That nation - about 60% crowfolk, per capita, but that's not particularly relevant to whether they have useful combat advice for Lila - is, well, firstly it's more like a coalition of clans.  Secondly, they thrive atop mountainhomes that're especially gnomic, as long as no-one explodes them suddenly.  Thirdly is that their war-dancers excel at battlefield control while still being sharp in a close-in fight. 

(They actually have a small exchange program with the Royal Academy, though crosstrained wizard-shamans are very unlikely to make it without getting their necromancer's writ, in the long run.  The mindset of pure Order has trouble listening to the spirits to build bonds - but Villarosa has uses for practitioners of Decay.  Not often glamorous ones, but uses nonetheless.  The sewers' elementals always need minding.)

"Then I'd definitely like to start working on that soon."  Maybe she can get to things before Princess Alicia.

"And talk with the war-dancers - to talk about this, and also about Papa.  Maybe we can visit them in a few weeks?"

"...A visit...  No, that would conflict with my," your, "obligations to the Barony.  Can't go leaving it at random, Kosvin would have my hide.  But perhaps they might be interested in visiting.  You do have promise, and they haven't settled down so much as I."

"Of course."

Hmm, there needs to be some excuse she can muster to leave soon.  Some errand for the Barony, maybe, leaving Mattan behind?

"The more involved with the Barony you get, the less you're going to be able to go gallivanting, you know."  His face is almost wistful.  "And I'm not letting you out of bowshot range right now, I'm sorry.  Regent's authority, you're staying till you're good if you're learning to fight."

But he does have a compromise.  "...If you're just, wanting to talk with someone who really knew your Papa...

"...The war-dancers, any number of those people who were there, then, it's not them who would've known, even if bonds forged themselves in the fires of that battle that have not been sundered since.  That whole thing, was just everybody scrambling everything they could raise fast enough.  Nevermind how they came to be there, because nobody likes demon lords.  But if -

"If you want to hear about another side of him, or something I didn't see...

"I could try to write some of his old comrades.  Get the venture back together.

"It's...been too long, anyway."  He exhales, like it pains him.

"And you have your nameday coming up soon, don't you?"

"...She does, Lord-Regent Hyas."  And she has completely failed to think of a good nameday gift.  Oh no.  Oh no.  She's being such a bad friend-and-potential-vassal!  What is she going to do?

"...I must admit that I've not thought of anything to give that seems, uh, good enough, myself.  I could maybe...

"...But surely you have more effective equipment than anything I can yet make available to you, Lady Lila?  I've not yet managed to anchor anything complex...

"...I don't have...

"I could, I suppose, attempt to make something aesthetically pleasing, rather than of practical use, but...

"...Is there - something in particular?  That you might like for your nameday, my lady?  I don't think I'll be able to even start on the spirit swords until we both know more about spirits, but - I could make you something?  I'd like to.  You deserve good things, and I think even the crotchetiest coots in town would agree you've been dealt a bad hand.  And I know I haven't - done much in the prior years, but with how everything is - starting to feel so important - with how we're going to be training and maybe adventuring - I would be remiss if I didn't act."

Lila's met people who were this flustered and overwhelmed at her before, back when she was Queen.  "Don't worry," she says with a smile, squeezing Diana's shoulder for a moment.  "I actually don't have much good equipment my size right now."

Nameday... what does she want for her Nameday...?

A successful quest.

Well, she can't very well ask for that.

"And don't worry about my Nameday - whatever you're making for me would be more than enough."

"I - yes.  As you say, Lady Roisen."

...What would suit...?

"...Ser Mattan, am I needed further?  I need to go work something out.  For smithing.  Before I forget it."

She does have some ideas, now that she's thinking about it.

He weighs his alternatives, and the things he's observed.

...There's some things he wants to discuss privately with Lila anyway, he thinks.

"...You may go, Diana.  I saw enough of your prior spars to not require further assistance in Lady Roisen's training for today.  Return at the quarter-bell before the militia's training block starts; if you've this much skill in observation, I am not letting you escape helping the militia train any longer.  Teaching is learning, too."

"...Yessir!"

And off she goes, frenetically muttering something about the nature of Blink, which is not a simple enchantment to lay.  (It's not really something you're supposed to enchant into something at all, so the town's few proper mages would likely be quite confused if they heard about it.  Diana, however, has had a couple ideas while thinking about swords - mostly to do with the fact that she has much more aptitude for the Light than most enchanters will ever approach, and Lila also has such an aptitude.)

"...Well, then.  You should thank Squire Pallas for her mercy, next you see her.  I would not have been quite so light a touch with the training weapons, in those spars.  ...And while she is not here, I will advise you to have care for her heart.  She thinks the world of you.  Perhaps overmuch so."

A pause.

"That's not why I let her run off, however.  I wanted to ask about the prior training I certainly didn't give you.  If nothing else, we'll need to keep our stories straight."

His wry look is, if anything, one of sadness.

"If you intend to continue dissembling about... this, whatever it is - you'll need to do better than you have.  Your mother and I had an interesting conversation, just a few minutes ago, and I can't imagine that my squire hasn't picked up that you have habits you shouldn't have had time to mislearn, if she's picked up everything else about your combat skills that she indubitably has.  It would be nice if you talked about it."

Better, by a thousand times, him than just about anyone else.

She can tell him everything she hinted at with her mother.

"I think it was the dream I had, about the demon lord.  I... I'm convinced it was more than just a dream.  When I woke up, I could remember things as clearly as if I'd lived through them."

"...A prophecy, then?"

"I think so."

And then they pushed Villarosa off the rails of Fate.  But prophecies in this world were never precisely reliable anyway.

"We will have to talk about the details somewhere more secure, soon.  ...But what was -

"No.  I sha'n't ask that here, and you shouldn't tell me anything, either.  Still, there were some very confusing things that your mother said you said were part of that dream, and proper understanding of prophecy is important.  Right now, though...

"We're going to work on getting those bad habits you learned from it under control.  And then you'll go tell your mother that you're not shadow-blind, because she's worried about you, Lila."

Of course they were talking with each other... and of course he has theories.  For a moment, she wishes the tracks of Fate were still around, where she could be sure this wouldn't go anywhere.

"Some of it was... personal things I'd really rather not share, and I'm sure they weren't part of the prophecy.  But - yes, we can talk later."

Once she thinks about what she told her mother and figures out how much she wants to share.

"Mama?  Ser Mattan said you were worried about me?"

Selma nods slowly.  At least he's looked at Lila again and talked with her.  "He was worried about you too.  You're... different this morning.  Your spirit's different."  She doesn't want to mention what he said about multiple spirits, not just yet.

She pauses.  After a moment's silence, she leans forward and asks, "What was it in your dream?  It wasn't just a prophecy, was it?"

"No.  I..."

She was about to say "I don't know," but the words suddenly morph on her tongue.  She can't keep Selma - Mama - totally in the dark.  Not now, when there's no good reason except messing up the story.

"The other me didn't tell me exactly how."

Selma sits down, gestures for Lila to sit beside her, and folds her hands.  "Who was this 'other you' in the dream?  What did... she... tell you?"

She sits, and squeezes Mama's hand.

"She's... I think... who I would've been later in my life if things had gone differently.  I don't know exactly how-differently, or how I'm meeting her."  No need to explain everything about Maranon just yet.

"And she says I'm... melding..."  She shakes her head.  "I'm getting some of who I would've been if some things had gone differently.  I don't know how I'm melding.  I didn't ask that part."

She hugs her daughter.  Whatever wild courses in life she might've seen last night -

"And part of that was the prophecies?  How much did you get?"

"A lot of memories.  Some of which are the prophecies.  And - some bad reflexes in swordfighting because the last time I remember swordfighting someone I was years older and in a body that'd been through some significant magic.  And I don't know what else."

"But still - I'm still Lila.  And I remember you in those other memories -"

(in Maranon, a lady-in-waiting but still with no family fully her own; in Villarosa, half-dead thanks to the demon cultists)

"- I love you, Mama."

She hugs her Mama back.