Milous sets down the report he was reading and starts absently playing with a crystal mage-focus. 

"Well, you were available, weren't you?" he says, carelessly or at least giving that impression. "And it's not like we have a surfeit of pretty young women who happen to be Thoughtsensers as well as mages. ...He didn't even flirt with you, I'll bet, did he. What do you think - does he seem like a real man of honor?" The final words said with almost a sneer. 

"He sure does. He asked the Dolls their names. He didn't think anything interesting and I suspect he's not going to think anything interesting, he's got a pretty aggressive fix for it so he mostly just thinks about horses. And he wants to stay, for some reason."

"He wants to stay? Really. How interesting." Milous' voice doesn't sound interested in the slightest. He sets the crystal focus spinning on his polished desktop, watching it rather than Aritha. "This 'fix'. Aggressive, sure, but is it skillfully done, or not so much?"

"Incredibly clumsy. I don't know how his staff doesn't stab him, if that's the best anyone he has can do compulsions."

Milous nods, looking satisfied. "Exactly as I thought. Our Duke here is a very unusual beast - he's man who thinks he has ethics." This is said even more sneeringly. "He's no fool, though he'd like us to think he is, and see him as a harmless dolt, which he isn't - but he's not as clever as he thinks he is, either." 

And then Milous stops, and narrows his eyes at her. "- Is he playing at something here? Something specific, I mean, not his usual game." 

"I don't think he'd want to stay, if he wasn't playing at something."

"I see." 

Milous leans back in the chair. Strokes his chin. 

"He's an odd bird, our Duke. Wants to look harmless, his father was the same - and to a certain degree he is harmless, exactly because he wants to see himself as a man of honor. He'd never dream of putting his duchy in danger, and so he avoids making waves. But - men like that can be dangerous. Care to guess why?" 

"Because they'll do things that sensible people would avoid doing on account of how it'd get them killed?" 

"Indeed." Mailou smiles thinly and without warmth. "And fundamentally, the difficulty is that - a man like this cannot be loyal to the Emperor. How could he be? He's too busy being loyal to his servants and his horses!" 

Mailou chuckles, and clearly expects Aritha to join in his amusement at the concept. 

"What does it mean, to be loyal to a horse? Does he bow to them?

And what do you want me doing, here."

Mailou's chuckles die off in a second, and he's carelessly casual again. 

"Keep an eye on him, is all. Shouldn't take much work. Most likely, all he's playing at right now is getting himself in the Emperor's good books before he vanishes off to breed horses for another decade. But - the thing about men who fancy themselves honorable, is that every once in a while they decide that something or other is dishonorable and can't be abided. It sounds like he's not stupid enough to try to release all the constructs and give them their 'freedom', or something that ridiculous, but... Still. Someone should keep a lookout, while he's here, and it might as well be you." 

"Do we want him to try releasing all the constructs? Pretty cut and dry treason, it'd be some fun."

Mailou looks up, his gaze sharpening. "Hmm. Could definitely be amusing. Could be messy, too, and I'd rather not be the one having to clean up unnecessary messes. What do you think - how far could he take it, if we gave him his lead -?" 

"....far enough to be messy, probably. If you don't know anyone who'd take a duchy and owe us a major favor then it's probably not worth it."

Mailou blinks. Whatever he's thinking, though, he doesn't say it, and his mind is too thoroughly shielded for her to read even if that were allowed, which it isn't; he's her superior, after all. 

"I see. Well, don't take it any further without my word, but you can feel free to make in-roads for that plot, if you like." 

(The 'if you like' clearly means 'and it's on your head, not mine, if you fuck this up'.) 

"Any other questions now? I'm kind of busy here." 

"They work you too hard." But she leaves, goes to her own room, which is much smaller.

Calls a Doll over.

A doll arrives! 

(The local nobles have gotten into the habit of marking or otherwise personalizing the Dolls that serve them, with decorations or jewelry or painted-on features. This Doll has no such adornments.) 

It stops at the door of her room. "How may this one serve you?" 

"Magical research questions! Are some Dolls better than others at answering those or are you all going to answer identically, or do you not know."

The Doll freezes noticeably for a couple of seconds. 

(In fact, this is noticeably the same response it had to Duke Valdemar's out-of-context questions.) 

"- This one does not know for sure," the Doll says after a few beats of silence. "This one will answer any questions you ask." 

"Do you remember what you were doing an hour ago."

No hesitation, this time. "One hour ago, this one was changing bed-linens in the mage-quarters' East Wing." 

"Do you know what all the other Dolls were doing an hour ago."

The hesitation is noticeable. 

"This one does not understand the question." Pause. "If you wish to inquire on the Dolls' activities in particular areas, that can be passed on." 

"Nah. Do you know who changed the bed-linens in the West Wing."

Pause. "...This one still does not understand the question. What do you mean by 'who'. There will be Dolls who did this, most likely, and this one could learn which Dolls, but this one is not sure how to specify that to you, since none of them are Dolls that you have marked yourself."