"What sort of things would you like to know?", says the Duchess herself, pulling out a chair at the table.

Deskyl doesn't miss a beat; she hadn't identified the Duchess as such from across the room but she had noticed her coming.

    "She says she might be interested in contributing to your defenses when she's more recovered - or sooner, if there's an urgent need - and she'd like to know more about who she'd be working for in that case."

"Well.  As I said, what would you like to know?  And, in that vein, what should I know about you?  Though there are no pressing threats, of that I would assure you."

    "Tactically, Sith are generally considered to be individually a match for a moderately sized unpowered army, though she expects the local magic situation to affect that and she's not sure in which direction yet. In melee range she uses a high-tech sword-analogue called a lightsaber that can cut through nearly anything including most weapons and armor; at range she's used to being able to produce directed lightning bolts, though it's personally costly at home and she's not sure whether that will be an issue here too. For defense she has a number of tricks, including a precognition-based danger sense and the ability to telekinetically block physical projectiles, and she's a sensory specialist, so she's difficult to surprise and has a strong advantage at stealth. In terms of why she's offering - Sith are lucky, so she's inclined to assume that she's appeared somewhere she'd approve of being, and your grand-niece's hospitality hasn't hurt that impression. And, she says, she's bored, to be honest, she hasn't had a good fight in nearly a year."

"My, that was well done."

"...Lightsabers, for further context, cut through all but a very specific few materials where they're from, and generally deflect energy projectiles, which...Hmm, should probably hold, albeit I expect more destructive/subsumptive interactions than deflections, and there's enough magic-backed physical projectiles around that that could be troublesome.  ...They're like... making a blade out of fire and lightning, and then turning the intensity up to 'sun' levels."

...Deskyl can probably tell that Alicia thinks lightsabers are the coolest thing since sliced bread.

    "She says that if you think you can come up with a way to handle one safely she has no objection to making a lightsaber for you. They generally require telekinesis and the danger sense to handle but very good telekinesis might be sufficient."

...!!!!!!!?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"I - wouldn't we need kyber or do you have a substitution in mind - I have ideas - I might need those notes back, Aunt Ophelia, because I can make them work for this - It would be an honor -"

She's just going to run off and squee for a second.

"And to think all it took to get her to commit to undertaking regular exercise without grudging the time was the prospect of a sufficiently shiny sword.  I'm sure my people will be able to work something out, if you do not wish to be responsible for her training."

"While she's processing that, and probably coming up with three dozen different ways to make it happen, I do believe you're due an explanation of my own capabilities?"

"I am known for my practice of Void magic - the art of reifying the irreal, of taking the shadow of the sword that flickers on the walls of Plato's cave^[1] and stabbing someone with it.  I am also known to practice arcane magic, though it is less favored of my disciplines.  I would not wish to face an army in pitched battle, but I can certainly stop one."

_{([1]: This is translated into the equivalent Earthly philosopher, for reader convenience.)}

"I'm sorry but I don't understand that reference well enough to translate it, ma'am."

"My apologies.  It is...

"An ancient philosopher's thought experiment, that - disregarding the logistics of keeping people alive if they're chained to rocks or equivalent, that people who only saw the shadows cast by a fire behind them, in a cave, would think the shadows real.

"...I'll admit, I was being perhaps more dramatic than strictly necessary."

    "It's all right, ma'am." She translates it as well as she can to Deskyl, who tenses up a bit.

    "The least pleasant of her master's other apprentices specialized in hallucinations, so she suspects she's familiar with some of what you can do."

"Some, yes.  Though if you stab someone with a...mm, default, sort of λ-sword, they still bleed, because it is in the nature of a λ-sword to cut.  Alicia describes primordial Void as... unfettered possibility, and the Principle of Explosion - and she is not wrong."

That's not less terrifying than Mind Trick based hallucinations, though those were never really the bulk of her issue with Grauzatis. She'll have to get herself sorted out about it later. And in the meantime...

    "She says it might be interesting to see how your magic interacts with her sensory powers, when she's a little more recovered."

"I look forward to it."

Alicia, meanwhile, has spent the past few minutes hyperventilating in excitement, and letting her various Ideas^TM tumble together in her brain.

The sight of Great-Aunt Ophelia smiling at a Sith with what almost seems a distinctly conspiratorial air, when she opens the door she left through, is almost enough to send her back inside for another minute - but it's surely better she knows what's being plotted around her!

"Sorry about that, I, um, needed a minute!  Um... ...Did I miss something...?"

"Oh, nothing important.  Just an agreement to test some things."

"Though," she turns to Deskyl, "in truth, you already have tested some of the interactions of your powers with my magic - the wards here are my own work."

    "They're reasonably obvious to her Force senses, yes ma'am, and she can't see through them." Yet, most likely, but she doesn't trust her luck enough to share everything she can do. "She expects that whether you'd be able to mimic a specific thing with the technique well enough to fool her would be a matter of finesse on your part." And not an easy task, especially given that Ophelia doesn't know what all of Deskyl's senses are.

Nor does she care to correct the slight misapprehension of how the Void behaves when observed, in that same vein of not revealing her fullest capabilities - though should it come to a spar, she will be more open about it.  Best not to risk ...setbacks, if the Sith's senses expect to see something dangerous - because, well.  Then they will.  "I look forward to testing my skills against yours...

"...hmm.  My goodness.  Have I truly been so remiss as to not ask if there is an appropriate honorific for yourself until it came time to use one?  My apologies.  I am sure that there are matters of translation to be had, but in Villarosan society, you would surely be entitled to receive a knight's respect, given your skills - albeit one so titled by an unknown foreign government.  You could also present yourself as an independent adventurer, if you so wished."

Go ahead.

    "Master Deskyl's untranslated title is Xaari; the closest translation would be 'apprentice', with the understanding that even apprentice Sith are considered to outrank any non-Sith."

    "By skill she could have a lordship by now, she says, if she'd wanted one, but she preferred to avoid the attention it would've drawn."

"I can understand not wishing to draw attention."

Deskyl nods at the translation.

    "She's curious as well, but says that it won't be a reasonable test until she's more recovered; we're expecting that to take at least a month or two. Did you have any questions about us in the meantime, or are there any aspects of the local magic you'd suggest she explore?"