Victorious advance

[Anastasia]

Naeys is silent a few more moments, "Her trip to Carceri is victorious, slaying many fiends and liberating the unjustly imprisoned. It is a triumphant effort in every sense of the word."

"Which means," Antenora says, "It's someone strong enough to be under a mind blank all the time."

At that Naeys look on with the slightest smile, "Your sense of trickery does you well. It seems too good to be true, so readily available and alluring."

[Ebiris]

"It's rather pat," Alicia agrees. "All things considered I think you ought to exercise your escape clause on that vow. Still, it's clear now that we're being manipulated in an extremely thorough way to send you there. That can't have been easy to set up nor been ongoing indefinitely to await this chance."

[Anastasia]

"I agree." Antenora takes a long breath out, "The greater question is: Is it Malcanthet's work? Could this somehow be the point of her entire attack, to somehow drive me to head to Carceri? Of course, it does make sense, after all a proper plot's thrust is disguised in many ways, but it's unusually coherent for a demon. I'd expect to see it from a pit fiend, not a succubus queen. But what if that's part of the plan, to make it look like it isn't her while it really is her?"

[Ebiris]

"I'm not sure there's any link between that attack and Naeys' recent divinations," Alicia says with a slow shake of her head. "Though demons are perfectly capable of making coherent plans, we've no shortage of other enemies who'd have reason to imprison you there. None hail from Carceri so it could quite reasonably be any of them, though fooling divinations to such a great extent is no mean feat."

[Anastasia]

"Maybe so," Antenora admits, "Is there any way we can narrow this down?"

[Ebiris]

"Any divinations are liable to be suspect in this, so not with magic," Alicia says. "Honestly we've reached the limit of my tolerance for this - whatever trap is predicated on these recent divinations that pointed me at Carceri, which were only spurred by divinations claiming misfortune in your near future. As none of them can be taken as trustworthy, I think it best that we simply do as we would be doing if they weren't a factor."

[Anastasia]

Antenora hms, "That may be best," she finally says, "Then in the meantime, we're to prepare for Daun?"

[Ebiris]

"And keep a sharp eye on Seira's war," Alicia adds. "It's only a matter of time before escalation forces our hand."

[Anastasia]

In that case, Red Knight next. Any prep for that?

[Ebiris]

I'll get Strength of Light to give me an overview of how the training went and their equipment/boats/readiness so I won't be surprised by anything when we have our guest visit.

[Anastasia]

"In short," Strength of Light reports, "The soldiers are well drilled, prepared and equipped. What they need now is experience, though they aren't particularly green overall. Some things only war can teach an army."

[Ebiris]

"We'll start them off by supporting Sulia's own forces so they can work together and get more of a feel for the world and their enemy," Alicia says, the two of them on a balcony overlooking a parade ground where they'll be organised to drill and show off for Red Knight tomorrow, a harbour visible beyond it giving access to the sea for aquatic maneuvers. "What about transport then, how are our ships looking?" Swimming and water breathing magic are all well and good, but they'll need mighty boats to serve as mobile fortresses when they take their fight to the aboleths in the deep ocean.

[Anastasia]

"We're building them as fast as we can," Strength of Light says, "Designs aren't a problem, the Empress contributed much of the her own knowledge there. Still, we're relatively short on shipbuilders and establishing them from the ground up. In time it'll be better and faster."

[Ebiris]

"Do we have any fully built that are good enough to show off to Red Knight when she gets here, then?" Alicia asks.

[Anastasia]

"A handful," Strength of Light says, "Magic helps speed up shipbuilding greatly. Several others we can use in a support role as long as she doesn't come aboard and inside them."