"It's a starting point! I would love to watch you magically attack each other. Shall we go back to my quarters and try that?"

And she'll attempt to lead the way again, with somewhat more success at first... but these twisty passages sure are twisty. She'll let the bodyguards lead again after all.

Then she'll arrive at her quarters soon enough, and the Bleak Guards can demonstrate some low-power attacks and defenses on each other, pending the arrival of food that Pilara has gone off to see ordered.  Those spells are weirder than anything Healthy-Orphan remembers, and at least one or two would've gone right past any shields Healthy-Orphan would have had up --

-- still incredibly weak by Orphan's standards, though.

Can Opalyn make any of the same weird kinds of magical energy they can? Maybe pointing in a different direction, in case she succeeds but at too much intensity?

They would greatly appreciate it if Opalyn used only amounts of energy in the same amounts that they are using themselves!

Opalyn can put out energies that weak with a little effort.  She will not blow up anything accidentally; Orphan did understand the concept of "using less power than is required to blow a hole completely through somebody's castle because that might break valuable loot".

The weird-energy part isn't a problem, at least not for Opalyn; some of the more complicated weaves, however, may take time to learn.

And then, while they are still waiting for food, this guy will walk in.

"Verify my identity and then wait outside," he commands the Vizier's soldiers.  "And say nothing to anyone, even the Vizier, regarding my presence."

...they obey at once; and if there is any hesitation in them or surprise, it is not visible upon those faceless suits of mage-armor.

"Hello! I'm surprised to see you! I mostly had the impression that you were going to ignore me for a long time. Also I've ordered food and it might come soon but I guess the guards will keep them from coming in with it."

Opalyn is babbling.

She's nervous, she belatedly realizes.

She'll just abruptly shut up then.

He speaks softly, not quickly, once the guards are gone.  One might even call it an equivalent of hesitancy, perhaps, in a soul that has long since learned never to show hesitancy.  "Are you familiar with the notion that powerful people will very carefully control appearances, and that all they do in public conduces toward their chosen ends?"

Opalyn's mind is racing.

So... he was lying, when he said he didn't want to interact with her. To hide something from someone, or maybe just to play his cards close to his chest?

So... he does want to interact with her?

So... she woke up this morning as a very normal citizen of no particular distinction in a democratic republic and before the day is out she's hanging out with the Emperor of -- somewhere -- and...

Okay, pull it together, Opalyn, he asked you a question.

"Mmmmhmmmm? Um, yes?"

"Had I showed less interest in you, I would have marked you as a safer, less dangerous victim."

"Had I showed more interest, you would have been more of a target for assassins."

"I implied that you would change nothing, save on a scale of decades.  This will reassure the great majority of courtiers who are not intelligent enough to think through why I might want to imply that, why I would choose and speak exactly those words.  They will have heard only that you do not seem to be a short-term threat to whatever little things they currently have.  They will think that you do not portend uncomfortable changes so close in time as to feel real."

"Those are the intended consequences of my words, as I chose them."

Awww, he's being protective. That's sweet!

"Thank you for your consideration. I know nothing of the threats here and I am grateful that you have taken steps to keep me safe."

"Do you think I might change something here, on any time scale?"

"Do you want to?"

"I don't know! Do things around here need changing? I don't like to change things just for the sake of change, I like to change things for the better."

"It would be quite surprising if I had accidentally crafted an Empire that was perfect according to your own standards.  It is not even perfect according to mine."

"All right, so we can provisionally assume that there's something that could be improved."

"The next questions are: Who prefers the system the way it is, and do I have the right to change it against their will? What forces are maintaining the system the way it currently is? And do I have any of the skills or qualities that it would take to effect a positive change without causing worse problems downstream?"

"I do not, on one moment's reflection, know of a better way for you to find answers to those questions, than by being a Princess for a time.  I admit, I did not do it for that reason."

"Why did you do it, if you don't mind me asking?"

"Not, I think, because I feel for you -- what I imagine an ordinary and mortal father, would feel for a daughter.  I think I should be clear on that, with you.  I have built some grand political edifices based on lies, in my time, but I have generally come to regret the more -- personal, emotional -- edifices, that turned out to be founded on a lie."

"I have not watched you grow since you were a child.  I'm not sure I have it in me to love a daughter even if I did."

"But also I seem to have made choices aimed at your welfare.  Clearly I have ended up feeling at least some -- interest."

This is a little bit hard to parse. He seems to be saying that he did it for sentimental reasons when he figured out he'd fathered a child, but that Opalyn shouldn't expect too much Dad stuff out of him other than the title of Princess?

"I have the illusion of understanding."

"I would guess that what I feel for you is perhaps more -- what I might feel for a distant cousin.  Or a villager born of the same village into which I was born, if I met someone like that for the first time after some centuries.  I did learn of some sons of my body, after they were grown, but they were powerless and from the first moments of meeting them it was evident they were not suited to power.  I feel less for you than a father should for a daughter; more for you, I think, than I felt for my sons."

"I do know, because it is obvious, that there is a choice between protecting you from harm, and seeing what becomes of you when you grow, for you will not grow here if protected.  Even normal fathers must be faced with that choice.  And by making you a Princess I have already chosen the latter; that is what I seem to feel for my found tribemate, a desire to see what becomes of them when they are grown."

"I am confused. How does making me a Princess result in seeing what becomes of me when I grow? I had the impression that you were protecting me."

He smiles.  Briefly.

"Sending you off to live the life of a wealthy noblewoman far from the capital would be protecting you -- at least for a time, and if you didn't choose to return with lightning and fire."

"Making you a Princess, causing the courtiers here to take interest in you?  Making it seem to them like I would be annoyed by your outright death, but not much put out by your troubles short of that?  That is throwing you into an adventure, Princess Orphan."

Oh, great. Politics. Not Opalyn's strong suit.

The Emperor knows how to say one thing in court while he does another in private. Opalyn is a simpler creature.

"Are lightning and fire options at court?"

"Try it and see, young lady.  I won't stop you.  Although if you can and do use lightning in quantities they've only ever seen from me, they're liable to suspect you of possibly bringing about short-term political change."