My first thought was something like "oh good, that means all the armed goons are just the Primarch's security detail, and that server looked nervous because the fucking ruler of the whole country popped by for dinner". My second thought was "ah, fuck, I really don't want to get tangled up in any political shit - hopefully she's not going to keep us from leaving or anything". And then my third thought hit, which was "oh god, oh no, she's going to recognize Grunkle."

That third thought was a doozy.

Would she just arrest him? Arrest me, for keeping him around? Arrest all of us? Fourth and fifth thoughts were also arriving, reminding me that Hugh had probably told her all sorts of shit including some stuff about Earth. Surely she wouldn't just blurt anything out here at dinner, right? Right?

I smiled, and not knowing the exact procedure gave a little quarter-bow. "It's an honor," I said, doing an admirable job of keeping the panic out of my voice, "I didn't think we would be dining with you or I would have worn a nicer dress."

She laughed, body language relaxed and informal, and reached for one of the platters. They were filled with what looked like big oyster shells made out of naturally occurring stained glass, and filled with some sort of delicious gloop - probably cheese and stuff, it was hard to tell. "Please, don't worry about things like that. Have a seat! The food here is wonderful, I was thrilled to have an excuse to stop in. I hadn't wanted to bother Katrin while she was recovering, and then she so suddenly left; I was worried I'd missed my chance to sit down to a meal with her and my son. And I normally wouldn't want to make a fuss when everyone is working, but I actually know Matlyn's father from before I married into the royal family. We attended a course on politics at the University in Sentortzi."

Matlyn smiled. "He's mentioned that, actually! He thinks very highly of you. He's recently... we've had some problems, and he's stepped away from the business. But I'll be sure to tell him you remember him."

The Primarch gestured at Matlyn with a tiny fork. "Tell him he still owes me six pins for that bet we made. I haven't forgotten."

Six pins was the equivalent of maybe a dollar, so this had to have been one of those stupid friendly bets people make. Matlyn laughed, and promised to pass the message along. I scooped the blob of food out of one of the colorful shells and tried it, trying to sit naturally. It was good, but tasted a bit mushroom-y which I wasn't into. The Primarch deftly pulled people into the conversation and managed to look genuinely interested in everything that everyone had to say - I could see what Lute had been trying to imitate when we met him, and I found myself wondering if he would someday reach this level of casual charisma. She quickly had everyone smiling and laughing, and for half the table even chatting as if they were all old friends.

The quiet ones were Calliope, Grunkle, and myself. Grunkle was smiling and nodding along with the conversation but the smile was a little too tight, his eyes drifting towards the door and freedom like a magnet was pulling at them. For Calliope, I suspected it was just severe social anxiety - she'd been used to drifting from town to town looking scary, and now she was at a nice restaurant with fucking royalty. She had no script for this, and it probably didn't help that she had certainly clocked my own discomfort.

It was yet another moment that should have been cool. I'd been pulled into a fantasy world, learned magic, and was now dining with the benevolent - hopefully - ruler of a nation. I should be enjoying myself, and maybe preparing to brag about it later. Instead, I was busy worrying that she was going to fuck up all our plans and maybe arrest us. Or, if not all of us, me and Grunkle and possibly Calliope. She'd leave Katrin so as to not upset her son, right? And then Katrin and Errod would argue about the rest of us... no, okay, maybe she'd just lock us all up and tell Lute to find a new girlfriend.

Or I was worrying for no reason and she really was just nice and charming and treating us to a fancy dinner. But not with my luck.

Matlyn's next comment pulled my full attention back to the conversation. "When we were departing from Good Charl, they made a disturbing announcement about the Endless Empire. Do you know if... is everyone..."

The Primarch smiled sadly. "So far, we don't think many people have been hurt. The Endless Empire has locked down access to their Dumineres, and something odd is going on at the Clockwork Palace in the capitol. In addition, the Custodians of the Empire put out an order to have all those in the Empire with Dumines report to certain locations - but it doesn't sound like very many have obeyed, outside of Theremas and the capitol, Eldeazine. Those two had all the gates closed, and forced compliance. Thankfully, we were given warning and some valuable information ahead of time, so we have plans in place for almost every conceivable scenario. On that note... I have gifts for some of you."

She lifted a large satchel from beside her chair, and extracted four leather folders. They had metal decorations at the corners, and the flap tied shut with a thin metallic cord. Lute placed one in front of Katrin, Errod, Calliope, and myself. Slightly nervous, I unwound the cord and opened it to find a small stack of paperwork, covered in seals and ribbons. I slowed time in my memory palace and flipped through everything, and while some of it was hard to decipher the main points were clear - I was pardoned for anything I'd done so far, at least in Erathik, and I had been awarded some sort of special commendation.

I had no cultural context, of course, so the commendation could be anything from a meaningless pat on the back to some super impressive once in a generation honor. It certainly sounded cool, with my newly gained grasp of the language translating it as "Shield of the Bloodied Victorious". If nothing else, the pardon was good to have. I didn't think that I'd committed any particular crimes in Erathik aside from being here with the Behemoth's body, but there was some shit that might have landed me in hot water just due to whatever treaty it was everyone always mentioned. I'd been promised one by the Empire as well, which certainly wasn't happening, but with their government imploding and being body-snatched it didn't seem likely that they would have the bandwidth to come after me for legal shit.

I folded the flaps back over and tied it shut, then nodded to the Primarch. "Thank you, that's really nice."

"Even the fish?" She asked.

The... what? I undid the cord once more and pulled the papers out, flipping through. Had there been something about a fish? Wait. Fuck. She'd gotten me. I looked up at the Primarch, and sure enough she had a shit-eating grin. Everyone else just looked confused. "Okay," I said, "so you clocked that I can read in Erathi now." She'd asked about the fish in Erathi and I'd reacted without even thinking about it. To be fair, I'd only been able to speak the language for twenty minutes.

"I did," she said, in Erathi of course. "It should not surprise you to hear that I have quite the file on you, Constance Runelighter. Not because of your first meeting with Hugh, at the time we thought that was just a standard errand he was being sent on. He'd loaned himself to the Grand Alignment task force and they were using him for all sorts of boring things. Not even really because of your encounter in Handoleren. But when you showed up with General Telen's armor and Dumine, and the location of a lost Duminere? Well, let's just say we did our due diligence.

"After that, Lute was worried about Katrin - are you following this, Katrin? I know you've been picking up the language quickly, but I should probably be speaking slower for you - Lute was worried about Katrin and found out about you all having a bounty on your heads. That made us look further, and shortly after dear Hugh got to you there was the attack outside of Sentortzi. So we've been watching you quite a lot, and I have to say... I was still sure you didn't speak Erathi. You're not wearing a translation band, though the bracers are too complex for my security to know precisely what they do without putting hands on them. That being said, it feels like translation magic... there's a cadence, a lack of accent, a... stilted way of speaking, if you know what to listen for."

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

She was enjoying the puzzle. "Errod is understanding me as well, but there is a delay. Someone whispering in your ear, perhaps? Ah, that got a nervous flush. Matlyn clearly is in the same boat as Katrin, a learner that is smart and talented but still far from fluent. No doubt she was taught Erathi and Tahikk so she could help run the family business. Likewise, Grunkle would have learned it at some point during his long life, possibly from one of his followers. So it is only you that I am trying to figure out. What an excellent puzzle, yes?"

This was the first she'd slipped into saying 'yes?' at the end of a sentence, the Erathi version of a Canadian 'eh?'. Probably it was unbecoming of a noble, but I wasn't sure if she was genuinely letting herself relax and slip, or if it was a performative thing. I also hadn't missed that she knew who Grunkle was, and neither had he - though beyond catching that flicker of a reaction I couldn't guess what he was actually thinking about it. "Well, what can I say? I'm full of surprises."

"You are!" she said, sounding pleased, "and I enjoy riddles. Matlyn's family is in the business of engineering crops, a very valuable talent. She's in charge of this mysterious expedition, so you're going somewhere to look for new plants. She could just be taking clippings, but if she's going... somewhere with enough new plants to be interesting... she'll want to template them if she can. She doesn't know how herself, I'm sure of it, and I don't believe it could be Errod or Katrin." She looked at Calliope and I thought she was going to say her actual name or something but the Primarch was well-informed. "Zaile doesn't seem the type, and Grunkle would have been selling it as a service if he knew the trick of it. It's a well-protected secret, but I think we both know someone in Sentortzi that deals in information. So either he taught you, or he knew someone who could, yes?"

Damn, she was good. I looked at her with threadsight and she had more than I was expecting, including two with the opalescent sheen of fate. Most relevant, though, was that she had a thread that matched what I'd gotten from Sentortzi's oath device. "Yeah, that's pretty close."

"And based on the reactions from your friends you only used it to learn our wonderful language just before dinner, yes?"

I thought back to what Lute and Hugh had called Imperial. "Yeah, I'm finally free of the vulgar tongue."

The Primarch clapped, looking very entertained, but Matlyn was staring at me. "You... you learned the whole language, fluently, since we arrived?"

I shrugged. The Primarch was the one to actually reply. "It is not unheard of. We had a valued citizen here, for a time, that knew the trick. It is impressive, but in some ways is less convenient than a translation band - you can't pass it from one person to another, for example. The king's father tried to get the gentleman to use it to train people within the government, but he couldn't do it for anything he didn't at least partly know himself. After training him with the soldiers - a task he charged the throne a small fortune for, since he was old and out of shape - he was eventually able to develop a mental template he could apply to new recruits. They, too, needed to train for a time first before it would take, so it only managed to speed things up rather than cut the training out entirely. It also worked best for things that people learn deeply, reflexively. Language, of course, and the muscle memory you develop through combat drills. Procedural knowledge was... spotty."

The main course arrived, some sort of meat dumplings covered by a tangy purple sauce. The conversation veered back to casual chit-chat, and I pondered on the pause I'd heard when the Primarch was doing her Sherlock Holmes routine. She'd been talking about Matlyn and said "if she's going... somewhere with enough new plants to be interesting..." with ellipses I could see from space. She had to know we were headed for Earth. She was being so chipper, and charming, and... there was no way she wasn't going to interfere, right? It was killing me.

When most of us were finished eating, she slid her plate aside and looked at Matlyn. "I have great faith in this expedition," she said in Imperial, "and I would love for you to permit me the opportunity to negotiate with your family in advance for first access to whatever new crops you discover. I'm aware of the troubles your mother caused you, and of the fact that you've fallen behind on promises to the city-state you live in. Come to Erathik. We are fortifying the city of Brightroost with larger and stronger walls in preparation for the Grand Alignment and the expected flood of monsters from Besetie. There is room in the plans for a new facility for your family, and houses for those of your workers that would be willing to make the move here."

She was crafty. If she knew we were going to Earth, she knew Matlyn would be guaranteed to find a ton of new plants. Matlyn looked thrilled and relieved, she was even tearing up a little. I guess that checked out too; her family was in a desperate place, and now the ruler of a large nation was promising to take care of them. They didn't get too deep into details - that would be handled by her brother while we were gone - but it seemed like it would be a sure thing. Afterwards, Matlyn got up to find the restroom and, somewhat suspiciously, the Primarch insisted Lute escort her.

When both were out of the room, she stood. "I have a business proposition for you all as well. The terms are straightforward, but the execution may be difficult. I want you to make sure that Matlyn returns with only her plants. From what Lute has told me of you, Katrin, I assume you'll want to bring back scientific knowledge or devices that can't be obtained in this world. I can't stop you, but I would warn you that a sudden influx of new information that was not earned and is not understood could be catastrophic.

"And for you, Constance, I think the world would greatly benefit from anything you may have left of your sister's notes. I'm aware there was a notebook, and with the recent developments in the Empire the Grand Alignment task force has been dealt a terrible blow. There may be any number of heinous schemes that will now slip through the cracks, and possibly harm a great number of people. Whatever you can do to assist with the recovery of any lost information, or information that will now never be obtained, would be rewarded with money or favors. Ah, I see Grunkle looks confused. Like my son, he has been left out of some conversations, yes?"

We nodded. Grunkle's brow furrowed.

"Well then. I have just the thing for you, and it will serve as a reminder of the benefits to working with me. Grunkle, allow me to gift you with something that will grant you a far greater understanding of the events you have become tangled in. This is a very expensive device, one I don't give away lightly."

She walked over to him, pulling a thin silver cord from her pocket. He looked skeptical, but allowed her to place it against his throat - it's hard to refuse the ruler of the nation you're in after she buys you dinner and offers you a gift. Immediately, it squirmed like a living thing and wrapped tightly around his neck, denting the skin inwards half an inch or more as he clawed at it frantically. The Primarch had stepped back, but leaned down to grab a napkin and hold it out to him. "You'll want this," she said calmly, "for when it breaks the skin. You wouldn't want to ruin your nice outfit with all that blood."

Sure enough, the cord began to cut into his neck. Blood welled out, but not as much as I would have expected - it was clear right away that the wound was somehow healing as it happened. I wasn't sure if it was part of the Behemoth's abilities triggering, or what. Grunkle stopped clawing at his neck once he could feel it was just unbroken skin and the cord was out of reach, focusing instead on holding his head upright now that the muscles had been temporarily severed. His eyes were bulging out from the agony.

"Can he feel it?" the Primarch whispered in Erathi. "Are you in there, Henden? Are you aware? I hope so. I hope you're hating every moment of this." She dabbed at the blood on Grunkle's neck. "Can you feel my little toy, wrapped around your spine? That's its home now, Henden. And if your new jailer ever tries to move out of that diseased brain of yours, my toy is going to slice your head off from the inside. Those are your choices. You get puppeted around by this ancient parasite, or you get beheaded by me. I suspect you'd prefer death, so I hope that Grunkle here is very comfortable in this body. May you live forever, you son of a bitch. And may you never know an instant of peace."

She stepped back and nodded once, as if satisfied that a job was done. Grunkle was slowly recovering, stretching and rubbing his neck as he wiped blood from his hands, and the rest of us were just staring. Well, except Calliope. She was smiling and looking impressed. Man, maybe we were more alike than she wanted to admit. As the Primarch returned to her seat, she addressed us again. "I hope you all know that the talk of the benefits of working with me weren't some veiled threat; that was just to make sure Grunkle let me put the spineleech on him. You have nothing to worry about from me, not unless you rip my cousin's legs off with your teeth - like a certain someone did. Quite the opposite, I owe you greatly for bringing my husband's favorite Royal Guard back to us alive.

"Katrin, if you cannot be persuaded to resist bringing back an alien world's knowledge, please at least set some time aside to discuss with me the more specific concerns that I have. If you can keep this knowledge contained - again, preferably by not bringing it back in the first place - then I can offer you whatever monetary rewards you might ask for." Katrin nodded absently, still looking at Grunkle's neck. I was now sure that the healing had been the device itself. "And Constance, remember - anything at all you can recover will save lives."

Only a few seconds later the door opened, and Matlyn and Lute returned - totally unaware of what had transpired. The Primarch looked at her son and smiled. "Well what do you say? I think we should order dessert!"

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