I think that's probably a pretty good idea, if my plans ever get notably complicated! Right now my plan has one step, so making a checklist feels kind of silly. But eventually, we shall checklist! Also, talking to you is quite useful for, you know, record keeping purposes. Very important, sometimes.

She suspects her notebook friend has a specific love of checklists. Which is honestly kind of adorable.

The notebook makes a few hearts around the word "useful". 

Thank you ♡ 

I hope your plan succeeds! 

Is there anything else you'd like to tell me?

She can fill the notebook in on some more things as the light of day slowly fades. The view out of her little window kind of isn't the nicest, really. But it's a view of a new world with new people full of actual magic. If she can't manage to summon enthusiasm for that she- well, realistically she's having a bad day because she forgot to eat lunch, or something, in this hypothetical. But she no longer needs lunch. And so she is enthusiastic!

Although she'll probably be more so once she's got something besides grey skies to look at.

Gradually, the day becomes darker, the gloomy clouds shutting out more and more light. The sun must be starting to set. 

Given the givens, the sunset is making her more than a little nervous. Metanarrative protection prevents her from losing a limb, but not from getting jump scared, and honestly the second is unpleasant enough when the jump scare is a sudden fast moving object on a screen and not, say, a vampire crawling in her window. Hopefully she will, uh, not need to deal with another situation like the Sudden Ghoul Attack today.

She gets up and moves to close the shutters. Better to have them closed early than late.

The shutters lock shut firmly with the drop-bar, shutting out the encroaching night. Only a very small amount of light comes in through the small gap between the two shutters. 

Where's the oil lantern again?

Oh, she's not going to light the lantern. She's going to sleep. She's been up for a while at this point, given that she showed up earlier in the day than she left, so she's actually kind of tired.

Hopefully her insomnia's less troublesome, now, and she can get to sleep quickly. Before her encounter with the notebook she used to take an hour or two to fall asleep.

Then she will get to sleep quickly and with a minimum of fuss.

Eventually, there is a heavy knock at the door. 

Noise!

Well, she's not sure when she got out from under the blankets but she is now standing on her bed and vibrating with adrenaline.

She hasn't done that in years. Well, she guesses the Land of Maximum Ominousness is the kind of place to inspire such behavior.

She will get down off of her bed and say, "Yes?"

She doesn't immediately open the door. 

Nikola's voice comes through the door. "Problem, stranger. Piotr not return from east field. Something is bold."

Does she still care about her fake background if keeping to it results in someone's death? She has no idea how much a genuine Blood Dragon would care, and suspects not at all for any peasant who hadn't either done them a favour or sworn them fealty. And probably not much then.

She has no real reason to think it's incredibly important to come across as borderline-sociopathic. Okay, speed then.

(It could be a trick.)

(It could also be real.)

She opens the door.

"Where?"

Nikola is outside the door with an oil lamp in one hand and an honest-to-god sword in a scabbard by her side.

"I do not know. Piotr was headman; is very bad. Village is hurt. Village does not know if you are good. But you are - how you say. Vedashnya. Under my roof. I do not believe you did it." She looks Alethia dead in the nose. "If many ghouls or worse, need know you will not hurt village. You keep Vedashnya?"

Omniglot says Vedashnya is probably something close to "hospitality."

Honestly, the sword doesn't feel even slightly out of place. Fits the vibe.

She nods firmly at Nikola's question.

"Yes, if I am remembering word right. It is- honour, not betraying trust."

Even beyond the bit where she wouldn't kill someone in the first place, turning around and using trust in her to hurt people just feels viscerally wrong. It's as much about the fact that doing something like that would make her feel terrible as it is about ethics.

Nikola nods. "Good. What take Piotr we do not know. Ghouls not smart enough to attack headman first. Maybe bad luck." 

Nikola does not look at all like she believes that. 

"If village must fight, will you help?"

"I will."

She's very sure that, in the canon at least, a Brettonian Blood Dragon would absolutely not fight by throwing rocks at their enemies. The Brettonians would consider it unchivalrous, and a Blood Dragon wouldn't want to deprive themselves of the opportunity to test an enemy's skill. Well, she'll cross that bridge when she comes to it.

Hopefully it's a single somewhat powerful monster that has a grudge, or something. That she could fight on her own, and there wouldn't be much risk of anyone else dying.

If she'd been awake, would Piotr still be alive?

Later. She doesn't even know for certain that he's dead yet.

"Good. For now I am to watch you. If you are with other villagers, they make big mistake maybe."

She lowers the lantern slightly. "We will wait together for news."

Oh, good, she doesn't need to worry about her already-cracking assumed identity flaking yet farther after she neglects to kill some poor peasant for insulting her.

"Let us wait somewhere I can act quickly at need. And look out and see things before they arrive."

"Village is meeting below, now. Room across hall looks east. Good enough."

She nods.

Okay, across the hall it is then, and she can look out to the East and see if anything is visible.

First, though-

"Stand where cannot be seen from outside, for safety. I will not be hurt by attack. You are not protected the same way."

This whole thing reeks of plot. She's worried about something actually very dangerous out there. The kind of thing smart enough to try to sow panic by killing someone unwise enough to open a window. She's hoping for it, in fact. If something tries to kill her, she's encountered it, and can steal its power. She really would appreciate night vision right around now.

"Da."

Nikola steps back and opens the door across the hall with her free hand.

She will enter the room and open the shutters.

Can she see anything out there, in the dark? Perhaps she got lucky and the moon is full.

More importantly, does anything see her and decide now is a lovely time to make questionable life choices?

It's very dark out there.

Nothing seems to be trying to kill her yet.

A tragedy. Have they not considered that she is deliciously edible?

Well. Nothing for it but to wait and listen.

Her eyes should adjust some eventually.

Hmm. Wait.

She should try scanning the darkness with Dragon Fairy Elf Witch. If it works when she can't properly see what she's looking at, free information and potential night vision! And if it doesn't, well, she hasn't lost anything in the attempt.