"Oh, I'm sorry, that sounds distressing. I'm glad you're alright, though. I'm Batrakos, just passing through, but I'm also looking forward to the festival myself. Do you know where I might go to acquire a bit of local flavor?"

"People are probably already setting up for some of the earlier events. I know all the bakeries in town are likely already focused on baking up a storm for the competition later. The grounds outside of town and the town square are the other big event spaces."

"Thank you. What about food and lodgings? Is there anywhere you'd recommend for a weary traveler?"

"There's a tavern with some rooms that I'm actually heading to now there's also an inn that I think has cheaper rooms if that's a concern."

"Oh, excellent, would you mind terribly if I tagged along? I could do with some breakfast." 

Alex doesn't quite hide his brief grimace but it doesn't last long. "That's fine."

If Batrakos notices the grimace, he gives no sign of it. He cheerfully accompanies Alex to the Vorkenfalx.

...which, as it happens, is somewhat less populated at this hour. There's just Gaedoris setting up for the day, Grumio the drunk, and a couple of dockworkers. (It is perhaps seven in the morning, a couple hours before Alex arrived in the last iteration, since he skipped chores.)

Oh... right, he'll just order breakfast then and something without much alcohol to drink. And then he'll settle in to wait.

Batrakos thanks Alex, orders a breakfast himself, then goes to introduce himself to the dockworkers. Grumio orders an ale. 

As Alex waits for Lilian, others trickle in: an off-duty guard, a couple more dockworkers. A local woman stops by to chat briefly with Gaedoris, complaining about the festival preparations, the flood of rude visitors, and "some floozy" who's been seen talking with the town watch. Batrakos introduces himself as she's leaving and asks some questions about the town; they speak for a bit before she departs to go about her day.  Batrakos himself leaves shortly thereafter. 

At about nine in the morning, Alex finally spots Lilian, Welligan, and Priscus descending from the upstairs rooms of the Vorkenfalx. 

Unlike every other person Alex has seen today, Lilian is (apparently) wearing a completely different outfit than last time, a blue dress with matching earrings and a fur overcoat. 

That's confusing. He wonders how that happened. Is there some chance Lilian remembers what happened too? Regardless he'll give a gentle wave when she comes into view and see how she responds. He doesn't really want to have this conversation here in the midst of so many people so the best option he has is to be her guide again.

Lilian doesn't appear to notice, at first, although Welligan glances in Alex's direction and frowns. 

It doesn't take her long, though. She orders breakfast for herself and her guards, "and a Tutovan red if you have it," and then spots Alex and strikes up a conversation as before. She doesn't immediately mention that she's looking for a guide; she does ask Gaedoris and Alex lots of questions about the town and the festival. Alex notices that Welligan seems to be studying him silently. 

At any rate, Lilian's not hard to convince to accept a town guide a second time. 

He's pretty sure he's acting a bit weird. Once they're on their way Alex will start to open with his real topic. "So, Lilian, I have something of an unbelievable story for you. I'm not really sure how I would go about proving I'm telling the truth though and I want to try to convince you." He pauses awkwardly for a moment before rushing into it. "I've met you before on a previous version of today."

"That...is quite the claim. Could you elaborate?" 

"Well as a bit of a strange starting point, you're the only person who was wearing something different today. Did you by any chance consider several outfits including," he goes on to describe her previous outfit in detail. He spent the day with her and it's one of the fanciest outfits he's seen so he remembers a lot of details.

"I don't recall ever considering that particular outfit, but granting the premise, I would not be surprised that's what you saw...remind me to explain the particulars if we manage to establish that this is not an elaborate hoax. In the meantime, I think this calls for a bit of discretion. Ah, here will do nicely." Lilian leads the way to an unoccupied alley just off the main street, open enough to be visible but not bustling with people. She casts something that faintly colors the cobblestone ground in a white circle several paces across, with Alex and Welligan inside and Priscus standing just outside. She then casts something else, following the circle all the way around at a brisk walk. After completing the circuit, she steps inside the circle herself. 

"I've made it more inconvenient to eavesdrop on us, for the moment at least. I would like a more thorough explanation, if you wouldn't mind, starting with what exactly you mean by 'a previous version of today' and what supposedly happened then."

"Well... to start at the ending, I'm pretty sure everyone here in Eriksmont is killed by a rogue mage in some sort of ritual tonight... well I don't know it's a ritual but I don't know another reason someone would want to kill everyone here. And I don't know for sure that she killed everyone as opposed to just people on the festival green outside of town. But she killed a lot of people including me. If I wasn't on the path to being a Named I'm pretty sure that would have been it."

"If what you say is true, I'm certainly glad you chose to warn me.

"...perhaps things would make more sense if you started at the beginning. I expect you could predict some events I've yet to see happen, if you've lived through this day already." 

"Well... the true beginning happened before I met you earlier in the morning for the first version of this morning. A mysterious box of text appeared in front of me." Alex proceeds to lay all his cards on the table including demonstrating his inventory trick and then goes into recounting the events of the day highlighting details like who won various competitions and the arrival of Aeschivus and the events surrounding that including who in the Eriksmont was noticed and taken and the fact that he wasn't noticed because he was standing next to her. Then he finally moves to recount everything he can remember about the woman and the short window between waking back up and dying.

Lilian listens intently without interruption. When Alex finishes, she is quiet for a long minute in thought.

"That is an unusual story even by what I understand to be Named standards. I admit I don't know what to make of it. Strange things do tend to happen around Named. But if your predictions about the competitions bear out, that's highly suggestive." 

Welligan clears his throat. "All due respect, Lilian, I recommend leaving town. This ritual sounds like bad news. I can't keep you safe from whatever that was, and if we're being conned, well..." 

"Quite," Lilian answers drily. "Nevertheless..." 

There is a pause while, outside the circle, Priscus encourages a gawking urchin to move along. 

"...I intend to at least see if Alex's predictions hold true."

"If he wanted you in a specific place —"

"Then he needn't have bothered spinning such a risky tale, and could presumably have simply told me there was Eriksmont excitement to be had there."

"—Well you know how I'd feel about that," Welligan grumbles. 

"A word of caution, Alex. Be careful who you tell about these experiences of yours. There is magic to ensnare the mind which might well persist even through death and rebirth, magic which might be known to someone who can knock out an entire town with a song. And I know of a few people who'd be more than happy to dissect a burgeoning Named, given opportunity or excuse." 

"Oh, I'll be more careful going forward. I just... I don't know how many chances I have before I die for real and I don't know how to leverage what I have to do anything personally. I'll probably try leaving town myself next time to see if that means I have more than a day to try and find some way to be able to do more, maybe try letting Aeschivus take me if running myself doesn't keep me safe."