(Her Queen-memories jumped in disbelief.  She'd asked the "Will of the Multiverse" to bring with her Jenny and Selma; had it really without her asking dragged Kosvin of Trinnshire out of his generations-old grave to act as her father here?)

... but now Ser Kosvin was dead (and she had no way of answering her question, even if she could remember better what sort of person Kosvin of Trinnshire had been).

She remembered (her Lady-Lila-memories) crying over the ashes of her father's corpse that had been all his friends had brought home.  She remembered his funeral - standing up in a new scratchy black dress, with a cold brass circlet in her silver hair to mark that she was the new Baroness, standing arrow-straight both for her father's sake and for her own since she was now a Baroness too.  And she hadn't heard anything but rote words of vague sympathy.

And then, after she and her mother (ah, Selma, she thought!  With a huge sorrow behind her, even here in her second life) returned to their tower, she heard absolutely nothing from all the nobles who'd expressed their sympathies.

So, she realized, she couldn't just wait and trust them.  She realized that she'd need to carry on herself and do more great deeds like her father had.

And on top of all this, she remembered as if she (Queen Lila) had seen it in a tirehroot vision (though she didn't remember when!) watching Lady Lila join the Royal Academy of Villarosa and win the heart of Prince Caspar away from the evil Princess Alicia, and foil the Princess's plot to release the evil demon...

She half-jumps, and ends up sitting up in bed.  No, her Queen-memories told her; here Alicia was her friend!

No, her Villarosa-memories told her; she was the Princess; Lila wouldn't dare just trust her!

She sits like this for a few minutes before realizing she doesn't need to decide this just yet, and jumping out of bed.  She has... a new life?... a better chance?... a new story?... to start on.

Lila comes racing down the spiral stairs to find her mother sitting in her chair knitting, just like usual.  A plate of scones and pitcher of juice is on the small table next to her, just like usual.

"My," she says to her daughter with a half-smile, "you're excited this morning!"

(Lila feels a sudden wish to have breakfast at the hall table like would be proper... but no, she wouldn't do that to her mother.)

"Mama -" (and she has a sudden wave of weird happiness, to be calling Selma that and having it be real.  She'd done it before as a disguise while they were hiding from Barvid, but then - even though she could hardly remember her real mother there - they'd both known it was just a disguise.)

"- I had a dream.  I want to talk with Ser Mattan about what Papa did with his spirit magic."

(Which she also has herself - and which she's used for one almost-disaster that only Papa was able to fix, and she still doesn't know how.)

"I suppose so."  Selma puts down her knitting and holds out the plate of scones to Lila.  "But you do remember you shouldn't be experimenting by yourself."

She's not going to remind Lila of that horror (which she shouldn't have been able to do so young!) any closer.  But she can hardly help but be concerned when Lila has a sudden plan she's obviously not sharing.

"Did you get an idea from your dream?"

She's not going to share everything.  That would ruin the story.  She hopes Alicia isn't sharing everything either.

"I dreamed... I dreamed that I was somehow choosing what Villarosa would be like.  And then... I dreamed that while I was at the Royal Academy, I was defeating a plot to summon the demon lord -"  She glances around; she's now sort of nervous about naming it "- K'xabriguthak.  Even after he was actually summoned.  I saw what it looked like in the dream - but I'm not sure how really to do it.  And I'd like to think that was more than just a dream."

Let... Mama... take that last hint as "prophecy" or "life goal" as she will.  And she's not going to mention the Princess at all just yet; that was the compromise she worked out with herself.

Selma looks at her daughter with a slightly broader smile, and nods.  If some surprising dream is somehow what pushes Lila to start preparing to take up another part of her father's path, she can only encourage her.  "I think the part about the cultists actually summoning him is just a dream.  Your father did say he was fairly sure that demon lord was dead.  But if you want to make the rest real - good fortune."

(No, he's still alive.  And Princess Alicia gave them the last big piece they needed to get around the roadblocks Papa had put in place.  But she's not going to mention that.)

"...And what did you mean by the first part of that dream?  Choosing what Villarosa would be like?"

She suddenly wonders if Lila will be planning to try for the throne when King Ambrose dies.  Well, it wouldn't be totally impossible.  Maybe she'll mention it to Ser Mattan sometime.

"Oh, I was in a courtyard somewhere talking about how the kingdom should be set up, and how much magic we should be using, and things like that, with someone else who was somehow also me, don't ask me how."  She shrugs, laughs at her own fake of dream-logic, and takes a large mouthful of scone.

Well, that doesn't rule out trying for a throne, so much as also rule in becoming an archmage.  Which would be much more possible.  "Speaking of quantities of magic, I'll be sure to watch your next Light-magic tutoring.  Your tutor says you're doing very well."

"Ser Mattan!"  Lila bobs a small curtsey - he's her regent, but she can still do it if she wants to; and she does, since he's one of Papa's best friends and a hero.

"I had a dream, and - I'd like to learn more about Papa's spirit magic, and how you fought demons and cultists."

"..."

The way Lila asked this...  It sounds like trouble brewing.

"...For what purpose, Lila Roisen?"

Lila has never been alone in her seeking of heroic opportunity, for all that many of her father's friends are in the wind despite themselves, and his owed favors worth seemingly nothing to those he left behind.

Ser Mattan Hyas is...

Perhaps it is best to say that he is not a profoundly Good man, but he is a profoundly loyal one.  And Kosvin Roisen earned that loyalty, over the years.

He has done what he can, for his friend's surviving relatives.  Starting with scouring from the earth the cult that took him from them all too soon, before they could get any grander ideas - but extending to serving as little Lila's Regent, when Selma abjectly refused the position - and even before that, helping her practice Spirit magic, for all that he mostly just listens to them.  (He's no grand elementalist; he shoots things until they die.  Maybe that involves cajoling an arrow into carrying the right stuff, but Lila's parlor tricks can probably outclass him on that front.)

"I had a dream about having to fight a demon lord while I was still at the Academy, and that made me think..."

(She doesn't like to lie.  She-in-Villarosa never liked to lie.)

"... that I want to learn how to really use my magic, like Papa did.  Even now, if I can.  Or at least learn as much as I can about how he did it, so that when I can do it, I'm ready."

(Well, one thing she-in-Maranon now knows is that she'll never actually be ready, at least until she's already fought a foe several times over.)

"- Or, as ready as I can be."

"...Lila, you know far more than I do of spirits and how to move them.  I know, you believe I am a hero and that heroes are shining paragons, like your father was.  ...Heroes still have their specialties, leaving aside their ability to make mistakes.

"That said.  I can't train you myself, at least in your magics, but...

"If this dream is the sort that's all too real, little Lila, I would be duty-bound to seek out appropriate trainers for you."

But saying it's a prophecy would be spoiling the story.  And she already took the opposite angle with Mama... though not too hard for her to work out of; she thinks it's possible to have an ordinary dream and a prophetic dream on the same night as long as there's some clear difference.

"You can still teach me the non-magical parts, at least.  You know what all of you did, even if Papa didn't explain how he did his part."

"...It's not that your Papa was close-lipped, little Lila.  It's that Rosen doesn't have the words to begin with - maybe, maybe Gnomic does - and he said, often enough, that even if he did have the words, he was never sure how much his knowledge transferred.  Spirit magic is - intensely personal, for all that it's 'about' communion, and this I can speak to from experience.

"...I can teach you tactics."

"... Yes please.  And also... tell me more about him, and what he did?"

"...I'll try."  His voice is...quiet, almost raspy, like it's rusted from long disuse.  "I'm not...someone who knows how to tell stories.  Not the way he did.  He once talked some aspiring bandits into taking up new careers as druids - the crops weren't enough for them, apparently, not with...it would have been Feldspar, then - Feldspar's taxes, taking a big share - so he told them, and I do remember the quote, 'The way to give of your own effort is not to take from others; if a single one of you can raise the tides, you will lift everyone's boats.'"

"Yes - he told such great stories.  He told me about all sorts of places he traveled... not so much about what you-all did there, though."

(Probably she was too young to hear those stories.  Part of her wants to protest - when she-of-Maranon was eight years old, she was fleeing for her life from Barvid - but looking back, maybe she was too young for that.)

"Mm.  He wouldn't have; he was always such an optimist.  Hoped that you'd not have troubles like his.  I can't say I think you won't.  There's always going to be someone out there with more power than sense, let alone kindness, and consequently in need of a good stabbing to death."

...And he pays very close attention to her response.  Not because he has some strange suspicion - but because whether he tells her anything like what she's asking for depends upon how much Lila can understand that the world is a cruel place, sometimes - and while you might fight it, there will be times you cannot win.

Not at a cost you can pay.

(Now is not the time for grief.)

"Yes - and that means there needs to be someone out there stopping them, as long as they're still people and things like that out there.  Maybe there'll be fewer of them in the future; maybe more people can stay home in peace like Mama.  I sure hope so.  But I'm sure there'll still be some evil people like that for a good long time."

(Does that even make sense, now that she knows there's a multiverse with new worlds still being created?  Whatever; she'll talk about this world; she doesn't know how to make sense of unknown huge numbers like that.)

"And - I'm sure I'll have different troubles than Papa did, because he fixed a lot of them.  But I want to know what's going on out there.  And be ready to help."

(Could she-of-Villarosa have said this without she-of-Maranon?  Maybe.  From the vision, she probably would've said it later, in the Academy - but she wouldn't have thought to say it just yet now.)

"Even if it's not a story?  Even if you'll lose, one day?  Even if you'll have to get back up when you do and try again, if you're lucky enough your failures and your mischances haven't killed you?

"...There is something the soul who trained me used to say.

"To seek glory is to seek death.

"And perhaps your father refuted much of the things that person taught me about life...

"But this one...

"I would be remiss in my duties, if I let you seek glory."

He takes one step closer.  Two.  His eyes, the blue of sharp-edged, crackling river-ice, bore their gaze into Lila's own.

"I believe I know the answer, but I have to ask.

"Is what you seek from this training duty, or death?"

She quivers, but just a bit.  She remembers standing before far more terrifying men.

"Neither."

She-of-Maranon had a duty, there.  But here, her only duty is to make sure this one barony's ruled well.  She never took on a duty to the story.

"I'm not going for glory.  Well, I'd like to hear about it when people get it, but.  I'm not going for duty either; I'm not saying I have to.  But if I go out there myself one day..." (or if a demon is summoned here in the heart of Villarosa) "... I'll be there because I want to be there.  For Villarosa.  For the people here."

Oh, he's not trying to be terrifying.  He's just trying to make sure she understands.

And it seems like she does.  Even if her answer is - in his opinion - needlessly complex.

"...I should have known that you would find some strange third option.  It was one of your father's favorite things to do.  Though, if I had my druthers, to prepare one's self to suffer in the place of others is, if no strict duty, still an equal burden borne.  Still.  You understand the lesson that no-one can teach.  I will train you, as you've asked.  You are ready for it."

"Thank you.  When?  I'm sure you're busy managing the Barony..."

"I am not as busy as you might think, and there are many things I can teach you as I do the Barony's work.  It is, after all, to be yours when you are ready - and the skills are transferable."

"Oh - yes, of course -"

Managing a kingdom wasn't all her-of-Maranon's favorite work, but a lot of it was.  And as for the rest, well, even if she could find good trustworthy people to do it, she should at least know something of how they did it.  And however much is different between that kingdom and this barony, she's sure that hasn't changed.

... but every bit of that is new to her-of-Villarosa, who was happy to be leaving it to someone else.  She can't be acting too different too quickly there, at least.

...That was odd - and if his focus had not solely been upon her, perhaps it would have passed unnoticed, but it was, so it did not.

One does not normally observe the same spirit having two different immediate reactions to the same statement.  That's not produced by mere conflict; one must be rather literally of two minds.

If they had not been so well-synchronized in every other matter, he'd think Lila had somehow been possessed.

As it is...

He's not sure what produced this.  But he's pretty sure that both of these reactions are Lila's.

...He'll have to ask Selma about what seemed weird to her about Lila this morning, when next he has the chance.  He saw the lady of the house giving her daughter a contemplative and somewhat concerned look, and he expects this to be related to what has Lila in such a tearing hurry to learn about everything her father did.  If she did not receive some sort of prophecy, possibly directly related to Kosvin, then he's the Immortal Jade Emperor.

...Perhaps some lessons in the importance of communicating with your allies will do the trick.  And if not - sometimes, speaking a prophecy can break it.  He's not sure he'll ever know which possibilities he's in, but he'll fly true, regardless.  This is a fact about Ser Mattan Hyas: He is loyal to his allies, his guiding stars as he hunts in the night - and Lila is one.  No matter what comes.  No matter what she's scared of.  Kosvin earned nothing less.

... That looks like he's suddenly concerned about something.  She might've missed that, except she-of-Maranon has a lot of experience in looking for just that.  Is her sudden change in behavior so surprising?

"So... where to now?"

"The armory, to fit you for weapons and armor.  The smithy, if something calls to your spirit enough young miss Pallas-Smith should forge it; she's worth the work.  The training yard; I will be training a squad of the militia, you will be practicing alongside them.  You will recuperate; afterwards, via the ley link, you will be ordering some texts on spirit magic and invoking the elements, to come on the next train.  You will be joining the weekly Baronial audience."

"All right!"  There's a lot there for each part of her.  "What should I ask the weapons-master for?"

"You shouldn't; you will be trying every style of weapon we keep."  And the armory is well-stocked, because you never know.  "Meet me at the training yard by next bell.  I shouldn't need to tell you to avoid dressing fancy for that."

He has someone he needs to talk to.

It isn't anywhere unusual that Ser Mattan comes to Selma and Lila's rooms in the tower, but it's not every day either. Selma smiles and nods to see him.

"Ser Mattan - pleased to see you, as always.  Tea?  Bread?"  She gestures at a teapot hanging over the fire.

"I was actually just thinking of seeing you about Lila."

"...I believe tea may be useful.  It's an amusing coincidence, though, because I wanted to see you about Lila."

He's not laughing.

"...I think - something strange happened.  Between the time I last saw Lila, and now.  And I'm trying to figure out what - and what I can do about it.

"...As far as I can tell, she's still herself.  But - this drastic change...  She sought me out like a drowning soul clings to a boat's debris, suddenly desperate to understand her knack for spiritual evocation.  To know everything her father did, over his career.  Not just because it's her father.  If I'm reading her right...

"She wants to use that knowledge.

"...actually, no.  Not...wants.  I think she thinks she needs.  But she didn't really tell me why."

She pours them each a cup of tea, and nods until the last line, when she purses her lips in thought.

"She had a dream," she says pensively.  "She was very excited and eager this morning, and told me that she'd dreamed she was fighting demon cultists and a demon lord herself, while still at the Royal Academy.  But it clearly wasn't a nightmare; it'd left her eager to take up Kosvin's mantle - to use it, like you said.

"... But I don't think just a dream would've left her desperate."

He sips his tea; he gives Selma a nod.  It's good.  "...Tell me more about what she said, about the dream?  Because what's odd here is that...this is the first I've heard of that.  ...Well, no.  I tell a lie, she mentioned she had dreamt, but - only barely.  And when I told her that - if she'd felt a prophecy, I'd prioritize appropriately - she deflected.  Sometimes that's necessary, but - I worry, that after -" Kosvin's funeral, he still can't say the words because the Kosvin in his head is still alive and a man is not dead while his name is still spoken but so many have taken it in vain - "- after what happened and what didn't...

"I'm worried she's taking things upon herself that she's not ready to.  Or that she feels she can't admit she wants to take up, deeply enough to cleave her soul in twain from the stress of it - because this I saw in her spirit, and I still don't know why.

"So please.  Please, tell me anything you can think of, Selma, because she's going to try and fight a demon lord by herself at this rate and I might be able to help her but I can't stop her.  I know she's not my daughter by blood, but you and I both know the power of chosen bonds and were she to ask it of me I would gladly let her claim my line, such as it is -"

He despairingly presses his face into a soft blue handkerchief, calloused hands pressing tight against the bridge of his nose, worry lines visible above his furrowed brow.

"- and...  I can't do my duty to prepare her for what she faces, if I don't know more about what she'll face."

He exhales, forcefully, regretfully.  "Please help me do my duty.  For Lila's sake, let alone mine."

Selma is looking more and more worried.  "She did mention another part to the dream - something about talking about how the world works with someone else who was somehow also her.  She didn't want to talk too much about that.  I thought it was just a dream - I was wondering if she'd let that inspire her to become an archmage or queen - but if you're thinking her soul is really split in two somehow..."

She doesn't know how it could happen.  To anyone - but especially to Lila here without her even noticing any hints.  It didn't feel this morning like it'd happened.  But...

"... And if it is prophecy, or if she knows somehow about a cult summoning a demon... then her sudden drive would make sense.  But if so - why wouldn't she tell us?"

"That's what I don't know, unfortunately.  Especially if the decisions, or at least the talking, were a true happening, and now we have - someone who seems to also quintessentially be your daughter - riding sidesaddle, in the back of her head.  ...Not even with any real control; the spontaneous additional Lila-soul looked - positively eager to get to ruling, but your daughter's reactions - they weren't just a mask; she showed all the signs of actually being as nervous about ruling as she was yesterday.  And...some prophecies are unstable when they're shared, but she told you of this, in enough detail that we could probably confirm it.  So... I just don't know, Selma."

"She said the cultists were summoning K'xabriguthak.  And she said they did summon him.  Didn't Kosvin kill him?

"... and you're sure there isn't any soul there that isn't her?"

"...We thought we had.  But...something remained of him, still, and -

"It is not impossible that he merely lies sleeping.

"I'm sure that there is only Lila, not some hostile entity.  I think...I almost wonder if your daughter caused this, subconsciously; manifestations of new souls when the present occupant of a body faces some intense stress are not unheard of - especially in practitioners of the Light and of Void-magic, both of which get...fuzzy, about realness."

"How intense are we talking about?  And how long - is there something I should've seen yesterday, or could it have just been the dream?"

"I don't know, Selma; I know this much only by fickle chance.  I...can't imagine that the dream was not the greatest portion of it.  I think - you didn't fail her.

"I've even heard that some intentionally invoke the same structures, though in that case I cannot help but wonder how she would have known to."

She breathes a shallow sigh of partial relief.

"Kosvin mentioned that to me once, but I don't think he knew how; he said he couldn't understand why people would do it...  Even if he did know, I can't believe he would've told Lila."

She picks up her teacup again and stares into it for a minute.

"I'm going to talk to her again, of course.  But did you give her the training she was demanding?  Whatever's happening here, I think we should.  And that's all the more vital if it is a prophecy."

"Milady Roisen...  Your daughter will be trained to the best standards I can possibly achieve.  I will not stand for less.

"...Don't press her too much upon the subject.  Sometimes even the conscious mind does not know all of what happens within it, though...in this case I suspect she must.

"I still cannot believe that...

"..."

Something comes to his attention.

"Did she, at any point, compare what she experienced or dreamed of, to one of her storybooks, Selma?  Because now that I think of it, I'm noticing a suspicious absence of that, and - that seems odd, especially for her.  I don't know what it could possibly mean, but...it's something."

She nods at not pressing Lila too much.  "I'll ask.  And I think we'll know sometime - I've never found Lila able to keep secrets for too long.  At least not from everyone."

And then, at the last question, she pauses with her teacup midway to her lips.  "- No.  She didn't.  I didn't notice that myself - we didn't talk about the dream for that long - but if she didn't mention it to you either...  I do think she's trying to hide something.  Gods only know what."

"...I can only hope that she chooses someone worthy of her trust, to tell, then."

Meanwhile, on the training grounds outside the watchtower - not to be confused with the blasting range outside the mage tower, on the far side of the village - someone is putting Lila Roisen through her paces a bit ahead of schedule.

Diana Pallas-Smith, or Diana Smith-Pallas, is very good at fighting.

She's not as good at teaching, because that means she has to put her kinesthetic intuitions into words - but when it comes to walking someone through weapons to see what actually suits them best, she doesn't need to be the best teacher.  She can just watch.  Watch, contemplate, understand, integrate.  Observe, orient, decide, act.

...Lila moves weird.  And sure, her fellow student of the Light hasn't been down on the practice fields before - that's always been more her own thing; you need to understand how things handle in order to craft the best tools and there's something about a good fight that gets her blood pumping, even though it shouldn't - but there's just something a little bit off about the way Lila handles the practice weapons.  Like she's - got half-rusted instincts from another body, or something, moving in ways that could have been effective rather than awful if she'd been half a foot taller - which is obviously impossible but still not obviously false.  It's weird.

She's seen Ser Mattan knock his own rust off a few times, and while it looks like the one kid her age in the village is kind of just stumbling around with new weapons she's never held before - it still has her watching intently, because reflexive actions are where a façade is most likely to slip.

(She doesn't know why Ser Mattan thinks she'll need to know ranger tricks, but he's teaching her, so she's not going to complain about it.)

Lila knows she's moving weird.

She-of-Maranon was never great at swordfighting, but she'd held her own in a few battles.  But those are the instincts she's reflexively reaching for, because she-of-Villarosa has never done this before at all.  And those instincts are for a different body... and lately for one that'd been older.

(She-of-Maranon had preferred magic.  Which might have been thanks to Fraddir --  As she moves too late to duck Diana's strike, she decides not to dwell on those memories just now.)

"I - need - better instincts," she says out loud, rubbing her arm.  "Where'd you learn?"

"Well.  Right here, for the past several years," she laughs.  "Ser Mattan is good at teaching.  Where'd you learn?"  She doesn't notice that this question should have no answer until several secomds after she's asked it.

"Trinn --" 

-- no wait, Trinnsford doesn't even exist in this world.

"-kets and bits from Ser Mattan and travelers and such, and practicing by myself in secret.  I'm sure I've got a lot of bad habits to learn to do right."

Diana just - stops the spar, flares her Light into Lila to dislodge anything that's not her friend(?), and gives her Baroness a Look.  The Look clearly communicates that she was not fooled in the slightest.

"You should ask Ser Mattan for lessons on how to dissemble, while you're picking up those trinkets.  Nobody really expects a Light-wielder to lie, but if you're already looking strange that won't protect you from people connecting dots.  Like the lack of wear on some of the weapons that you obviously knew how to handle, and the weaponry in your house that I've run errands to maintain for years without observing use, because it's apprentice work and I'm an apprentice.  ...Not for much longer, but.  Yeah.

"...You don't need to tell me whatever it is that happened, though.  I trust you to know what's right.  So if your secret is really important, then...it's really important.  But I want you to take me with you when you run off into danger.  You'll need backup."

... Where did all her political-face skills go?

Oh, of course, gone along with her-of-Maranon's old face, when they got mixed in with her-of-Villarosa's instincts.

... and she can almost imagine Jenny or Selma saying she'd never been good at lying by surprise in the middle of talking with friends.

"I... hadn't thought through how you'd notice that.

"Thanks.  I..."  (How much does she want to tell Diana?  No, she wants to actually think about that.)  "I had a dream.  I think I'll need a friend to go with me, soon.  I'm not sure yet where."

(Well, she has a few good ideas, but she's not sure.)

"...I'm with you.  We'll find whatever it is and solve it.  Together."  As knight and liege, as friends, as - who knows if there's more, certainly not she.  But still, Diana Pallas-Smith promises herself: Whatever comes for Lila, they'll go through it together.

...Mattan Hyas watches the conversation from a distance, quietly.  His student is clever, strong, and loyal, and this is good.  She'll go far, wherever she goes.  And that part of him that's still echoing Kosvin is proud of Lila and Diana both.  For trusting eachother.  For bonding together, over Light lessons and quiet talks.  For supporting eachother through whatever has come to their little barony's doorstep.

...He'll do his best to make sure they both make it out the other side.

Lila thinks back over her-of-Villarosa's memories.  She and Diana have seen each other around a lot, between magic classes and just going around town.  What's she like?...

Busy, primarily!  She works in the smithy, learning metalcrafts from the master smith during the day; in the evenings she joins Lila's study of the Light with the village's priest, having a sturdy sense of duty that gives her the right sort of strength to come back when she joins the Light.  Between all of that she somehow manages to fit in time to learn to fight, and has apparently demonstrated a talent for it that Mattan wants to nurture.  She has an analytical mind, as well - she's picked up a few useful Arcane spells, though she's no wizard to stand back and formulate where hitting them with a warhammer would solve the problem faster - and she intends to make her Masterwork an enchanted blade of some sort.  Well, enchanted weapon, enchanted shield, enchanted armor - enchanted something.  Really, it'll probably be a hammer.  She's going to need to go out of the village for that alone, notwithstanding her ambition to a Knighthood in defense of the peoples of Villarosa.

Wow, yes, Diana's busy.

Lila doesn't remember her from Maranon - at least, they hadn't met there.  There'd been a lot of good people in the Resistance she hadn't had the opportunity to meet, though.

"I don't know myself how long it'll take, except my dream made it sound like it'll take years.  And you're obviously working toward something already..."

"Something that means we'll likely benefit from working alongside eachother anyway, if the part where you suddenly need to know how to fight properly is important.  I might be a smith by trade, but I'm called to knighthood as much as your dream has called you to this moment."

And she does want to get started moving quickly, so she can clean things up without the Princess's help...

"I'm still not sure where to start... but all right."

"You won't be starting anywhere if you're assassinated because you were too busy with declarations of undying loyalty to keep watch," comes Mattan's growl from Right Behind Her.  "What have you learned?"

"...Sir.  Recruit Roisen has some prior experience, but most of it is bad experience - or if it wasn't at the time, it's tripping her up now.  She has a good sense of tempo, though, and I believe she may benefit from training in dual-wield or otherwise using off-hand weaponry; anything that trains her off-hand is going to completely bypass the bad reflexes, and that will hopefully build good patterns to check against her main.  She knows archery basics, which is rather expected given that she's known you this long, but I want to note it anyway.  You could teach her some of the tricks I don't have time or inclination for."

"Lila, add your thoughts?"

"Thanks, Diana," she says weakly.  She doesn't disagree with anything, but it's a little disconcerting hearing herself summed up like that by someone her age.

"Yes, I need to - fix up my bad reflexes, now that I can.  Training my off-hand makes sense... especially if it lets me cast at the same time with my right hand.  I could always improve my archery too - but I think time with the sword would be better spent."

"...I've heard you have an affinity for spirit magic.  Most of the common foci there are totemic in nature and not really meant to be a wielded weapon, but...I actually do wonder, if you can make spirit-focusing swords.  Never heard of anyone doing it, but if it works and you want to cast with both hands...  I'm gonna look into it, I think.  It'd be a good Masterwork."

"Oh, YES!"

That would be so useful if that one battle with the cultists - or that other ambush - goes anything like it did in her vision of the future!

(It probably won't, with Princess Alicia trying to be helpful, but it'll still probably help anyway.)

"...I know that arcanists need every bit of help they can get, with their circles and whatnot, but you shouldn't need a hand free to cast with, Lila.  Gestures and suchlike, they might help in the short term, save focus for strength - but they're also a tool that you will one day need to function deprived of, if you're adventuring like your da used to.  He beat up half a dozen armed guards without weapons, armor, or his hands, the once, when they had to let him walk somewhere and underestimated his ability to cause trouble.  Mostly by kicking them in the sensitive bits, judging by the dents in their armor after we finally caught up, but he needed to knock 'em down first to do that, hear?"

"Yes... but it might be handy sometimes to make them think I do need the gestures and then surprise them."

It's a whole lot more handy than the magic of Maranon, where you'd often need both hands and a minute to go through a ritual.

"... How long do you think till I can get to that point?  Maybe a year or two?"

And then whatever he says, she'll expect sooner than that because she's now officially supposed to be a Magical Prodigy.  Which is good, because she needs to get started soon.

"Depends on what you're trying to go for.  I've never needed to practice it as something separate from the skills I've learned; charged shots are a very basic spell, and the rest is either for stealth or for amplifying something I have to do as part of the spell - there's a lot of ways to hit harder.  I'm sure you've seen Squire Pallas-Smith practicing with the Light, and she's still trying to get it truly reliable.  Shamans actually have to have foci to channel from and amplify if they don't have a bond with a free spirit, but the whole practice there is a little bit different, from what I recall...

"...Diana, if you're going to make spirit blades as a Mastery project, I still write a couple of war-dancers we fought alongside in that last campaign," the one where they fought a fucking Demon Lord, "every so often; they're not quite the same sort of alignment as the Baroness, magically, but I think the introduction can't hurt and they'll definitely have good advice for you both.  Was probably going to write them anyway.  They have a lot of Spirit-bonded up on the mountaintops, and some very good dual-wielding forms."

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.

Yes, she's still Lila.  Selma was watching her, and - something really is in her, but she's still herself.

She's not going to ask after herself in the other memories, not with that mid-sentence silence and the hints of demon summoning.  She's not going to ask after Kosvin either - not now, not until she can face hearing... she's not sure whether it'd cause her more grief to hear that Lila does remember his surviving somewhere, or that she doesn't.

"Ser Mattan said you had two spirits in you, but they were both yourself.  But he's worried about you, and I am too... not so much who you are now, but -"

(It's probably a good thing that Selma doesn't ask after Kosvin, because Lila would have no idea how to explain a set of memories where he's a regional hero from several generations ago with no blood relation to her at all.)

"What I'm going to do?  I want to avert the prophecies.  Which means getting stronger and going questing."

"Can't you warn someone else?  If it's that important -"

"It's important, but it isn't urgent.  In the other memories, nothing went really wrong until I went off to school.  So I can wait long enough to be able to do it myself."

She's Kosvin's daughter.  Selma hugs her again.

"I'm not saying 'all right', but - go train, and we'll see."

...About that lack of urgency, actually...

HER HIGHNESS, PRINCESS ALICIA THORN of HOUSE VAUDELLE, on behalf of KING AMBROSE LAERTES in his official person, and furthermore the REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY of VILLAROSA

-- sends her salutations and blessings upon the upcoming occasion of your THIRTEENTH NAME-DAY, and with such celebration in mind wishes to invite you to the INAUGURAL CLASS of the EXPERIENTIAL PRACTICAL GOVERNANCE PROGRAM, an initiative intending to introduce those new to authority to their duties - and their rights - in a less ad-hoc manner than has previously been done.

It has recently been brought to the Crown's attention...

that those subjects trusted to undertake administrative tasks have not uniformly been provided with appropriate training for the roles they undertake; this is a mistake that the Crown wishes to rectify, through sponsorship of a small training program that will additionally serve to introduce representatives, both new and long-seated, to their fellows, in a small-group setting.

The program intends to offer both a SHORT COURSE, lasting two weeks in a compressed schedule, once per month, and a LONG COURSE, lasting two months, once per season, depending upon interest.

Both courses will cover essential administrative skills, both in theory and in practice; the LONG COURSE will also cover formal etiquette, by the grace of Her Majesty Queen Jethelia, and potentially other useful knowledge....

The official letter continues even beyond the first page with further administrative information, but there is a second piece of mail in the envelope, that opens only in Lila's hands.

Dear Lila,

I regret that I must send a personal message upon the back of such an impersonal communique, but I have not had a better opportunity to initiate contact.

You may recall our prior conversation; I hope you will be pleased to know that both I and the royal family are taking action to ensure that the demon lord your father felled shall not find his return as easy as our shared vision has shown it could have been.  (Ideally, he will not return at all, but there are unfortunately no guarantees in this line of work.)

I have heard that your nameday is coming soon; I would be honored to attend, or to simply send a gift, if you'd prefer.  The duty to the kingdom that you've undertaken deserves recognition, even if it is quite possible that the full breadth of your burden will never be known to anyone but yourself.

I hope this letter finds you well.

Sincerely,

-- Alicia Thorn