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Since reading magic theory books and thinking about spell design are both things that can be done while cuddling, Siva's been doing less of the "divide her time between Tanaikon and the library" thing over the past few days since a certain emotionally complicated conversation. Cuddling is good. Falling asleep in her lover's arms is also good. Siva did that tonight.
It's not where she wakes up.
"I just hope no one manages to run and fetch her before I can find my father," says Seofar.
Turns out someone ran and fetched Linsi-kelen Aeleva.
As they walk down a long corridor, a woman steps out of a side passage about twenty feet ahead. She appears to be on fire and in a bad mood.
"Seofar!" she says. "What the fuck have you done with my son? And if the answer involves Nahira -"
"Catch," he says, taking Nahira's soul out of his pocket and tossing it to her.
Mostly on reflex, she catches it.
Her eyes go wide. The flames die down.
"...what the fuck," she repeats, in a very different tone.
"Your son vanished from his bed in the middle of the night. I have no idea why. Now get out of my way; I'm here to see my father."
...So presumably the soul-touching thing doesn't apply when the bearer is dead. Huh, okay.
Does anyone seem to have noticed her? She's not going to go out of her way to be noticed just yet.
"Whatever. Did you storm into the castle and murder him when he announced the wedding?"
"That's between me and my Emperor."
She leads them deeper into the palace.
This announcement is perfectly timed so that as the four of them enter Esarkan's office they find him blinking speechlessly at the door, utterly baffled.
Siva giggles and looks him over.
So this is, probably, the Last Emperor. Not what he would have looked like, of course, but the idea that she's standing in front of some kind of duplicate of one of the most ubiquitous historical figures her culture has is...pretty fun, actually.
He recovers his composure pretty quickly, unlike his giggling son.
"To what do I owe the pleasure?" he inquires.
He waves a hand vaguely, still giggling.
"I'm - done with the whole business," he says. "Have fun cleaning up my mess. You may be a sarcastic emotional void but your granddaughter's probably still better off with you than back in Tairasante, so here she is."
"When I confronted him he threw this at me," Aeleva adds, holding up Nahira's soul. "An explanation has not been forthcoming so far."
Esarkan looks between the dead soul and his son a few times, then rests his eyes on Siva.
"And who's this?"
Siva waves and vaguely wishes she spoke enough Nuimena to explain, at least enough to make the whole thing even more surreal.
"She appeared from another world when Taliar vanished. She doesn't speak Nuimena, at least not well. She manifested her soul when I explained the dangers of being in my father's palace, and then he carried her off and when they came back Nahira was dead."
Esarkan looks amused.
"Pleased to meet you, Nentiane Siva. I am Dekha-fanshel Esarkan, Emperor of Nuime."
"Pleased to meet you," she parrots, guessing that the first part of what he said was a greeting.
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