071: Only death shall love you

[Sierra]

<El-Cideon> After a well-deserved night's rest in one of Azure's many comfortable boarding houses, the team meets up again at Ione's art museum/asylum, where the Queen has been laid at rest in a secure, secluded cell deep within the establishment. "I don't like using rooms like this," Ione admits. "Solitude is rather contrary to my preferred approach. But I admit it comes in handy right now." She unlocks the metal door of the cell and brings in a torch to light several sconces around the interior. Queen Auranelle is lying on a pallet within, still with the stake through her heart, evidently unchanged. "I've had the room warded against magic. Nothing whatsoever of that sort will function within, though of course she will still be very dangerous should she awaken in adversarial temperament."
<Steph> "Yeah, I can feel all my tinglings going away," says Stephanie, fiddling with her jewelry. "Weird vampire powers included, there?"
<Julia> With Bedford away outside doing his skeletal horse thing, Julia feels a bit nervous at not having magic to call on if her majesty gets violent. "She'll still have all her native strength, but her touch won't weaken at least."
<El-Cideon> "Such is my understanding," Ione says. "I believe she should still possess the unusual physical resilience intrinsic to her curse, yes."
<Steph> "Eh, well, worse things to tangle with than chained up royals," muses Stephanie. "Anyone need to tie their shoes, or are we good to start?"
<El-Cideon> "Would anyone like to do the honors?" Ione asks, gesturing to the bloodied stake. Rosemund--her abyssal traits on full display without a magical hat to hide it all--nods and, as delicately as possible, draws the stake from Auranelle's heart. There's no immediate response from the Queen.
<Steph> "You think she'll be hungry?"
* Franceska steps towards Rosemund, and pulls her back out of immediate reach.
<Julia> "Being staked might have stalled her natural recovery from her dormant state," Julia ponders. "Or she's bluffing us."
<El-Cideon> Ione frowns, this small sliver of expression actually visible beneath her veil. "Perhaps recovery takes some time. Might I suggest that we actually dress her?" she says. "One might expect it to lessen her distress if the good Queen should awake *not* naked and surrounded by strangers."
<Franceska> "If we must," Franceska grumbles. Nonetheless, she does have clothing fit for a royal along with her, and sets about the task of dressing up the corpse.
<Steph> "I can't believe we forgot to do that."
<Julia> "It usually takes an hour for them to regain their strength after having their physicality discorporated," Julia says. "After that their natural healing ability kicks in."
<Franceska> "She never cared about it when she fought us," Franceska says defensively.
<Julia> "If she wakes in her 'nice' persona she may have more modesty," Julia says hopefully.
<El-Cideon> The group does have more than enough time to unchain the Queen, dress her appropriately, and bind her in place again. Julia's expertise is looking accurate.
<Steph> "Yes, I just thought we were better people. Now I know better."
<Julia> "I hardly think whether or not we dress a defeated foe who was naked of her own will cements our morality," Julia says, crossing her arms. "It's not like we stripped her after all. That would be sketchy I admit."
<Franceska> "Although effective."
<Julia> "Only if every item of clothing she wore was magical."
<Steph> "I'm just saying that it's weird to be comfortable with chaining someone up and questioning them naked!"
<Julia> "We wouldn't have needed to chain her up if we'd used my evil spirits and then controlled her..."
<Franceska> "From personal experience, it does anger you to the point where you might make mistakes in your attempt to murder your captors at any cost."
<El-Cideon> The remainder of the hour passes by in tense silence, but when it's run its course and the Queen stirs at last, it's with surprising calmness. Her eyes flutter open groggily, she stretches a little, and from all superficial aspects looks like any mortal awaking with the dawn. But when she attempts to sit up and finds her movement restricted by clanking chains, she looks around her in alarm. "What is this effrontery?" she demands with confident regality. "Why are We bound? Where are We?"
* Julia holds her tongue, figuring she should leave soothing the patient to the one with experience in these things.
<Steph> "It's a precaution, Your Majesty," Stephanie says, straightening up from her slouch against the wall like a soldier responding the presence of his commander. "For our collective safety. How are you feeling?"
<El-Cideon> "My apologies, Your Majesty," Ione says in gentle, placating tones. "You were taken by a fit of madness and had to be secured for your own safety. Do you feel quite yourself now? No unusual impulses?" The Queen eyes Ione with sharp suspicion. "And who are you?" she asks. "*What* are you? You are not Our royal doctor!" Ione quietly glances around the room for preferences on the question of unchaining the Queen.
<Franceska> "Your closest staff betrayed you, Majesty, so relying on any of them at this stage would be a risky proposition."
<Julia> After thinking and then shrugging, Julia nods. She doesn't think evil overlord Queen could play-act at being nice Queen at all.
<El-Cideon> "The only impulse We feel is one for reclaiming Our natural dignity!" Auranelle protests.
<Steph> Stephanie gives Ione a slight nod. "I'm afraid we're going to have to take you through some questions, Majesty," Stephanie says. "You've been through some harsh times. Can you perhaps tell us the last thing you remember before awakening here?"
<El-Cideon> Rosemund nods in turn and, Ione evidently considering this and her own opinion a majority, calmly unlocks the Queen's manacles. Auranelle shifts uncomfortably away from the medusa's proximity, but obviously doesn't protest her actions. Sitting up and rubbing her wrists, Auranelle recounts: "We recall making Our regular tour of Our dominions. We recall meeting some of Our fine subjects at that time," she says with nods of recognition towards Julia, Franceska and Rosemund. "Although some of them did not possess wings at that time," she says with suspicion on looking at Rosemund.
<Julia> "Yes, and then?" Julia asks, figuring it worthwhile to know the exact moment or trigger between the two states of Auranelle.
<El-Cideon> "We retired to Our chambers to dine and rest," Auranelle says simply. "It was a very ordinary day."
<Franceska> "Dine?" Franceska repeats.
<El-Cideon> "Oh yes," Auranelle confirms. "Our lands our bountiful with all manner of livestock, fish, fruit and grain."
<Steph> Stephanie ponders this for a moment, and then nudges Ione. "Hey, say we start trying to turn up contradictions or something," she says. "Like if we ask her about her dinner, which has gotta be... you know. What's the worst that could happen?" she whispers.
<Julia> "Yes, Solata does produce many lovely dishes," Julia smiles fondly. "What is your favourite, if you do not mind me asking your Majesty?"
<El-Cideon> "Our favorite, if We may speak candidly, is dessert," Auranelle admits. "Which Our royal chefs have raised to a positive art form. But here, there more serious things We must speak of than chocolate iced cream. You maintain that Our trusted chancellors have betrayed Our trust? This is a very serious accusation for a person to make! Especially for persons so recently and dimly known by Us. Such claims demand justification."
<El-Cideon> Ione nods quietly to Stephanie. "I might hazard her human subjects more likely to be trusted, however," she admits based on the Queen's initial reaction to her.
<Julia> roll 1d20+17 religion, can vampires digest... ice cream?
* Hatbot --> "Julia rolls 1d20+17 religion, can vampires digest... ice cream? and gets 29."12 [1d20=12]
<Julia> Frowning slightly in thought, Julia soon dismisses the notion of vampires exploding from ice cream.
<Franceska> "Certainly, Majesty," Franceska responds after a brief pause. "What would serve as sufficient justification?"
<El-Cideon> "You may begin by explaining who you so accuse and through what means you believe them to have transgressed." Auranelle swings her legs off the pallet and stands. "And you must inform Us where precisely We have been...secured." she adds haughtily with a glance around her cell.
<Julia> "Er... did anyone catch the names of those vampires?" Julia mutters, leaning towards Stephanie.
<Steph> "This is a.. hospital, in Azure, a city on the Elemental Plane of Air," Stephanie tells her. "And we must first implicate the, ah, late Regent Verlaine, who formed a key part of a conspiracy to cover up your own abduction from Solata."
<El-Cideon> "The 'late Regent?'" is the part Auranelle seizes on immediately. "Whatever happened to the man? And when did he ever become Regent?" the Queen huffs. "The title is of no significance while a healthy monarch reigns!"
<Franceska> "He hatched up a plot that faked your death, Majesty."
<Steph> "He then assumed the title of Regent, as your son was too young to rule. He's since passed away." Stephanie chews her lip. "Your son is King, now."
<Julia> "You see your majesty, during the recent years of your reign have you seen many familiar faces from the early years of your reign?" Julia asks to try and gently guide her to acknowledging that she hasn't been ruling Solata lately.
<El-Cideon> "We see no reason to have perpetrated any such scheme!" Auranelle protests to Franceska. "He was always a dutiful servant to Our realm, perhaps not without ambition but ready to sublimate that for the national good, and is not a small degree of ambition a mark of a man of quality? We find these events very unlikely, having no memory of them," she concludes. "You mean to suggest that We have existed in a state of dementia for *years?* The idea itself is madness!"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 45."12 [1d20=10]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31 and gets 36."12 [1d20=5]
<Franceska> "It was induced by fiendish forces plaguing your realm at the time, Majesty," Franceska notes. "While a ludicrous idea on its face, given the proper context does it seem that unlikely?"
<Julia> "Not necessarily dementia," Julia says, although it totally is, "But rather you have been confined to a... er, convincing facsimile of Solata, leaving your former servant to serve as regent and your son to grow up without you."
<El-Cideon> "A sensible servant of the realm would expend all effort to retrieve his monarch and ensure her safety!" Auranelle counters. "This scheme sounds more unlikely all the time. However long do you claim that We have been in this lamentably insensate condition?"
<Steph> "About two and a half decades, highness," says Stephanie, before pausing and rummaging in her coinpurse for a moment for bits of money minted in the last decade.
<Franceska> "A quarter of a century, Majesty. By now, the war has been long since settled. Yet it turned far more terrible after your abduction, and given the atrocities taking place none looked too closely at the report of your supposed death."
<El-Cideon> "But We feel a young woman yet," Auranelle says, putting a hand to one smooth cheek. "We should expect to be a grandmother of Kings if what you say is true."
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 49."12 [1d20=14]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31 and gets 36."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> She accepts a coin from Stephanie and quietly examines her son's visage.
<Steph> "Well, he's not taken a Queen yet, come to think of it," muses Stephanie.
<Julia> "He really should do something to secure his succession," Julia agrees patriotically.
<El-Cideon> "Well, were he in fact King, We should suggest he waste no further time upon waiting. The security of the realm demands an heir!"
<Steph> "Then Your Majesty accepts the circumstances we have thus far described?"
<El-Cideon> "We think it very farfetched, however full the world may be of wonders and strangeness, and however little We can conceive of reason to fabricate such a deception." She continues dubiously, "Have you naught more than coins with which to convince Us? Coins may be forged by counterfeiters! Which We must remind is a grievous offense against the realm."
<Julia> "Hmm... I don't have anything on me," Julia admits. They'd really have to go to Solata to show her more wouldn't they? Which would be very dangerous.
<Franceska> "On their own, it would make for sparse evidence," Franceska acknowledges. "I could present a recent lawbook, of course, but all material things can have fakes manufactured. Yet there is something more, isn't there, Majesty? The discrepancies in your own memories, which is the main reason you must be entertaining this strange story?"
<El-Cideon> Auranelle smiles condescendingly. "Child, Our memory is peerless," she insists, to which Ione quietly responds, "Then no doubt you could tell us all about the dinner you planned to have last night? In exacting detail?"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 40."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31 and gets 37."12 [1d20=6]
<El-Cideon> "The principal course was boarsteak of surpassing tenderness," Auranelle manages with commendable confidence after a moment's recollection.
<Steph> "Did you dine alone?"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 49."12 [1d20=14]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31 and gets 38."12 [1d20=7]
<Franceska> "How about the people surrounding you, Majesty? Your court, your handmaidens? Your son? There must be some point, where those surrounding you simply change, drastically and without any clear reason."
<El-Cideon> "A monarch rarely has the opportunity to dine in solitude," she chides Stephanie. "There are dignitaries to entertain, reports to hear, and altogether many demands upon her time. Of course Our chancellors attended Us during the meal."
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 37."12 [1d20=2]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31 and gets 46."12 [1d20=15]
<El-Cideon> "But really, this is so much foolishness," she protests irritably to Franceska. "There must be more important things to ascertain than the details of Our diet!"
<Julia> She's not sure if its proper, but feeling this isn't going anywhere fast Julia tries some shock therapy. "Do you remember CLANKTRON then, your Majesty?"
<Franceska> "Her Majesty remembers her son," Franceska tries again, undeterred. "Yet when is the last time she recalls seeing him? What of the chancellors surrounding her at this time? Do they remain the same right now?"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 53."12 [1d20=18]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31 and gets 35."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 36."12 [1d20=1]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31+5
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31+5 and gets 41."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> A nervous tic overtakes a flat expression for a moment, then she turns to Julia and asks courteously. "We feel a certain familiarity with the word, yet cannot place its significance. Some engine of war prepared by Our royal army's artificers, perhaps? They are most ingenious lads, and We admit their tinkering to be at times behind Our expertise."
<Julia> "Hmm..." Julia hums thoughtfully and looks to her companions, unsure what to press on further.
<Franceska> "Her Majesty keeps on ignoring my questions, simple as they are."
<Steph> "What did your chancellors have to say about the state of the realm? Or the state of the war?"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 38."12 [1d20=3]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31 and gets 38."12 [1d20=7]
<El-Cideon> "It was all very routine business," she says to Stephanie with a dismissive wave, not directly addressing the question. "We needn't bore you with the mundane details of statehood."
<Julia> Alright, more shock therapy then! "Do you remember sharing a room with someone who also shared your name? As I recall the two of you did not see eye to eye on many matters."
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 43."12 [1d20=8]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31+10
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31+10 and gets 60."12 [1d20=19]
<El-Cideon> "These questions grow very wearisome," Auranelle says uneasily, rubbing her forehead with eyes closed. "It is very trying to be interrogated in such a manner so soon after waking."
<El-Cideon> "That is not a 'No,'" Ione points out quietly.
<El-Cideon> "Perhaps it was in some wild tale that We heard from one of Our realm's more outlandish fabulists," Auranelle rallies.
<Steph> "Specifically, I put it to you that you had some fierce debates over proper conduct in the face of adversity," reflects Stephanie.
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 51."12 [1d20=16]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31+10
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31+10 and gets 48."12 [1d20=7]
<El-Cideon> "We have always born the trials of Our time with equanimity, as it is Our royal duty to set a proper example of perseverance," she says to Stephanie, reclaiming some of her calm certainty. "We have no doubt that in whichever debate you speak of, We may confidently claim We maintained Our moral superiority."
<Steph> This is actually true, which makes Stephanie fidget for a moment. "Do you then not recall such a debate?"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 51."12 [1d20=16]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31+10
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31+10 and gets 46."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> "We do not recall such being within Our experience," Auranelle manages confidently.
<Franceska> "Then Her Majesty doesn't recall spending time in a jail cell, confined by her captors?"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 49."12 [1d20=14]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31+15
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31+15 and gets 51."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> Auranelle rounds on Franceska and insists hotly that, "No BRUTE has any RIGHT to imprison US. We think vengeance a most unseemly desire, but We know that for such offenses justice demands restitution on the chopping block. If, if someone had done this to Us, We would demand--that is, the cause of righteousness would--We would see to it that the proper course of the law was followed--" Through an agonized expression, she insists: "We may recall--but no, certainly it was only winter, the season must have been cause of Our discomfort--"
<El-Cideon> Rosemund shakes her head. "It was a prison cell," she insists. "You wrote all over the walls! You were having an argument with, ah, with yourself."
<Steph> "Your opposite number was quite angry at her situation. She'd do whatever it took to get vengeance. Even embrace dark powers and bloody her own hands."
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 51."12 [1d20=16]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31+20
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31+20 and gets 52."12 [1d20=1]
<El-Cideon> "That is not the noble course!" Auranelle protests. "Because one is oppressed by barbaric powers, it does not follow that one must stoop to their infamy to oppose them! We would not--I pleaded with her--" She turns to Stephanie with an air of desperation. "How is it that you know of these things? We were alone!"
<Julia> "But your writings were left. While you were attending to your people, we were exploring the depths of your prison and discovering your past," Julia explains.
<El-Cideon> "I never saw her," Auranelle admits. "The poor soul--such anguish and torment she must have endured, I can hardly imagine!" The Queen bows her head in sympathy.
<Julia> "She suffered no more than you yourself did," Julia says.
<El-Cideon> "Oh, that is some small comfort," Auranelle acknowledges, delicately dabbing at one cheek. "Oh, do not look at this sad display I make of myself! I feel I should weep, yet no tears heed my call."
<Steph> "But you remember your confinement, now?"
<El-Cideon> "And clearly I must thank you for my expeditious rescue," she says to Stephanie. "If I'd been left in their hands indefinitely, I shudder to think what true horrors they might have wrought!"
<Steph> "Ah, well, no problem! Saving women is what we do!"
<Julia> "Rescue?" Julia blinks. That's quite a turnaround in attitude from her...
<El-Cideon> "So strange that I had forgotten," she muses. "But, that is what the learned doctors of our land say, that the mind may save a soul the burden of remembering our most grievous traumas? It is--it is still painful to think upon, but--" Auranelle rallies back some of her regal dignity, "--but as one might see, I am clearly suited now to resume my royal duties."
<Franceska> "Her Majesty also remembers now how her body was changed while in confinement? The reason she does not look as if she had aged a day in twenty five years?"
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+35
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+35 and gets 43."12 [1d20=8]
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+31+20
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+31+20 and gets 70."12 [1d20=19]
<El-Cideon> "A--a fever dream, a nightmare," Auranelle starts, her eyes startlingly wide as her protests grow increasingly frantic and hollow. "No one could be so monstrous! I would never--you cannot think that a Queen would abase herself so as to subsist on the lifeblood of innocents! You cannot!"
<Franceska> "You were in the hands of demons, Your Majesty. And they had plenty of time, after their collaborators in Solata made sure no one would try to look for you."
<Julia> Julia winces because the facts speak for themselves, but this personality isn't really at fault.
<Steph> "We have evidence," reflects Stephanie. "The journals of your own captors."
<El-Cideon> Auranelle shakes her head vigorously. "No, SHE did it!" she wails. "It was always her! I tried to stop her, but she would not listen!"
<Steph> "Of course you did," says Stephanie, reaching out to take one of Auranelle's hands. "It's not really your fault. You yourself did nothing wrong."
<El-Cideon> Auranelle gratefully sobs into Stephanie's hands, though it quickly becomes apparent than she genuinely can no longer cry.
<Julia> "Er... there, there," Julia says, reaching over to pat Auranelle's back. "She did many awful things, but she did at least kill your captors. Have to give her credit for that?" They are after all the same person, so some form of reconciliation might help balance out the extremes.
<El-Cideon> "But you must stop her!" Auranelle pleads. "However you might do this, I could not say, she is a fearsome driven creature. How does one calm a wounded beast? I do not know."
<Steph> "As long as you are here," reflects Stephanie. "Then she can't harm anyone. So we will have plenty of time."
<Franceska> "Does she take over by force?" Franceska inquires. "Or do you relinquish control to her, Majesty?"
<El-Cideon> "But--but what of the kingdom?" Auranelle asks, swelling with concern for her long-neglected subjects. "Should they not be graced with my presence again? Should they not be reassured?" She turns to Franceska with an air of confusion. "I am sorry, but I do not think that I understand. I said that I had never met her. To this day of no inkling of her mere appearance!"
<Julia> "You and she are two sides to the same coin, your Majesty," Julia explains succinctly. "When you slumber, she awakes. When she slumbers, you return." It's probably not sleep, but the gist is there.
<El-Cideon> "It is an unusual medical condition, but not one without precedence," Ione confirms. "Your captors fostered this state deliberately. We have their own journals to substantiate this. What we do not know is how to control the other Auranelle."
<El-Cideon> Auranelle tries to process this in amazement. "If--supposing such a wild idea is true--I cannot recall when last I saw the evening sky. My last years are full of bright and clear days." She nods to Julia. "It may be so, that the night is her time?"
* Julia nods. "So that leaves three paths to us, as the current one is unsustainable. We separate you into two bodies to then act as free individuals," though they'd surely kill the vamp with due haste, "We merge your personalities to reach a complete whole without the extremes of behaviour she has shown, or we block her personality from ever manifesting within you again... but how to achieve any of these results I'm unsure about, as magic of the mind is not my specialty."
<Steph> "The journals back this up. The intent was... that during the day, your original personality would be in control to allay suspicion. But at night, your other self would take over and plot to bring down Solata itself." Stephanie clears her throat. "You may read them, if you wish."
<El-Cideon> "I should see these journals you speak of first," Auranelle agrees, composing herself with a little more of her accustomed control. "One cannot accept such a wild theory on rumor alone."
<Steph> Stephanie has them on hand, ready to be handed over. The abyssal experiment journal is passed over first, as hideous a read as it is.
<El-Cideon> Auranelle accepts it with admirable calm, though her expression grows increasingly grim and forlorn as she reads. "There is a solution you have not suggested," she adds near the end, without looking up. "You could kill me. If I am such a danger as I appear, I should not raise objection to such a dire necessity."
<Julia> "Lets leave that as a last resort, shall we?" Julia says. She'd written off this Auranelle as a mere facade before, but as they've talked and she's awakened to her situation she's become that much more of a real person to Julia.
<Steph> "It, I think that would a most unjust conclusion," says Stephanie. "The realm should know better what you have been put through!"
<Steph> She hugs herself. "Some people at the top know. They know! And they've killed innocent people to keep it secret..."
<El-Cideon> "I fear that I struggle to conceive of valid purpose for my life in such a state. Am I not more danger than virtue now?" she laments. "So you propose that you parade me back home to see justice done?" She sounds of mixed degrees of approval until coming down against this with the following realization: "But what then becomes of my son? Am I not in the eyes of the law yet the rightful monarch? I hardly think," she concludes with difficulty, "that he should know."
<Franceska> "Amongst his advisors are those that betrayed you, once upon a time. And even now, they're plotting to cover it up by killing innocents. Is he truly safe, surrounded by them?"
<Julia> "I'm no scholar of law, but I'm unsure if deceased and then reanimated monarch get to retain their throne. At worst you could abdicate for him?"
<El-Cideon> "And have you some scheme to resolve this without further unnecessary bloodshed?" Auranelle wonders, sounding intensely wearied.
<El-Cideon> "There is hardly precedent," Auranelle admits to Julia with a sliver of grim humor.
<Franceska> "There is no need to go into detail with your son, Majesty, but I believe that he would be happy for the chance to spend time with you once more. That, however, depends on how well we can ensure that your control holds. If we did, however, manage to arrange such a meeting then it would be a simple thing to weed out those disloyal from the rest with a minimum of bloodshed."
<Steph> "If you really are the rightful queen, you can set it," says Stephanie, pursing her lips. She frowns. "If we can prove it to your son before revealing anything to anyone else, then... surely he can just detain those involved, and assure that proper justice is, indeed, meted out."
<El-Cideon> "It merits consideration," Auranelle admits at length. "Yet how do you propose to prevent her--MY loss of control whilst these negotiations proceed? I will not be the cause of further suffering. I solemnly request that my destruction remain under consideration pending failure of all other schemes. It should be as well. I am an abomination before the lord of sunlight and a danger to all."
<Franceska> "It would go much smoother if he deigned to transform Her Majesty back, yes."
<El-Cideon> "Were it so simple, would there yet be any of my ilk at all?" Auranelle wonders.
* Franceska glances at Ione for insight, at this time.
<Steph> "It's not for us to question the gods, for we are small and they are big," reasons Stephanie. "Ione, what next steps would you suggest? We can pursue a magical approach, as Julia suggested, but do you suppose we can overcome this, ah, psychological conditioning by other means?"
<El-Cideon> "It's a little outside my field, you must admit," Ione says at Franceska's look. "In the short term, imprisoning Her Majesty here during nights should theoretically prevent her other self from causing mischief. Yet what constitutes day and night for her on a world properly lacking either? It's always bright on the plane of Air. Does that mean she should always be her reasonable self while in my custody? Lengthy observation might be warranted before we risk bringing her outside." She nods in deference to Auranelle's dignity. "Apologies, Your Majesty." To Stephanie, she says: "If we mean to reconcile the two of them through similar means such as we reached Her Majesty today, it does entail talking at length with the other side, you realize."
<Franceska> "What would Her Majesty prefer?"
<El-Cideon> "Whichever course should best serve the peace and safety of the realm and bring least undue risk upon innocent lives," Auranelle says promptly. Eventually, she asks, "Can you tell me about what has happened since my disappearance? And what you say has been done to obscure knowledge of it?"
<Steph> "Yes, of course. Your kidnap was recast as a murder. They killed a servant and, ah, used her as your corpse double in your own bedchamber," says Stephanie. "The war was won, of course, or we wouldn't be able to tell you about it. I don't think we were even born at the time," she reflects.
<El-Cideon> Rosemund adds, "We heard rumors on another world of your servants, ah, buying slaves. I am sorry, Your Majesty, but that turned out to be true. We told my aunt about this and she went to Solanth to ask her old friends from the war about it, and then she disappeared." With commendable calm, Rosemund adds: "We found out later that soldiers working for Archmage Calloran killed her to keep her quiet."
<El-Cideon> The Queen nods seriously. "Calloran? I remember something of him. Verlaine's young shadow back when the man was my own advisor." She draws a dramatic, unnecessary breath. "I see that I shall have to have words with him."
<Franceska> "It still remains to be seen if they worked on their own, or with other as-yet unnamed allies."
<Julia> "Well they certainly have allies in the military, but there's no way to know exactly who's involved beyond the names we've heard," Julia says, considering the killteam sent to Whitsunhold led by Leah's executioner.
<El-Cideon> "We shall have to discover this as well," Auranelle. "I am no longer any proper Queen. Men should not be dying in my name any longer."
<Steph> "For now we need to focus on you, and on, ah, what to do with the inhabitants of Whitsunhold," reflects Stephanie. "So at the least, I think you'll be under observation for a few days."
<El-Cideon> "I shall wait in my cell and do my best to maintain a state of serenity," Auranelle says with quiet resignation. "Should I fail, I trust you know well how to subdue me."
<Steph> "If there's anything you'd like to help pass the time, or focus the mind, we can nip out and pick it up!"
<El-Cideon> "There's a point that's not been made," Ione says to Stephanie. "What of the citizens? Where had you thought to take them? It occurs to me that bringing back to your homeland a small town's worth of strangers all claiming to have served under your late monarch might have more than few awkward complications."
<El-Cideon> "For now, I think I should simply like to be alone," Auranelle replies, drawing within herself.
<Steph> "I'm not sure they'd really do well in Azure, either," admits Stephanie. "Honestly, er, now that I've thought about it more, Whitsunhold doesn't seem too bad a place..."
<Steph> She shrugs. "But we left the choice with them, ultimately. We'd do well to go and see how they're doing."
<Julia> "For now. As they grow older with no children to replace population and work fields, things will deteriorate badly... but yes, lets leave her Majesty to rest? She has gone through a lot today."
<El-Cideon> "Leave the journals, if you'd please," Auranelle adds quietly in parting.
* Franceska leaves a blank one as well, in case she wants to leave a message for her other self through it.
<El-Cideon> Ione closes and locks the cell door once outside. "I'll be nearby and have staff on watch at all times should her condition deteriorate. I've procured some silver weapons, though one hopes they won't be needed."
<Steph> "Get them to bring mirrors, too," suggests Stephanie. "Or garlic."
<El-Cideon> The medusa nods. "I will ask Her Majesty whether she wishes one posted within her chamber, as a reminder," she agrees.
<El-Cideon> ~