" - you," he says, addressing the most human-shaped person he can see, "You're Scandinavian, aren't you, do you know where we are?"

She stares at him for a moment, trying to figure out - 

" - you don't remember."

"No."

"That's not him," he tells her. "The emperor was pretty entangled with me - needed to be, for us to kill him, and - this one's a stranger."

" - he disappeared," she says, half to herself. "He disappeared, people saw him disappear - if he was presumed dead -

" - he's not the emperor anymore, he's jumped to his successor early, that must be what's happened."

"Oh. It doesn't track whether he's dead only whether he's emperor?"

"He's only supposed to stop being the emperor when he's dead! - I don't know exactly what the magic's tracking. I'm not entirely certain he does."

(Some fairies pass the human some food and some other ones pet his clothes.)

"Do you know who his successor is?"

"...Duke of Nidaros? I think? In Norway."

"I wonder if he's still fast. He was in a lot of debt, and the debt didn't stick with this body..."

Nod. "Then I suppose he's probably noticing that everyone else is frozen and trying to figure out how to evade us."

"Ugh. I guess we should head north again - and probably not alone -"

"Yeah. - I'm sorry, I didn't know he could do that."

"S'okay. Lemme go explain to my brother."

Nod. "And - we should figure out what to do with the one we have, none of this is actually his fault. I didn't even know he existed anymore."

"Do you mind if they kill him? They're all excited to..."

"Historically, when people became emperor, people have mostly talked about how they grew into the office and were made a better person when asked to rise to the challenge of ruling. Most of the people I've heard muse about how this emperor changed when he rose to power have been - sad. At least wistful. And he has a wife, and children who he had before, and - I don't know how he would ever get to see them again, even if he slowed, but - "

"I guess it would be sad for them, if he died here not even for any reason, not even knowing how."

"Yeah. I think so."

"We're going back north looking for the emperor's new body," he tells his brother, "and we want to take this one with us."

"Everyone's having a lovely time -"

"I know, I'm really very sorry, but he might be helpful for -"

"I don't know why you bother trying to lie to me."

"I don't want you mad at Cecilia. You'll - hurt her, if you hurt her."