"Your identities are important to your words being taken seriously. I think that it's better for you to speak as yourselves. Here on the estate, under my protection, with Mira as the only servant on duty... It's worth the risk."

"Oh good. In that case..."

She raps a knuckle on her chest-plate.

The armor manages to express exasperation without moving.

Then a soft wet squelching sound comes from inside the metal, along with a pleased, muffled groan from Yosaphen.

"... Please do not have sex in front of my patron."

There's a muffled feminine noise, a wet slurp, and then, "You just said we should stop hiding our identities."

Kamryn, meanwhile, tries to set aside her itching additional questions in favor of marshalling her words.

She needs to tell the story right.

"Amira," she interrupts whatever the woman was going to say to Yosaphen, "You misunderstood me when I first explained. The words I used weren't the right words. Can you tell me, what the right words are? Do you know?"

"We'll need to go through it again for him. He'll probably have similar reactions to me, but a little less so because I'm here vouching for you. You should emphasize that there's no such thing as nobility where you come from - calling her the "Red Queen" is confusing, it makes her sound like she's just a noble when she's really a mindslaving witch with no actual subordinates, just drones. Stress that there is proof of the mind control, that it's on a massive scale, and that she's indiscriminate about what she takes."

She looks down at her hands in her lap. "State your case as clearly as you can, and do your best to be deferential even if he says something you find offensive. This isn't your world, and I have never known my patron to be an unintelligent man."

Kamryn shoves her additional questions down again and focuses on just the immediate parts.

"So 'queen' means something different here. Alright. What is your word for, um, the entity that is a hive, then? What is 'deferential' and how do I be it? And what words would've made you understand that the Red Queen is 'eating' us, not just conquering us, without having to re-explain that part?"

"It is queen, you have the translation correct, it just has two senses. Just clarify that you mean "queen" as in "ant queen." Deferential is - act like what he thinks is more important than what you think, I don't have time to teach you ettiquette. Tell him that the Red Queen absorbs others into herself through mind control, that she doesn't have subjects or slaves but that she has more of herself, stolen from those who once had those bodies. She possesses those she controls, like a ghost. That should express the difference between her and, say, the Blackthorns."

Kamryn nods.

"I think you need to explain 'deferential' again because I don't think I understood that part."

"Bell Kingdom is heirarchical - slaves at the bottom, then farmers and hunters, then merchants and craftsmen, then adventurers and mages, then the nobility. So if you are a farmer and you are talking to a magecrafter, then you need to show you understand that their time is more valuable than your time - they could be making magical items that let people double their harvests, while you are just harvesting one field. So you don't waste their time, you use certain forms of language that show you understand that they're more important than -"

A door opens, and Mira escorts in a goblin gentleman.

Amira immediately stands and curtseys. "My lord. Please forgive my guests; they are from far to the east, beyond the reach of kingdoms, and do not understand our customs."

"It's enough, Amira. Sit. I take it this is urgent enough to wake me; please explain the matter."

Amira sits, and gestures to the group. "This group of tentacleds and their Lover have come from far to the east to warn of a threat to Bell Kingdom and the world. I will let Kamryn express it to you, though I may interject to clarify if need be."

So 'be deferential' just means she shouldn't waste this guy's time, okay.

If the boy who stumbled into their camp days ago had been this helpful, that sure would've saved everyone's time from waste, wouldn't it have.

"We've been sent as advanced scouts to investigate the rumored Lonely Heart far to the west of here, because the... leaders in the Pink believe recovering the Heart and returning it to the Pink may be our only hope of stopping the Red Queen before she consumes the Realm. The Red Queen---and that is 'queen' like 'ant queen' not whatever it usually means in the west---absorbs all others into herself using 'mind control' and other methods that leave nothing behind but more of herself. She is currently contained to the northern Pink by a psychic barrier, but that barrier could fall at any time."

Half-second pause.

"The Red Queen has been raiding the lands west of the Fringe, taking people to be... mind-broken... into new drones. I don't know if her raids have reached this far west, yet, but they will soon, and the people here and beyond must be warned that those raids are not coming from the Tentacled, but from a terrible threat to all life posing as the Tentacled. The Red Queen wants us at war. We suspect the purpose of her raids is to fool you into believing the Tentacled peoples have united to attack you. To turn her enemies against each other so they, so we, can't stop her."

Kamryn takes a breath.

"This is the first major permanent settlement we've reached in our journey. Through chance we happened to meet Amira. She tells us that you are the best person we could talk to, to provide aid in spreading this warning among your people."

Lord Halentry strokes his chin and nods seriously. 

"You were right to wake me for this, Amira. This is going to be delicate. There's already a certain level of mistrust of tentacled-folk, and if they were to begin to raid us then I'm sure the sentiment would only redouble. The natural reaction would likely be indiscriminate retaliation - which, if this report is true, would only make things worse."

He paces down the room, then turns. "Making our situation even less politically convenient is the distance to the Pink. Most people are unlikely to care until the Red Queen is at our doorstep. There are many awful things and people out in the less friendly corners of this world, and mostly they are content to reside in their own domains; Even the Hawthorns are willing to trade, on occasion."

He crosses his arms and hmphs. "I could bring this to a council of the nobility, but they'll be slow to act at best on the basis of a single adventuring party with loyalties that are elsewhere. Have you cast the stars, Amira?"

"I haven't had time to. I do believe they'll confirm the story."

"Best not to waste time, then. Go out to the garden and do so now. With a strong star-cast, I may be able to convince some of the more devout factions without needing direct evidence."

Amira rises, curtseys, and exits the room with a glance backwards at Kamryn.

Lord Halentry looks at Kamryn. "Do you have any experience of how leadership and politics work in the west?"

Kamryn and Yosaphen-Lygos and Talance all exchange confused glances as the goblin talks. Kamryn starts to open her mouth to object to... she doesn't have the words.

She's not even sure she has the concepts, to go with what the goblin 'noble' just did.

"Clearly not, no. It was our intention to give the same warning we just gave you to as many peoples as possible, and I'm having trouble understanding why no one we've talked to seems willing or able to entertain the idea of spreading the warning to everyone instead of just a select few."

"I'm gonna be so tired if it turns out we should've gone with our first plan: sneak onto the tallest roofs and just shout the warning over and over all day."

The armor makes a sarcastic rattle-squelch.

"That too."

"You would likely be arrested for causing a disturbance, and on suspicion of being Red Eye cultists. I do intend to inform the general public, but few of them are likely to care beyond having one more source of fear in their lives... Well, we can hope for some adventurers or errant knights to take it seriously."

He sighs. "In the west... Well. My family made its fortune as magecrafters many generations ago, and by that ancient wealth I am considered more "worthy" than any commoner you should happen to pass on the street. My peers on the council include devotees of the Strict Master who believe people are meant to be bought and sold, goblins who think that humans are uneducated prudes, humans who think goblins are lecherous and dangerously unstable, merchant-lords who value gems over people, and people who happen to be in charge just because their ancestor was good at killing things. This group of fools is largely more interested in fighting for advantage over each other than the good of the country or the city - and they're the ones who control the magic and the warriors."

He folds his hands together. "I do what I can."

Well. Good to have confirmation that they didn't waste multiple days waffling for nothing; the locals would have attacked them if they'd tried to openly deliver the warning.

"In what sense are they in charge if they don't... no, nevermind, I'll probably need to know this later but I heard Amira when she said not to waste your time. Do you have any more questions for us? Is there anything we can do to," Kamryn doesn't know the word 'expedite', "help this along?"

"What evidence could be provided that might convince a fractious, squabbling council of fools that this is -"