Arillia by Illuminati Architect

Chapter Eleven, Sums and Balances

Tuesday 3rd Jinua, 23rd year of Peter III, started with sex in bed. I was reaching the end of the techniques that Beatrice De Avalon had described and would need to ask Alice to find me another book or perhaps take up Greg’s suggestion of some sort of toys. Polly never complained nor seemed to tire of any technique and would gladly return to any previous form I asked for, but she never tried to invent anything new, and I wanted to explore more.

At breakfast, Carnel was full of questions for Mother about the variations of the Water spell. When asked, I showed them the spider web of water threads between the fingers of my hands.

“So what’s the incantation for that form?”

“I’ve never spoken or written down an incantation form, Carnel. I just rearranged the basic concepts of the Water spell in my head. I’ll think about it and see if I can come up with something, but perhaps you can cast Telepathy while I cast this spell? But first, you need to be able to cast Water without reading or speaking the incantation yourself, just as you do with Wind.”

“I’ll work on that.”

Carnel departed with Mother after breakfast. I sent Polly to continue literacy training under Alice, then walked over to the stables, where I found Amelia crying while seated on a bench.

“What bothers you?” I asked as I removed the swordbelt and put it on a shelf.

“Your Highness! I don’t know what came over me yesterday. Only after you left did I realize what I had said.”

“Is that what you truly feel for me?” I grabbed her by the shoulders, and she didn’t resist as I pulled her to her feet.

“Yes.” She looked down at the ground. “But that’s no excuse.”

“The only problem in my eyes is that you showed this to others.” I wrapped my left arm around her waist to pull her to me, and with my right hand, I lifted her chin for a kiss.

She responded to the kiss and wrapped her arms around me.

After half a minute, I pushed her away with my hands on her shoulders. “But there is a condition to be my companion.”

“What? Anything, just name it.”

“To ride by my side, you must be strong enough to carry your share of my burdens. By the end of this month, you must be more proficient in the lance than any man in this castle. I will lend you Sir Sparot today to drill you in the sword, and you must also train Elizabeth and Rebecka so they can fight from horseback with their weapons of choice. If you do all of this, you will ride by my side at the start of next month. And if not, then you shall go to this marriage your father has arranged and serve as that unworthy man’s faithful wife, lover, and mother of his children and never look back to me. Am I understood?”

“Yes, Your Highness. I’ll make you proud of me and a very contented woman.”

“I look forward to your accomplishments.” I kissed her again, picked up the swordbelt, and fastened it on her.

I returned to the castle, climbed the stairs to our tallest tower, and looked out the battlements at the city below. There was a winter chill in the air, but only a faint hint of a breeze, and no watch at this point under these conditions.

I whispered, “Greg, explain this Protag-kun and do it slowly and clearly for this simple ignorant princess.”

It would be boring if the game went exactly the same way every time. Therefore, as the player avatar, your actions need to change the world around you. And to offer variety, you can do so in various ways, with physical attacks, spells, transactions, and most importantly, persuasion. What makes the last bit so overpowered here is that you are operating in a more open environment than the game designers intended, so you have more chances to talk to people, and these aren’t limited to a few fixed responses.

“So if I made exactly the same choices, then your game would play out exactly the same way?”

That’s where the random number generator comes into play. The game rolls dice where you can’t see the values, only those results you investigate. Even if you did things exactly the same way, things would be different.

“I see, and what else is special about me?”

Princess Arillia is generated with the second-highest Intelligence in the game, after Carnel. This lets Carnel memorize tons of spells to throw at you in the endgame, while you can overcome the limits of most wizards by learning a few new talents (but you have to pick and choose) in addition to a more extensive than usual selection of spells. You then have above average Dexterity, so you usually succeed with your spells and attacks. This ensures that players can choose to have you attempt various things with some confidence that these choices will work. And then, for game balance, you only have average strength.

“Average? Sage Reltuc is the only man I know by name who is weaker than myself, and that’s only because he is so old.”

Average over all humans, babies to the strongest warriors.

“But I have the strength of that strongest warrior, well surely second to Elizabeth, when I have Lord Sparot on my person. Shouldn’t that throw off your precious balance?”

Sparot’s strength is that of the undead. This does not fatigue from effort, but also, you can’t expend this undead strength as fatigue to power your spells. And using his strength gives you an aspect of unlife. While this protects against some attacks by other undead, it’s also noticed by animals and some people like Polly. In order to extend your spellcasting ability you need to quest for items and spellbooks. But the balance is thrown off once again because you have access to your own library of spellbooks, which Carnel uses in the game.

“I will need to exercise care about what I teach her. You said this game ends when she dies?”

It ends when either of you dies. Your death is marked as a failure and hers as a success.

“Then perhaps we should change into immortal forms, like vampires or liches?”

Do you really want a world ruled by two evils who must fall into an eternal conflict by their nature?

“What then of Lady Mildred? You said she wasn’t in your game.”

The game has a limited ability to generate new random lore, but this is well beyond that scope.

“And what would I be doing in your game now?”

There are various paths, but the most common is to travel to Spearland and raise an army to march against Carnel.

“Your game is idiotic. That would never happen. I can see the city of Spearland rising in revolt. They’re seeped in Republican spirit from Stonekey, just over the border from them. They even have the same form of government: men of property (mostly farmers and merchants) who elect a council from their number who then select a mayor from themselves, and it’s all based on their reading of the holy book. The problem in that scenario is my leading them because one of their biggest complaints about the nobility is our hypocritical acceptance of homosexuality. They also don’t like mages very much. All I need do is show up and use your phrase by saying, ‘Hi, I’m a gay magical princess, and I hear voices in my head!’ They’d smile then say, ‘Burn the witch!’ The only thing keeping the peace now is that they know that Stonekey is far too busy with their own problems to help them. If Stonekey were ever at peace, the volunteer companies would return home to Spearland and become our problem then.”

I turned and walked down to Mother’s study, where I saw her looking over Carnel’s shoulder as my sister wrote on one sheet of paper while consulting books and other scrolls.

“Mother, may I have a word?”

“Yes, Dear. Carnel, please excuse me.”

“Okay.” Carnel nodded but didn’t look up from her writing.

I followed Mother to her sitting room, where she told the maid to bring some tea.

I sat across from her. “You’re helping Carnel with handwriting and spelling?”

“No, Dear. Those are still atrocious and will need much attention. She’s helping me out.”

“How can she write something that you’d send out?”

“No, this is for me. We were talking about Water magic when she glanced over and noticed an error in my sums. Now she’s checking all the tax reports from the dukes. You know how she focuses on one thing at a time, but I hope this reveals something intentionally hidden from us. What did you want to talk about?”

“It’s about Lady Mildred. Her diary only gives her side of the story. What did others notice about her?”

The Queen told me what she had heard from her mother about her grandmother, but none seemed relevant to my current circumstances.

Elizabeth and Polly joined my family at lunch.

Carnel seemed lost in thought and then looked at Polly for a moment. “Polly, we’ve got plenty of rooms. Why are you sleeping in Arillia’s room?”

Polly blushed as I responded. “For my security, Carnel.”

“Huh?”

“I have tried not to alarm you, but that’s my mistake. You’re old enough now to know that I’ve undertaken these missions because we four of the royal family are under threat from enemies inside and outside this kingdom. That’s why I assigned Elizabeth to protect you. Would you rather have somebody else protecting you?”

“No! Don’t take Elizabeth away.”

“The King and Queen have each other, and I have Polly with her unique senses. My question is, how can I protect you on those days when I have to take Elizabeth away with me to deal with these threats before they show up in your room? Your Majesties, may Princess Carnel sleep in your room when I am away on those days?”

“Now, Dear,” Mother put her left hand over my right, “It surely isn’t that bad, right?” She looked at Father, who scowled down at the table in thought. Then she turned back to her younger daughter. “Carnel, you are welcome to join us if you feel the need.”

I yanked my right hand away and pointed at myself. “Here is the body I will toss into the field to keep you three safe. I will dangle this flesh as bait, plot and contrive, stab and steal, all to keep you three as safe as I can. And it must be me because I must be the one to go to these places and see these things with my own eyes to match what is there with my visions. Now, please, if you will excuse us.”

I grabbed Polly’s hand and pulled her from the room, but she quickly matched my pace as we descended the library stairs. I opened the door and saw Alice reading a book at her usual table.

“Alice!”

“Yes, Your Highness?”

“Gather the most recent maps of ours and the surrounding kingdoms. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“Yes, Your Highness.”

As soon as we entered our room, Polly had her arms around me and her lips on my right earlobe.

I turned towards her. “Tonight. But for now, I must work to ensure the safety of my family, and you can be sure that I will always consider you a part of that.”

“I will hold Your Highness to her word.” She kissed me, then released her hold.

I walked to my bookcase and pulled out a well-worn black volume. “Here is your holy book. How much of it have you read?”

“Only a few verses, Your Highness. I depended on Bishop Patrick, gods rest his soul, to tell me what it meant.”

“And he was wrong.”

“He was?”

“About us and so many other things. I’ve included notes about the errors in translation in the margins.”

“Translation?”

“Your holy prophets never spoke a word of our modern Albionse tongue. The contents of this book have passed through the hands of many men over the millenniums, each shaping the words to their own needs.”

“But the power beyond speaks to Your Highness. Why not just write the book anew to the truth?”

“I am but a flawed human. The full power of the net of ether can not flow through my veins without blowing my body and soul to bites, nibbles, and bits. It can only lead to a violation of the check of sums.”

“Then how can we ever know the truth?”

“Through a careful balance of faith, reason, and holy inspiration. Bring that book along and read silently in the library while I work on the maps with Alice. But the moment you arrive at a word or concept you do not understand, bring the book to me, and I will assist you.”

I must admit that Polly made better progress that day than I did. A maid had just called me to dinner when I snapped at Alice. “Look at all these place names you don’t know and can’t find.”

“I’m sorry, Your Highness.”

“When will your father be back here?”

“He has a session with Carnel on Thursday.”

“Fine, I’ll put both of them on this then. In the meantime, both of you are just sitting around and falling out of shape. Tomorrow morning is exercise time for all of us, and Rebecka will train you both until you collapse. Better you faint in my courtyard than out in the field.”

“We’re all going out again?”

“To where is what this research is all about.”

That evening, after dinner, I went down to the stables and found Amelia doing various sword practices. She stopped and looked over, startled when I clapped. “Your Highness.” She resheathed the the blade of wraith, looked around, saw that there was nobody else nearby, and raised me up in her arms with her undead-boosted strength for a kiss. Then she put me down, took off the swordbelt, and handed this to me. “Thanks. I’ll practice on my own. I’ll be worthy of you by the end of the month.”

“I look forward to that.”

I returned to my room and, after some strenuous exercises in bed, rested next to Polly with her head nestled on my shoulder. “You saw in your reading today how after the three gods created the first three humans in each of their own images, even the first man had two wives to match the harmony of the gods.”

She turned slightly towards me. “That’s one way of reading it, I suppose.”

“And someday I must marry and bear heirs for the kingdom’s sake. I will not abandon you, and if you wish to have his children, that is fine, or I can split my time between the two of you as you wish. Remember that the lesson is that if not for jealousy, then those first two trios would still be happily together today, with harmony in all the worlds.”

“I wish it could just be us two, forever.”

“You knew of my obligations the moment I introduced myself. Do you regret following me?”

“No, Your Highness. I have found a life I could never have imagined nor dreamt of in your arms. It is sinfully selfish to wish you all to myself.”

“And I shall gladly pamper that sin, to the best of my ability.” I kissed her, and at that moment, we both seemed to catch our second wind of the night.

Wednesday morning, 4th Jinua, 23rd year of Peter III, I was practicing my saber techniques in the courtyard under both internal and external tutelage, when Sir Hoofblack stopped and turned.

“Your Majesty?”

I turned and saw he was addressing Mother.

“Good morning, Sir Hoofblack. May I have a word with Her Highness?”

“But of course.”

Mother then turned, and I followed her towards the gatehouse, resheathing the saber haunted by Lord Sparot at my side.

I nodded to Elizabeth, who was training Amelia on how to use a shield, and I caught a glance out the open gate of Rebecka chasing Alice and Polly around the castle. “One more lap, you two.”

Mother stopped at her carriage and turned to me. “Arillia, I’m stepping out for a social occasion. Carnel is still at work in my study. Are you sure about your plan to spread the word that you will be a hopeless romantic looking for a husband at your sister’s birthday party?”

Lass, thou must allow me to design an outfit to flatter thine form for thou to wear at this party. Thou hath pledged to follow my lead on this.

“Yes.” I frowned.

“Is there some issue?”

“No, Mother, No problem. I will dangle myself as bait to see which sharks we can catch. The more they think I’m a guileless, naive, love-starved waif, the less they will defend against what I can actually do.”

I waited for Mother to leave in her carriage, then returned to my room to sit with swordbelt on while I sketched various costume designs. I had Mary bring me lunch there, and in the afternoon, I heard Polly’s footsteps approach my door and then turn around. I mentally noted the exact radius she had sensed Lord Sparot’s spirit on me. If anybody had seen me that day, they would surely have concluded that I was a madwoman as I whispered debates about cleavage, forbidden zones, frills, and lace between Greg and Sparot. In the end, we three narrowed it down to two suggestions from Greg, both of a style I had never seen before.

Polly knocked at the door, and I bade her enter.

“Look at these.”

She approached but stopped two paces away from me, and I wanted her to have a good look at the two designs, so I stood up and backed away to stand by the window.

“Polly, I want you to decide for me between these two designs to wear at a party we will have in the castle. On the left is what is called the Chinese design. It is cut in front to a narrow slit that shows the sides of my breasts, midway down my back in a wider V shape, and up the sides of my thighs almost to the waist. This is then over silk stockings to the upper thigh with ties at their tops that peek out through slits in the dress and gloves that extend halfway up my upper arms. The entire affair is to be made of fabric that stretches so thin that the outline of the straps of my bra and 'thong' can be seen. And finally, instead of my usual ponytail, I will have my hair in loops through beads on either side of my head. On the right is the French design. This replaces the cutouts of the other design with a much shorter length, a black tube that extends from just below my crotch to stop just above my breasts, leaving my shoulders bare. This is then ornamented with white frills all over the place, including a frilly headband to keep my loosely worn hair out of my eyes, a single frilly band standing isolated on only the right thigh, silk stockings topped with lace, and “gloves” that are just black bands that almost reach the elbow to just over the wrist with white lace on both ends. And instead of the rather plain shoes of the Chinese design, there are high-heeled shiny black leather boots. Which should I have made?”

She studied these and then looked up at me. “Both. I’ll wear the Chinese design, and you wear the French design.”

Bless that blue-haired buxom bumpkin babe. She’s exactly nailed the right design for each of your figures.

Young Lass, had I but eyes to weep mine tears of joy at what excellent students of the art you two girls are.

The approval of the two dead men (if not Polly’s) filled my heart with shame, but at least I could easily hide both dagger and wand in all that lace.

I heard a knock at the door, saw with Sparot’s undead senses that it was Rebecka, and bade her enter.

“Your Highness, the Queen requests your presence for a ‘family only dinner,’ and she says that doesn’t include Polly. Miss Polly, would you care to join me and the other Reltucs for dinner? Father has a lot of questions about Suskan.”

I frowned as I walked to the wall and put my swordbelt on the hook. This was it. Mother was going to give me the big speech about trying harder not to be a lesbian, or at least not show my ‘affliction’ to others.

When I turned around, Polly grabbed me and kissed my open mouth. Our tongues intertwined for a moment, and then she backed away. “I’ll meet you back here after dinner, and then we can dig in.”

“I can’t wait, but I will. And take these designs with you to ask the sages which countries they are from.”

Mother waited until it was just her, her husband, and her two daughters in the dining room.

Here it comes. I’ll explain to her carefully that I have nothing against taking a husband and producing heirs for the kingdom, but not yet.

“Carnel has something to say to us.”

Mother was picking Carnel to make the speech against lesbianism? Apparently, she didn’t know either of her daughters very well.

“It doesn’t add up.” Carnel put a piece of paper with her near illegible scribbles on the table and frowned at it past her folded arms.

“Dear,” Mother turned to Father, “Carnel is trying to say that she has some questions for your brother-in-law.”

“Gustav, again? What is the matter this time?”

“The numbers for Port Linton, they don’t add up.” Carnel pointed at her page. “The tariffs they report don’t match the ships that dock there.”

“What?” Father grabbed the page and scanned the columns of numbers.

Carnel crawled over to sit in his lap, then pointed at the page he held. “See, there, and there, and there. Big ships at the largest docks that arrive, dock for several days, but hardly load or unload any cargo. What are they doing? Why did they stop there so long? It isn’t storms or bad winds that delay them because other ships enter and leave during these days.”

“This is troubling indeed. You’ve been a very good girl today.” He patted her on the head. “I will look into this.”

Your Treasurer is corrupt.

I frowned as I considered Greg’s warning.

Mother then turned to me. “Is there something bothering you, Dear?”

Not having to defend my lifestyle ‘choice,’ I pivoted mentally. “I was going to ask Carnel for a favor, but it can wait for another time.”

“See Carnel?” Father addressed the daughter sitting on his lap, “Even Arillia needs your help. We all depend on you so much. Well, Arillia, what is it? I’m sure Carnel will be happy to assist.”

“Carnel, I know it’s a big selfish favor to ask, but can you make your birthday party a costume party, please?”

“A costume party?”

“Yes, have everybody dress up as they please, as people from distant lands or figures from legend.”

“Legendary?” Carnel rested her chin on her fist for a few seconds, then continued. “Yes, that’s an excellent idea!”

At the time, I assumed she would just wear her Nordisle noble girl clothes, but I would find out later that I had the country right, if nothing else.