>>5199777Six months pass...
You remain in the capitol, questioning Vera and even occasionally Harain, though the northerner unsurprisingly gives a hated enemy little of value. Neither attempt escape, and Alkaign is pleased with the steady progress of your fact finding. You confirm that the strange powers faded with Reiji's death, that the Better World is indeed as vast as your own, and not simply some foreign and unknown isle or remote continent. She spoke of technology and magic beyond Imperial reckoning, horseless carriages, metal avians to carry passengers to cross long distances, weapons of war that boggle the mind. But you could hardly get her to cease speaking of this world's strange and horrifying political systems. Radical “equality” between the sexes, surely destroying social order. Giving even the lowliest a say in politics, ensuring only demagogues could hold any office. Worst of all, the rightful masters paying their lessers to continue to exist. You are horrified that this young girl and her savage friend were susceptible to such madness, and that they saw it viable here in the Empire. Over time, useful information dries, and you begin to hear of nothing but anecdotes of the life Vera and Reiji shared. Humoring this is your only option, you fear if it became clear all use was exhausted Alkaign might kill the girl on a whim, and then your word and honor would be broken. They met years ago, both but children. Reiji seemed beyond his years and Vera was smitten, despite already being in training to join one of the more restrictive orders of the Lady of the Depths. On her sixteenth birthday she was to be sworn to her final vows, but they ran away together. Taking in a roguish thief from a southern desert city they sojourned in for some time named Deris, the other dead man in the throne hall, they then travelled north and met Harain. To your worry, she described how the new ideology of the Better World had taken root nearly everywhere they went, whispered among the smallfolk and the unfortunate. This seems to be a brewing long term threat.
Things continue much the same for months. It becomes clear that whatever his other faults this Reiji had some concept of keeping secrets. You find out little more than you did the first few weeks. Alys and you work together to do what you can, but it feels like more an effort to keep Alkaign satisfied than anything truly productive. You do receive a letter from your eldest sister Ava, noting the arrival of Elpest and his new wife the name of whom she could not get due to the man's overprotectiveness. He is nonetheless sworn in as a man at arms, and Captain Laphroaig notes his ability and dedication. Maybe the wastrel has turned a corner after all.
