"Of course.  I sha'n't keep you, then.  Though, before you go, I'm sure the staff would like to know if you enjoyed your meal?"

That's the kind of question a Sith only asks if it's been poisoned, and Deskyl narrows her eyes at Her Grace momentarily in response. She's fairly sure even on closer examination that it wasn't, though, and also that her anti-poison effect is still working in the new physics.

    "She says it was tasty, yes ma'am, and she appreciates the work your kitchen staff put into it."

Oh dear.  There was a part of her that hadn't quite believed what Alicia mentioned about how horrible Sith culture was.  ...She will experience emotions about that later.

"I'll pass along your thoughts.  Thank you for, mm, humoring me on that.  I do not usually keep so firm a hand on my staff that I could otherwise entirely rule out someone with more nerve than sense interrupting your rest with their curiosity - but given the circumstances, I rather think I shall this time."

"...As much as there are intrigues here, as there may be anywhere, Villarosa is a surprisingly peaceful place."

    "That would be wise, yes ma'am."

   "Master Deskyl says that she appreciates your hospitality and will try not to frighten any of your staff unnecessarily even if their curiosity gets the better of them."

There is an emotional note of - a fierce, protective command - as the woman who is in this moment undoubtedly Her Grace Ophelia Ferrule-Vaudelle, Duchess of Thorn, responds. "The assurance is appreciated, but they should know better.  I would not disturb you so, and an action of my hands is as much mine as theirs.  I will remind them.  Your rest shall not be disturbed."

Deskyl tenses at Ophelia's emotional response, preparing for a fight or worse, but she deflates and rubs between her eyes when DZ translates her words. I don't have the reserves for this right now, just get us back, please.

    "May I get master Deskyl back to the workroom now, ma'am, and I can come back and answer any questions you might have about Sith culture?"

"...That seems like it might be wise.   Please, do."

She'll do that, then, and take a few minutes to get Deskyl settled before she returns. It should be safe for her to be gone for a few hours, most likely until the duchess and her great-niece themselves want to go to bed.

"...Are there any other - no.  No, best be pessimistic.  Is there any topic of discussion that is not implicitly a threat, when a ...prototypical... Sith, and worse, a Sith in some position of power, raises it?

"Given how badly that went, I'm not sure the weather is safe."

"...That last was intended to be an instance of humorous rhetorical hyperbole, but now that I've said it aloud, I find that I am no longer sure I was actually speaking in jest."

"You could encounter a problem commenting on sunsets in particular, actually, but I'd expect most weather-related conversations to be fine. The main problem you're seeing is that master Deskyl isn't sure which of you would win in a fight, and when that happens between Sith they generally try to resolve the question as quickly as they can, so her instinct is to be on watch for signs of you instigating that. It's also not done, in the Empire, to treat a Sith as needing protection, except in the case of an explicit master/apprentice relationship, so that was surprising to her."

"I see.  ...I do not think I like this 'Empire' you are from."

"...I'm going to ask an impertinent question, so - don't answer, if it's something we don't need to know - but - were you fleeing Deskyl's..."

"...I feel like if I said the word 'master' here, that I might be giving whoever it was far too much credit."

"We were, yes ma'am. Unfortunately I don't have a detailed explanation of the situation but I don't think master Deskyl will mind me telling you what we do know, if you'd like. The man's name is Lord Pritruth."

"...He's no lord of mine," she mutters perhaps a bit louder than she should have.  "...Sorry, don't mind me, just - snap response.  He's no worthy lord by Villarosan standards, to treat his subjects so."  To say nothing of her standards, which...well, she was raised in a democracy.  While she is in some sense complicit in this feudal system, she at least tried to temper it.

"...Am I meant to understand that he is in some sense responsible for the - damage?"

"...I would also like to know about what could have caused such a catastrophic spiritual injury."

"That's precisely what we don't know, unfortunately, ma'am; master Deskyl's memory was also affected by whatever it was and we had no other way of finding out. Lord Pritruth was responsible - until about a year ago they'd had as good a relationship as any Sith and their apprentice, and then he had her taken away for whatever it was; we can infer that he expected it to kill her from the fact that I wasn't assigned as her caretaker until she'd been back for two days and from the general principle that it's incredibly unwise to try to keep even a badly injured Sith captive. He's repeated the injury every few months since then while master Deskyl has been pretending to be more injured than she is and waiting for an opening to kill him - the teleportation that brought us here was in response to him and a pair of underlings attempting to take her away again."

"...If I've any say in the matter, he will not have another chance."

"...It almost - I am reminded of backlash.  Alicia, do you think -?"

"...I can't necessarily figure how, but I wouldn't be surprised if that was the what."

"The effects of misuse of the Force don't look anything like this and I'm not aware of anything else that would be reasonable to describe as backlash in terms of Force use."

"...What do the consequences of being forced too deep into the Force look like, then?  Using it 'appropriately', but using more than you safely can?"

"That's not possible, under normal circumstances; a Sith is simply limited by the amount of power they can handle. I don't know what it would look like if someone did find a way."

"...Well.  The circumstances hardly seem normal.

"...Still.  If it's not backlash, and it's not overchanneling strain, then -

"Hm.

"Alicia, do you think it's your sort of complex problem, with other options eliminated?"

"...I mean, if you're seriously eliminating the other options, wouldn't it have to be?  That's how eliminating the impossible works.

"But I'm still not sure what they could have been doing.  And what that would have been to be causing those sorts of special circumstances, particularly.

"It's a mystery," she says, with rather some disgruntlement.  "And probably not so easily solved as waving our hands in that general direction, because it's not like any of that wouldn't have first hit Pritruth.

"...Although, if we're trying to narrow down the conditions -

"...DZ, do you know if whatever this was happened - somewhere off-site?  Or in conjunction with anything Pritruth was involved with, perhaps?"

"We're confident that it was happening off-site, yes ma'am." Either that or Lord Pritruth was taking pains to give DZ the impression that it was, and there would be no reason for him to bother when he could just order her to keep the secret. "He wasn't himself involved in the process; she was gone for two or three days each time and he was at the compound as usual during those times."