True Ruler

by Izumi1909

[AU] The Royalty of Scandi Kingdom has always been the puppet of its own Council. Three years ago, a fire in its palace killed many, including Prince Emil and his parents. Driven to exile by a Council member's actions, Emil's younger cousin and his former betrothed befriend some of Emil's former servants and soon join the few knowing a secret that may change everything.

4. Puppet Prince

Puppet prince

The fake Emil, aside from having been quickly grown into an adult, was even more of a half-hearted job than "Janine" was, to the point Helena was surprised to see him pick up his own cup of tea and drink it after Stig set it in front of him. As soon as he had finished giving tea to the Royal household, Stig came to stand right next to Helena, nervously clutching the metal tray he had been using to carry the cups:
-I hope you will like it. I tried to take advantage of the better selection of ingredients.
Helena picked up her own cup, blew on it, and sipped from it. Her opportunity to compliment Stig was drowned out by the praise from Sune's parents and siblings. Siv tried asking the fake Emil what he thought of his tea, but his only response was to continue drinking it. Emil being "found alive" had been all the True Rulers had ever needed, nothing more, nothing less. Him being "found" in a quasi-catatonic and speechless state conveniently both accounted for him not showing any sign of life on his own for three years and what had happened to him during that time remaining unknown. It also kept his "return" from bringing too much of a shuffle to their plans to put one of Sune's siblings on the throne. The Royal Council's desire to avoid being too obvious about the country's nominal ruler being their puppet resulted in the existence of physical and mental health requirements to be able to sit on the throne. These rules also happened to be so finicky that they could be used to kick someone out of the line of succession on little more than the Council's collective whim, as it had been done for Sune.

In the version of the events that Sune's family had been fed by the Royal Council, Helena and Tobias had simply had a personal quarrel that had escalated out of control, to the point that they had both ended up accusing each other of the worse thing they could think of; Tobias had simply been more successful in being believed by the general public. That had kept them from wondering why Vivian hadn't gotten Tobias replaced in spite of the "incident", all while giving them a reason for which neither Helena nor Sune would want to have Tobias around if they could help it. This, unfortunately, also made them look more likely to be involved in his death than other people who had been staying in the palace at the time at which it had taken place. Those stilted private meals, for which she and Sune had a daily standing invitation while the investigation of Tobias' "death" kept them from leaving the palace, were being held on the off-chance that they ended up being their last "family time" before someone went to jail. On day four, Helena had had the strength to attend, but not hold a conversation. Sune's own silence had indicated that he was in a similar state. Stig had also admitted to have started getting bored. As Helena and Sune's presence had been requested for tea time that day, she had offered to have Stig make tea for everyone. Her idea had apparently worked, given that Stig was currently doing most of the talking. And the tea was really good, considering it was made by someone who had only been in the tea business for a little more than a couple of years. Maybe Stig's drunken idea of becoming one of the biggest tea sellers in Scandi wasn't as overambitious as she had initially thought. Everyone who could was already asking Stig to prepare a new pot with a different blend. That was a very good sign and a way to see if he was lucky, or actually that good. The second pot started to point towards "actually that good". By the third, Helena's mind had suddenly become alert, without knowing to what, exactly. She realized what she should have been alert to all along upon Torbjörn's comment on the fourth pot:
-Congratulations, young man! You made my favorite blend even better!
How had she not noticed earlier? Helena had never picked a favorite blend before tasting the one made by Stig's cousin-in-law; even that had been more of a default due to none of the other tea blends sold by Stig back in Finmi or regularly purchased from other merchants by Adam's household lining up with her tastes. Because of this, Helena had tasted the favorites of various members of the royal family several times. Thanks to Torbjörn's comment, she now recognized the first pot of the afternoon as Håkan's favorite, but with an extra ingredient. The second had been a similar enhancement on Anna's favorite. The third had been a tastier version of Siv's. A new recipe for Torbjörn's had been last. Sune had had a favorite at a time, but Tobias had been perfectly aware of what it was, and used it in ways that now made it impossible for Sune to drink it without reflexively spitting it out. Stig had found this out the hard way while trying to find a Finmi tea he might like.

As soon as they were dismissed and out of hearing range of Sune's family, Helena asked Stig how he had known about the tea. He instantly pulled out a folded piece of paper:
-When I told Emil I was going to come here, he gave me this in case I somehow ended up serving tea to them. As little as I like Finmi tea, I did try to figure out how the flavors worked a little to be able to sell people things they would like. Yesterday, I took that paper out to occupy myself and got a few ideas. I didn't imagine I would get to actually put them in practice. Thank you for that, by the way.
Helena opened her hand near the one in which Stig was holding the piece of paper:
-Can I?
Stig gave her the piece of paper, which she unfolded and held in such a way that Sune could have a look as well. It took a few moments for her to take the contents in:
-Wow. I always thought that he didn't care what people other than himself liked. Is that really from him?
-Yep. He started paying attention just so his long-distance gifts weren't completely off the mark when he realized this could be a problem. This somehow stayed even after he had to give up on all the fancy royal stuff.
How little Helena still knew about the circumstances in which the real Emil had been hiding was a testimony to just how many other things she had on her plate when she wasn't sleeping off as much of the whole mess as she could manage. Tobias having moved his mind to Vivian's body rather than actually dying. Vivian's mind being inside a mute artificially-created body in the form of a two-year old girl. Said mute two-year old girl being Helena's daughter as far as the general public was concerned. Her "strange bedfellows" alliance with Vivian's literal bed fellow, whom Tobias had started mistreating almost as soon as the move to Vivian's body had taken place. This must have been the first time in days that she had been able to properly think about anything else:
-That time I complained about him at the tavern…
-Don't worry about this. Most of it was still quite true three years ago and that was how you had ever known him.
Just as Helena was letting out a sigh of relief at Stig's words, it was apparently Sune's turn to be hit with a long-overdue realization of what the real Emil still being alive meant:
-Lalli…
Stig fortunately answered several of the questions that Sune was most likely to be meaning to ask:
-Yes, he's the one who saved him. He knows he's supposed to lie to people who ask about this unless they already know. That's what happened when you asked him about it last month. As for our marriage, yes, Emil is fine with it.
Helena realized she hadn't really thought about what Emil being alive meant for the "job" Lalli had been officially meant to start on the day of the fire, and the fact that he was currently married to someone else. Fortunately, between them, the three years of Emil being officially dead, Lalli having returned to Finmi during that time and the fake Emil's official current mental state meant nobody was expecting him to hold that "job" in regards to the fake Emil.

As soon as they got back to their quarters, Stig went to lie down next to Lalli's sleeping form. Helena and Sune decided it might be a good idea to follow his example and went to their own room. Instead of Sigrun and Vivian, they found a note on the table they all used for meals:
-Sign language class.
For various reasons, its was in everyone's interest for Vivian to spend at least a few hours outside of their quarters per day. One of the excuses for such outings had been giving the mute child that she appeared to be sign language classes. Given the unfortunate reason for which children sometimes ended up in the orphanage she funded, sign language was something Vivian actually already knew. If anything, she was the one teaching it to everyone else. That time was in reality spent exchanging information with Randi, who was now their little group's eyes and ears in the Royal Council. This came at the price of her also being the Council's go-to person for getting information about their little group, in addition to the eyes and ears they already had on them via "Janine".

Helena and Sune barely had time to kick their shoes off before Lalli walked across their room and left it by jumping off the balcony, in spite of the fact that the room he shared with Stig was right next to the actual hallway leading outside. Soon after they lied down and tried falling asleep, they heard a couple of cats hissing and having a brief fight nearby. Right as Helena thought it had ended, Lalli came back by the balcony, a light grey long-haired cat under his arm and a fresh set of scratches on his face. He walked back into the room he shared with Stig without a word. Helena was definitely going to take a while to fall asleep now:
-Uh… What just happened?
Sune seemed to be wondering the same thing. They slowly crept to the doorway shared between the suite's two bedrooms, and listened. Stig spoke, sounding like he was about to cry:
-Thanks. Will your face be okay?
-It happens each time I get close to one of those. I don't care. They make you better when you're sad.
Helena could hear the cat starting to purr loudly, and realized she and Sune probably should actually leave those two alone, and try to find out what was going on later.

Helena didn't get much sleep before she heard a cat's snarl coming from Stig and Lalli's room. When she and Sune rushed inside, they found Stig trying to appease the grey cat, while Sigrun was wrapping as much of her body as she could around Vivian:
-Stig, how about you get that cat out of here?
Helena swore she saw the cat almost instantly calm down as Stig brought it closer to the balcony. By the time Stig let go of it, it had moved from struggling to escape his arms to rubbing against him:
-You need to go away now. Shoo… Shoo…
The half-hearted attempts to push the cat away resulted in the palms of Stig's hands being rubbed against instead of his arms. Lalli rolled his eyes, came closer to Stig and the cat, and hissed at the latter, who finally left. Vivian, meanwhile, was staring at her exposed forearm, looking bemused. Sigrun explained the cause before Helena could ask:
-That's odd, I swear that cat gave her a nasty scratch. And I'm quite sure it got her face, too.
The was nothing remotely resembling a scratch on the face that was currently Vivian's. Helena quickly made the connection with her own memories:
-Maybe not. I know I've seen scratches heal on Tobias' arms within seconds. It's probably a property of those artificial bodies of his.
Vivian clapped her hands, signaling she wanted attention. With a few gestures that they were all able to read, she was able to convey that Tobias hadn't been particularly liked by cats. A quick volunteer operation by Sune and a startled wheeled chair attendant later, cats turned out to not be particularly fond of the fake Emil either. While this was an interesting bit of knowledge, Helena wasn't sure how it could have any kind of actual use. Sigrun was the one who provided the answer:
-Cats like the real Emil. If anyone here remembers this, it could be a way to expose the fake one if we ever need to.
Hearing this, Helena instinctively turned her eyes in Sune's direction. Sune stared at his feet:
-Håkan and Anna know. But not mom and dad. Can we at least wait until whenever you guys plan to tell the world that Emil is still alive before telling them the one they currently have isn't the real one? We were all quite sad when we thought he was dead. Eventually revealing him to be alive is part of your plan, right?
Stig put his hand on Sune's shoulder:
-It's a little complicated, unfortunately. He wants to avoid relying on his birthright too much to carve himself a new place in the world, so he is trying get as much as possible done without people knowing who he actually is. He'll eventually have to come out of hiding, but "when" is a question to which we don't quite have an answer yet.
Helena saw how this could make sense. As far as the True Rulers were concerned, the ideal Royal was one who didn't try to have any real part in how the country was ruled and let themselves be spoiled rotten. In some places, ordinary citizens probably had more say in their everyday life than the Scandi Royals did. Helena's mind caught onto some of Stig's words:
-What is Emil trying to do without his identity being known, exactly?

In the Royal Council room, "Vivian" finished reading the papers given to her by Tanja:
-Looks like Tobias really did die doing some kind of experiment. Is there any way we can make that masquerade ball happen sooner?
Randi was the one to answer:
-It's already officially being held to celebrate the end of the mandatory mourning and suspicious death investigation time. We may lose the respect of many people if we hold it any earlier.
She gave a nod to Kenneth, who took over:
-And considering the true reason it's being held, a week is already a tight schedule for anyone living in foreign lands who wishes to apply.
"Vivian" sneered:
-Any foreigner worth putting in Tobias' old seat should already be here and have found a way to get into the party. Having it happen earlier will only keep the party from being submerged with inadequate candidates.
The reply came from Harald, the councilor for money:
-Many traders will lose money if the party happens any earlier or any later than what is already planned. Those making the royal family's costumes have something special for "Prince Emil" that won't be ready before the day of the party, that was initially suggested to them by Tobias. Giving them the time to finish it properly would be a good way to honor his memory.
Tanja's favorite activity, meanwhile, was to remind the others that it was never a good idea to break more laws than strictly necessary. Rolf, the councilor for nature, held towards the country's natural resources the same attitude that Harald held towards its money: the only thing worse than spending a lot on something he considered frivolous was said frivolous thing undergoing unnecessary changes that would result in it costing even more. "Vivian" responded to this like child who had just been told that they couldn't have a piece of cake:
-Fine, it will happen in three days, in this case. Anything else?
Randi was the one to break the news:
-The King and Queen wish for Stig Hotakainen to attend the party with his husband to thank him for having served the family good tea at Princess Helena's initiative. I might as well also mention that they, the Prince and the Princess, all want to properly meet Princess Helena's "daughter" on the occasion. I'm guessing none of you want to take the risk of her applying for Tobias' old seat, even though she has shown absolutely no interest in it around me. I'm on good enough terms with her to carry out any precautions you may deem necessary in addition to her "daughter's" presence.
With Tobias officially dead, "Vivian", being the only other mage on the Council, had had a good reason to be the one currently monitoring the surveillance spells that had been planted within "Janine". In contrast to the real Vivian who would have stayed professional about the subject, the mind currently controlling her body used it to express a delight that promptly gave Randi goosebumps:
-Tobias must have had something that kept her from doing magic while he had her in his room. I'll give his stuff a look and see if I can find it.
It Tobias had owned such an item, "Vivian" wouldn't need to look for it for very long.

xxxx

Even with the chains removed, gold plating added and the locks replaced by mere clasps, there was no mistake as to what those "matching bracelets" had once been. And considering the nature of Tobias' own "application" for the counselor of magic position, the very idea of attending this masquerade ball with her powers out of use caused multiple alarm bells to ring in Helena's mind. Her nursemaid's idea of telling her a story that was both interesting and scary had been telling her about the ball during which Tobias's predecessor Niels had demonstrated his magical prowess. Her only consolation had been that Vivian had to endure their presence as well, as a reminder of what she had let happen for the sake of harming her position in the country's politics. Randi was still keeping Helena within her eyesight, as if having to watch "Janine" and carry her around wasn't already making discretely removing the bracelets unlikely enough. Sune was staying close to her because he was expected to. The circumstances had made Stig, Lalli and Sigrun slip into their body guard roles. This resulted in Helena having quite a crowd following her around, including when Sune's family got properly introduced to "Janine". Siv watched her eat her favorite meal, which happened to be among the snacks provided to the royal family:
-She has good tastes. How did you figure out she likes these?
Helena answered:
-The first evening, the guys went out to buy everyone's favorite and Stig presented her with different things until she decided to eat something. I guess Vivian makes sure those kids are well-fed.
Lalli, of all people, spoke:
-If the green dress lady has an orphanage and the one with messy hair has a hospital, what did the dead guy have? And who's taking care of it if nobody is doing his work right now?
Getting past how Lalli asked a question to focus on what he was asking was still a mental exercise to Helena's protocol-laden upbringing, but Stig had been right when telling her that it was the easiest way to see his good sides. Those who were quite new to this, one the other hand, all raised an eyebrow. Randi ended up being the one explaining:
-He funded three free Inns for mages from the Grand Isle of Icy Wonders who wish to travel to Mora or the former capitals of the Western and Southern regions for study purposes. He also sponsored the travel of mages who wish to study in the Grand Isle of Icy Wonders. Well, he should have. As soon as he took his seat, he cut off everyone Niels was still sponsoring and told anyone who wanted to go back to their homeland that they better find a job to make the money and that by the way, he was looking for an assistant.
That last part, Helena actually remembered. A very good friend of hers had been among those stranded on the giant iceberg during a study trip, and become suspiciously impossible to contact via the spirit realm soon after. Him getting thrown in jail with a sentence heavy enough to get his magical communication abilities sealed was the best-case scenario for his fate. As for the assistant thing, Helena guessed it hadn't gone that well, considering Tobias had been councilor of magic for less than a month when he had started spinning his web around her and Sune.

Helena's eyes drifted towards the fake Emil, whose wheeled chair had been outfitted to look like some sun god's chariot, while his costume was probably supposed to be the god in question. There was an actual line of mages trying to make him better, probably assuming that doing so would be a direct path to the open councilor position. The only reason they were not all trying at the same time was that clashing spells could do more harm than good. The current one was singing while drawing her custom talisman. There had been several attempts at combining Finmi magic with the one practiced in Scandi and the Grand Isle of Icy Wonders, and one of them had resulted in some mages singing whatever they considered appropriate while they made their talismans. Tobias hated it as part of his dismissal of Finmi magic as "primitive". The woman had disqualified herself without knowing it the second she had opened her mouth. In spite of the smiling face on the mask she was wearing, her general stance betrayed the moment her spell didn't do whatever she had been expecting it to do. The next in line was a man wearing a simple white mask on his face and his long sand-colored hair in a ponytail. He pressed a talisman he already had around his neck on the fake Emil's forehead, and promptly let out a "oh". Helena decided it might be worth watching what else he would do. If that "oh" meant that he had figured out that the "patient" wasn't even human, he might just make the cut. Unfortunately, he started singing as well, with a soft voice that sounded vaguely familiar. It wasn't an attempt to mimic Finmi spells, just a well-known lullaby that Helena remembered from her childhood. Listening to it as an adult, she couldn't help noticing that it seemed to promise the baby a present if it stopped making noise and to get better presents if the first wasn't satisfactory. Yet, it ended with the belief that even if something happened to the most impressive gift, the baby would still remain a nice person. She briefly doubted this was possible, but remembered Stig had hinted such a thing could have happened with Emil. This made her shift her attention to where Stig and Lalli had been standing a few moments ago, only to see they had vanished. Vivian yawned, and Sigrun discreetly signaled that she needed to talk to the rest of the group out of earshot of Sune's family.

They quickly found a quieter and less crowded place just outside the garden in which most of the guests were gathered. Helena got worried:
-Did something happen?
Sigrun sighed:
-Stig overheated himself in that stupid costume he insisted on wearing and Lalli brought him back to the suite. I don't think I can properly keep an eye on all four of you in such big crowd alone, though I know neither you nor Lady Messyhair are completely helpless. I'd rather stand out here or go back to our room.
Whatever had put Stig in a sour mood right after serving tea to the Royals, the prospect of a masquerade ball during which he was expected to wear a fancy costume he could put together from things the Royals had used in previous years had done a good job of cheering him up. He had gotten even more excited when Lalli had pointed out than dye that went away with the first wash – which was a problem with some of his current selection – would actually make a good alternative to a wig for a costume. Unfortunately, the costume emulating some fairy tale prince had otherwise been overambitious, and it had been impossible to convince him to do without anything that didn't obviously hinder his liberty of movement. Helena hoped he had learned his lesson. As for her…
-I'd rather stay here. We all still have our eyes, ears and hands. Something may still happen tonight, and I'd rather be here than cooped up in our room if it happens. By the way Sigrun, could you clue me in as to why Stig was acting so gloomy after tea time the other day? I've tried to ask him several times, but he won't tell me. And something tells me I'm not going to get much out of Lalli if I try, either.

Lalli both hoped whoever was in charge of choosing the country's new "boss of all magic users" had noticed what had happened, and that they hadn't. Whatever spell that man had used, it had been so good at reaching its intended target that it had skipped over the magic-made Emil lookalike and managed to find its way to the real Emil. Someone good enough to make such a spell would definitely deserve the job if there were no other criteria – Lalli's experience was there were always some – but he had trouble seeing how a mage could notice what had happened without also getting a very good idea of where the real Emil currently was. For that matter, someone was already in the doorway between their bedroom and the main hall. Lalli turned around and activated his eye lights to find the white-masked and sandy-haired man who had cast the spell, still in in full costume. He raised his hand to signal that he intended to keep his distance:
-Don't worry, I won't hurt him. But the situation concerning Prince Emil being still alive is obviously more complicated than I thought it was, so I'm not feeling comfortable leaving this room without knowing what's the deal with your friend and that elaborate puppet that the King and Queen are mistaking for their nephew.

Sigrun gave Helena an unusually stern look:
-You mean you haven't figured it out yet? Don't take it the wrong way, I've been simply not dismissing the possibility that you had figured it out during the week and hadn't told any of us yet for some reason. But it has been a kind of crazy week for everyone, so I can't quite blame you if you haven't caught on yet either.
Helena slumped on a nearby stone bench, soon imitated by Sune, reminded on the fact that adrenaline had been the only thing enabling her to keep up with the party:
-If I say "no", will you just go ahead and tell me? Unless you want Vivian and Randi and to figure it out for themselves, as well.
Randi shrugged as she went to sit next to Helena, on the side that wasn't already occupied by Sune:
-I figured it out almost as soon as I found out your friends have been harboring the real Prince Emil. We had to consider what much poorer living conditions would do to a formerly well-off person while setting up the "discovery" of the fake one, so I knew what to look for.
Helena was about to ask Randi what she meant, when her mind suddenly decided to serve her all the evidence she already had concerning the fact at the same time.

-Very interesting information indeed. I think there is something I can do for the two of you in return. I'll need you to lie on your left side, your Highness.
Lalli watched as Emil, who was already lying down, complied. The masked man recited something that, this time, actually sounded like it could be a Finmi spell sung in Scandi, that seemed to call for purified earth being taken out of flesh. Emil suddenly sat up, and promptly stared at the pillow, on which there was now an irregular silver cylinder no bigger than the width of the nail on Lalli's smallest finger. The masked man spoke:
-This used to be an extremely small talisman. It's been in there ever since you were an infant. Only the wisdom councilor is supposed to know they are in there and use them if they consider it's needed. In reality, magic councilors that hold their job long enough tend to eventually find out about them as well. They make the term "Puppet Royal" a little more literal than it should be.
As Lalli was trying to figure out what the man meant while keeping his eye out for any suspicious moves on his part, Emil got his eyes off the pillow to speak:
-What do you mean by "they"?
-The ones inside the rest of your family, of course. Though the one inside one of your cousins seems to have been but put out of use in some very crude way. I think I have just made the exchange of favors fair. Goodbye, and good luck with whatever brought you here.
The man left, and Emil slumped right back onto the bed. Lalli rushed to see if he was alright, as the effects of the man's initial spell hitting him had been way too easy to pass off as overheating to people who had seen him collapse. A quick physical examination fortunately indicated that it was mostly mood-induced:
-What's wrong?
-I don't know if it's good idea anymore. The more we stay here, the more I'm reminded of what those guys can do if they see any of us as a threat. And I'm not going to be able to do this without eventually becoming a threat to at least one of them.
-You can still become a good merchant. Like that, if you change your mind again, at least you'll have a better chance of being chosen to replace one of them than now. You can sleep, if you want. I'll watch.

The cycle of connecting dots and finding yet more to connect in which Helena's mind had engaged was interrupted by the sound of fireworks. They were part of the party's plan, but Randi had recently informed all of them that the moment they were actually started meant that someone had been chosen. Randi spoke over them:
-We should maybe get a little closer. Vivian and I could use seeing whether it's a familiar face or not.
The garden was soon packed, facing a balcony that "Vivian" hadn't left during the entire party. If she hadn't been tasked with being an extra pair of eyes and currently avoiding her outside of professional circumstances, Randi would have been up there, as well. While Helena now felt foolish for not having realized that Stig and the real Emil were one and the same earlier, she had caught onto the fact that Tobias had arranged for the fire from three years ago to start in the archives. That meant that there was now nothing to consult, at least in the palace itself, to check out her suspicion that "Tobias" was far from the first name to which that mind had answered. Because of this, she hesitated to use even that name. And since the last thing she needed was to add fuel to the fire of those who already thought she was mentally ill in some way, she had settled for just calling that mind the name by which it was currently going by in public, as she was already calling Vivian "Janine" in those circumstances. Next to Vivian was the sandy-haired man in the white mask that she had seen earlier. The usual introduction happened, which ended with the new councilor revealing their face and stating their name. Helena's jaw dropped, alongside that of a decent portion of the rest of the assembly.
-Daniel.
-Hum… Didn't we Ice Floe that guy a few years ago?
Randi was the one who had just spoken. The "giant iceberg" nickname of the Grand Isle of Icy Wonders, combined with the reputation some northern regions had for casting off the undesirable members of their communities on ice floes, had given birth to a euphemism for getting rid of someone by making them move to the Grand Isle of Icy Wonders. She now knew why the voice had sounded familiar, and dwelled on the fact that she hadn't immediately recognized it a little more than what was probably reasonable. She was also a little angry at him for not having told her he was back. She had been worried when he had first gone missing, but several factors, including the giant iceberg's very strict border policy that made it impossible for people of high rank to discreetly enter or leave, had kept her from properly investigating his disappearance.
-Randi, what's the penalty for slapping a member of the Royal Council already?
-I'm not sure, you'd need to ask Tanja. Though she sometimes looks the other way if it's someone who knows us personally and the reason for the slapping happened in her presence.
The position in which Randi was standing in regards to Helena enabled Helena to notice Randi passing her hand on the shoulder that had been the most affected by the whiplashes. Helena guessed that temptation to slap "Vivian" was itching her quite badly. Unfortunately, Helena knew the mind that was in there to be really good at playing the victim, due to apparently being unable to tell the difference between fair retribution for a wrongdoing and a completely unwarranted personal attack. With the only witnesses of the wounds being Helena and people who were friends with her, her best option remained to avoid any non-professional interaction with "Vivian" along with any situation in which they were the only two people in the room. If that slap happened, Randi would be the one who had "suddenly started acting aggressive" in the eyes of many. This, in itself, was a common problem with settling something that had happened in a room's privacy while outside of it; as far as people who weren't there were concerned, whether the object of the retribution had actually happened or not ultimately came down to personal preconceptions and sympathies. Helena grumbled at the realization that the reason she considered herself entitled to Daniel's latest news in the first place was technically a "room's privacy" issue as well, if one associated with quite pleasant memories. Or rather, memories that had been quite pleasant until Tobias had ruined them.