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What convinced Lucian wasn't, ultimately, that Lianelle couldn't remember her past. Sure, it was suspicious how all of her connections to anyone besides May had been cut or weakened, but that was only enough to push Lianelle so far. What convinced him that May was mind controlling his friend was Lianelle's lack of interest in being anywhere but by May's side. Lianelle didn't do that for anyone. She loved Katia with an intensity Lucian had hardly seen in any marriage, but she'd only visit Quiteria for a week at a time - never staying unless it was urgently required. When armies had been raised to fight the Magyar Lianelle had been there, but even then she'd ride off alone often, returning with news about how one village or another was now free. Seeing her relegated to a bodyguard and lover of someone she'd just met, with no apparent intention to ever leave, was... wrong. It wasn't Lianelle.
And so, this is how Lucian finds himself digging a hole in an unremarkable forest in west Austria. Well, digging several holes - the landscape's changed enough in the last 1200 years that it's difficult to locate the exact spot where he and his men, victorious but weary, buried the Magyar's artifacts that they could not understand the purpose of.
[I'm not sure if it's a good time to ask her but Lianelle sure does look like the person who came over and petted our chillo, right?]
[Isabella, the one with the chillo. You know how my Lucien's like a copy of the one going by Lifeline? There's a copy of you here and Traceless just had to steal her sword because she and her - I'm not sure how I should parse the relationship, her associate - are acting pretty hostile, and if you'd be willing to hop on a video call this could conceivably help anything.]
[Lemme check with my agent ... okay, no hostages left in here, I can call, though I'll have to end it if that changes.]
"This new Lucien dropped in on our game night from yet another universe," she says, pointing the phone at New Lucian. "Complaining that his friend Lianelle," point, "was acting suspicious and he thought this was because she was mind controlled by this person, May." Point. "May and Lianelle deny this and I wondered if you'd have any light to shed on what somebody who's your alternate universe duplicate should be acting like."
Lucian can summarize the reasons he thought she was mind controlled - the memories, the accepting sticking around May, deferring to May, not being desperate about wanting to go on independent adventures, etc.
"... well, it certainly sounds like you have correctly identified things that it would be very weird for me to do."
"Sounds sort of like you're in some respects a different person than me, even if you have some things in common? Is that how having an alternate self normally works?"
"The Luciens don't match in every respect, mine keeps weirding out Lifeline." (Pet pet.) "But that seems arguably different from Lianelle having changed over time."
"I'm not denying she's changed over time! Probably she has, it's been centuries! I'm saying I didn't do it!"
"I'm pretty sure that even if I lived centuries I wouldn't be happy about staying with one person all the time and not being able to go on adventures on my own."
"I tried to figure out how to put her missing memories back but the magic user interface wouldn't play ball. I don't know why, I was introduced to this magic system only recently and all the magic people I've met besides Lianelle suck and she's not really a nerd about it."
"Um. Is it possible that the memories won't go because she's not the same person who lived in the past and knew Lucian?"