"The town's called Willowvale--we're on the Milardes river, in Callae."

"Ah. Okay." She clearly has absolutely no idea where Willowvale is. Milardes is a long river, being on it doesn't really clear up how far away her country is. "Are we closest to - um, Graypoint, Aramoor, or Yellowpool?"

"Greypoint. That's where we're headed, to sell the horse and wagon and get on a boat."

"Good plan," she says, approvingly. "All right. I've actually been there before. ... I shouldn't be recognized by anyone, I didn't really get out much while there."

"Stand between Mom and Larassa just in case," he suggests, "for extra camoflage."

She nods, seriously.

"Do I have any really egregious 'I'm a princess' tells I can work on before we get there, too?"

"Not egregious, no.

You're--more sensible than I would have expected a princess to be," he adds approvingly

"Thank you! I try my best. It'd be very annoying if I spent my time... hmm, what might a less sensible princess do. Ah, yes, insist to ride in the wagon! Nevermind that your poor horse is going to be put through enough on my account, and that I have a perfectly functioning pair of legs. I'd be insufferable, and as such I wouldn't be able to tolerate myself."

He laughs.

"You do, mm, move a little more formally. But it's not too terribly noticeable. And I'm certainly no judge, the only nobility I'd met before you was him," he makes a little shooing gesture, "and I'll go ahead and assume he wasn't typical."

She snorts.

"No, he was just a prick. I mean, there are definitely a number of very entitled people that are rather useless, but mostly they get caught up in, hm. A bubble world? Where they're worried about a different set of things than everyone else because those are the only problems they've encountered. All of the others have been kept far away from them. But underneath the pomp and silk they're still just people."

"Yes. I can't help but wonder what he could have been thinking."

"... Having met the man, I think he thought his problem was that he'd never gotten the chance to speak to me alone and show me how great he was. Except that was not his problem, his problem was that I didn't like him and didn't like being around him. So he thought he was solving a problem, and wasn't."

"That seems...like an unusually bad failure to think things through."

"Yes. I get the impression that he was also terribly lonely. That doesn't excuse anything, but. I do think he needed some kind of help. But of course, when you're a lord and surrounded by people that are loyal to your coin, who do you look to for warning that you're not thinking things through?"

"When they came around hiring extra guards they wanted strong arms and no questions," he sighs. "It's for the best that he advertised for things I'm good at, but still."

"Yes. I'm not saying he didn't deserve to be run through, just." Shrug. "I try to stay empathetic. It's, ah, sort of my job."

"Yes. I do feel a little sorry for him," he sighs.

"Yes. Now that he's far away and can't touch me again, anyway."

"Of course." A little wryly: "Maybe that's why they say not to speak ill of the dead. Because they can't hurt anyone anymore, so there's no point."

"Ha. Yes, I suppose so."

"Except when they can," he sighs, "but there's still no point trying to disincentivize them."

Snort. "Not as if they have anything left to lose, is it?"

"Rather. And no ability left to reduce the harm they've done."

"No." Sigh. "That's left up to the rest of us."

"Yeah."