Gwennyth shakes her head.  Suddenly, she feels unnaturally light.  Lighter than she's been in years.  It's like she's shaking free from all the spells and strictures that've been hemming her in.

Her hair's still silver, but it's longer than she's been able to wear it in years, back in the same hime cut as the last time she was young.

And now she's back in the same magical courtyard where she walked into --

She thrusts out her finger at the angel that stood by smiling while she walked into disaster.  "Curse of Regret and Chains -"

Not only does nothing happen, Gwennyth doesn't even feel any magic passing through her.

She was free to cast it -

- but the magic didn't come -

- oh.

^{"I only had that magic inside Villarosa, didn't I?"}

The angel nods.

It's not the first time someone's tried to attack her.  Nor even the first time since she's been working for the Will of the Multiverse.  Nor anywhere near the least, or most, effective.

At least so far... if Gwennyth actually manages to hurt this construct-body, it'd be a bad surprise about how enraged she is, but it'd say good things about her finding her initiative again...

Gwennyth stares down at the cobblestones twisting in their patterns that don't quite fit into two dimensions.

And then she looks up again at the three moons.

She feels like most of her choices are missing now, between the vanished magic and the angel standing in front of her and... she's not sure what.

The one thing she can grab onto is her rage.  "You just plopped me into that disaster without any warnings!  And you just say you're happy to have me back here!?"

The angel frowns.  She gestures, and a light wickerwork couch appears behind Gwennyth.

"I did warn you while you were building it, and again once you had built it, didn't I?"

She doesn't fall onto the couch.  She stands straight and crosses her arms.  "You told me it would be a real story.  You told me I was taking a risk.  You didn't tell me what would happen!"

"Of course I don't give spoilers on your story!  And I can't, because you're one of the people who make the story!"

"But you know something like this could easily happen!"

She wanted it to come out the righteous angry cry of - of Kosvin from her first life, leading the Revolt.

It came out like her shriek when someone had stolen her dance partner at Queen Valya's Academy in Villarosa.

But she wouldn't repeat herself; that would spoil things even more.

The angel nods.  "I asked you to design your Bad End, and I told you it was a Bad End, and that you might get it."

"... and you chose Servitude."

"But -"

For a moment she tries to remember what twixt the seas - no, that's a Villarosan expression; what in the multiverse - she'd been thinking.

"-- I didn't realize it'd be that bad!  That binding!"

(That was weak.)

"I was watching you."

(She was about to say "It was a good story to watch," but she knows Gwennyth wouldn't hear that well - what's a better way to say that -)

"It was dramatic."

"And you didn't help?"

She points her finger to fire off another spell - and then sinks back on the bench, shaking her head.

"No, of course you can't help.  The whole Will of the Multiverse can't do anything to help a girl in her story."

If the Will of the Multiverse did help - if it was obvious, it wouldn't be that girl's story anymore.

And it actually never crossed her mind to help while Gwennyth was in the story.

But now...

A cup of warm milk appears hanging in the air in front of Gwennyth.

For a minute, she ignores it out of spite.

But then - she smells the smell.  Goat's milk.  Rich and warm, just like from Mama's goats in her first life...

... It's so utterly incongruous with anything about Villarosa - anything about this courtyard - that she finds herself reaching out to take it.

Then she stops herself.  Just to prove she can.

And when she can, she takes it.

And with the first sip, she breaks out crying even more.

Only then does she notice that her dress isn't the fancy velvet, or the Academy colors, she would've worn when she actually had this hair.  It's the nondescript homespun from her first life, with the same tassels she'd added onto her own dresses while dreaming of broader horizons before those dreams came all too true.

And then... finally, she speaks aloud.

"What happens now?"

She takes the magic scroll from the pocket of her robes and unrolls it.  It says some vague words which boil down to, apparently, the Will of the Multiverse hasn't given instructions about Gwennyth yet.

She could give a rush order to the worldbuilding team for a new world for Gwennyth, and probably get away with it before the Will figures out what's happening... but she doesn't want to just yet.

"Do you want to talk over what happened?"

Gwennyth looks up, brushing both the hair and the tears out of her eyes.

"What happened was that I had no idea what nobles and their conspiracies were actually like!  And I didn't learn anything even after one of those conspiracies killed me in my first life!"

The angel sits down on the couch next to Gwennyth.  It magically expands to make room for her.

"I wouldn't think so.  You did well with yourself, for a while."

Gwennyth ignores the angel.

"Mama - first-life Mama - was right all along.  All the nobles are bad.  All their conspiracies.  Do away with them all.  Seas and stars, I should've been helping poor Taisa when she was trying to tear down the whole Academy!"