I'm a pretty pretty Princess! Let's Play Long Live the Queen

I mean, yeah, the worst that could happen is that tapping into magic calls Cthulhu from R'yleh to devour us all or something.

But really, what's the worst that could conceivably happen?

Has turtle played this before or is he being unintentionally hilarious?

Yes.

I say throw her in the dungeon. Throw the cook in the dungeon too, my breakfast was cold today.

I think let her stay.

We are in a faery tale about princesses. You know what happens when you turn away the well-meaning faery at the door who's speaking softly to you? Bad things.

Also, keep friends close and enemies closer. We can always exile her later if need by.

It was close, but the votes for Julianna to stay edged out the votes to throw her in the dungeon.







Joslyn: As you wish.

King Dad is none too happy about it, but he also knows who's in charge now.

As a side note, I love Elodie's willful face. Hail to the queen, baby.

Well, since we wanted to let her hang around, we might as well see what she has to say for herself.







Elodie: What crystal?

Julianna: The source of power for any Lumen is a particular magical crystal. Once you've bonded with it, it becomes a part of you as long as you live. The Royal Crystal has been passed down from ruler to ruler for generations. It belongs to you, now - except that the King may be keeping it from you.

Elodie: Do you have a crystal?

Juliana: Of course.



Oooooh, shiny.

You reach out to touch it, and it dissolves away into nothing.

Elodie: Oh.

Julianna: It belongs to me. No one can take it from me until I die. You need to find the crystal that belongs to you.

We have our first plot thread! We need to find the royal crystal and decide what to do with it.



In the meantime, what should we be learning until we can study the mysteries of the arcane?

History! History! History!

I wanna see worldbuilding.

I would like to continue studying divination so that we have advanced warning when one of these people inevitably tries to betray us.

Divination and Dance.

Divination and Novan history. If this royal crystal is a thing, why don't we know about it already? Better check the books.

Novan History is politics. For magic stuff, you want Lore.

Wrong genre - this is more like a teen friendly version of Game of Thrones!

Nevertheless.

Put these together, then. Divination and Lore, so we can learn about all the magic spirits!

Politics! Politics! Politics!

What is history for if it's not for the worldbuilding?

We definitely need to ask King Dad about this crystal, too. Not sure showing it to Julianna is a good idea though. It kind of unnerved me that the queen's greatest treasure was the first thing she asked about.

Acquiring an artifact of great power that can only be taken from you by killing you and then telling a much more powerful sorceress who wants it that you have it is pretty high on my list of "bad ideas."

Climbing

Lore

And once that's done, I second asking King Dad about that crystal. He probably saw it lying around and threw it back in the Royal Jewelry Box or used it to prop up the wobbly leg on the Royal Desk or something.

We should learn Lore & Reflexes.

How does the rest of the world feel about Lumens and magic?

Foreign Affairs and Dance

Accounting and Reflexes. Ninja CPA.

Those that know what Lumens are persecute then.

The other 99.99% of the world would write you off as crazy. Pfft, "magic", 'e says. Hogwash.

I just got completely distracted and Divination and Lore popped into my head. So let's do that.

I endorse this message!

It was close, but divination and lore just edged out reflexes this round.



This week we learn a bunch of bad omens,



and stuff Julianna already told us.



Still more useful than what we learned last week in my mind. Anyway, after classes we go hang out with Charlotte in the gardens to unwind.





Charlotte: Not really. I just like to play with the flowers.



Curse your sudden but inevitable betrayal!

No, not at you. At your... feet?

Ummm. OK?





Normally, I'd give you guys the option,



but we can't pass the skill check to hold still, so it leads to the same place anyway.

You look down where her sword is pointing.

There's a snake in the grass!

You can't help it - you squeak and jump back. The snake tenses and prepares to strike. (+1 Afraid)



Your cousin pushes you aside, and the snake's fangs sink into her leg.

Elodie: Lottie!

Too late, Julianna swings her sword and cuts off the snake's head.



Julianna: Your daughter's been bitten by a milk viper. They're poisonous. Get an herbalist, right away!

Lucille: I will treat my daughter. I certainly can't trust anyone here to keep her safe!

Elodie: I'm sorry...

Charlotte: I don't feel good.

Lucille: We will be returning home to Merva immediately.

Julianna: Your aunt has a point. Milk vipers are not native to this area. That snake should never have been here.



Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuun.

Elodie: Will Charlotte be okay?

Julianna: I don't know.

Charlotte took a snake for us you guys. Don't you feel terrible about doubting her now?

So the snake incident definitely underlines the need to get us some protection. Let's go talk to King Dad and see if it can't be magical protection.







Elodie: Can I have it?

Joslyn: No.

Elodie: But it's mine! (+1 Willful)

Joslyn: Meddling with magic killed your mother. I don't want that to happen to you. Once you're crowned Queen, I can't stop you from doing anything you want, but for now you are still a child.

Welp. King Dad isn't budging on this one. We're going to have to go to plan B to get our magical superpowers.

Between the assassination attempt this morning and King Dad denying us our birthright, our mood is all over the place right now.



I'll look into stabilizing this a bit once things cool down.



In the meantime, what should we be learning? I should mention that we have maybe one more round of divination training in us before we hit a wall. You can only train skills up to 50 until you have all 3 skills in a group trained to at least 25. If we want to keep learning divination, we're going to have to get better at meditation and lore eventually.

That's what she wants us to think.

Awesome, now we're alone in the castle with the sorceress who apparently knew there was a poisonous snake in the garden.

Everything is going according to plan.