"...Your sovereign," rasped Kolbe, the standing knight.

[i]Oh,[/i] Perrine thought.  [i]Ohh.  I'm ruined.  Stupid, stupid girl.[/i]  She sank to her knees before her king, pressing her forehead to the fine carpet.  When she spoke her voice betrayed her, escaping her throat as a high, breathless squeak.  "Your Majesty.  Forgive me.  I didn't know."

She held the pose, waiting on the man who could unmake her tenuous position, her family, her world, on a whim.  But he did no such thing: his words, when he spoke were conciliatory, dismissive, distracted.  Of course they were.  There were bigger worlds than hers coming apart.  None of this mattered.  She rose sheepishly to her feet. [i]And let us never speak of this again,[/i] she prayed.

And then they were back to business.

[hr]
So, the king had been in Vicenna and his knights sent to retrieve him.  That explained some things.  What he was doing there, she did not know, but from the sound of it their reunion had coincided with Vicenna's fall, and the emergence of the hellish insectoids to whom that fall was being attributed.

Perrine eyed the scepter where Kolbe had thrust it down on the dining table.  If the magus - if Marcus spoke true, it was a mighty and terrible object.  Her own knowledge of the arcane was, as yet, frustratingly limited, but there was a palpable presence to the thing.  An almost animal quality.  She could believe the thing was powerful.  She could believe it was made with blood magic.  More disturbingly, though, the presence carried with it the uncomfortable inkling that it was something she should recognize, that she desperately wanted [i]not[/i] to recognize.  

Yet as she stared the familiarity of the presence grew undeniable.  She had felt this before - not in Udny Pass, nor during her dealings with the Viceni, but in Marion Bay, in the underground sanctum beneath the temple of Hayaz.  

That ineffable sense of life, of animacy had accompanied three objects - a bowl, a lantern, an auger - each held by one of the masked members of the Laughing Priesthood, the chosen of Hayaz.  If this scepter, their most tangible lead to the cause of Vicenna's destruction, was of a kind with those other items, their source could be similar.  Following the the lead could bring the king and his men right back to the Circle of Mirth.  She was not keen to find out what would happen then.  At the same time, the lead could not go unfollowed.  Knowing whether Areta was at risk of following Vicenna underneath the sands and what, if anything, could be done about it was of utmost importance.  She would aid in the investigation as best she could, but she would not hand the crown the rope to hang her with.

In any case, if the young magus was right, this blood magic was a known process.  The artifacts needn't all come from the same place.  She hoped that was the case even as she feared it wasn't.  There was no way around having to investigate the Circle, but she would do so on her own.

"It is true that here on the outskirts of the kingdom, with Vicenna so close, the attitudes toward the malign arts of witchcraft are perhaps looser than they are in Marion Bay, but this is a relative thing.  We of Greenbank are as God fearing a people as anyone, and House Anquis does not make a habit of providing safe haven to warlocks and soothsayers.  We have of course had our dealings with the magi of Vicenna, but these dealings have been primarily matters of trade, and even then our main liaison in recent years has been Ambassador Farwater, who to my knowledge does not practice."

Faint cries echoed down the guest corridor.  The ambassador was having another fit.  "As fate would have it, Sir Orson Farwater was staying with us when...  We have confined him in a guestroom, for the time being.  He might be worth questioning - I would defer to him or Marcus here where it comes to the arcane, and the state of things in Vicenna during its final days, but I warn you: he is not in a good place.  I'm afraid those screams you inquired about are his."  She suspected Orson could be persuaded to talk, or she hoped he could.  She did not relish having to have the man tortured.

"Udny Pass also has a resident inquisitor.  He is retired, I am told, but he may have valuable insights.  If it pleases your majesty, I will have him summoned."

She turned to the matter of her father's absence, "It is true that had we known of your coming, and the nature of your visit, my father would have wanted desperately to attend this meeting.  He..."  She looked to Renée Kennin - given the present unexpected circumstances, ought he make an appearance after all?  But the matron shook her head, frowning tiredly.  So it was that bad, again.  Already.  "He is very ill, your majesty.  Moving him would be...taxing.  When we are done here, if it is your will, if he is lucid, I can take you to him.  You and...Sir Linus Kolbe.  Sir Linus was...  I believe he would want to meet with Sir Linus," [i]before he passes,[/i] she thought.