Abelard frowns.  Had something happened with the young... "lovers" wasn't quite the right word; he didn't think either of them was really in love with the other (as much as he'd never volunteer that to either of them or their parents).  Perhaps he'll just think of them as "intendeds" even though that wasn't quite right grammar?

"Did the Marchioness invite you?" he asks, settling - again - on her formal title as the Duke's daughter.

"She's gotten some bad news, I think..."  Marius nods, slides off the bed, and shows Abelard the message on his bracelet.  

Abelard raises his eyebrows.  That doesn't just read like bad news; it reads like someone trying to break her betrothal!  But how can he say that to Marius without making him worry more... let alone how he's mispredicted Lunetta before, and it'd be extremely improper to intervene if he's wrong about what she means...

"Something has shaken her up," he temporizes, pointing at the "sorry."

Marius nods slowly.  "She's never apologized over message before..."

"A new fashion in etiquette for the young generation, perhaps," he says with a faint smile.  "May it be a boon to all of you."

(Especially to Lunetta; he'd never say it, but a new fashion in apologies might benefit her.  The old fashion seems to fit far too lightly in the wrong places on her lips.)

Marius smiles weakly.  "Gods avert that fashion, thank you.  I hear that communicating too much by message broke down social ties on other planets."    

Abelard hasn't heard much about those other planets, but he'll certainly believe just about anything the Prince says about them.  Still, if the Prince's missing the more personal implications of that message...

Abelard presses closer.  "Though... to unsettle the Marchioness like that, I'm concerned what sort of bad news she might have heard.  Perhaps something closely connected to Your Highness, or to her prospects with you."

Marius narrows his eyebrows.  "I haven't heard anything, so it can't be anything from my side... unless it's a scandal Mother's trying to keep from me..."  

Like she tried not to worry him about the new Lakhani tariffs, until he noticed a decrease in trade ships.  Or that time when the goddess Xelaea stopped talking to her priests for a whole year without any explanation, until he happened to visit her temple and find out.  Or...

He shakes his head, though still visibly worried.  "Just help me get my vest on."

Abelard nods.  "And your lighter chain of office. You are still the Prince.  Though, I have not heard of any such scandal either."

"I'm not on official business!"  

He shrugs, and slips off his nightshirt.  

"Perhaps Mother hasn't told you either.  Or perhaps it's a false rumor."

"Thus, only your lighter chain."  

He slips the vest off its hanger and hands it to Marius.  

"And... as I've said, you can't anticipate rumors.  Do be prepared for that she might have heard anything.  Or decided anything based on it."

That's as far as he'll go to pressing the matter.

Marius nods slowly.  "I'll listen patiently.  You know that."  

And then, he straightens for Abelard to bespell the wrinkles out of his vest.

Class starts tomorrow, so the students have the run of the place. They walk about, often in groups and usually smiling. Lunetta overhears conversations about games, and some people are throwing disks or darts in the halls, which gets her curious enough to consult her memories. Right, they all have a spell that restores recently broken objects in addition to the healing magic! That was a great design choice, Lac, great job. 

She still doesn't want to get hit by a thrown dart. She wants to experiment with Villarosan magic and it's weird that she didn't think to do that yet. Probably because it reminded her of the uselessness of her previous magical knowledge? Or because reincarnation made her take it for granted the way she's taking her dress for granted, which is unsettling but at least reincarnation didn't make her take for granted that she would take things for granted.

She should focus but probably actually it's not good to be too lasered-in here? She should be flexible enough to pick up clues from the context, because she doesn't actually know what she's doing yet. Are there questions she could ask the old Lunetta's memories, before she gets to the meeting spot? Consulting old Lunetta is getting less aversive but it's still pretty aversive. 

No, she should probably just relax as much as is feasible for a girl going to tell the boy who thinks she's his girlfriend that his actual girlfriend is dead (or never existed, if the universe just started with fake history behind it). Lunetta is also wearing the body of his maybe-dead girlfriend. She laughs a little because the situation is insane.

All too soon, she passes through the West Gate, which would have had cool architecture if she had any attention going spare, and arrives outside the West Gate, where tall stalks emerge from blue-green bushes and paths made of some shiny, melted-looking rock, wind between them. There is a statue somewhat further away, and a couple of people chatting near it. She looks around.

Marius had been standing by the statue of Prince Erucio, but he moved away to lean against the wall when Lily and Guelf came out.

At least they'd distracted him from his worries about what Lunetta might've heard, enough so that he could actually start staring at the notes he had in his pocket.

He quickly pockets them again when he sees Lunetta, and raises his hand in greeting as he steps over.  "Lunetta!  Good welcome!"

As Abelard would put it, it's a good all-purpose informal greeting.  He starts to ask how she's feeling, but seeing the worry on her face, he freezes for a moment and finishes lamely:  "Are you - worried about classes tomorrow?"

Ah, there he is. She steps closer. He's leaning towards her, but so tall it's like he's leaning over her, which is a new experience. His brown eyes are warm, but worry crinkles them at the corners. He's wearing a red vest with a crest on it, but whether the animal depicted is fantastic or merely alien, she couldn't say.

"Marius," she says, and then her anxiety about pronouncing his name correctly makes her realize that she's magically pronouncing everything correctly, and none of it is Taldane; how did she not notice? Is she thinking in this new language too? She forces her attention back on track, but it's still alarming.

"Can we go somewhere more private? It's not about classes."

He awkwardly pauses for a moment at Lunetta's strange expression right after she says his name (what are the rumors?)

"Oh - oh, of course." And then he pauses another moment wondering if he should offer his hand... yes, they're betrothed now; it'd be best, as well as fun... and offers Lunetta his hand to lead the way past a few turns of the blue-green bushes in the garden.

She takes his hand - warm - and feels guilty about it.

Deeper into the garden isn't enough. "Somewhere maximally private."

This's more than just a random rumor!  He raises his eyebrows, questioning.

...Unless she just thinks it'll be fun to treat it like something a lot more serious, but that'd still be a fun drill-game.

"Private from random students?" he says pensively.  "For that, the tutorial rooms should all be open today.  Or for privacy from the teachers, I think my flyer's delivered; it's got shielded seats even though the engine isn't hooked up yet.  Or -"  He smiles for a moment.  "For really maximal privacy, Abelard mentioned my private study's already set up and secure even from the school network, though it only has half the books so far."

(Selvya, who couldn't resist tagging along to listen through Lunetta's bracelet, groans inwardly when she hears that and immediately starts trying to locate any connection to the Prince's study that she can try to hack.)

"Let's do that, then."

"All right!" he says brightly.

He takes her hand again and leads her back through the gate and up the stairs to his rooms.  "So..." he starts, to keep his worries from returning, "did your move-in go smoothly?  Which classes are you looking forward to?"

Small talk small talk with the ghost possessing your girlfriend's body "My move-in had a few surprises, but on the whole it was nothing to worry about. As for classes..." she doesn't know about any of her classes except oratory, which the old Lunetta liked. "Selvya and I were talking earlier about Oratory. It seems like it could be interesting." All true.