trusted to work that whole branch of combination magic.  Not that I don't want to keep up with the research, but I know things will go horribly wrong if I try to cast it.  I don't...

"I don't have the necessary center, anymore.

"Aunt Ophelia - if there's one thing I can say with utmost certainty, it's that she absolutely does and will.  I know she works in the shadows, works with the shadows, but...

"That's a kind of misdirection in and of itself, and she has the sort of spine necessary to hold up the world should it be called for.

"If there's anyone I'd trust with this technique, to wield conviction even through utmost chaos...It's her.

"And it will be a wonderful surprise for the enemy when they try to take her out and fail even worse than they originally would have."

Her grin is sharp.

"Yes?"

Jethelia is listening with shock and amazement, trying to figure out what her daughter is thinking about now, and how her dream changed her.

Because it has clearly changed Alicia, far more firmly than Jethelia had thought.

She's not entirely sure the change in Alicia will be better in the end - either for Alicia herself, or for the kingdom; she still seems far too wild and chaotic for comfort despite her hatred for the demon cults.  But maybe it's just that she's not understanding her yet?  Maybe?.  She's definitely thinking more, at least.

"So you have a plan already?" she says aloud.  "Something much larger and firmer than any of your plans before.  I'm glad you're suddenly paying so much more attention to the kingdom, and I'm glad at least you're not wanting to try any of that combination magic yourself.  But... do take time and be careful, still."

Ambrose nods at that last point.  "Yes, do be careful.  I'll trust Ophelia to know what she's doing against demon cults, but whatever you saw in your dreams - I'm not sure yet that you'd know what you're doing well enough.

"I know someone tried a while back - around the time you were born - to try to organize people to recognize and magics by feel and report about them.  I think it didn't work for some reason?  Though I can't remember why.  If you've got a new idea, it might be worth trying again - maybe it'd make a good thesis project for you at the Royal Academy, if nothing else?"

He's been shaking his head in horror at the concept of Peabodies, but he can't really reject it.  It is, after all, possible... 

"...Yes, obviously, we move only in due time.  But we still must move.  Our kingdom needs us.

"...As far as whether I have a plan -

"I have tools, and goals, and uses of the tools I have in mind as methods to accomplish those goals.  That's both like a plan and also completely disjoint from the definition thereof."

And then, the comment from her father, which just...

It's probably not wrong, but neither is it really helpful.

"The problem is the Academy's culture in and of itself, and the influence of the Phoenix Kingdom on how most people think about Light-wielders outside the control of the Unifying Church.  Most Light-wielders don't burn the heretic!  Even our own Sunset Order has problems with that reputation.  So we don't have a real native tradition of Light-wielders, there will never be enough spiritual casters, and the nature-casters are insular so it's not like they'll come to us.

"Meanwhile, the Academy is all about arcane might.

"The thing is, culture can be shaped."

"That's good.  Do talk with people about it before you try to use those... strings.  Levers."

She likes those words better than "tools"; they're more appealing images.

(Well, the first part of it is good.  She frowns at Alicia's rant about the Academy, though she's not going to say it's wrong.)

"...People aren't tools."

She sniffs disapprovingly.  "I would not want anyone to describe people that way.  Especially not the people in her own kingdom."

Alicia just...shakes her head for a moment, honestly somewhat confused at where this discussion has gotten to.

"I'm glad we agree about that.  Are we also agreed that we should get Aunt Ophelia involved before we continue plotting, then?"

"Yes, but I don't want to wait to start putting some spies on the cultists."

He pauses and frowns.  The "Peabody" idea has been nagging at him, and that exchange about people as tools (which he'd never have heard from Alicia yesterday) just accentuated it.

"And is there... something that brought that 'peabody' idea to mind?  Did you see it in your dream?"

She shudders.  "No, not except for a thirdhand account, and I'm rather glad I didn't."

"Good.  I was afraid someone was planning something like that, even if it's too Orderly for demon cultists."

Queen Jethelia shivers.

"...If there's one thing I am very glad of, it is that the magic of our world doesn't really do subtle.

"...Most of the time, at least; a sufficiently competent shapeshifting infiltrator could exist.  Ugh, now I have to worry about that.  Probably you want existential countermeasures...  Checking that the right soul is in the right body, and stuff like that.  Also secure passphrases.  If we don't already have those, but knowing Aunt Ophelia, we absolutely do.  But even so, that's...

"It's nothing, compared to - as another completely fictional example - 

"Nice Guy, an unrepentant serial killer who just was, axiomatically, perceived as someone who was Supposed To Be There, or -

"- mm.  I'm not going to even talk about that one."  'Mama' Mathers, a viral cognitohazard, able to perceive and manipulate any sense that had ever perceived her.

"And boy am I glad that I've never seen the Berryman-Langford Death Parrot, even as rendered by people that could never have achieved such a feat of self-destructive creation."  She shudders, delicately.  "I don't like the idea of Things That Make Your Brain Explode By Looking At Them.

"It's just.

"There are things that are dangerous to think about too loudly," - Note to self: There is no Antimemetics Division - "and...  I think I've had rather too many of them dumped into my head, as part of the consequences of having had this vision in the way that I have had it.  There's too many... tangentially related things that were nonetheless connected enough to what I saw that I thereby came to know of them.  I know how to keep myself safe enough to not immediately explode," mostly through high-stakes Extreme Dissociation™, if she's being honest with herself, "but...I'm going to need to spend time working with Aunt Ophelia to get myself in order, I think.  She knows the right skills to handle this sort of problem."

"If you ever need to talk about any of this - not just for the kingdom, but for yourself - just let me know.

"But if not... I do have another meeting, and now I suddenly have some more meetings too."

"...Thank you. I - I'll do that, Father.  ...I hope your meetings go as well as they possibly can.  I'll be in my chambers, if I'm needed; I think I need some time to myself after everything that's happened today, but - you would know whether the needs of the kkngdom overrule mine."

...She needs to go have a good cry and work up some spell formulae.  In no particular order.

...Ciara will see her charge safely returned to her rooms, by their Majesties' leave.

Meanwhile, in a solemn and foreboding keep that serves as a locus of secure intelligence services for the Kingdom of Villarosa...

...The Potentiometer, one of Azerosa's greatest advantages in the field of intelligence and stratrgic planning, is finally starting to settle down from its state of flux, and - hm.  Agent Steel and the Duchess's official presence?  This is quite an event.

She shall have to make herself ready, then, and delegate activating contingencies for BROKEN RELIQUARY in her absence.  The balance of futures showing a consequential raid on the Royal Archives has risen to unconscionable levels in the wake of whatever just happened, and she needs to know more about it.  ...At least the pesky 3% chance of world annihilation they couldn't properly track seems to be decreased.  Small mercies.

...Even the best operations can be blindsided by false assumptions, and she's quite concerned that she missed something in her threat model.  So when the King calls for his contact with the Villarosan Intelligence Service...

...It is their Director themself who comes to meet him, disguised as they often are in a servant's garb and a face not their own.

"...Your Majesty."

The Director's sheer presence is frankly inimitable, when it is revealed, but there are signs and countersigns exchanged nonetheless before the Director speaks of anything but trivialities.  Vigilance is key.

"Something happened.  I presume by the existence of this meeting that you know what, or have at least pieces of the puzzle that we have not gathered.  VIS would appreciate the information you have; Stratplan works much better when we know things than it does when we don't, and there's inexplicable positive events in our crystal ball.  We are confused.  I do believe I saw one of my analysts literally tearing his hair out."  (...Ophelia takes humor where she can find it.  Living under a constant threat of apocalypse does that to people.)

King Ambrose has had a long day, and it's not over yet.  And he'll have another long day tomorrow, with all the meetings he's had to bump from today... even if he doesn't need to bump anything again, which he's sure he will.

But that's what it takes to rule a kingdom.

"Director," he says with a smile.  (After all, she's in disguise, even if they are in private.)  "My daughter - Alicia - had a prophetic dream.  Fortunately, seeing the future - among other things, a future in which she had descended to helping a demon cult - seems to have greatly improved her character.  If not, I would've feared for the future."  He shakes his head, with a smile.  "But, she's eagerly helping us make the best use of the future knowledge.

"The urgent thing, of course, is that future knowledge itself.  I've already started planning some things, but I can of course use your help."

"Of course."

(Even though Ambrose knows better, helped set up this role - Ophelia Ferrule has appeared side-by-side with the Director before, so really, who's to say who's beneath the mask?)

"To start with, we know the names of some demon cultists," he taps a paper, "including Baron Morimer and Lord Ratrimir.  In about four years, they'll be plotting to release K'xabriguthak; we don't know if they're doing that yet.  I've already alerted some servants to keep an eye on Ratrimir, and gotten some mages ready, though of course I haven't told them for what."

"...Your Majesty, why -"

She exhales, forcefully.

"I should hope that you recall the importance of counter-intelligence when dealing with subverted assets.  It is imperative that the cultists not know we know of their existence until we are ready to strike.  Although, given Ratrimir's involvement...

"We do have plans in place to take him off the board, if we can but find someone who'll testify against him.  That his backers are a demon cult...

"I believe we can use this information.  The going theory was that he had some sort of blackmail on those who are supposed to check him.  Demon cultists are...Simpler to resolve, than blackmail that we can't find.  So if we launch something like QUEENSIDE CASTLE on Ratrimir, we could actually lay a trap for the cult, and infiltrate some of our own agents in the wake of their cleanup attempt."

(QUEENSIDE CASTLE, for the record, is an op plan that revolves around calling an important figure to the literal castle, ideally under some less-spooky pretense, and arresting them for crimes they've definitely committed, while agents of the Crown raid their abode for evidence of ones they need further proof of.)

"Of course.  But Ratrimir must realize there're enough reasons to be checking up on him already - as we discussed when you were laying your plans.

"And yes, I'm much less concerned about Queenside Castle now that I know he's a demon cultist rather than a blackmailer... but what crimes do you want to arrest him on?  I don't yet have any evidence of his cultism outside Alicia's dream, and I'd like to keep that secret as long as possible."

"Perhaps there are, but he is arrogant.  He will not notice the trap, if it is baited correctly; he's too confident in his image to believe it pierced, even if he's clever enough to take some precautions.  If the King calls for his presence, with a flattering word or two, he will come.  His ego demands nothing less of him.  And then, we can nail him for tax fraud."

She has a whole folder of things like that.  A million little lies that Ratrimir probably wouldn't notice himself making anymore, all painting a grand picture in the negative space they define.

"My compliments, by the way, to the auditors and the census bureau.  It was a pleasure to work with them."

He grins.  "Absolutely.  And then, I take it, I will have already sent people to his manor so no one can hide evidence of the tax fraud, and they will just happen to stumble across evidence of the demon cult..."

It's so good when he can work with competent people.

"I can get that in place... for a summons tomorrow, and then an arrest the next day.  It would be nice if they also find evidence about the other cultists whose names we now have, but I don't know if they're all linked already."

"Destruction of records is quite a problem, but we do specialize in finding and defusing traps.  As long as there's no angry demon cultist throwing felfire at us...And even if there is, really, I'd give us good odds if forearmed.  Speaking of which, if we're ramping up over this, we should probably discuss some budget items..."

There's always, always budget items and paperwork, when you run an organization this large.  Even if it's mostly decentralized in the field, there's training and equipment expenses that come back home to roost because you can't just trust any random mage with your encryption, and then there's your spec ops equipment costs...

Suffice to say, the meeting will last a little while longer, even if it's mostly administrative minutiae by now.

The next morning, Rill is really hoping Princess Alicia's new reformed self will last.  It's been a wild day, but not unpleasant at all - and for the first time in a while, she's actually starting to be happy to work for Princess Alicia.

She clears her throat nervously as she enters Alicia's room, and calls out - just like yesterday - "Your Highness?"

"...Mghrmgl?  Five more minutes," comes the Princess's plaintive voice from where she is mashing her head into a pillow like it contains the secrets of the universe, or at least of the cure to her bleary mental state.

...And with realizing that she, once again, has to get up, comes another realization: She's probably not having some sort of intense coma dream.  Fuck.

"...Ugh, nevermind about the five more minutes, I just gave myself too much existential angst to go back to sleep.  Good morning, - Rill, yes?  I believe we have a visit from my great-aunt on the docket today, and then no immediate plans that should involve me - and given that I've much to do before I can consider myself properly equipped for adventure, nor should they."

Rill has heard the words "existential angst" before, but she's never thought of using them around getting up in the morning.  She blinks.

"Er... yes, I heard that Dutchess Ophelia's coming.  And..."  She fails to squelch her curiosity.  "... are you hoping to go adventuring when you're ready?  Soon?"

She's grinning nervously, simultaneously hoping and afraid to be invited along.

"More like dreading the necessity of having to set foot outside a carefully controlled workshop, but it's not like I didn't dream of dressing up in armor and vanquishing something-or-other when I was a little kid, either, so it's mostly just grumbling for dramatic effect.  I am looking forward to it, I think.  Just also dreading it at the same time.  ...I don't expect much soon, besides maybe a small excursion somewhere safe-ish to dip my toes in, as it were."

... yeah, she's not surprised that Princess Alicia was dreaming of that as a little girl.  And that in her present reformed mood (may it stay!), she'd gloss over the "something-or-other" she dreamed of vanquishing.

"A small safe expedition?  That sounds exciting, Your Highness!  Maybe to find one of those things you saw in your dream?  Something hopefully the cultists aren't already looking for?"

"That's the general idea, yes.  I hope you'll forgive my not saying what right now."

...Truthfully, she just literally didn't have much to put on for vanquishing except, like, nebulous 'bad people'.  ...Well.  She didn't.  ...Princess Alicia didn't really have anything either.

"Of course - I'm sure you're still trying to figure out what to do after having had that dream."

She suddenly remembers what she was thinking after hearing Princess Alicia's resolution yesterday.

"... Your plans have certainly seemed to work well so far."

"...I'm glad to hear you have confidence in them."  Because, she doesn't say, she certainly doesn't.  "Most of my thoughts are that it's just too soon to tell."

"Well, Your Highness, you're definitely doing better than you were."

She looks over at the wardrobe.  "Another informal dress today, Your Highness?  Perhaps the red or the pink?"

"...I mean, it's Great-Aunt Ophelia.  I'm pretty sure that she doesn't know the meaning of the word, so I don't want to underdress, you know?  But not too fancy, this isn't a state occasion or anything."

"Then maybe the pink with an added lace blouse and petticoat..."

If Alicia doesn't object, she'll take it out of the wardrobe and help her out of her laced nightgown and into the dress.

She gives the pink dress a Look.  Holds it over her hand, scrutinizing intently.  Scowls at it, as if she has been personally offended by something it did.  "I don't know why no-one's told me that this pink is not my color.  I'm not certain this particular specimen is literally anyone's color.  It makes me look positively sickly.  We are not doing that dress today, and I'm not sure I'll ever want to wear it.  Still...Let me take a look at what else we have.  Maybe something will come to me."  And maybe she'll magic up a dress out of shadowstuff.  Great-Aunt Ophelia does that sort of thing often enough, from what she's seen.

...Really, knowing her Great-Aunt Ophelia, she's pretty sure Rill is barking up the wrong tree anyway.  Certainly the Duchess of Thorn dresses elaborately, so the blouse seems a reasonable idea - but Ophelia Ferrule, the Iron Lady - she stands beyond the fear that petticoats embody, because she will just make anyone who approaches her wrongly regret their mistakes.  Alicia envies her, really, and the Princess took all the wrong lessons from knowing her, but nonetheless learned some of the right cues.

She wants to impress her Great-Aunt, and dressing stuffily is not the way to do that.

...

She pulls a black dress out of the closet, contemplatively.  She's not truly mourning, but there is something she's lost.

...Beyond her old world, that is.

She's lost this child's innocence.  And...she kind of wants to grieve that.  It was a fragile, ephemeral thing, but it was there.  She doesn't know how she expected to reclaim it in this life, really - she knew that she wouldn't stop knowing everything she knew of man's inhumanity to man.

...So many people are going to get hurt because of her and her stupid decisions.  She hates it.  She's sure Ciara will catch her moping later, but right now, she can't stop feeling these feelings.

She lays out the black dress, as a base, and from there, accessorizes.

...She really needs to get in some proper lab time sometime soon, she has too many ideas.  ...Well, that's part of why she asked for Great-Aunt Ophelia to be here.  Perhaps she'll help.

Rill is mildly surprised; Alicia didn't like to wear black much before.

"Perhaps with the purple belt... and this..."  She helps accessorize.

"Mmhmm."

"...There is a sense in which I am in mourning, if I'm going to be honest with you.  A lot of...bad things, happened, in the future that never will be - but just because they won't happen now, doesn't mean that they didn't...

"Suck to experience, if I've no adequate recourse but somewhat crass language.

"And it's thus that the black seems...

"Appropriate."

"Oh."

Rill straightens up, and her eyes go wide for a moment.

"For... anyone in particular?"

"...No, not...

"There were very few people who died.  Most of them even emphatically deserved it.

"But...

"The tragedy of war is that after it's over, life goes on, but you never do.  A part of me died, in the moment of that vision, and I grieve its loss, beyond those souls I failed in my duty to.  Them, I can help now.  But I'll never not be the young woman who's seen too much and can never forget it.  Not after..."

She waves a hand, inchoately.

"All of this.

"...Be careful when you wish to live in interesting times, Rill.  You just might get it.  And you'll never know the cost you paid, til the dust settles and you don't."

A small part of Rill is disappointed at that last bit.

A lot more is relieved - she doesn't want to go digging into secret magics!  Does she? - and confused.

Eventually she settles on (while helping Alicia on with the black dress), "I'm sure you saw that for a good reason... and I hope you can live with it eventually."

...The way that that is so, incredibly, wrong, completely disjoint from her struggles, and yet still fitting to her cover story, turns the expression on her face as she works her way into today's clothes with what is perhaps a bit more force than necessary...

Rather bitter, for a moment too long.

She doesn't really know what to say in response, but eventually she finds something.

"...You're quite the optimist, to believe that the only terrible things I saw were my terrible problems to solve.  That some of the things I came to know of through having this vision hadn't already long since been in the past, for that matter.  But - perhaps.  Perhaps, someday.  Even so.  Perhaps that is enough talk of this."

A black dress, to match her bleak mood.  It's fitting.

She needs to talk to someone who isn't so naïve.  Where's her great-aunt?  Or Ciara?  Someone who might be able to understand.  Because right now, if she has to listen to more cheery platitudes, she will spontaneously reinvent Death Grip to get them to stop, just see if she doesn't.  ...That or she needs to go blow something up in her lab, but that would be...  Impolite, at best, after asking for her great-aunt's presence specifically.  Still, it sounds ever so tantalizing.

And yet beyond her petty wants she has a duty.

She sweeps towards the smaller receiving room, to greet her great-aunt, and break her fast.

Rill shivers.  She'd heard, of course, when Princess Alicia had been talking about finding cultists who were already cultists... but she didn't want to really think about evil things like that were already secretly going on around her.

Somehow, part of her would feel more comfortable with the petty disaster of the old Alicia back.

But - still - this one is so much better.  Maybe she'll get used to her soon.

Oh, Rill.  You poor thing.  You don't know the half of it.  ...You'll learn yet more unsettling truths, soon enough, and may the gods preserve you then.  She's not sure she can.  Alicia practically hands unsettling lore out like sweets, once you're in her circle, and she's hopelessly contaminated therewith, because it's this Alicia that already feels like she should be the 'normal' one.