reboot of "the prodigal sorceress" with original planned plot
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An interesting, and reminiscent, way of reasoning and speaking.

"Take off those manacles.  I will test her myself."

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...he is immediately obeyed.

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Oh right. Opalyn had sort of forgotten about that dude.

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Without his rising from the throne, as soon as Opalyn's manacles are removed, a kind of sheer, naked power begins to gather in the air around her.  Orphan's memories will not find that power strange; it is not far from the kind of sheer brute force she used to overwhelm wizards.  But it is more powerful than any wizard she's ever met.

"Resist as far as you can," says the man on that dark throne, who is no longer playing an invisible tuba.

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Quick, quick, Healthy-Orphan, how do I "resist"?

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It's like arm-wrestling but with magic!  You just push back!  It's like you're arm-wrestling but with a third arm that you totally have memories of using though.

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All... right?

Okay, there's the third arm, how does she flex it... okay, there, she found the mental motion. So far so good.

Did he start pushing yet?

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Then she'll push back! Is it working?

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He pushes harder.

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This is fun! She pushes back harder too!

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"Good enough."  The pushing begins to fade, though not cutting out abruptly; if Opalyn were suddenly left to push unopposed, it wouldn't be healthy for nearby buildings.  "You, girl.  Tell me of your name, your parentage, and where you were born under my rule."

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(The courtiers of the chamber are now watching this interaction a lot more closely; to the point of their collective interest being visible, if anyone is paying attention to them.)

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Hmm. It seems like a bad idea to say, "Opalyn Miller, born in Moscow, Indiana, to a pair of high school teachers." Opalyn's goal right now is to come out of this negotiation intact, with some kind of reasonable local future in front of her, and some resources and bargaining power she can parlay into better circumstances later. Explaining that she died in a different universe this morning seems like it only makes the entire negotiation far more complicated and more likely to leave her disempowered, imprisoned, or more fundamentally dead than she currently is.

 

"My name is Healthy-Orphan, and as you can tell from my name I am of uncertain and unimportant parentage. I was born in a tiny town a few days' ride west of where I was arrested."

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"Tell me what you do know of your mother, and your father, and name me the village and barony of your birth."

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Little help, Healthy-Orphan?

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She was told (once old enough for memory) that her mother was named Su'an, she has never been told anything at all about her father, and she was of Anton's Village that was of the dominion of Baron Bluecore before Orphan killed him.  (Quite unpleasantly, there was a lot of genuinely personal animosity there about Baron Bluecore's marginal tax rates on villages, namely their being higher than zero.)

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Opalyn will dutifully relay this information.

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"Mm.  And this Su'an -- was she said to be pretty?  Did she always stay within her village, or travel?"

"Vizier, bring forth the records of my entourage and its travel from fifteen to twenty years ago.  At once."

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(There is an audible, if quiet, intake of many breaths.)

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"... Father?"

 

Opalyn tells herself that she's not feeling any particular emotional impact from this relevation; this man is not her father in any sense of the word. No sense in wasting the moment, though.

(Is Healthy-Orphan feeling anything?)

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"Perhaps, and then again, perhaps not.  I do not have many acknowledged children at all -- my sorcery being a little too strong for my flesh.  No daughters that I knew.  Not a one of my sons inherited even a fraction of my power.  I knew not my own mother in this world.  I have never seen how a womanly relative of mine should look."

"I could be your father of the blood.  Or your grandfather.  Or we might not be related at all.  If this Su'an traveled, it might be impossible to ever say."

"I shall see what my records have to say of the matter."

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(Healthy-Orphan doesn't have much in the way of relevant memories of emotions about this situation!  She always took being an orphan for granted, and never thought that things should be otherwise.)

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Opalyn is inferring that magical power is hereditary -- do Healthy-Orphan's memories agree?

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Not particularly!  Being a noble is not hereditary!  Wizards aren't said to be born from wizards!

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