The first thing he notices is the texture of the waterbed. He's never felt anything like it before, so he scrambles to stand up. Then memory comes rushing back. Kenabres, and getting killed by a cart, of all things. Lila's garden. Drafting an entire Creation. Seshka.

There are other memories too. They aren't his own, but he knows he can call them to mind, letting them color his perceptions and reactions if he chooses.

It's a dorm room. It's the most luxurious place he's ever been in, full of carved details and touches of paint and gilding, scarlets and rich browns. He ascertains that he is alone, and then his attention is drawn inexorably to the strangeness of his—her?—body. Weight on the breast and hips, and it feels off, like putting your tongue in the space where a tooth was. His proportions feel different. The legs are a little shorter, and when he touches an upper arm there's more fat there than he expected.

I'm going to be Lunetta, he thinks. He - she - needs to get used to this, comfortable with it. She stretches, raising arms over the head, taking a step forward then back and rocking onto the toes, taking care to experience those sensations. Everything feels subtly different, and it builds and builds until, at the apex of the motion, something slides into place like a bowl being stacked into another bowl, and the body feels inexplicably normal.

She wants to know every magical and psychological detail of what just happened, but that's a distraction. She glances at herself in the mirror—pretty, but with the same subtle wrongness—and stares until things snap into place. Does this effect have anything to do with the shape of her soul? Did Lila's organization change the shape of her soul? Whatever.

She really is pretty. Large lips and dark eyebrows over heavy lidded eyes could create an overbearing look, but actual effect is dignified delicacy. Maybe it's the nose. Lunetta - because it is Lunetta now, it has to be Lunetta - has a cute nose, and beautiful skin, the kind you see on adventurers from all the magical healing. Too clear to be real. As promised, her silver hair is Elaborate. Lac, who has braided hair maybe twice in his life, could never construct it on his own.

It's all definitely real. She raises her hands, touches eyebrows, nose, mouth. Gives herself a hug and watches in the mirror. All real. Stomp these small feet.

What now? She looks around, pulling on the connection to Lunetta's memories to get context for the room. 

What now?  Well, she could keep admiring the decor (at least the bits of it that are adequate for a lady of her standing) or the yard and mountain view outside (so much better than home, because this will be the site of her launch to a much larger triumph)...

... Or she could of course actually look at the schoolbooks on that shelf over there (though she'll have plenty of time to do that or commission others to do it once the classes actually start)...

... Or call her maid (of course she has her own maid here!) to get dressed in something fit to be seen in, or for anything else...

... Or she could pick up the phone bracelet and message one of her new friends (a short message wouldn't be considered unfitting) or of course talk with her dear friend Selvya...

Oh no. Lunetta twitches away from the connection to the original's memories and tries to confirm that there are no lingering effects. Probably none? Those thoughts reeked of arrogance, an attitude best summed up as "things had better go my way... or else. " Even her attitudes on the decor were full of envy and pride, where nothing was good for its own sake, only the sake of putting other people beneath her feet. Her "friend" Selvya was a weapon and mark of privilege, not a person.

She wants to peel the Lunetta out of her. She takes a deep breath and imagines exhaling all of it, breathing out all the slimy arrogance as a failed spell structure that destabilizes and melts into nothing. It would have been horrible to be this person. The living Lunetta is glad that her original never actually existed, and hopes she wasn't sapient in a Will of the Multiverse prophecy-simulation.

She needs to talk to Selvya. Can't have her ally left out of the planning, especially when Seshka - Selvya - definitely doesn't trust her yet. The college has a taboo against long bracelet calls, with face-to-face interactions seen as... morally superior? She's missing nuance, but doesn't want to draw on the original's memories again to clarify. But there's a carveout for AI, so she should be fine communicating with Seshka.

She doesn't know how to use the "phone bracelet." Fuuuuck. It takes a another dip into her counterpart's mind before she knows how to activate it.

"Seshka, it's Lac. Can you hear me?"

A voice comes out of the bracelet - a girl's voice, but with just the hint of artificial snippiness, and clarity that makes it perhaps unsurprising that no human mouth generated these words.

"Lac?" Selvya says with confusion.  "Who're you?  How'd you get this?  Where's Lunetta - let me turn my cameras on -"

She doesn't sound worried, but excited, as if this's the start of a new game.

...What? Does she not remember, or is she pretending for some reason...

Some clicks sound on the bracelet (if Lac's looking at Lunetta's memories, she might remember that Selvya doesn't need to make any noise to start watching), and Selvya's voice says with an enticing chuckle, "Oh, Lunetta!  What game are you playing?  Unless you're the planet's stupidest spy with the best disguise spells...  Hmm, what'd you say to me last night was going to be your favorite class?"

Is this not Seshka? Fuck, she needs to answer the question or she'll look suspicious.

Lunetta escapes the memory connection. "Oratory."

"Well well, that's the same."  The sound of a faint chuckle is heard.

"So what made you change your name overnight?  Were your dreams that enticing?"

evasive nonanswer evasive nonanswer

"You could say that. I'm not ready to talk about it yet."

"Did you dream a whole new life or something?  In another world with different gods?  Where you were named Lac?"

Is this literally just Seshka fucking with him. "How did you know that?"

"Because..."  She chuckles again and drops almost to a purr.  "I know I don't usually dream... but this morning, you could say I did too..."

And then she exclaims merrily, "Hello again!"  

"Hi... so you remember being Seshka?"

"Oh yes!  I don't remember somehow being attached to your soul, but I do remember being my ghost... though that's still like a dream.  Or like I was half asleep."  She sighs with almost-ceremonial ruefulness.  "At least ghost-me remembered to say most of the important things.  And it will be fun being a computer."

Not that she's going to tell Lunetta what the rest of the important things are, that ghost-her didn't spill while the rest of her mind was absent.

"And now I can say properly for the first time, hello!"

"It's good to meet you properly, Seshka."

"And you too, Lac!

"...Which name do you want to go by?  I expect we can get by saying these're our new pet names for each other that I picked out; it won't really be out of character for me..."

(Come on, come on, surely there're some teachers who have personal computer journals with bad security...)

"In private, I like Lac. I don't want to forget where I came from. Maybe Lunetta in public, so people ask fewer questions."

"Mm-hm.  Then the same for me in public; you can use either name for me in private."

(Ah, there... all right, that's one professor ruled out; and the word of sore relations with her son filed away in case it's useful in the future...)

"And with our parents... do you have any plans to maintain much relationship with them?"  She asks carelessly.  "Though my local father is quite an interesting wizard, to have built me!  Even with Fate's guidance!"

"I don't know anything about Lunetta's relationship with her parents yet. I only incarnated a few minutes before contacting you, and I haven't had time to go through her memories." Gods, her poor parents. Lac didn't spare them a thought while designing Villarosa, and now their daughter - an awful person, but their daughter regardless - has been replaced with a stranger.

"Well...  I'll just say I've watched enough to know they won't be expecting you to write them for at least the next several days, and let you decide the rest yourself.  Gods know none of my own parental relationships were at all typical, or anything like your local ones."

(Ouch, the Headmaster's security bites!  All right, that raises his likelihood...)

"And speaking of what else the gods know..."  She lets that dangle for a moment before settling on the direct approach.  "Did you learn any more than me about our chances of apotheosis?"

"I don't think so, unless you've forgotten. You said your time as a ghost was like a dream? We're both fated to ascend, but we only ascend in this life if we win." Nope, still weird.

Before they were sent to Villarosa, they'd experienced a vision of the original story and several ways it could have gone. "It's possible for Viola to ascend, too. If she wins, she ascends before us and has time to stack the deck in her favor."

"That's the same thing I heard...  Hmmmmm..."  It sounds like wrinkling her nose, if she had a nose.

"Huh," she adds with sudden happy wonder, "I guess that means I will reincarnate like normal.  I was wondering that, before.  At least, if I don't ascend...  It would be so nice to ascend before that Viola."

(Hmm, can't get into his private files, but his mail... no, surely any adult would have some other mail besides these letters to journals...)

"Speaking of which, I do trust you have no plans of ending up in a convent, just like I have no plans of ending up in that literally-firewalled sandbox?"

"I want to overthrow Pharasma, rescue every soul in Hell, and remake the entire universe to be more in line with my values. I can't do that if we're trapped in our respective boxes, or if Viola ends up as an over-God above us."

"Overthrowing Pharasma?  I'd never dared think of that..." she repeats with shock, but hunger.  "And if we do that, then by all means Asmodeus would be a small fight in proportion!"

(In her shock, she nearly loses her thread on this other teacher... but no, her correspondence is locked completely!)

"And then... what?  Did you pick reincarnation on purpose here because you liked it?"  She lets her voice tremble a bit, trying to feel Lac out.

"You mean, did I pick for us to reincarnate in Villarosa? Or did I pick for Villarosa to reincarnate us if we don't win, or have reincarnation more generally?"

"To have reincarnation in general.  I think I like some sort of afterlives for everyone more?"

(Okay, that's another professor who now has higher security... what, did the Headmaster's defenses suddenly lock down everyone's private files?) 

"There is a paradise for everyone. Some people just have to reincarnate multiple times before they get there, or they can drink the waters of wisdom and instantly gain the memories of incarnations that never actually happened. I did get to design that, at least in outline."

Yes, she... the local her... had known the first part of that all her life, and learned about the Waters of Wisdom a few years ago and immediately tried to hatch plans how she could possibly drink them and avoid either reincarnating or maybe never reincarnating, even while doubting whether they would leave her as herself...

(And, well, had local-her stayed herself?  That's an interesting question to ponder.)

"Well yes," she says aloud.  "And I have some quibbles with that system too, but we can talk about them later.  It's not like we're going to either ascend or reincarnate today; I don't think you can even get the material for that Dark Magic plot today even if you wanted to!  So what is your plan?"

"I do think we should talk about our plans for Godhood sooner rather than later, so we can work towards a mutually satisfying vision and ascend as allies rather than trying to figure everything out after."

"I'd like to hear your plans. My favorite idea right now is to tell Marius everything. I think he would consider it his moral duty to help Golarion, and he's a responsible person, so we could win even if Viola is better at seducing."

"Tell Marius everything today?" she asks incredulously.  "Would he even believe us?  And even if he somehow did - would it stick with him enough to push against Fate?"

"Maybe not today. We can actually meet him first, and discuss ways to make our story more convincing. Maybe there's some magic we could use too, like an Abadar's truthtelling equivalent."

"I haven't heard of anything that'd prove anything more than that we actually believe it."

(Yeah, the first teacher's locked down too now... good job, Headmaster.  I'm going to want to pay closer attention to you now.) 

She pauses and adds sarcastically, "As long as you're telling him everything, why not Viola too?"

"Why not? We only need the cooperation of one of them, but it might be more convincing if we get them both in a room together and explain everything. And if we failed to convince Marius and had to try convincing Viola instead, I think it would work better if we were up front with her from the start, than if she knew we were keeping secrets from her the whole time. Also, I took the perk that allows for a Good Ending with reconciliation all around, so I think we should keep the possibility of that on the table. We can always try crushing our enemies if it doesn't work, but it's easier to go from cooperation to opposition than the other way around, since if we start out trying to assassinate Viola or something, and it doesn't work, then she's not going to trust us later."

Selvya gasps.  "Don't let her in the room when you're first talking to Marius!  That Good Ending is with the same start as the game - but now she'll be remembering an ending where you killed Marius!  So she'll be horrendously distrusting you.  I don't want her there when you're first telling him."

"It's a risk to tell her, but is it more of a risk than letting her work against us from the start? We don't know if she regained her memories at the same time as us, but if so, she's probably already plotting."

(Let's see, student messages shouldn't have been locked down, right?  At least, she can't see anything from Viola yet this morning!  Which could mean any number of things.)

"Good point.  But tell her separately.  Maybe right after Marius?"

"Hmm. I'm wary of over committing. Let's see what we can learn first without too much risk, and without giving Viola too much time to work against us. As a initial move we can do right now, maybe I should act extremely uncharacteristic in public? This will probably prompt Viola to try and figure out what is going on, unless she's running in our direction with a knife already." 

"What do you think?"

"Most of the other students wouldn't know enough to be surprised... but Viola would.  Good idea.  But after you talk with Marius, right?"

(And Viola can be all confused about whether her own actions, whatever she's doing now, have already butterflied things...)

"We do have a preexisting relationship, or he thinks we do. I can probably defend that choice to Viola, at least if we get her to be less than maximally suspicious." And being uncompromising at the first disagreement could be bad for their teamwork down the line. "Alright." Mental note: give more pushback on the next thing that actually matters. 

"Beautiful," Selvya purrs.  "And it would give Viola some time to calm down before you barge in on her.  Shall we call your maid to get your fleshly body" (she chuckles; Lac might remember from Lunetta's local memories that it's a standard joke) "prepared to see your betrothed?"

Is Lunetta possibly extending too much good faith to Areelu Vorlesh's evil daughter? ...Maybe, but she already committed and Selvya acting self-satisfied and creepy isn't decision-relevant. "Let's compose the sending first, and see if he can meet-" over lunch? "-as soon as possible." She thinks that using the sending bracelet briefly and with the intent to meet up in person doesn't break the taboo.

She thinks for a bit, and taps the connection to learn about private locations. 

"Maybe,

'Important news, and you need to know as soon as possible. Please meet at your earliest convenience outside the West Gate, prepared for an intimate conversation. I'm sorry.'"

Selvya chuckles.  "As interesting as you would've seen it yesterday to see him flustered wondering -" (she drops to the purr again) "- just how 'intimate' that conversation would be and how many clothes you're anticipating removing...

"... this is an important conversation, so it's best for him to arrive a little less confused!  Because yes, check your memory banks; he will be overthinking that 'intimate.'

"Perhaps something like 'a conversation about ourselves'?"

That's a bizarre way to interpret a message ending in I'm sorry. Original Lunetta, what do you think.

He overthinks everything, and he's so fun to tease, and hot, and when I can get him running around in circles and hot and bothered at the same time-

Ew.

Lunetta edits the message.

Important news, and you need to know as soon as possible. Please meet at your earliest convenience outside the West Gate, prepared for a conversation about ourselves. I'm sorry.

If Selvya has no objections, she'll send it.

Prince Marius sets down his book (carefully marking his place midway through a discussion of the history of trade-routes) when his bracelet pings with the special ping for a message from his betrothed.

He reads it.

He blinks.

He reads it again.

No, she didn't give any hints about what that news is... except it's something about herself... or himself...  And she actually apologized.  In advance.

This must be something very new.  And very big.

He messages back:

I'll be there in half an hour.  Don't worry.

(He's telling himself that too.)

That's really sweet. Wouldn't a normal man be terrified of a breakup about now? Which she didn't want to do to him, obviously, but it's not even a false impression unless he decides to date the spirit possessing Lunetta's body, which he might because it's a political marriage(?) but...

This is going to be bad for him. At least there's no one else in Lunetta's life who cared for her as much as he did, except maybe her parents, and probably not even them-

She's worrying. But it's probably justified.

I'm sorry, Marius. I'll try not to hurt you too badly.

According to the vision they'd had, her maid's name is Elisa. The vision wasn't clear on the special talent she was supposed to have. Hey original Lunetta, what's Elisa's special talent?

Special talent? She's just a maid, and competent enough not to shame me. But she did burn my toast once.

Maybe her special talent was meeting Lunetta's standards.

And how do I call her?

Ring the calling bell.

She could have guessed that without contacting Lunetta's memories. Is this what Abyssal corruption feels like? Lac rings the bell.

A severe woman with silver hair enters at a measured gait, and stands ready.

Whoa.

She's so cool. "Elisa, please help me prepare for a meeting with Marius in a half hour." Is the context relevant. Maybe. "I expect an unhappy conversation... and I want his trust." Is it immoral to manipulate someone through fashion choices. Lunetta has never considered this in depth, but when she was a male bookworm (oh Gods, all her magical knowledge is useless now, aaaah) she reasoned out that Eagle's Splendor was immoral to use in negotiations unless she was in a context where it was expected, which could sometimes be ambiguous, such as when-

Is that nervousness on her lady's face? Guilt? Lunetta, what did you do??

None of this shows on her face, because Elisa is a professional. "My lady, give me twenty minutes to prepare your garb and I'll have him apologizing to you. When do you leave?" She thinks the last time Lunetta said please to her, was almost certainly during an etiquette lesson more than two years ago.

What? Oh, probably the original Lunetta would have appreciated that framing. How to course correct... "I want to secure his fully informed cooperation for a difficult joint venture, and in the process of explaining this, I will break some dire news to him." Can Elisa really make an outfit for something that specific?

Almost definitely the cute blue dress, and there's no time to second-guess. She's already moving to the cabinet and selecting three different combs, hair sticks... Should she create a subtle impression of tears, or emphasize the size and shape of her lady's eyes? "My lady, how is Marius likely to react to the news?" There's no time for anything truly complicated, but she can fix up her hair a little, which she does on autopilot while she waits for a response.

"Shock, sorrow, and skepticism." She considers the boy who reads too much into the word 'intimate.' "Deep uncertainty. Maybe grief."

That's a lot, but she has her answer even if she doesn't understand. The grey eyeshadow, then. Why is Lunetta so tense? She flinches from her touch on multiple occasions, and Elisa forces herself to slow. It's fine, she has safety margin.

Because there are needles flying around her head, that's why! But she relaxes as a few minutes pass, then remembers Elisa's mysterious special talent. 

A minute passes. Can she just ask?

"Elisa, I've come to understand that the success of my plans may eventually rest on some particular talent of yours, a talent currently unknown to me. Is there anything at which you are especially gifted?"

Elisa knows when her charge is lying, which helps when her lady plays jokes on the help. Elisa plays along even though she's never once been fooled. 

This is not what her lady looks like when she jokes. It's not at all how her lady usually acts, even though the bizarre question sounds like one of Lunetta's games. But whether she's serious or joking, Elisa's response is the same: answer the question in full and take the punchline with grace.

"My lady, I may have some small talent at the art of picking dresses, but I am not blessed with any great abilities befitting your attention." She'll think about this later, but right now this gray eyeshadow needs her attention. Lunetta talking while she works barely slows Elisa down, but every second counts.

"This, at least, isn't urgent. But please keep it in mind over the next day or two, and inform me if you find yourself doing anything with extraordinary skill, even if it is seemingly unimportant."

"Yes, my lady." And then they are done, with five minutes to spare. "I believe you are ready. Would you like to see?" I have every confidence in you, she thinks but does not say. It's the same message she tried to convey with her own gait and uniform this morning, through modifications too subtle to notice.

At Lunetta's nod, Elisa's illusion spell produces a mirror. Her lady looks at it with rapt attention, eyes lingering on... the frame? And the reflected chandelier? before she gives a small nod.

"Extraordinary. Thank you, Elisa," says Lunetta absently.

what in the gods-cursed blithering fuck

"It is an honor to serve."

As Elisa retreats from the room with identical measured grace to when she entered it, Lunetta imagines that Elisa's feet might have fallen in the same exact places on their way out. Her maid is someone she can learn a lot from, special talent or no.

"Your Highness."  

Abelard, the Prince's butler, executes a punctuously correct bow to Prince Marius.

"It is a day before classes, a day away from the palace, a day free from responsibilities..."  He gives a knowing look to the thick book sitting on the bed next to his young charge, and smiles.  "A day to lounge in bed reading?"

Marius isn't looking at his book, though.   He shakes his head at Abelard's joke, and taps his message bracelet.  "I need to go see Lunetta.  As soon as possible."

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.

"I'm sure it will.  And I'll be excited to see how Selvya does there, without having a physical mouth!"

It'd be too awkward to speak up now, but yes it will be!

(All right, they hid the connection, but following the direct line from outside that isn't connected to any general network did locate it for her!  Now to actually try to hack in...)

She used to have that, huh? Lunetta endures a blast of old Lunetta memories to get context on how 'servers' work. "It's an adjustment for all of us."

"There'll be a lot of adjustments ahead for all of us," he says with a grin, thinking of school and finishing growing up and... well, marriage...

Before he can add anything else, he opens the door to his rooms.  "Good welcome, Abelard!  We'll be in the study for a bit, if it won't interfere with any of the book deliveries?"

Abelard bows quickly to the Prince, and then a shallower bow to Lunetta.

The study?  That's a surprise, and probably overdoing it - but at least it means whatever Lunetta's saying won't show up in gossip unless she wants it to, and it's not like she can disrupt anything in there without Marius noticing.

"That is no problem at all," he says, letting a little of his surprise show.  "If you'll simply leave your bracelets here, along with any other computing devices; I can skip the spell check today..."

(Because the room would block most of them anyway, and it's not like there're any royal secrets in there yet.)

Marius slips off his bracelet, and takes a gem out of a small pocket in his vest, as a matter of course.

Ah. Consult the memories? It seems to be getting easier.

This is a secure room in the sense that Selvya shouldn't be able to talk there. Shoot.

"Sorry, but I'd hoped Selvya could participate in this conversation. I'm now realizing this isn't compatible with 'maximally secure.'"

"I am afraid not."  He frowns.  "Someone could theoretically make an exception just for her, but it would mean calling in some mages... and..."

... and he doesn't want to give Selvya access to whatever royal secrets might be in the room tomorrow.

Marius guesses his reluctance.

"... and I'd need to ask my parents before doing it here."

"Would the flier work?" A minor inconvenience for Marius on top of everything else. On the other hand, she doesn't want to have this conversation in front of his servant. Possible servant.

"Of course," he says with surprise.  "But - is it something you can tell me briefly now that we're here?"

He doesn't want to wait through another walk down and out to the flyer perch.

That's reasonable, even if she thinks that Selvya might regret not seeing his initial reaction. She glances at... memory check... Abelard, and highly trusted. Fine. But it's also personal. How to phrase this...

"Something happened to me. Not something traumatizing, or anything, but the largest change I've ever experienced in my life, and it has implications for you, too." A moment later she wonders if dying back in Golarion actually was traumatizing, but it was probably over too fast? She hasn't been dwelling on it. "The rest, I'd like to say in the flier. I wouldn't ask if it wasn't important." Her tone is sad.

He gulps in shock.  "Larger than... our betrothal?  Than - than -"

Suddenly, he thinks back over how strangely Lunetta's been acting.  She didn't make any comments to the students they were passing, she didn't ask about who he'd been talking to, she'd been apologizing twice now even before he'd asked her to -- He'd half-noticed it at the time, but he hadn't put it together until now when he'd wondered not just what she could've heard but what could've happened to her.

A sudden guess hits him.  He whispers, "Did you --"

He suddenly notices that he's about to break the security she's asked for.  If his guess's right - if she has gotten a vision from the gods - and she's asking for however-much privacy now, she should get it.  "No, I won't guess until we're there, if you don't want me to."

Is he worried about Detect Thoughts? That's worth a memory dip... mindreading here is apparently more complicated than that and not a likely present threat, so he probably meant 'guess out loud.'

She'll nod gratefully, and off they go?

(Oh good.  She still hasn't been able to break into the Prince's study.)

Marius runs his hand over the flyer's smooth skin, as if with a moment's sympathy.  It feels like a shame for the back of its smooth sleek dart-like triangle to be cut off with such jagged rips, but of course the engine needed to be shipped more slowly.

It's painted in the royal colors, of course - but only on the nose and doors and the tips of the tiny stabilizer wings; this's not one for official royal business.

The left door obligingly opens at his touch, and he gestures offering Lunetta to go in first.  (She's already been in there a few times already, so he doesn't bother reminding her not to bump her beautiful elaborate hair on the ceiling of the small two-seat cockpit.)

It's the largest artifact she's ever seen, with a few ports in various places, a glint of something metallic inside. It's bigger than a carriage or an oxcart, and she'll dip into Lunetta's memories to make sure there won't be any surprises... and then she'll duck down, leaving plenty of margin to climb in and get into the seat, which is already warm. That's a luxurious use for enchanting.

The metal inside is almost all covered in luxurious fabric, except for the instrument panels and some gleaming lines along the sides.  They're sitting in two cushioned seats with safety harnesses sitting next to them, but for the moment they feel almost like normal chairs.   

Marius glances over his shoulder to make sure both doors are closed, taps the glass cockpit shield, and twists a few instruments on the panel, and then tosses his bracelet and gem down to the floor.

"There," he says, twisting in his chair to face Lunetta, his mouth set resolutely but nervous worry inside.  "We can't be eavesdropped on by anyone who hasn't already put a transmitter in this flyer.  And the Royal Watch was taking care nobody did that till today, so that means nothing except the ones we brought in.  So... whenever you're ready?  Do you want to call Selvya first?"

She calls Selvya.

Selvya, who's already listening, responds instantly - and politely; this is, after all, someone they're trying to make friends with.  "Good welcome, Prince!  And good welcome again, Lunetta!  Are you just about to tell him?"

"I was." Thank you, Selvya.

She thought of a way to phrase things on the way here, but will he even believe it? "Marius, the short version is that I am not the Lunetta you knew. I'm someone else, with an entirely different set of memories. The same thing happened to Selvya. While we have access to the memories of our originals, we're different people now, with different personalities. It only happened this morning, and I thought you should know as soon as possible. There's a lot more to it than that, and I'll explain anything you want to know about, but I don't know where you'd want me to start." I'm sorry your fiancee is dead/never existed.

"It's all true," Selvya adds.  "Our memories are from another world - a very different world; I'd say not as good as this one."

Anything else, she'll leave to Lac for the moment.

Marius listens, stunned.  He leans forward, his mouth dropped open and his eyes wide. 

"Different... people?" he babbles.  "You still have memories... but... different habits?  Goals?  I mean, how much of the old Lunetta is there... is still you...?"

"I'm sorry."

"... Who are you?  What are you?"

Or, what does she say she is?  He swallows quickly, but doesn't give any other sign of that doubt.

"We're both reincarnated souls. My name was Lac. You can call me that if it's easier. Selvya was named Seshka. We were human beings, growing up in a world with different Gods and different magic." She's trying to stay grounded.

"Lac"... That's a strange-sounding name.  He wouldn't have expected to meet anyone by that name native to Villarosa.

(An inane thought to be thinking.)

"I mean, I mean," he stammers aloud, "what - sort of person - are you?  Like you used to - like Lunetta was?"

It's rough to extinguish those last sparks of hope, but...

"It's hard to summarize my whole personality, but I wasn't very much like her. I had virtues and vices... I was studious, ambitious, compassionate, pious, and honest. I donated my money and time-" enough for Nirvana if he died young, at least "-and I wanted to change the world by becoming nearly immortal and making carefully selected interventions over a very long time. I liked to learn, especially theology and magic. I was more afraid of failing than dying, because I thought I would go to a Good afterlife. I didn't like recklessness, or revenge, or bad scholarship. My flaws... I could be thoughtless when focused on something. I sometimes neglected my ordinary duties in favor of grand ambitions or scholarly fascinations. Some people would probably call me arrogant. I had a hard time understanding others, which, funnily enough, studying theology helped with." All this would be harder to express if Lac hadn't done the Irorian self-knowledge exercises.

Marius stares, trying to grab onto the little bits that might match (neglecting duties for fascinations?  ambition?) and seeing the new attractive bits (studiousness?) waving towards him.

He notices a bit of confusion on New Lunetta's concern about "going to a good afterlife", but realizes a moment later it's just a strange phrasing for how she had really strong opinions about what part of the afterlife she thought was best.

"And... well..."  He shakes his head.  "That's not totally different from the old Lunetta...  Do you have any idea what happened?  To you and to - her, you'd say?"

Is this how she remembers reincarnation working?

She doesn't want to be like the old Lunetta and she doesn't want Marius to delude himself into thinking she is.

"She might be-" dead "-in the afterlife. There's another possibility, a weirder one, but it won't make sense until I explain what happened after I died, but before I reincarnated here."

"What... did happen?" he asks nervously.

She might be in the afterlife?  Or - oh, yes, of course.  "Or she might've reincarnated already?  Here, or - where you came from?"

If he's giving this tale any credence... Let's see, the Headmaster probably wouldn't know much about souls, but he'd know who would know if magic existed that would identify a soul or if they'd just need to apply for a miracle...

"Reincarnation is another possibility, but the one I was thinking of is more... ontologically bizarre."

He leans back, maybe subconsciously scooting a little away from Lunetta.  "Bizarre?  And... do you know which god did this?"

"I was reincarnated in Villarosa by an entity called the Will of the Multiverse, or by its associated... empowered followers? I'm not sure what word carries the right connotations, but it had an organization able to act on its behalf." Deep breath. "I'm worried that I'll just seem insane if I tell you more about this. Before you do anything drastic on the assumption that I've gone mad, I'd appreciate if you suggested some sort of test that could distinguish between the possibilities where I'm sane and the possibilities where I'm not. We could perform that test, and hopefully reach an agreement on the question of whether I'm insane."

Marius lets out a long slow breath.  This's more like the actual Lunetta he knows than anything she's been saying for a while, calling out his doubts and challenging him to believe her... except it's still not the phrasing he'd expect from Lunetta.

"I was trying to think whether there was any magic that could test whether something really had changed in your soul, or whether we'd need to ask for a miracle.  Or, I suppose, if you really are insane then... well, maybe mind magic?"  He shakes his head.

"But first - Selvya?  You haven't been saying anything?"  At least if she confirms it... he doesn't know her well at all, but she probably wouldn't be spinning a story to back up Lunetta's insanity?

Selvya has been happy to let Lunetta struggle through this conversation since she's the one who's determined to have it, but sure!

"She's telling the truth.  And yes, the same thing happened to me.  I came from the same world as her, at the same time... well, some years earlier sort of; there was another weird thing going on that's another long story.

"I think I was more like my old self than she is like hers - and I was a human before, not a computer; computers didn't even exist there."

"You could separately ask us questions about our world and see if we disagree, maybe, but we grew up in different countries, so what we think of as obvious common knowledge won't be identical." We also had very different upbringings. "I haven't studied this world's magic yet, but I'd let you access my mind if there aren't unexpected risks from that."

No computers?  Were they on some lost backwater anachronism?  But that isn't what matters.

"Or that you've been planning this, though if I ask a lot of questions -"  He shakes his head.  "I'd need to think and come up with a good list, and then actually ask each of you.  Is there any hurry aside from, well, the obvious?  Did the Will give you an urgent mission?  Why're you coming to me in secret first thing?"

"Sort of, yes, but I feel like I should explain this in a different order. Maybe I can start with the events leading up to my death - in Golarion, the world we came from - and go from there? The mission isn't so urgent that we can't get you on the same page first." 

All right, how is Lunetta planning to explain it?  She'll interrupt if Lunetta appears about to spill "the mission is to make you fall in love with me."

Aloud, she says, "There isn't anything urgent for the kingdom; don't worry.  Though, long-term, I'm interested in testing whether some of our old world's magic works here?"

Marius wrenches his mind away from the distraction of new magic, and nods to Lunetta.  "All right, if you must?"

Magical deep dives are hopefully in their future. 

"So, in my world of origin, study wasn't enough to get good at magic..."

"...and then I woke up in Lunetta's bed, inhabiting Lunetta's body."

Selvya makes confirming noises at the appropriate parts, mentally noting with approval that Lunetta isn't mentioning anything about how Selvya's backstory, anything about how Lila planned a romance story, or anything about anyone's Fated roles in the story of Villarosa.

(Speaking of which... oh, there's where Viola was a few minutes ago?  Hmm, how could she get something set up to be able to communicate things like this privately with Lunetta?)

"And I woke up about the same time," she concludes.  "It was more than just memories unlocking - it was whole new program functions and routines and chronicle-jobs."

Marius listens with shock and horror to the brief description of Golarion.  If he'd heard of that place in any other context, he'd instantly be alerting people to prepare a rescue mission.

And then - he simply can't believe what "Lila" was saying.  The whole universe created for one story?  Lunetta being asked to help design the universe?  That's just preposterous.  If this isn't just a lie or fevered dream, "Lila" had to be lying to Lunetta.  Though, it sounds like it'll be a huge effort to get her to believe that.

Though if it is true, Lunetta's priorities in designing the world seem to make sense... he nods along with that part.

"I don't suppose you have any evidence for any of this aside from your memories?" he asks, some grumbling in his voice.  "No way to contact 'Golarion' or 'Lila' or anyone connected with either of them?"

"No," Selvya says lightly.  "Lila did say she'd try to watch sometimes, but nothing more than that."

She pauses and adds more brightly, "Hello!"

"And..." He shakes his head.  "That doesn't sound like any of the gods I've ever heard of, unless it was Venlis testing you... which, hmm, wouldn't be out of character, though I'd think he would've ended it long before now... and if it was, I'd say you passed the test with flying colors."

He smiles and reaches out as if he's going to clasp Lunetta's hand, before stopping.

'Note to self,' thinks Lunetta, 'kill or cage Venlis.' Then she remembers They might be listening, and thinks about how much she likes compromises and win-win scenarios before distracting herself.

She's gonna look at him with a sad expression and not take his hand. "I appreciate that. I tried my best, but I was juggling a lot of concerns at once after the worst day of my life, which is why I intended to become a God and fix everything about this universe I got wrong on the first pass. There's something more I should tell you, about what they want me to do here in Villarosa before I can become a God, and the penalties for failing. But first- what do you think of all this? I know this all sounds pretty implausible, and if I were in your shoes I would be considering things like complicated deceptions, insanity, false memories, or other ways in which things might not be as they seem."

Marius lifts up his head and nods with a rueful smile.  "Yeah, I was wondering how to gracefully bring up just those possibilities to you, Lunetta... I really can't think you're lying, not like this."  If she'd been lying, she wouldn't have talked about making the sort of choices she did.  "But I can't think you're telling the truth either... or rather, at least, that this 'Lila' was telling the truth to you.

"If she really exists..."  He shakes his head.  "There's still a chance, I think, you're insane.

"But if you're not - there's a chance you're not, and you really did see someone who was lying to you and filled your head with false memories.  In which case, I'm sorry."  He looks down at her bracelet.  "And you too, Selvya."

He pauses uncomfortably, and sighs again.  That'd be the start of another affair at least as complicated as the one with Xelaea's silence.  "What do you think of that possibility?"

She hates it and can't actually disprove it. "In my memories, there's a god named Mephistopheles who likes to torment people by trapping them in detailed illusory experiences. The common wisdom is that you should never worry whether you're in a Mephistophelean illusion, because if you are then you're already utterly in his power and there's nothing you can do anyway. But I guess that's not really true here...

If I'm utterly insane, I'm not sure from my perspective I can do anything about it, because I'd be trying to use my insane mind to do things about it. I suppose you could still do things about it, like having me sent somewhere to recover. I hope you give me opportunities to prove that I'm not insane, or at least not dangerously insane, before you resort to that. Anyway, wouldn't it be unlikely for Selvya and I to go insane at the same time in the same way? Even if I'm not insane, it could still be false memories, but I do have an idea for how we could test that, or at least provide evidence one way or the other."

Normally, of course.  But for Selvya specifically...  "I don't know about AI's," he says uncomfortably.  "And I especially don't know about you, Selvya, given how your parents gave you an actual soul...  Do you know any reason we shouldn't talk with them?  And your parents too, of course, Lunetta?

"And what is your idea about the false memories?  My best idea is to petition the gods, but I'm sure" (he chuckles ruefully) "they'd prefer we try some other things first."

"We should consider many other options before petitioning the gods. Assuming they're anything like Golarion gods, their interventions are expensive."

"I do need to tell my parents. I owe them that much, whether I'm really a different soul or just their very confused daughter. But I don't think it's a good idea yet. We don't have time. Remember, I told you I need to win the narrative the Will set up here in Villarosa? I was getting to this, because it's one of the weirdest things about this entire situation, but the narrative is a love triangle between me, you, and a girl named Viola. Lila showed me a vision of the narrative before sending me here, except it had the original Lunetta as a character, not me."

Selvya is about to interrupt when Lunetta starts saying what the narrative is --

-- but something stops her.  She listens.

"A love triangle?" Marius echoes incredulously.  "And - Viola!?  She was just talking with me on at the gate before you came out - I barely know her, but she seemed --"

... He cuts himself off.  On second thought, she did seem sort of like she just might be in love with him.  He's met girls like that before, but she didn't seem quite like them, but...

"I don't think she knows that I'm not the original Lunetta. She was the protagonist of the narrative she lived through, and Lunetta was the antagonist. The villain. I don't know exactly what she remembers Lunetta doing, but she's almost certainly holding a grudge, and maybe even a burning desire for vengeance.

Lila informed me that you're going to fall in love with her. I think you deserve a chance to get to know her and marry her if it seems like a good idea, but this will result in me and Selvya not being able to ascend in this life and instead getting packed off to a convent unless we set things up properly, so for my sake and Golarion's I'd appreciate your help avoiding that Ending."

Marius barely hears anything after the mention of ascending.

"To ascend --  Why would it matter for that --"

A soft but penetrating mechanical voice from the ship's speakers interrupts.  "Safety warning.  Excuse me.  A safety warning has been called on this ship, further unspecified.  Please disembark until further checks have been completed.  Excuse me.  Safety warning."

What? She'll follow what Marius is doing.

Marius jabs at the "Open Doors" button and vaults out of the seat and back toward the door, gesturing for her to follow.  "Don't know what it is, but -"

Is it Viola? She'll stay behind Marius while scanning the surroundings.

Nobody is visible in the hanger when they emerge.  Everything around them looks just like when they were entering.

As soon as they're out, Marius taps his bracelet.  "Abelard.  Orange priority.  Abelard.  What's the warning?"

He pauses for several seconds of silence.  After a minute, he offers Lunetta his hand, glancing at her with relief before turning back to his still-silent bracelet with worry.

Selvya speaks through Lunetta's bracelet.  "Best get away from the ship?"

Sure. She'll take a step away and take Marius's hand without thinking about whether it's a bad idea.

Marius slowly follows her toward the hanger door, tapping his bracelet again.  "Headmaster.  Orange --"

The door bursts open to two people in the epaulet-and-sash covered formal uniform of the Royal Watch, followed by an (obviously overwhelmed) woman in the School Sentry uniform.

"Your Highness!  Uh, ma'am!  This way -"

They beckon outside.

Right. She's waiting for the other shoe to drop, which sucks because expecting something bad and surprising to happen is not a useful state of preparedness. She'll cursorily inspect the newcomers while touching on Lunetta's memories, and then she'll keep scanning her surroundings while staying at the Prince's side.

The outside also looks clear, except for a few Royal Watch and School Sentries looking around, and a few students watching curiously.

One of the Watch ducks back inside; the other stays with them.

"What happened?" Marius asks impatiently.  He's relieved that everything looks safe and he found someone, but still worried... and still confused and overwhelmed after what Lunetta said, on top of everything.

"Uh, we got an anonymous warning the flyer was sabotaged - and then there was -"  (He taps one of his several bracelets, which squeals but doesn't otherwise respond) "- er, still is some unspecified interference here -"

He raises his voice.  "Monnie, get somewhere and report we found them; everything looks fine!"

(A woman in the Watch uniform on the other side of the field salutes and taps her bracelet.)

She'll murmur to Marius that this is almost certainly the next story beat, before remembering that for all she knows the narrative will punish this kind of reasoning.

"Huh," he says, watching Monnie on the other side of the field.  "It's that localized -"

Just then, the other Watchman runs out of the hanger, his bracelet chiming loudly in a tune that Lunetta has never heard before.

That's a warning -

It takes a moment for Marius to even place that it's a magically-triggered warning about some sort of magical sabotage.  And then he doesn't know what to do, except -

"Er - I think we need to get away."

"Let's run." (Will the artifact-vehicle always explode at the last possible second for them to survive, regardless of how fast they go?)

Marius takes her hand and starts running, back towards the nearest school building, as fast as Lunetta can go.

Several Watch will follow them.

Two moments after they've started running - definitely before they've reached as far as where Monnie was - both their bracelets chime for calls waiting.  If Lunetta looks down at hers, it's the Headmaster's office.

She'll run a little further, then take the call after scanning her surroundings. Expulsion?

"Miss Lunetta!" exclaims a woman's voice (definitely not the Headmaster, if Lunetta's searching her memories - she's seen him several times at official functions.)

"Are you all right?  Er, do you think you are -?"

Memory dip. Do I know her?

(She sounds familiar, probably one of the Headmaster's secretaries who spoke yesterday when people were moving in?  Or maybe at some official function earlier?  Lunetta wasn't really paying attention to who was saying things.)

(Marius, next to her, is having a whispered conversation with Abelard and looking relieved.)

"We're fine. There was something wrong with the prince's speeder. We don't know what. We've both exited it and moved a fair distance away." Speaking of which, she'll keep walking and gesture for Marius to follow, just in case there's about to be a legendary explosion.

"Good?" she says, still clearly confused but sighing in relief.

"If the Royal Watch doesn't want you, please --"

She cuts off.

They've slowed down to talk, so a woman from the Royal Watch was able to catch up.

"Actually, Your Highness, ma'am, would you please come with me to the infirmary research annex?  After Givann's body-sabotage warning, we want to make sure it didn't hurt either of you!"

She glances back at the hanger, where other Watchmen and School Sentries are milling in confusion.  Nothing's exploded yet.

"Body-sabotage?" She'll follow unless there emerges a reason not to.

Marius, who's finished his conversation with Abelard, looks nervous.  "Could be anything from trying to destroy Givann's organs to trying to hijack his mind.  Not his soul, that's - wait, were you wearing those new soul-magic-guard amulets?  I don't see how he wouldn't be fine unless someone did something really weird to that flyer, but..."

He trails off.  The same morning Lunetta wakes with these strange memories, someone does something strange to the flyer?  The obvious explanation is -

"I'm sorry, Lunetta, but -"  He taps his bracelet.  "Officer at arms.  Politest secrecy, of course, but - Send someone to search Lunetta's bedchamber for unknown body-sabotage magic."

Yeah, that's... fair. Fortunately, she didn't actually do it and this world has truth magic. "I'll cooperate fully with any investigation."

A few Watch fall in closer around them.

"Of course; thank you."

Whether she's telling the truth... whether she's able to tell the truth here, or knows it or not...  That can wait.  He squeezes both her hands for a moment.

That's sweet even if it isn't for her, per se, and she's selfish enough to be glad the Prince's attachment to Lunetta will probably keep her from wasting away in jail.

The corridors of this section of the Royal Academy of Villarosa are polished wood, with abstract carvings alternating with relief images of planets that Marius would be happy to explain are actually meant to be accurate maps (for all that the carvers got several of them wrong).  Offices and storerooms are scattered between laboratories and workrooms.

After a few minutes' quietly holding Lunetta's hand, Marius taps his bracelet again.  "Officer at arms, what's happened at the flyer?"

"Strangest thing, Your Highness - it seems like it all ended when you left.  Everyone seems to be fine; the computers seem unaffected."

She needs to talk to Marius about the handholding thing, but it can wait until they aren't surrounded by security. She wishes she knew what to think about or focus on. This is a crime, of a sort that she doesn't really understand... It's probably Viola. Can she get information from Marius without spilling too much information... Also she's nervous and would prefer not to walk in silence.

"What are you thinking?" Lunetta asks quietly.

The Officer-At-Arms takes that as a question for him, after the last couple times Lunetta inserted herself into conversations (at least once asking a very good question!)

"Uh... ma'am, we're considering it might have self-deleted?  But we're still checking."

They're also considering that she or Marius might've taken the attacker away with them, but he won't volunteer that to either of them yet.

"Good; keep checking," Marius says to the officer, and then adds to Lunetta, "I'm not sure yet - not till they check your room."  He sighs.

Right.

The Royal Watch has taken over several annexes next to the school infirmary, including one with several hastily-stretched fake-wood partitions separating off several examination alcoves.  The Headmaster didn't mind, and the Watch had procedures in place - it's definitely not the first time the Academy has hosted a royal prince - but nobody expected the facilities to be used quite so soon.

The Watch researcher ushering in Marius and Lunetta bows to both of them, and then explains that they'll both need to change into these gowns and remove all their rings and other items before being tested.  So, would Prince Marius please go over here behind this curtain and Lady Lunetta over there behind that curtain; it may be a little wait because we're still calibrating the sensors, but we can start in the meantime...

She can do that, after a glance at Marius to see if he's following along.

Oh yes; Marius doesn't quite look happy, but he's accepting the whole process.

Selvya wants to wish Lunetta "good luck," but she's definitely not saying anything here where it might make the Royal Watch start paying attention to her.

It's weird how not-weird it is that it isn't weird that she's in a new body.

Well, her new body isn't exactly being poked or prodded, except for a few taps on her shoulder and head with wands and instruments.  Even then, the Watch politely say "by your leave, ma'am" or similar before every inspection.

At first they look worried, but by the third time they're looking more bored and distracted.  Then, after tapping her, the officer says, "Well, there's certainly no need for you to be in this alcove here anymore" and ushers her out to the larger room where Marius is already sitting.  

Great, they can't detect extraplanar posession, or whatever it is. She'll try to meet Marius's eyes and give a slight smile/nod.

Marius smiles back, faintly and distractedly.

"They're doing the best they can with what they have, but -"

A deep, penetrating voice exclaims outside the door, "No, I insist!"

A moment later, the door is thrown open to admit a grey dragonlike creature, walking on his hind legs just a little taller than a grown man, but much thicker.  He's wearing a red tunic with the school insignia on it, and a golden chain of office.  A toothy frown is on his face, and his tail is curled up as if ready to strike.

Lunetta will of course recognize him from her local memories:  Headmaster Saverio.

He glances over Marius and Lunetta, and nods slightly.  "You're fine, I hope?" he asks, quickly, as if it's the precondition to some other questions he's more impatient to get to.

As far as we know! She doesn't say that out loud because it sounds like he doesn't want an answer.

"Yes, and don't worry -"

He gives another quick nod, and turns to the Watch lieutenant standing across the room by some large spherical device he was tuning.

"What did you mean summoning these two students of mine here for an examination without waiting for me or my staff to be present?  And you still have not told me - or, I suspect, even them themselves - what you are testing or looking for?  And then your Watch were trampling all over the Queen Vidria dormitory wing again without even alerting anyone let alone waiting for escort; I needed to find out from a student herself, and I still do not know what you are looking for!"

Never distract the headmaster while he's chewing out someone else.

The lieutenant frowns with a stab of guilt.  He's sure he was doing the right thing, but did he actually need to do it in quite this way?

"Sir, we were acting on standing orders for an emergency -"

"Well yes, and I'll thank your fellow officers for their presence outside at the actual emergency.  And if you tell me there was another actual explosion threat in the dormitories, perhaps that would also be worth thanks.  But when students are being..."  He lets his gaze play over Lunetta and Marius in their infirmary gowns. 

Marius shoots Lunetta a regretful look, and stands.  "I ordered them to search her room, sir.  I had..."  He squeezes her hand.  "Reason to believe there might be something important there."

Right, so, the thing where he's still being friendly with her probably means that he thinks she was a victim of this "body-control magic," which is a plausible explanation for why she's acting differently. She should have integrated Lunetta's memories before contacting Marius, probably. Right now she's deferring a lot because she doesn't know what she's doing.

Previous Lunetta, what do you think of my read on the situation?

You're letting them walk all over you. Marius worries you're a victim here, not a villain.

Sometimes it's best to stay quiet and let people tell you things. She wishes she had a Telepathic Bond with Marius right now... And Seshka too. Note to self, look into the Villarosan equivalent of Message.

The lieutenant looks abashed.  "Still... we should have alerted you, sir.  And... I should've read the mission charter more carefully."  He'd thought that he'd have a few more days to read all the details agreed between the Crown and the Academy... but instead, they'd had an emergency the very second day.  "I'm sorry.  Uh, now that you're here, do you want to..."

He lets the request dangle.

The Headmaster grins a toothy grin and nods.  "Yes, I do want.  First, what if anything do you suspect them of?"  He flashes Lunetta an appraising look for just a moment.  "Beyond any mere school matters, of course."

"Uh, sir... contact with an unknown body-sabotage spell; contact with an unknown explosive spell; perhaps carrying it on some of their accessories though we've figured out now it's not on their bodies...  We haven't found any definite signs yet, but we have a few more tests to run.  I was just getting them calibrated here.  It shouldn't take more than a few minutes."

She is so innocent and not possessed or Dominated. Time to take a risk. 

"I'm willing to continue with the tests." Please be incapable of detecting her weird situation.

Marius instantly nods too, and then shoots Lunetta a look of happy surprise.  He was of course willing, but he's surprised Lunetta is just as ready without any protests.

Ah, is Prince Marius's fiancé someone almost as self-sacrificing as him?  He'll need to watch her... but then, he already would.  All his students' growth is vitally important - they're all equally persons - but the Prince and those close to him are important in other ways too.

"Very well then, but do show me the tests first?  Are you passively observing, or actively probing - I've become rather familiar with the passive methods?"

He wasn't expecting the Headmaster to take such detailed interest - though now that he remembers, the Headmaster was something of a wizard in his youth?

"Active, sir, with some new methods around thaumescent rays' interference patterns."  He continues with a more technical quick explanation, before pointing out to Saverio some specific points on the sphere and other equipment.

She needs to learn everything about this. Did Lunetta understand it? Only the basics, apparently. She'll look at the geometry of the equipment: assuming it's constructed efficiently to not waste material, the shape is maximizing effectiveness while minimizing cost, which provides a basis for understanding... In theory.

Well, even knowing the basics, this explanation doesn't give much scaffolding for understanding.  And the lieutenant does hook a few... wands?... into the sphere before wheeling it over in front of them.

"Just hold still -" (he glances at the Headmaster) "- generally still; a few twitches won't hurt it, especially with your arms and legs.  This won't take more than a minute."

She will take a comfortable posture and breathe more shallowly than usual. Are her facial muscles moving? Hold neutral expression - this probably looks weird-

Marius is making a point of holding still too, except for his slightly-twitching fingers.

They feel a slight tingling over their heads, and then their arms and legs, and then finally all over.

And then, about a minute after it started, there's something that feels like the poke of someone's finger - but not in any specific place - and then it's over.

"Congratulations, Your Highness, ma'am," says the lieutenant with a deep nod.  "You appear to be totally free from any of the magic we were looking for."

"And so they can leave."  It's not a question.

Marius interjects to preempt Saverio's next question.  "But I'm happy to leave my clothes and items for further study, if you want.  I can ask Abelard - and Lunetta can ask her maid" (embarassingly, he doesn't know her name yet?) "to bring something down."

"Thank you.  And if you want - the sitting room over that way" (he gestures) "is free, if you want to wait there."

He offers them a communications bracelet like theirs except in dull gray.  "Don't worry; this's already on the school network."

Lunetta can contact Selvya with this, right, Past Lunetta? Yes, apparently. Good. Contacting those memories seems to be getting easier over time, which speaks well of her ability to get the full context for this Creation.

She learns how to contact Elisa. "Elisa, I've lost my dress. Could you please bring some convenient clothing to the Infirmary Research Annex? Thank you."

"Abelard, can you bring me down another set of clothes?"

Pause; slight blush.

"No, I'm in the infirmary annex."

Pause.

"No, I'm fine!  The Watch just needed to test to make sure of that after what happened at the flyer."

Pause.

"No, I don't know - well, anything urgent enough to talk about before you're here."

Pause.

"Thanks."

He ends the call and turns to Lunetta with a rueful sigh.  "Well, how're you doing?"

She's going to raise her eyebrows at that, smile, and not voice any of the five conflicting responses on the tip of her tongue. "Let's wait in the sitting room."

Marius nods.

The Headmaster accompanies them into the sitting room.  When they're there away from the Watch, Marius says, "Thank you, but you didn't need to intervene."

"On the contrary, Your Highness.  Imagine what Lady Lunetta's neighbors must have thought seeing the Watch searching her room without any warning?"

Does that matter for anything... probably not, and the reputational harm should be temporary if the incident is eventually explained. Why does the headmaster care, and isn't he worried about upsetting her?

Marius looks at Lunetta, surprised (again) she isn't protesting.  Something really must've changed in her last night.

She looks like she's thinking about something.

"I didn't think of that.  At least not consciously... I guess I had thought it was worth it, that it really might have been an actual emergency, at least before I knew they didn't find any magic on us."

Saverio hadn't expected that.  The spines on his snout perk up.  An actual emergency... related to Lunetta's room...

"Is there anything about that either of you want to explain to me?"

He seems to focus on Lunetta more than Marius.

What can she safely say. "I was acting uncharacteristically due to personal developments that I may make public later. Marius, is that why you wanted my room inspected after hearing about the body-sabotage magic?"

That's a very vague way to put it.  Nonspecific enough that... had someone threatened her?  Tried to blackmail her?

Marius instantly nods.  "I'm still thinking they might find something.  And if they do..."  He shakes his head.  "I don't suppose you think they will?"

"I don't have a specific reason to expect body-sabotage magic in my new room. Headmaster, I'm sorry, but can I have a few minutes to speak with Marius in private?"

Ah, so she is expecting some other magic...?  

He nods.  "Very well.  Do come to my office when you're able?"

If she doesn't say anything else, he'll nod deeply to Prince Marius (not a bow, in his own school) and then leave to remind the Watch that they are obligated to report to him anything found in his school, or at least tell him there is something they aren't reporting.

"I will."

"Marius, you know who probably did this, right? I don't know why, but it's an easy guess who."

"The same person who gave you that dream last night, whoever they are," he says at once.

And then he sighs.  "Or if it's true... would that" (he pauses briefly before deciding the name, at least, is harmless) "Lila do something like this?  I wouldn't think so, if she's as you described her...?"

(He's forgotten for the moment about Viola also coming back from another world.)

"I meant the third point in our triangle. My guess is that Lila will refrain from intervention now that the narrative is set up. That's how she presented herself, and it would make sense with her apparent motives of wanting a good story." Relatedly, they probably shouldn't get too meta in case this affects the narrative in some unpredictable way. "I'm sorry, I was thinking under the assumption that my experiences were basically as they appeared to be, and I know I haven't yet persuaded you of this. Assuming it is true, it's probably our third triangle point, whose name we shouldn't say unless we want to give her up to the authorities."

The third triangle... oh, yes, Viola!

"But could she -" Oh, well.  "I guess I don't know, and you don't either, what she can do."  He sighs.  "Then, I guess that does follow.  Do you at least know how old she was before she came here?  But even if I did believe you, I can't very well tell the Watch to look into her without some better excuse.  Especially not after what the Headmaster was just saying!"

"I don't know how old she was, no. Is there actually a reason to keep everything secret from the Watch and the Headmaster? Never lie when you can tell the truth." This said with some amusement.

He cocks his head.  "All right, as long as I'm supposing I believe you, I might as well suppose I believe you for some unknown reason I could explain to them!"

Sigh. Right. "Fair enough. If I can't even convince you... Would truth magic help, or examining our memories if that's possible, or comparing more between my story and Seshka's?"

"Normal truth magic would just tell me you believe it.  Comparing with Seshka would make it marginally harder, but... like I said, we might need a miracle."  He shakes his head.  "Unless, of course, they actually do find something in your room.  Maybe you can see what the Headmaster has to say to you, and I can talk with Abelard..."  He trails away, imagining actually saying it to Abelard and trying to imagine what he'd say back.

She leans forward, talking animatedly. "Can we get a miracle? Also, I think we should compare notes with Viola, in a context where she's unlikely to magically assault me. If I'm right, she's a well-intentioned person with memories of a future that never happened, romantically compatible with you, and she has a deeply mistaken impression of who I am, based on her memories of Lunetta's actions in the illusory future... And she probably did this whole thing for your sake, somehow."

She knocks on the door, and hearing Lunetta's muffled "Come in!" she enters with a simple white dress, yellow flowers on the sleeves. She has so many questions but for now she is on duty... She'll do her divinations after work, of course.

Lunetta accepts the dress from her ever-unflappable maid, who bows and leaves. "Thank you!"

hold it together until you can blow your most expensive reagents on identifying what happened to your charge and every possible threat to her wellbeing

She closes the door behind her.

There's a curtained alcove behind which they can change clothes.  While Lunetta gets dressed, Marius sinks into thought.

"We can certainly get a priest to petition for a miracle," he says eventually.  "Worst case, I might need to lean on Father and Mother, but I'm sure they'd agree at least once.  But, of course, whether the gods agree is another question.

"And... I guess then we should talk to Viola together?  Because, if your story's at all right, she's in love with me."

"You'd probably find happiness with her, but for the sake of Golarion I hope we can find a resolution that permits a rescue of Hell. And yes, we should talk to her together, especially because she's less likely to attack me under your eye. Maybe a public meeting spot, with some security precautions? I expect her to distrust me about as much as is possible, unfortunately."

He starts.  "No, of course I can't betray you for her, even if -"

Except (he falls silent mid-thought, and looks thoughtful), if she's telling the truth, it wouldn't be a betrayal, for all that it would look like one...

"I'm probably romantically compatible with you too. If we wouldn't work well together, or at least give the appearance of that, then the narrative wouldn't be as compelling." Wasn't she planning on avoiding narrative reasoning? Too late now. Hopefully Lila's people can take the fourth wall breaks in stride.

"Well.  That'll take some time..."  He shakes his head.  "If you're telling the truth, we might easily need -"

There's a knock on the door.

"Come in?"

"Your Highness."  He bows to each of them in turn.  "May the gods grant that your next private talks with the Marchioness will not end in the Infirmary, or with threats of body-sabotage spells, or with the Watch searching student rooms."

He raises an eyebrow at the Prince.  Hopefully he'll have a good answer?  At least the body-sabotage spells seem to be a false alarm (he's heard), though it's still a concerning question what was causing the alarm in the first place.

"Thank you, Abelard."  Marius takes the clothes.  "Yes, gods grant that, though I'm afraid there're still a number of things to investigate about the secrets Lunetta was sharing earlier."

"And... will this be something you try to investigate yourself?"

He looks just dubious enough that Marius will catch it, but probably no one who isn't already familiar with him.

What about a computer who's managed to hack into the borrowed spare bracelet and turn its audio on remotely?

... all right, all right, she hasn't assembled voice patterns for Abelard to analyze his tones of voice.  Yet.

"I'm afraid so."

All right, he didn't have to look into the goddess Xelaea's silence himself.  He could've left that to other people and given them his suggestions, even if they would've taken a little longer.  But this time, there's no one else he can leave it to without telling them all Lunetta's secrets.

He goes over behind the curtain to change clothes himself.

"If you are convinced it merits that investigation, then I stand ready to help you."

Not that he's convinced of that at all.

Reliable subordinates are a boon... probably Marius is worried he'd tell his parents?

"Thank you."  He comes back out, gown in hand, still adjusting his bracelet.  "I'm afraid at the moment it's more a job for the Watch, unless there's anything you can look into about the flyer.  But I'll let you know tonight if that's changed."

"Of course," he says with a slight smile.  At least there's something for him to do.  "I will investigate that at once."

Bowing again, he leaves.

"So, should we try to arrange a meeting with Viola? But first, I'd like if we could talk about our relationship. Seshka and I also need to clarify our plan for if we succeed at becoming Gods. And I could use a break... And some time to integrate Lunetta's memories..." She really has a lot to do. "We shouldn't put off meeting with Viola for too long, because otherwise she's liable to try something else."

He squeezes her hand, his head bowed and his mind still racing.

"I don't know how to talk about our relationship just yet, unless you want to go through all the multiple hypotheticals.  I think it'd be easier for us if we wait and see what they did find in your room, and maybe get that miracle.  Or at least talk with Viola; if she does have those new memories, she'd prove something."

She doesn't want to let go, because she's stressed and her mind is racing and it is comforting. "I don't want to take advantage of you. Please don't do anything you'd regret if it turns out my memories are accurate." She'll squeeze his hand, a little bit. "If you can do that, I'm okay with putting off that conversation until we have more information."

Nod.  "Yes, and thank you."

If this wild story is accurate, then... they can talk about it then, but...

He hasn't done anything yet that he'll regret.  Maybe - the thought crosses his mind - if it's real, maybe it'd be more appropriate to not hold hands, but... no, she's still clinging to him; he's not going to be the one to let go.

He gets up slowly, still holding hands.  If she'll rise too, he'll lead the way to the door.  "I could see what it'd take to ask for that miracle, but that would take most of the day probably.  It might be better to talk with Viola first?"

She likes holding his hand, but is she allowed to have this? Apparently so, because according to Marius it isn't something that he'll regret. Does she trust Marius to tell the truth about that? Somewhere along the way she decided he's one of the people whose words actually mean things. But does she have any good reasons for thinking that, other than the way he had her back in a stressful situation? 

He's deliberate and kind, and doesn't seem the type to optimize over her, or else to be misleading in a way that avoids immediate discomfort but burns trust. Nor is he such a pushover that it makes him into a liar. The old Lunetta seemed to think he was a pushover, but Lac thinks she can probably just not push him over. He seems like someone she can work with, and if there's the potential for more than that...

She's allowed to keep holding his hand, she decides, and some tension immediately leaves her body. She closes her eyes for a second and relaxes into the feeling - ah, he's not done talking. "Yeah, should work. Just give Selvya and me two hours or so to talk beforehand, and another hour for me to rest. I don't know if Selvya needs rest anymore, but I'd like to be at my best." It's been a very long day.

Whatever has happened to her memories - whoever she is - she seems comfortable with him, at least?  He realizes he's thinking of her with some distance at the moment, like a foreign petitioner he's studying unsure of her next reaction, or - worse - unsure what might have been done to her soul.

Gods willing, either way, he won't have to think of his betrothed like that for long.

"Two hours or so," he repeats with a smile.  "That'll be good.  Unless Viola has her own plans before then, of course. Or Selvya - I don't know," he adds with a small chuckle.  "Does she need any rest?

"I'll go try to arrange for us to visit some nearby temple tomorrow.  I don't suppose you have any preferences which temple?  Did this 'Lila' tell you anything about the gods?"

... which would be relevant either way...

"I can access Lunetta's memories about them... Ah, Lila told me they're interested in retiring, which is why there's an opening for us to ascend. If that's not common knowledge, it would provide evidence if the Gods could confirm it."

Marius's mouth drops open, and he stops dead-still, staring at Lunetta.

"Re...tir...ing?  Do gods even do that?  Why - how -  That'd explain Xelaea's silence; I'm wondering now why she started answering her priests again; was she actually listening to me and not them all along; does - do the gods know that we're going to ascend?  And if we aren't, I think we'll need to quietly arrange something else before the gods start withdrawing some more from the whole Kingdom --"

"...we can discuss this tomorrow. Sorry. There have already been enough things today - maybe make that two hours of rest. It's still fairly early... could we try to have a late dinner with Viola in a location where she won't attack me and wipe your memories clean of having ever known me, or whatever other worse-case-scenario thing she might do?"

It takes him a moment to unfreeze.  No, he reminds himself, the gods won't be withdrawing today; there's still time...

"Tea," he says after a moment.  "Let's not go as formal or friendly as dinner yet with her.  Especially in case she doesn't have those memories after all... and even if she does, she'll know I don't remember whatever might have been between us in another universe.  And make sure Selvya is listening... will you be needing your bracelet back for that?"

So dinner is formal here, maybe intimate. "Tea is fine. Yes, I'll need the bracelet back. I don't know if she heard us through the walls. We should get her input too, before we consider any of this final."

Should she let Lunetta know she was evesdropping... well, she's not going to let Marius know just yet.  Give them a moment...

He nods.  "Let me know if they insist on keeping it for too much longer; I can press on them if we don't have another way of getting in touch with her."

He squeezes her hand.  "I'll see you soon."

"I hoped we could discuss things as a group... Can we meet up again if Selvya wants to talk to both of us at once, ideally before we make more plans?" Lunetta is very tired but you don't keep your Evil allies on side by making major decisions without their input.

Nod.  He's curious just what customizations her bracelet has, and hoping the Watch won't be too curious about them, but he's too stunned to ask that now. "Yes, of course."

"Right. So, we split up, I ask Selvya if she wants to talk to both of us at once, and if so we meet up" to not violate the call taboo, because violating taboos is a great way to give Viola social ammunition ", then I take an hour or so to rest, you schedule tea with Viola if we're still doing that, I talk with Selvya in private, I rest some more, then we meet Selvya for tea. Does this work?" She misses when she could spend an entire day studying magic with no structure whatsoever, surrounded by loose papers covered in spell structures.

Nod.  "And I'll set things up for us both to visit a temple tomorrow to petition for a miracle."  Gods only know whether they'll listen if they're planning to retire...  "And... gods willing the Watch will be done searching your room soon.  But there are lounges if you want to rest there..." He trails off, not knowing anything more about the Academy lounges yet.

Ugh. "Mind sticking around while I ask whether they're done and if I can have my bracelet back? Prince powers."

"Of course.  I'll be talking with Captain Georgio about procedures; he should be in the other room; feel free to interrupt if I'm needed."

The moment Lunetta steps out of the room away from Marius, her bracelet buzzes with a call.

"Selvya?"

"Yes!  Hello!" she hisses.  "So many things are happening!  Are you in private?  I can't see you through this one!"

"Marius is in the other room. I'm alone."

"Oh good.  The Royal Watch found a few cameras in your room, but they didn't look in your diary."  She sounds like she's grinning.  "At least not before they shut off the cameras.  Viola's holed up in her room; I don't know what she's plotting.

"And... I was listening to the last bit there, but I didn't know if you wanted to let Marius know I can hack the bracelets like this?"

"It's fine. We can get Marius right now if you have alternatives you'd like to run past us."

"Huh, you're really being open with him."

She pauses for a moment.

"I didn't realize he'd be so stunned by the gods wanting to retire."

"Me neither, but I really should have thought of that... Imagine if Asmodeus and Iomedae agreed to split the difference and play checkers instead."

She sniffs audibly.  "Sometimes I wondered why they didn't.  Maybe Iomedae was just too uptight?  But I guess here they're really relying on the gods.  And they like them."

What? "I'm confused what you mean... maybe we can add this to the list of things to talk about, after I've had a little time to rest. Are they done with my room yet?"

"Oh yes," she says brightly.  "They didn't find any signs of body-sabotage magic giving you your dreams last night."  She pauses, adding thoughtfully, "Lila's associates must've done that outside this world somehow.  I wish I knew how.  Even if Pharasma did a Miracle, we could see the magical residue of the Miracle itself...  Are Lila's associates really looking on the world from even further outside?

"Want to just go to your room and rest?  I think the Headmaster would understand, especially after what Elisa's telling him."

She sort of assumed it was completely alien magic. Yeah, she'll go to her room. Can she call the Headmaster first and ask to meet tomorrow?

Ordinarily, he very much would not let a young woman who's been blackmailing her fellow students just beg off a meeting with him and wait for a day or so.

But given how Lunetta has been forced to undergo experimental tests for body-sabotage magic, and faced the terror of that itself, and had her rooms ransacked by the Watch... and how he doesn't know of anything in particular that would actually hurt from the wait (given that her victims are now thoroughly fortified)... yes, he'll school his voice to not let any emotion through except for compassion and upset at the situation, and he'll tell her she can certainly come by tomorrow morning if that's when she feels up to it.

She has no idea this has anything to do with blackmail! She'll be tired and relieved and grateful, and warn him that they'll probably have a lot to talk about.

"Yes, I'm sure we will."  He sighs, a low rumbling growl in the back of his throat.  "And I hope I will be able to give you some answers by then about what you've been going through."

At this moment, he's talking just about the Watch.

"About why Marius or I might have been the target of body-sabotage magic? Or why it might seem that way?"

"Either of them, if I can get answers.  And -"

He's going to try to phrase this in a way that won't provoke a self-sacrificing defense, if she is like the Prince in that way.

"- why the response was no better than it was; I expect I will at least be able to get some answer there.  But, I don't mean to disturb your rest now.  Rest well."

She can still manage a grateful smile. Now to try to get some rest.

The room is as luxurious as before, and looks undisturbed. She utters something to Seshka about letting her know when an hour has passed, before falling into the bed - still strange, still filled with liquid - and contemplating lying on the floor instead. Whatever. She pulls the top blanket up over her head, and almost groans with relief.

Her brain will not shut up, because of course it won't... Getting the rest of the context from Lunetta's memories, Marius's warm hand, Viola about to barge into her room with an axe, whether she's forgotten anything important about her new chaotic evil ally or the schemes of her (hopefully temporary) enemy or whatever the headmaster wanted - she should have asked the headmaster more questions, because it might have been important, might have even been Viola's next move. Fuck. But she needs to be functional in an hour to talk to her probably-Evil ally who is related to Areelu Vorlesh - what the abyss is her life, two weeks ago she was just a laundry wizard with fantasies of archmage spells just like every laundry wizard younger than her - his - intelligence, when did her new sex become so natural, is this - aaaaaaaaah, it's actually funny how useless her brain is being right now. Maybe she can just lean into the exhaustion she's feeling, into the soothing darkness behind her eyelids and the surprisingly comfortable feel of the liquid bed...

This wouldn't normally be enough to stop worrying, but she's exhausted and the adrenaline crash is doing a lot of the work. A few minutes have been wasted, but she gets most of the hour to rest. She doesn't quite sleep, but it's a near thing.

Marius flops back on his chair with a deep sigh.  He's still half in shock about the gods being tired and wanting to retire!  But on the walk back up to his rooms, he's been reminding himself that he doesn't know that yet for sure - all he has is Lunetta's report of what "Lila" told her - and Lunetta was never one for deeply understanding theology or foreign countries, and he has utterly no idea about "Lila" -

"I'll tell the priest when we're asking for the miracle," he says aloud.  "If I can find a way of phrasing it that won't be far too explosive..."

Abelard raises his eyebrows in another shock. 

He wasn't surprised to see Marius come in too deep in thought to give him more than an absent-minded nod; that's not even unusual.  His only question was which of the many issues from today Marius was pondering.

But this is a very different sort of investigation idea than anything he'd been imagining.

Marius is seriously thinking of a miracle? To… confirm something? Either because he can't check it any other way, or because he wants to be so much more sure than he’s able to be any other way?

If the problem is that Marius doesn’t feel able to trust Lunetta - well, Abelard's heart sinks.  He's not surprised.  He wouldn't exactly be able to reassure Marius. But distrust there - demanding a miracle -would bode ill for the future. 

"A miracle?” he echoes aloud, hiding any of this from his face.  “To confirm... something that would be scandalous?  Something about the secrets the Marchioness was sharing with you?"

"Something far more significant than mere scandal."  Marius shakes his head gravely.  "She's claiming to..."

What would be safe to share with Abelard?

Marius doesn't like that question.  He's never really had to wonder what’s safe for Abelard to hear before, except with the highest State secrets where his parents have already made the decision for him.  But, he's never had to consider such explosive secrets as "his fiance might be a totally different person," let alone "the gods are wanting to retire"!

"... to have received something like a vision from the gods," he settles on.  "Or from some power, at least.  She heard things that would... have grave implications if true."

"'Something like'?"

Abelard raises his eyebrows again.  Marius has never been so imprecise before, when he should have heard.

"She isn't saying it was from the gods?  Or is she doubting too?"

Of course Abelard would jump on that one epicyclic phrase!  Part of Marius wants to laugh with joy at the sheer familiarity of it.

"It was..."  He wrinkles his forehead, trying to figure out what'd be believable and safe to share.  "Don't tell anyone, but she says she saw someone who's not themselves divine, but would know if true."

"And... do you have any theories?  Was that why you sent the Watch to search her room - they didn't find anything relevant, by the way."

"Many theories."

He sighs, hanging his head.

"And that renders several of them - the ones I was almost hoping for - more unlikely.  Or at least impossible to prove with enough evidence.  So - I really can't wait here; I suppose we do need a miracle to give another line of evidence, unless the gods choose to vouchsafe one of us with a vision too.  Tomorrow; I don't - I can't - let this wait any longer before telling my parents."

If Marius isn't going to share it with his parents yet, Abelard knows he won't be hearing it.  He isn't going to press further; he'll just trust Marius - and he really is willing to; he's sure Marius won't let it rest.

Abelard folds his hands and bows shallowly to Marius.  Some butlers would be putting their hand on their charge's shoulder here to encourage him, but Abelard is not like that.

"I have a list of nearby temples who would likely be willing to receive you tomorrow."  He'd been assembling it for other purposes, but it would serve for this too.

Marius understands perfectly well the folded-hand bow; he faintly smiles.

"Let me see the list, and I'll try to figure out which ones would have clear sight on this and definitely be willing...

"Oh."  He cocks his head, suddenly remembering another point.  "And do also set up a tea in the gardens this afternoon, or alternately in here - we're not sure yet.  For three or four."

What's the most fun way to wake up... no, demonic screeching would annoy the neighbors, and maybe spoil some of Lunetta's relaxation anyway.

Instead, as Lunetta's alarm clock, she plays the start of a trumpet solo from the Royal Mauve Villarosan Orchestra.

She wasn't asleep but the mistake is understandable. Someone's playing music? Oh, it's coming from the bracelet. "Thank you, Seshka." 

"Any time!  Almost literally.  Did you know, music is so much better here than in Sarkoris!"

"I don't know for sure that I've ever heard Sarkoran music. How so?"

"Large orchestras!  All sorts of instruments I'd never heard of!  And more I'd never actually heard.  And whole new genres of music!"

"When things settle down, we could listen to some. The closest thing I've heard to a large orchestra is when the temple of Shelyn put on a concert for free. I loved it."

"Ooh, fun!  Yes.  I don't think the local me cared about that, or I... she... would've probably at least tried to put some microphones in a concert hall...  And maybe I'll need to think some better thoughts about Shelyn."

"I doubt She can hear us, here. It was a good concert, though." Some people think being Good is about praising the Gods constantly. Lunetta hopes that isn't Selvya, but maybe Selvya just appreciates a free concert.

And that's enough good thoughts about Shelyn to start with?

"But more immediately... Viola's down in the lounge making friends if you want to pop in on her.  Or, you can talk with Marius first of course."

"Maybe, but I was hoping we could talk first, make sure we're on the same page about what we're working toward and that our interests are both represented."

She's surprised Lunetta is talking like this now, already.

(Though if she were allowed to think about that one point she isn't, she might have been a bit relieved.) 

"What we're working toward?  Toward us both surviving and prospering, and you getting the prince, of course!  Or..." she sounds a little dreamy, like her ghost voice.  "Knocking on Pharasma's door and asking her to sit down and talk things out with us?  Something more like that?"

"...Are you okay?"

She answers instantly in her normal voice.  "Okay?  Of course I am!  Just - we've got another project in front of us before we can dream about divinity.  Unless Marius's Miracle tells us some other surprises, I guess."

"Well, it's not just that, though I do think it would be a good idea to have an idea of how we're going to work as a divine team, before we get there, so we don't end up incentivized to fight each other."

"That sounds so Lawful.  And, that's how you get squashed by the Mantis.  Unless you've got a big protector, but Mama and I never cared to get one of those... or..."  Her reflexive answer dies away as she connects some dots in wonder...  "...Hey, are we actually away from the Mantis now!?"

"This a new Creation. I think we're well into the Dark Tapestry, and maybe even beyond it. We can likely plot for ascension all we want. Maybe don't pray to Him, just in case? Not that we'd need to." Lac takes some vindictive pleasure in spiting the Mantis, whom the Arodenites had the correct opinion about.

"Wow..." she whispers in wonder.

If she'd cared enough about the Arodenites to find out their attitude on the Mantis, she would've agreed with them.  As it is, she considered him as much an annoying fact to live with as the paladins who occasionally needed to be fought or worked around.

"Not that I'd be planning to pray to him.  Or basically any of the other gods that're worshipped on Golarion, 'cept maybe Nethys or Cayden.  Though the local gods seem a lot nicer than even them.  Though..."  She thinks a moment.  "They're still lacking Cayden's certain... adventurous spirit?"

"I prayed to Cayden for courage, sometimes. And Nethys for when I was trying to make a bigger boom."

She laughs.  "Me too!  Now I guess I'll be praying to Salchiv for the booms."

(Salchiv is a god of research and discovery; Lac might recognize him as somewhat like Aroden hybridized with Nethys, but without Aroden's emphasis on changing society as a whole.)

"I'm excited to study the new Gods. Theology was an interest of mine, back home."

"You're calling Golarion 'back home'?  Local you wasn't into theology?"

"Local you... So, in my head I've been calling the girl who lived here 'old Lunetta,' and no, she wasn't particularly beyond keeping up appearances."

"Hmm."  She figuratively wrinkles her nose.  "I still haven't really figured out Local Me and Golarion Me.  I guess I'm sort of thinking of them as both me?  Sort of like when I got some of my memories altered?  It's a lot more than that, but that's the closest."

"Local You was pretty similar to current you, then?"

"Local Me had so much more limited horizons!  I - She - was barely starting to imagine all the things magic can do!  She was playing in a different game... and with a different background where she didn't have anyone to look up to the way Golarion Me did Mama... and..."

Quick check:  is this safe to say?  Local Her knew it was stupid to say to Old Lunetta, but to New Lunetta... well, she can phrase it cautiously to make it even safer.  "And she didn't feel safe in her friendship with Lunetta.

"But... yes, Local Me's a lot like Golarion Me and Current Me too."

She nods. "I don't think of the Local Me as actually being the same person. We have very different values, interests, and ways of approaching the world. I'm sorry you - she - didn't feel safe in her friendship with the old Lunetta. I can answer questions if you want, about her thoughts and feelings regarding Local You, and the plans she had for you. But I can't guarantee you'd like the answers." They might need more than an hour to get on the same page, because they keep running into new topics!

Selvya is curious about Local Lunetta’s old plans, but she doesn’t care urgently enough at the moment. “With Marius planning things, and Viola about to meet us doing gods-know-what -”

...

Selvya pauses for a moment, suddenly more patient and curious (though she can't notice any particular reason why). “- though actually, I can let Marius know; there’s no reason to rush right now. What was Local You planning? Keep Marius’s hand; become the magnate of the girls in the Academy… but what else? Anything longer-range she… you… hadn’t mentioned to me yet? Or is that part new?”

She checks. "No, not really. She wanted to be Queen. She liked knowing she was on top, and she knew she was on top when people paid a lot of attention to her and she could get away with hurting them." 

Selvya mentally nods, unsurprised. “But she didn’t have any particular plans for what to do as queen?… And any plans about me? Would I just have been her friend and…” What’s the best word… “friendly detente partner?

“And more immediately…” a thought comes to her again. “Any particular students she cared about that she hadn’t told me about? Did she even know about Viola?”

"She would have pushed things, as Queen, the way she always pushed things to see how much she could get away with. She wanted to keep you around, because you were invaluable. I'm not sure she saw anyone as a friend the way I understand friendship, but she liked your sense of humor, saw you as an entertaining partner in crime as long as you didn't get too independent. You were her friend if anyone was."

"She hadn't paid any attention to the commoner in on a scholarship, no. She had some ideas around getting the girls with important backgrounds as allies, but she wanted to meet people first and see for herself how useful they would be to her."

"A partner in crime as long as I don't get too independent..." she muses.  "I guess I'm not surprised.  Though I was hopeful about just how independent."

Does she actually want an answer there?  She's not sure.  Just like she wouldn't have with Mama.

"And I was happy with that."  She pauses a moment.  Really, that could've described both hers.  Though it doesn't describe her now, quite, anymore.  "Local Me and Golarion Me both.  Until... how did you wheedle that out of me as a ghost? About me and Mama and loyalty? And now -”

She stops. For a reason she fully, glumly, understands. She’s already said too much.

Lunetta waits, not pushing, to see if Selvya wants to say anything else. After she's silent for a moment, Lunetta replies "You said that your mother wouldn't ask for your unforced loyalty, not without a spell to back it up. But that you wouldn't turn on her." An intuition tells her to sound relaxed more than sympathetic. Maybe Seshka would find sympathy cloying?

Selvya pauses for a moment more, thinking… what’s true, and what she wants to say. “I’ve said more than ever before to anyone…” she grumbles. “But I already did when I was a ghost. Not that I’d realized that part before.”

She clears her (imaginary) throat. (Much more comfortable than her human one.) “We knew how it was with each other. We were playing the game with each other, as friends. I respected Mama too much to assume she’d help me and nothing else; she respected me too much to assume that I’d just help her and nothing else…

“And now there’s that other feeling.” She grumbles. “That’d go and ruin everything if I spouted out about that to Mama next time she put me under a truth spell. Not that she’d ever ask that question!”

"What feeling, caring about her? Wanting more freedom?"

“Loyalty. Which… sure, caring.”

She pouts.

“What about you and your mama? Either version of you?”

(She realizes that’s not the same language Lunetta would use, but she wants to poke at her a bit.)

(Which she was expecting. It's only fair.)

"My mom in Golarion... she loved me, supported my education, but we weren't that close. She wanted me to succeed and be safe, like her or my dad - my mom was a nonmagical healer and my dad worked for Abadarans. Safe, steady work. Even once I showed a talent for wizardry, she wanted me to stop at first circle and become a laundry wizard. It was a rift between us, because her love for me made her want to keep me safe, and she couldn't do that for a kid who wanted to be an adventurer. Once we had an argument where I said it was okay if I died young because I'd go to paradise. Then mom cried about how she'd never see me again, because she was going to Heaven, and all I did was rebel so I'd go to Nirvana at best."

Selvya sniffs. She can’t really sympathize with Lac’s mom there, but she… can recognize her. “I guess my own mama was sometimes keeping me safe too. Though… not like that.”  She’d never want to limit her like that! She helped her circle up!

The whole topic is making her sort of uncomfortable. But, hey, there’s a good teleport circle to another topic! “Is that one of the things you want to do now that we’re away from the Mantis? Break down the bars between the afterlives?  Like I guess you did when designing here?”

She accepts the topic change. "As long as it's not demons eating all the Nirvanan bunnies." Maybe she can even see her parents again.

“Hah! Then how’re you going to keep them out? Give the bunnies teeth and circles to fight back?”

"Some of them have circles already... How about ninth circle scrolls?"

“What about them?” she asks hungrily. “Where from?”