"Mysteriously", the overly solicitous "servant" had vanished. The rest, I noticed, had been relieved, if too professional to actually show it. Makes sense. Nobles often practiced group responsibility for dostics, and it would not be out of character for to demand (and get) them all whipped over one impertinent pretender. Who would probably be spared the treatnt themselves to boot. Not so mysteriously, I had lost track of ti given that I had a bath and a maid in it, so... Yeah. Well. It is half to two when I finally rember I am actually expected to dine with everyone at three, and therefore must wrap up the overly long bath lounging. Bridgit pouts when I say as much, but she is imdiately rebuffed by her stomach growling. Which makes both of us jump up a bit. Hm.
It's surprising just how much sudden pang of hunger is motivating one to dry off and put on clothes. Of course, it does help that drying oneself off is a cantrip so simple Bridgit uses it casually, nevermind . I evaporate the bath water (The remains that were in the original bath. I had to conjure the majority of water for us, and letting it ti out created a sort of fog out of remains. I elected to deal with it by a combination of an open window, heating spell and a bit of magic breeze to get it all outside.) and consider restructured bath critically.
"Bridgit, co on over here." - I ask - "Can you try to lift this bath and tell how easy it is?"
She eyes the thing dubiously. "Mistress, I shouldn't be able to even budge it, let alone lift." - she complains, but tries anyway. Much to her surprise, the bath is actually liftable by her. Not easily, I can see she makes an effort to lift it up, but manageable. Setting the whole thing down, she turns to - "Is it lighter than it looks or I got stronger than I thought sohow?"
"First, I'm afraid. Ever wondered, what if tal was not solid, but like a sponge? That's the answer." - I tell her - "Ridiculously light for sothing that's actually sturdier than solid tal. I don't really want to revert it back to being small, but I wanted you to know it's light in case soone wants to move it and decides size is an issue."
She just shakes her head, as she starts to sort out the luggage. I've had her pack a few fancy dresses for the occasion. I an, I could easily mimic any clothes, but I'd really prefer to keep shoggoth tricks to a minimum while I'm here. The last thing I need is Alphonse calling the talks off because he thinks I've been replaced by sothing. I, anwhile, throw on a bathrobe, go out to the anteroom, and order a plentiful lunch to be brought in. It, of course, causes a lot of dubiousness among servants, but after the little show earlier, I believe they're all of an opinion I'm an unrepentant dostic tyrant and tolerate no questioning of my orders. The lunch is obviously for Bridgit, because I'll be damned if I let her dine in the servant quarters as they expect. It might cause a bit of talk, because I'm clearly showing Bridgit more favors than a maid usually warrants, but fuck them. If I'm reading this right, the conclusion would be simply that she's my favorite maid for skinship and therefore pampered.
By the ti the lunch is brought in, both and Bridgit are dressed and the bath is quite obviously ready to be removed. Which causes a LOT of consternation among the servants, because they presu the newly enlarged bath is well beyond their ability to move.
"Mistress, I beg your pardon but there is no way we could possibly carry this out on our own!" - bleats the most courageous of them eventually. Hm. I wonder what his job actually is. Handyman? Valet?.. Whatever. I snap my fingers and nod to Bridgit. Who shakes her head bemusedly, but cos over to the bath and lifts one side of it, not effortlessly, but clearly without excess strain.
"I think you'll manage." - I tell them dryly. They gather around the bath incredulously, grasp it and... make a lot of surprised exclamations then expected weight is much less than they thought it would be, leading them to yanking the whole thing almost to chest level and consequently almost dropping it. Thankfully, the doors are sufficiently wide to make extraction a non-issue from that angle, and they carry the enlargened bath out, eliciting much surprise from the guards outside the doors. This would be making rounds in the castle rumors, I know it... And that's fine. If it was back in sumr, when I was still having delusions about being low-key, I'd revert it back to its original form, but that ship had well and truly floated away. So instead, I've decided to cultivate the image of a mad scientist, of a sorts. A sorceress so advanced she casually does things everyone else thinks impossible or unbelievable. The pros of this are manifold - if this kind of fa becos common knowledge, I'll have a much easier ti introducing stuff, because common consensus would tilt. Instead of dubiousness about the "newfangled design", people would be thinking "ooh, that mad sorceress invented a new bizarrely convenient thing, I gotta see this". And as I have already experienced, the collective subconscious on this reality is a real force behind the curtain. So... I'm going to put so effort into shaping narration. And possibly examine other players in this from the viewpoint of narrative influence. Konistan, for example. I have a big nasty hunch that he was considered an elusive master criminal in a large part due to collective subconscious believing he is. And if I was not an outside context problem in his case, he could've very well been a very frustrating opponent to bat against simply because so long as his action fit the collective subconsciousness narrative, things would go his way.
Co to think of it, it might also explain so other things. Like for example, how co Vlad enjoys such a fearso reputation outside of Vallah in spite of Vallah being, ostensibly, just a county-sized fief with no grand monopolies to prop their economy with. I need to put out feelers into the Confederacy, I think. Maybe cause so reunification wars, because at the rate things are going, Vlad will eventually pull his head out of impalent daydreaming and start applying his arguably considerable army to the neighbors. I'm not sure what kicks him off. The ga implied that it was the protagonist's fault that he decided he should unite Confederacy under the Vallahian flag, but the clues in the ga don't seem to bear that out - he had his forces already positioned and agitating the neighboring countries into border skirmishes. In fact, in one of the holdovers from the ga plot, Alistair complained about Vallah incursions and rising tensions in the Confederacy as early as a month ago. So it's entirely possible that Vlad is already working through his plan of "unite Confederacy under himself and impale enough people in progress to create a lasting prejudice against sodomy in Confederacy". And not due to the persecution of gay n, which he isn't actually carrying to the best of my knowledge, but due to the fact his favorite thod of impalent seems to be "insert the tip of two ter pole into the rectum, stand it up and let the gravity handle the rest". Thoroughly unpleasant, that. Even with healing magic, there is pretty much no chance of saving soone once they've been "sat" like this. Pain shock, blood loss, dehydration and infection pretty much guarantee that death occurs, just over the period of several days rather than several hours.
Gods damn it, now I just can't stop thinking about this. To be entirely fair, while this is obviously his fetish, Vlad starts off by reserving this kind of execution for people who actually deserve it - rapists, traitors and childkillers. But as the conquest kicks off for good, he goes off the deep end and starts ordering impalents for less and less serious stuff. Like, suppressing guerrilla opposition by impaling entire villages and setting the results out in the fields outside the villages in question. I think I need to make sure Vlad dies before any of this actually kicks off. I'm not exactly responsible for those people, but knowing about impending disaster and doing nothing about it is kinda... scummy. If mory serves, Vlad kicks off his conquest around the beginning of next sumr, and that's the ti when he shifts from "cruel but passably fair overlord" into "torture-obsessed madman". Enough ti for to bust in and rip his head off, if necessary. Though maybe I can do sothing about it in less overt ways. I wonder if there is a good way to neuter him sohow. Sothing to discuss with Abe and maybe Alphonse. I obviously have a better rapport with Abe, but Alphonse is the one closer to the situation.
___
I'm positive now that soone's doing hijinks. Because the guards at the dining hall doors had conveniently forgotten my na and face. I could have thrown a hissy fit, I suppose, but that would be long and annoying and probably used as a pretext to claim I've been unruly to begin with... So instead, I pull my copperphone out of pocket and call Abraham. He is... quite incredulous about the idea, and two minutes later, one of the guard captains runs out of the hall, gives bows and apologies and hisses at the guards in question in pretty much the sa motion. The end result - guards are sent away, half-worried and half-defiant, I've been profusely apologized at and escorted into the dining hall, and there is so kind of... table reshufflent? No, they're just swapping out the whole chair and utensils next to dad's spot. Apparently, soone "misread" my na and made an assumption so kraut noble with a superficially similar sounding na would be attending.
The dinner is lavish, but hardly anything outstanding. I was expecting sothing to the tune of business luncheon, maybe, but it's a full-on ceremony-heavy dinner. No talking to anyone beyond your imdiate neighbors, lots of dish changes, full-on showoff mode for the kingdom. Which is actually kind of annoying, because with all the rare delicacies, there's a distinct lack of simpler fare to provide so kind of base. Oh well. At least I could have a pleasant conversation with dad, while at it. Unfortunately, the guy on the other side of was clearly put there on soone's misguided idea to "romance" away from Champagne. Seriously, why? Oh, the dude was passably polite, I'll give him that, but he also managed to clearly impress on that he's not about to consider no a valid answer nor is he discouraged by being ignored within the first five minutes. Thankfully, I had enough of unimportant minutiae to discuss with dad to be sufficiently distracted from the dude's overtures.
Thankfully, the ceremonial nature of dinner also ant it was run on a strict schedule, so exactly an hour later, I was free from the table and incessant flirting. Dad had begun looking increasingly tense as the dinner progressed, giving an evil eye to the flirting dude with increasing frequency, and just like , he heaved a sigh of relief as soon as the dinner was announced over. Unfortunately... the would-be suitor was very determined... And I was very fed up.
"Look!" - I tell him, yanking my sleeve out of his fingers - "I believe I've been quite upfront with you when I said I am already spoken for and have no interest in pursuing extramarital hijinks before my marriage is even finalized. Please STOP flirting with , stop trying to invite along to your social gatherings and most importantly, stop bothering . I'm here for business negotiations, nothing more. Certainly not to strike up a clueless romance with a guy who thinks 'no' ans 'try harder'. Now kindly, leave be, because you're one complint away from being challenged to duel!"
He drops my sleeve and steps back like he's been scalded. The crowd pushes back, whispers growing in intensity imdiately and gaining scandalized undertones. Yeah, it was not fucking diplomatic. Not even slightly. I... do... not... care. This mission had been an exercise in patience ever since we touched down in Berlinger, and I'm quite near the boiling point. It shouldn't be THAT annoying. Soone put a lot of effort to guide all those pushy and clueless people in my way, and by golly, they're going to pay for that.
"Co on, fraulein, surely you do not an that." - he gives his best impression of a politely haughty chuckle - "Would you really force your venerable father into fighting a man half his age and twice his strength?" Dad visibly bristles at that, but then suddenly relaxes and grins, giving a nudge and nod. I think he just had his own patience tipped over. I wonder if he also had impertinent servants bothering him, or he's simply indignant about this guy being so blatant.
"And here is another reason why your attempts were dood in the crib." - I tell him - "If you had any interest in as a person, you'd know that I fight duels personally. So. Will you kindly leave be, or do I need to hand you your ass first?"
He's... looking affronted now, but visibly calms himself and gives another chuckle - "Oh, I wouldn't want to spoil the festivities with such unsightliness, fraulein."
"Wise decision." - I'm not giving a fuck, I'm tired of this - "So let us pause things at this. Next ti you make an approach, we can resu the unsightliness. Do NOT expect anything else."
___
Well, that was annoying. Alphonse just HAD to start inquiring about the situation, and then had the fucking gall to start tutting at .
"Your majesty, do you have second thoughts about the deal?" - I ask him bluntly. He blinks and stares at , clearly not expecting this kind of rebuke. I forge on, not letting him retort just yet - "Because I have a distinct feeling people have been trying to drive to indignant anger ever since I stepped off the airship. Honestly, you do not have to resort to such underhanded tactics. Just say so if you want more ti before you commit to anything, I understand that there are political concerns about everything."
"Now, now, fraulein." - he rumbles back at - "I do not care for such accusations. Really now, if I had a reason to postpone, I daresay I would just say as much."
"If so, then soone is hard at work sabotaging you, your majesty." - I redirect - "Insofar, I have been accosted by impertinent servants, ignorant guards and ignoble guests. Once might be a chance. Twice might be a coincidence. But three? That's systematic. Soone is trying to sabotage the talks."
He begins to say sothing... Pauses. Thinks. Leans to Abe and whispers sothing to him. Abe whispers back, and whatever it was asked and replied, Alphonse's expression hardens from that. He leans back and smacks his fist three tis on the wall behind him.
"Klaus!" - he bellows, surprisingly loudly for a man of his advanced age - "Co on out here, I want so explanations."
Klaus? No way. I killed the dude very comprehensively. Do they do the whole "man dies, identity lives" dance? Or is Klaus actually a "working na" for Kraut spymaster? I steal a glance at Hiram... And I see him very puzzled, mouthing the word back silently as if trying to figure out sothing nigh-inconceivable. And, of course, this is when the door opens. And I see a man who is, in oh so many ways, the sa (or at least very similar) to the one I killed at my mansion three months ago. I see Hiram jump to his feet in alarm out of the corner of my eye in the sa mont. He clearly was left in the dark about this particular resurrection. Hrm. I wonder why Alphonse is electing to reveal Klaus now?
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