"I suppose that my point is- well. A thing can be both a tragedy and still the correct policy. There's no reason at all it can't be both. And I think here it is."

"But only for now. Only because what we can do is limited. And if we ever win enough, if we're ever powerful enough that we can be softer- it would be very, very good, for the best policy not to be such a tragic one."

"I think the slippery slope tends to come in when servants of corruption are suspected to have influenced the law. Then the balance very quickly goes against anything potentially risky or fraught. Your words that a good policy can nonetheless be a tragedy might actually serve to reconcile Crin and I for a time; I see the tragedy, she sees the good policy, and so we clash over what we percieve as very different costs, having seen the problem from two different angles."

She looks over at Crin. "I think Crin would say that in mixed strategies, there is the risk of different forms of good slipping out of touch with each other, and becoming perverted by other, baser motives. It is not enough to be good, one also has to be legibly so." She raises an eyebrow. "A burden that I fear she'll carry for her whole life."

"I think it is not necessarily a mistake for the policy to be written with edge cases excluded. The failure then is in managing them... Something the Empire has never historically been the best at doing." 

She frowns. "I think you are too eager to project the personal tragedies you see to the size of whole fiefs and kingdoms, Ishaza. Sometimes it's best to simply do the math, sacrifice the few for the many, and carry on. It is a practical kind of calculus, familiar to many in Sylvania. I am not surprised you have not learned it." She looks over at Alethia. "It is my fervent wish that I need sacrifice fewer to the wolves with each year, and gather strength in turn. It has been many years since I took this fief; in that time, I am beginning to see it bear fruit. There have been many losses along the way, but..." She shrugs. "That, as many of my bannermen would say, is life in Sylvania."

She feels- actually quite a bit better, after those responses. They were smart, and about the right things.

Thank you, narrative causality, for dropping her on what looks to almost certainly be genuine friend material. People who want something similar to what she does.

"I think the concern about servants of corruption influencing the law, and the need for that to be visibly not the case, is something I hadn't considered the weight of. Feels- very important, and very bad to leave out of one's reckonings, now that you've brought it up. Thank you, Ishaza. And I'm very glad that you've seen progress made, Lady Illemvich. That kind of calculus- it's grim. I'm glad it's worked and maybe will be needed less, in the future. I think the risk is that sometimes one can end up- attached to not having to feel hope, to not being disappointed, and not see that improvement is possible, or that third options exist. I think I fell victim to that a few times when I was younger and first starting to form political opinions of my own. It doesn't look like that's a risk with you, though, to say the least. If you're making that mistake you don't go around and foment improvement the way you've been doing. Sometimes the grim calculus is just- correct. And I haven't been here long enough to have too strong an opinion on exactly how much of it is, here."

"Indeed. I have work to do over this night to ensure Leichenberg survives, but I must say I'm intrigued by your opinions and clearly thoughtful attitude. We can speak more on this when we return to Konigstein."

She looks over at Ishaza. "I'm satisfied Alethia will at least keep to the rules of hospitality. I think it is time I went out to direct the search for Piotr."

"Alone? In the middle of the night? With no retinue save your hounds?"

"Mmm. You make valid points. I hate it, but this could well be a feint. And he is likely dead already. If the hounds do not find him soon... Better to let my agents find him in the morning."

In the distance there's a low and drawn out howl.

Crin stiffens. 

"Dead, then," she reports quietly. "It is as I suspected. The hounds are smart enough to tell a corpse from a breathing body." 

She sighs. "I will let my hounds lead the villagers to Piotr in the morning. For now, I must recall them." 

She gets up from the table and walks out to the entrance of the building, where she lets out another shriek of a whistle. 

Another series of howls answers her, and she returns back into the tavern moments later. 

"I will have to stay until the body is recovered," she says. "And as I do not sleep, there is little I can do until then." 

Ishaza reaches out and rests a hand on Crin's shoulder. She says nothing.

Crin looks very tired for a moment. She sits next to Ishaza.

Ishaza leaves her hand on Crin's shoulder. 

"May his sleep be deep and uninterrupted."

"Alas," says Crin. "Yes."

Oh.

It's her fault.

She is. She's going to get so much more powerful. She's going to steal the powers of the gods of order and of chaos she's going to break the laws of this universe and she's going to bring him back. Not faultily. Fully, and whole. She is going to make it okay make this okay-

This is a different world, and she can probably actually do that, someday.

But not now.

She swallows, again, and leans into Ishaza's charm and her own innate ability to pull herself together.

Crin is the one who probably actually knew him. The one who's grown up in a world where this happens to people under her protection again, and again, and again. She shouldn't- risk making it about her by making a scene.

And besides all that, she doesn't want to cry.

And maybe, someday hopefully not too many years away, she'll be able to make it more okay.

Ishaza looks over, then back to Crin. She smiles, but it doesn't quite touch her eyes. 

"... We will wait and see him buried, and tend to the people we can," she says. "And tomorrow you will be with us as our guest, and perhaps together we will all find a way to keep this from repeating."

"My guest," Crin corrects absently.

She swallows.

"Yeah."

She's moving too slowly she should race down to the Border Princes and take the power of that Naaru and enter churches and see if that counts as encountering gods and break down the door to the chaos realms and see how they like fighting someone who can do everything each of Them can and is six other kinds of god besides-

She should not, in fact, race off to try to solve all the world's problems as quickly as possible. If anything's likely to backfire it's letting herself be swept off instead of being strategic.

If it's the right idea it'll still be the right idea in the morning.

And, really, she already knows it isn't. Knew as soon as she thought of it. It's just a pleasant thought. A way by which she can imagine solving things fast, and look away from exactly what the world is like in so imagining.

She takes another deep breath.

This is bad. It is a tragedy that someone has died. It's a tragedy that that vampire is dead, and she isn't sure if he even gets an afterlife the way Piotr likely does.

And despite all of that, being her higher self, her self-looking-over-herself, is step one for going about making things better. As it always is.

Piotr was not the only man in the world to die today. Not even the only one killed by a vampire within a dozen miles, most likely. And rushing was foolish when those people weren't in front of her, and it's foolish now that they are. Moving too slowly would also be a mistake, and a grave one. But she doesn't even know what's different about this world, yet. And she landed on two people she can probably trust, who are likely to know rather a lot. The correct next move is still establishing trust so she can get- more fully briefed on things. And get more input on how to make things better fast, and hear what the pitfalls on the obvious plan are, since she's quite sure there are some.

Talking with Crin and Ishaza is the best next move. No running off required. And she also doesn't need to sleep. Probably. Even if her copied vampirism doesn't give her the ability to skip sleep on its own, she already slept some and after something like this wouldn't be sleeping for hours and hours. She feels wide awake, and like sleeping would be completely impossible. It likely wouldn't literally be, given how her abilities work, even if it usually is for vampires. But still, it's not staying awake through to dawn that feels hard, right now.

"I also will not be sleeping. And so I can at least keep you company and ensure you are not simply alone as everyone else slumbers, Lady Illemvich."

Crin smiles a little at that. It even reaches her eyes.

"That is perhaps the best personal news I have had in a very long time. Since meeting Ishaza, anyway."