"Do you even know what caused this one, if it wouldn't be prying?"

"- it would be a little prying."

"Sorry, I'll drop it."

"Thank you," she says. "I'll go make the arrangements. The safest place for you in the meantime is here."

"Is the lindworm a hazard when it isn't married?"

She pauses.

"...It's complicated."

"Okay, if 'safest' means 'absolutely safe' and you don't wanna talk about it then I won't ask, but if I'm still at nonzero risk in here then I think I would like to hear more about what the risk is."

"Nothing is ever absolutely safe," she says. "It's more important to make sure of the arrangements. I'll explain afterward if I have time."

"Alright, I trust your judgment. Thank you."

She nods. She leaves.

It's kind of boring in here.

Sigh. Well, better temporary tedium than permanent fatality. She occupies herself as best she can imagining how the encounter with the lindworm is going to go.

The princess shows up again several hours later with ten shifts and a wedding dress.

"Everything's arranged. I won't have time to talk to you again until tomorrow. Here's your list. Good luck."

"...Thank you," she says.

(Something's wrong, something beyond the lindworm. She's not sure what, but--something's wrong.)

"Good luck to you too. For whatever you can use it for."

"- thank you," she says, almost but not quite smiling, and then she leaves again.

This is all pretty concerning but realistically it's going to have to wait until after the wedding. Lindworm first, then whatever problem the Princess has. She dons the shifts.

Shortly, some guards show up to escort her to her wedding.

She goes willingly, of course.

Neither the king nor the princess is in attendance.

Her groom is a forty-foot-long green scaly creature with a fanged dragonish head and two scaly green arms with surprisingly humanlike hands, accounting for the claws and the scales. He hisses his lines as though by rote.

...Huh. That's...interesting...

She repeats her own lines dutifully, studying the creature across from her as she does.

He stares back at her. His eyes are a brilliant poisonous green.

She feels a stab of sympathy for the creature. Presumably it--no, he--hadn't been the one to fuck up some magical advice and bring this all down on everyone.

Well. Nothing for it but to carry on.

Guards stand ready to escort her to the bridal chamber if necessary. The lindworm slithers through the halls, moving with grace and power.

She does not need guards to escort her, thank you very much. She'll walk there on her own, briskly and with her head held high.

They arrive. The door is closed and locked behind them.

The lindworm glances at the tubs of milk and lye and the pile of birch rods. Then he coils himself on the floor next to the bed and stares at her.

"Maiden, shed your shift for me."

Well then.

"Serpent, shed your skin first."