Candid Thoughts

"Where is Nickel?" Noble asked as soon as she and Kosi entered the royal suite. The mysterious duelist was notably missing from the sitting room. 

"He got tired of waiting. He will be back though." Sarai motioned for her friend to sit down.

Noble looked at the spread of food on the low table between the couches. There were so many empty plates! "Did you two eat all of this?" 

The redhead smiled guiltily. "Yes and no. Laundry had a little, but I ate most of it. I can get you and Kosi more!" 

"That's nice, and yes I would like something, but...how did you eat so much? Do you not feel sick?" Noble had noticed the same large appetite on the svelt woman whenever they went out to eat, but usually, the plates were cleared as she went.

Seeing it all together was eye-opening. 

"I've always had a high metabolism. And stress makes me eat even more. But I also have a Memory that makes me immune to things like food poisoning and indigestion." 

Sarai called forth a little vial and tipped it to her mouth. It was the same one she had offered to Nickel the day before. She smiled. 

"Ah, this is why I didn't mind drinking after Counsel yesterday. If he had any weird Nightmare germs, they wouldn't affect me..." 

"Very interesting!" Noble took a small sip of the vial when Sarai offered it. The taste inside of it had just a hint of sweetness. "We should probably both keep taking that in case someone tries another assassination attempt." 

"That's a good plan. I usually do it before and after meals anyway out of habit..." Sarai rang a bell.

When a servant appeared, she ordered Noble and Kosi some hot breakfast and a snack for herself. 

"Guess I will have to rethink my food policy," the new Queen laughed when the servant shut the door. 

"What do you mean?" Sarai sank back in her seat and furrowed her brow. 

"I mean my one and only edict as a ruler so far has been to lessen the amount of food that is served at our nightly dinner. I didn't like all the waste." Noble shrugged. 

"That's very thoughtful. You will be an excellent Queen." Sarai had no doubt in her mind.

"Hopefully a short-lived one. Now that you are here, I am even more eager to get us out and back home." Whether or not she would admit it out loud, Noble felt responsible for Sarai and Nickel's presence in the nightmare. 

They had come in after her, and she was determined to make sure that they made it out alive. 

And soon.

Noble pursed her lips. "You said you found something?" 

That was what Sarai had teased to make Noble go faster. 

"I found a few things, actually." Sarai pulled a few books from the tall end table. "I had all of the former queen's journals brought here yesterday as you suggested. I haven't gotten through all of them. Emira was very verbose. I learned a lot about her thinking and motivation. While I cannot be exactly like her, I can at least understand her opinions of people and act accordingly." 

"That's good." Noble wished she had similar records for Brenna. How much easier would it have been if she had a cheat sheet and known the rules?

"As you said, Counsel and Emira did not get along. She blames him for the death of her brother. But she also blames her brother for trusting him. And also blames you for quite a bit of things as well." Sarai thumbed through one of the books in front of her and found a passage. "Here." 

"If Brenna would stop bothering to protect that snake and just do what I say, it would solve all our problems. But she has the gall to be self-righteous. That traitor feeds her lies about her importance in Crestfall. What kind of fool..." Noble skimmed the rest of the page. 

"I am uncertain if this is before or after you arrived in the nightmare, but there is much more of that across everything I read. She thought about Brenna often, just not very positively." Sarai explained. "Not the happiest family dynamic." 

"So I noticed." Noble had received plenty of criticism from Brenna's aunt during her weeks in the nightmare. "Even without Counsel in the situation, it would have been a strained relationship at best. Oh! Did you find anything about whether she ever seriously considered my battle plan or if it was all just a plan to manipulate me?" 

"I didn't see anything about that, but I do not have her most recent journal among these. All the ones I have seen are completed." The redhead stood and sorted through the other books. 

That was when Noble realized just how many there were. Some were piled on the bed while others were in stacks behind the couches. How had Emira had time to write so much? 

'Well, she did have a hundred-year reign.'

"I did notice that everyone she mistrusted either mysteriously disappeared or died. The only one she didn't manage to kill was Counsel, and that is only because she was rigid when it came to laws and traditions of the kingdom. She resents that Brenna weaponized that against her." Sarai wasn't sure how to feel about Brenna's decision. 

"That explains why she got so angry at Lord Gavin. He was calling her out on breaking her own moral code." Noble tapped her chin. 

"Lord Gavin? I have seen his name. Emira thought of him as a necessary evil. You say he stood up to the Queen?" Sarai continued to search for what she wanted as she listened. 

"Gavin pointed out that Emira had skipped my affirmation speech and then demanded she stepped down." The new queen shuddered. "For his trouble, he was set on fire from the inside out." 

"She what?!" Sarai dropped the book in her hand as her mouth fell open. "I can only set myself on fire. How in the world did she manage to light him aflame?" 

"Her power was truly extraordinary, but she was also a Master...or more..." Noble couldn't in good conscience rule out that Emira might have been more than Ascended. The former queen had too many secrets. "You don't have an Ascended's power, do you?"

'That would be very convenient!' 

Sarai shut her eyes for a second, searching her soul sea. "Nothing looks strange or different. I am still an Awakened." 

The new Queen shrugged.

"You and she were still close enough to share a body. I wonder if you might be able to do some of the tricks I saw from her with some practice..." Noble mused.

"Well, I would have loved to set something randomly on fire during the coronation to avoid that speech. I cannot believe I froze like that." Sarai blushed heavily. 

Noble clicked her tongue. "But you made it through with the help of the Strange Scepter. I knew it could amplify voices, but I did not realize it could amplify thoughts." 

The blush drained from Sarai's cheeks as she grew deathly pale. "Those weren't my thoughts! As far as I know, the scepter only projected the few words I actually managed to speak. I...I assumed you were doing something." 

"It wasn't me." Noble froze. "If it wasn't us or the scepter...then who..." 

Just then, a menacing laughter filled the room.