Note: Part of this chapter is written from the point of view of someone genuinely believes in a lot of "gay/trans agenda" stuff and is prone to deadnaming. In addition, because of several factors that were in place back when I first planned the plot, there is a development in this chapter that can come across as confirming that character's suspicions more than I realized at the time, and there was only so much I managed to change to temper this. In case it remains ambiguous, I'm going for a bad light on the methods, not the motivation.
True colors
Noticing the large striped piece of fabric on the building she and Katarina seemed to be approaching from a narrow alleyway partly took Alicia out of her stupor. There had been a time, many decades before her own birth, during which those afflicted by the same condition as Marta and the tea and dye seller from the market were allowed to walk on the streets as long as they donned a piece of black-and-yellow striped fabric on their clothing. Now, those black-and-yellow stripes were considered to belong to the crowd Alicia had helped "circle" on Magda day until sundown; somewhere along the way, it had become of banner of sorts. She'd also once randomly overheard someone's claim that the real reason the members of that group used the striped fabric was that they considered that the period during which it was imposed upon those with their condition had never really ended. That notion was ridiculous, as far as Alicia was concerned. If anything, those people were those with an upper hand on everyone else, considering there was at least a couple of them in the Council, which had allowed them to get the official law to treat their condition as something to be left alone, rather than cured. Instead of having both of them leave the alley, Katarina made Alicia crouch behind an old crate that happened to be in the alleyway, told her to not move, and left the alley by herself. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes before she came back:
-Just wanted to make sure they are where I need them to be. They'll be those responsible for what we did as far as most people are concerned. At the very least, people are going to have a hard time believing they aren't involved at all.
Alicia realized that her memory of "what they did" was strangely fuzzy, already feeling like she had read in a book a few weeks ago, then realized that many people in that building were going to be arrested for something they hadn't actually done, an idea that she quite disliked. She then remembered who those people where, and that they had almost certainly done quite a few things she didn't approve of, with the city guard not making a single move to stop it. They were also past the point where they would accept to be saved if Lady Magda's miracle cure was ever found. Getting them locked up at all was more important than getting them locked up for something they had actually done. Wait, isn't Katarina supposed to be on their side? Why was she having them held responsible, of all the people who would do just as well?
A few minutes later, Alicia started recognizing the streets Katarina was dragging her through as those close to the orphanage. She now knew for sure what side Katarina was on, and what was going to happen to her. She was going to be made into one of them. Maybe Katarina had already done it, and this was the reason she had turned into that. Her fears were only confirmed when the orphanage's outer wall came into view, Katarina went towards a guard and asked for someone with the man's name everyone she knew was calling Marta, except for actual Daughters of Magda. The guard told her the person was exceptionally on evening shift, and couldn't be pulled off work unless it was really important. Katarina told the guard that a group of "the nutjobs who hang out at Combatant's park" had shown up at the Daughters of Magda temple and had a killing spree from which the two of them were able to escape. The guard, after a few moments of a silence that seemed a mix of stunned and skeptical, next addressed Alicia, who found herself still unable to speak. After she took too long to respond, the guard asked Katarina if something had happened to her. Katarina said something about having hidden in the rafters – Katarina had actually gone up there to escape what had really happened – and seeing a group of men bringing Alicia to one of the bedrooms. She next claimed to have figured out a way to escape with Alicia in tow that had unfortunately relied on letting the men leave the room on their own and hoping they left Alicia in it, which they had. To Alicia's surprise, the guard's following silence was all shock before he pointed toward the house across the street that was currently Daniel's:
-Actually, I have quite precise instructions from Markus: "if Alicia shows up for whatever reason, have her sent to Daniel's place alongside anyone accompanying her". I just wanted to get what happened out of you first to figure out the seriousness of the situation and if anyone with city-level authority should be informed. But you're in luck in your misfortune. That house is basically also a one-person clinic for many of the things that could have happened in that room.
Alicia was separated from Katarina almost as soon as they came into the house, and examined by the woman she now knew to be both Princess Helena and the betrothed woman Daniel had shared his bed with. She could overhear Katarina telling someone the cover story in another room despite the fact that Princess Helena clearly knew she had been up to something involving the Daughters of Magda temple. Alicia had trouble telling whether Helena knew the nature of what had happened or not, however. Fortunately, the medical exam turned out to consist of having a medical talisman slapped on her forehead:
-I haven't been so relieved to find out something was a lie in quite a while. I'm going to assume her claims about what happened to you are part of her plan. Now, let's try figuring out what actually put you in your current state. Can you blink?
Alicia tried. She could.
-We're in business. Once for yes, two for no, three if neither fits.
Helena asked a lot of questions. Alicia found herself answering as honestly as her means of communication allowed, half because she didn't seem to be currently able to lie easily, half upon somehow realizing that it enhanced her chances of finding out what, exactly, Katarina had done to her. What Helena either knew or seemed able to make educated guesses about had a lot of overlap with what Alicia was in the dark about. Some uncertain time into the interrogation, Alicia briefly considered that this interrogation could be part of Katarina's plans, but her mind's response was that if it was the case, why would Helena ask so much? Katarina apparently wanted Alicia to be around people who would not see her transform into that when music started playing. But who were those people meant to be? Was she currently around them, or not? Where was the music supposed to come from, anyway? Wait, what day was it already? There was only one good reason the orphanage would have to play any sort of music this time of year… Delia! She had no idea whether Dirk would have taken the evening off or not, but Gillis, Lutz and Myn would almost certainly be part of the audience if Delia was playing. Katarina had already shown herself willing to both kill the Daughters of Magda temple's entire population and to frame the people from Combatant's park for it. Was something going to happen in the orphanage, as well? For a brief moment, she considered that this might be the reason Marta was on evening shift. She probably still cared about Dirk and the younger ones as people she was in the process of converting. That was it. If there was even a sliver of a chance that the Princess was trying to thwart whatever Katarina was up to at the last minute, then she had, indeed, done the right thing by answering the previous questions honestly. Not long after she came to that conclusion, someone that Alicia couldn't see well from the bed on which she had been put interrupted the interrogation:
-Are those two part of our dinner plans?
-Why not, I see no reason to go any easier on either of them than we already are.
Alicia didn't get to wonder about that exchange for very long, as the interrogation quickly continued.
xxxx
-Ah, Prince Emil. It's been so long since last time you were able to come here. I hope you'll enjoy the show. Tell me, how has he been doing?
Anna answered the person wearing Vivian's face:
-He's hasn't moved on his own all day.
Tobias put a hand on the cheek that Daniel was currently forced to wear. Fortunately, he had figured out exactly what to do to make it look like he was trying to gain control of the body, but failing; this was what was actually happening at the moment.
-You were told he was going to have good days and bad days, right? From what I can tell, he's just having one of his bad ones. Maybe watching the plays will make him a little better.
Daniel now wanted to be able to gain enough control on that body to do something meaningful, if only so Tobias could regret that last suggestion. Meanwhile, they were giving a reassuring shoulder pat to both Håkan and Anna:
-I'm sure he's very worried about the two of you as well, and could use seeing you in a better mood. I hope the two of you will also be enjoying the plays. We're trying something new for the opening music of the first one, so I will need to know what you think after it's done to help decide whether we'll do it again next year.
The reigning branch of the Royal family took place in the small gallery that had been put up for them. Once they were seated, the fake Emil's chair was rolled into the gallery, as well; or it would have been, if the wheeled chair had not made a strange sound while being moved into the orphanage's yard. The chair's attendant went to check the wheels and apparently found something had been caught under one of them. For some reason, the attendant pulled out a handkerchief and put whatever had been on the ground inside it. Right after finishing to put as the fake Emil in his proper place, the attendant presented the handkerchief's contents to Håkan, who grimaced at them:
-Could you please clean those first? Someone around here must know how to do it.
The attendant soon left the field of vision to which Daniel was currently limited, but not his hearing range. He just barely heard Tobias intercept the attendant:
-Ask for Vilma, she knows how to handle that sort of thing.
-All my thanks, Lady Vivian.
Daniel suddenly realized what at least one of the items in the handkerchief might be, and wondered why Tobias was seemingly fine with Håkan not wearing it. Daniel's suspicion so far had been that they intended to have Håkan be the sole survivor of something involving magic thanks to protection from the silver and moon marble necklace. As he was trying to figure out what was going on, a dozen children of all ages holding drums stepped onto the stage. One of them was Delia. When he realized what multiple drum players could mean in regards to the possible trial runs for something that had taken place over the last few days, Daniel was briefly grateful he hadn't figured out how to make this body do what he wanted quite yet; he would have certainly reflexively let his face sink into his palm otherwise. Daniel now suspected that if the multiple drum-players had been an orchestra of several different instruments, the past few days would have been the equivalent of only one of its instruments playing each evening. He found himself so busy processing the implications of that new realization that he barely noticed the moment the musicians lifted their hands.
Markus found himself unable to move, even to close his eyes, as he saw, from his position on the orphanage's roof, what he had trouble describing as anything else than some sort of deformed monster spring out of the Royal gallery and attack the members of the audience. Of Dirk's younger siblings, he was only certain of the location of Delia, who was on the stage among the dozen drum-players of all ages, and Myn, whom Lady Vivian had taken to the orphanage's basement alongside other children known to be mages while Markus had been helping where he could in regards to Daniel's disappearance. Everyone had known better than to try getting Myn and the others back before Lady Vivian was done with them. Markus had lost track of Gillis and Lutz, and was hoping with all his heart that they weren't among the corpses, which visibly included some familiar faces. Markus hoped that at least two specific people among his fellow guards had been frozen in place with a certain spot of the garden outside of their field of vision. How many siblings was Dirk going to come back to?
In their panic flight from what – according to multiple eyewitnesses – had once been Håkan, some people had ended up closer to the mansion than to the orphanage. In the bunch, a surprising number either turned out to have come on purpose or decided that it was probably safer than the orphanage itself upon realizing where their legs had taken them. Helena decided to not think too much about the fact that Dirk and Alicia's younger brothers, but not their younger sisters, had been among the bunch. Said younger brothers had been sent to Daniel's room, as would have been the case had he actually been present; Julia was familiar face to them, as well, anyway. Injuries were being treated in the sickroom by Reynir and a begrudging Lalli, children who simply needed to be put somewhere had been crammed in the dining room with every single pillow that wasn't currently being used elsewhere in the house and a few blankets to share, under the watch of the handful of adult employees who had led or followed them to the mansion. Those who weren't being kept awake by what just happened had already fallen asleep from the relief brought by their current safety. All witnesses agreed that if the Royals had found any sort of refuge, it would be inside the orphanage building closest to the stage. Helena entered the nursery, where Janine had been left alone with Sune, half by accident, half on purpose. Now was the time to make use of one the little secrets she and Daniel had discovered about the child while studying her under every angle they could think of.
All Markus could guess was that the being rampaging in the orphanage's yard and the smaller creature that had just entered his field of vision from the side by which many children had fled were supposed to be the same thing. But if the two creatures had been dolls made of cloth, the one that had sprung out of the Royal gallery was a reminder of why such dolls were also called ragdolls, while the new one was closer to Janine's doll: same general idea, but made of better-quality materials and with more expert handiwork. The smaller one jumped on what could be more or less considered the larger one's back. The larger one then took a form of a gold-haired older boy, who seemed to promptly faint. Even from his position on the roof, Markus could tell the boy was basically a shorter-haired version of Sune. That meant it could be only one person. He really hoped Daniel had nothing to do with this, but a small part of him knew it was very possible. Just as his mind was reaching this conclusion, both the new creature and the boy literally vanished into thin air. He barely had time to register this before noticing all drum-players, including Delia, coming down from the stage and heading towards the closest building. They were soon imitated by surviving actors for the play and audience members. Some of the older teens first made a detour to pick up one of the corpses. Soon after, Markus found himself starting to go through the motions of coming down from the roof, some fellow guards who happened to have longer legs and arms getting back to the ground a little before he did. They, too, converged towards the corpses and picked up one each, some of the more muscular men picking up two. All next walked towards the entrance to the basement of the closest building.
xxxx
Those things looked like coffins made out of silver with Moon Marble ornaments. Lady Vivian made the regning Royals, who were apparently under the same spell as Markus and several others, lie inside one that seemed to be made for three people. She apparently expected to need space for the King, the Queen and the Princess all along. At this point, Markus wasn't sure whether Prince Emil not being part of those put in that "coffin" was a good thing or not. Markus noticed that aside from the one in which the Royals had been put, all the other coffin-like boxes he could see looked the right size to house either one or two people. Lady Vivian made all the people under her control who could stand line up in front her:
-I have news for all of you. I recently have become aware of more of this country's history than any of you could ever imagine. In that, I have noticed something. Each time those who are not men in men's bodies or women in women's bodies interested in the other sex get anything close to the same freedom as anyone else, there is always a large number of people in whose eyes that freedom is already too much. Those in power make laws that get them punished for living their lives, those on the street harass them as much as the city guard will allow them to get away with. Eventually, the treatment becomes so obvious and harsh that they find allies to fight it back alongside them, and some freedom is regained. Until that freedom becomes too much for too many people much faster than it ought to yet again. Many of those liberty losses occurred right around the time society was taking its early steps towards making a space for those whose nature or affections can't be accounted for by thinking of "man" and "woman" as the only two options. The number of such people that this orphanage and shelters for adults took in never had the time to drop significantly, even during what were considered good times. Even now, I've noticed that Randi is only tolerated in her current position because she's expected to pick one type of partner eventually, and there are people of both sexes hoping she will choose theirs. Before learning this, I was holding out hope that if I waited just a little longer, whatever I am would be accepted enough that having it be public wouldn't give too many people an excuse to stop respecting my authority. But don't worry, I have found a solution to this. One that will make the lives of many of you much easier than it has been so far, as well. I have arranged for the country as it is to be torn up over the next few years, and assembled everything that will be needed to re-develop it into a better place for all of us in this very basement and its neighboring rooms.
No. While he knew all too well that the issues stated by Lady Vivian were real, too many people Markus cared about were still out there. As for the people he did frequently wish he could be rid of forever, he didn't actually want any of them to die. Lady Vivian continued to speak:
-Myself, the Royals, the mages. A few others who are lucky enough to have reached this shelter, but are among the few in this country to have gotten the upbringing that the new world will need. And, finally, those of you who are still working here because too few employers outside of the orphanage will take you, who will hold the memory of how the world from before treated you. Most of you will be sleeping through it in those boxes that will protect you from the passage of time, physical harm and magic. I only had the means to make a limited number of them, so I reserved them for those who would be lucky enough to be here alive. However, there's going to be an almost complete overlap between those of you who will be sleeping and those of you who will be repopulating our new world. I will be choosing the mating pairs so they can be put in the same box. Some of you will be paired with each other, some with the mages who are still alone in their boxes. But before that, I need an attendant for the Prince. The usual one isn't lucky enough to be here.
Lady Vivan walked around the room, periodically touching the heads of immobilized people who were within Markus' line of sight. Eventually, she came to Markus himself:
-Well, well, who do we have here? I thought two girls whose existence he barely knows of would have to do, but now I have his favorite bother in here with me in case he somehow escapes the place I locked him up in too early! You're going to keep the Prince company.
Soon enough, he was unwillingly walking towards the Prince's body, and reaching toward him to help him up.
-Well kiddo, looks like you figured out the "nice to your parents, brat to everyone else" trick. Do you mind making an exception for me? I'm over for dinner quite often, after all.
Even if her current body hadn't been mute, it would have been a bad idea to tell Markus that at least one of the talismans that Daniel had made for him seemed to be affecting her movement control on some level. This would be a piece of information for Daniel himself. She could feel Markus had a small network of them under his clothing, and making something that would help Markus sounded like exactly the sort of thing Daniel would do while in the Wonder School's secret wing. She wondered which spell involved in fixing that specific issue could be affecting one of Tobias' artificial bodies in the way it was currently affecting hers. And if she should be worrying about that headache that seemed to be coming on…
It couldn't have been more than an instant, but it was enough for Daniel to become aware of some "puppet strings" involved in controlling that body that he had never noticed the presence of before. He hadn't expected that his inability to fix that particular anomaly without getting in the way of the harness' main function, of all things, would end up making a difference. Maybe Helena had been onto something when she had wondered if this could be a hint towards how they were supposed to move minds between bodies. Once he was aware of those new strings, it didn't take long to get some sort of handle on the giant puppet in which he was stuck. Soon, he felt he may be able to walk on his own if he needed to. But what to do? He needed to act quickly, or this body was going to get locked up in one of those coffins before he was able to make any use of it. His first idea was to wrestle himself out of Markus' grip, only to realize that some mix of breaking the physical contact and the fact that this body's legs hadn't actually been used for their primary purpose in a long time, if ever, kept him from making more than a clumsy step before falling flat on the floor. He heard Tobias speaking:
-Nice try, my Prince. Though it looks like the best way to avoid more surprises is to put the two of you in your box myself.
As Tobias started walking towards him, Daniel heard the nearby sound of an explosion. How in the world could there be an explosion in a place that had every reason to be magically protected against such things?
Emil hadn't been sure if there would anything he would be able to damage without unnecessarily risking any lives in there, but luck had it that he had found a room full of still-empty silver coffin-like boxes. All those in the room were open, which greatly reduced the risk that they were occupied without him realizing it. He had briefly considered the food store in the room in which he had emerged, but even as a Prince, he had known that food and medicine stores weren't something to destroy unless one genuinely wanted the people who would potentially use them to die. Even in times of war, it was usually a better idea to, if possible, grab such things to keep one's own soldiers alive if one didn't want to risk having the enemy get their hands on them. His current impulse was to go further in the direction from which he had heard speaking. However, since he had slipped away while everyone was busy dealing with a bunch of children showing up on the mansion's doorstep, had come alone, was lucky he hadn't wounded himself while destroying a particular wall, and found a room that would tolerate damage at first glance, it was a better idea to let people come to him. The first person who came was an orphanage guard he didn't know with weapons drawn. When the woman promptly attacked him and ignored any attempt to communicate, Emil knew something was off. Just as he was going to start fighting instead of just dodging, he realized all too late that there must have been more where that guard had come from, and soon enough he was restrained by too many pairs of arms to be able to wrestle away. One of them removed the shoulder bag he had with him. Meanwhile, another guard was clearly trying to find any concealed weapons, and had just found his pocket explosions when Tobias came into the room. The guard that had been frisking Emil brought them the pocket explosions, they picked up one of them an examined it:
-I think I know what those are. Most people would rather not have whatever they are preparing explode. As for the few who see the potential in it all while having the resources to experiment… mages who would rather have a monopoly on certain things tend to see that potential also, and not like it very much. Come to think of it, I'm surprised you were able to come up with a reliable form of those objects while under the same roof as so many mages.
Of the "so many mages", only Lalli had known and hadn't seemed particularly disturbed by the idea of non-mages acquiring the means of making things explode. At some point, Emil had realized that the entire household being aware of everything he was up to could backfire in the future in various ways. However, his attempts at secrecy had failed until Lalli had pointed out he was trying to hide too many things at the same time and that he kept mentioning one of the things he wanted to hide while trying to divert people's attention from another. Between them, they had come up with the idea of trying to only hide one thing from the others and to choose what that thing would be carefully. Emil had settled on the pocket explosions. And a means to get to the orphanages' basement if it was ever needed, which turned out to require being able to destroy a wall on short notice, as to keep the orphanage side unaware of the fact that the passage had been found. It looked like he hadn't thought things through. Suddenly, all the orphanage guards who were holding him dropped him and mobbed Tobias, instead.
A bunch of puppets whose strings had been cut. This was what everyone around Markus looked like, and how he felt himself. He looked at the collapsed Prince, and his professional instincts kicked in: now that he had been asked to care for him, he considered it his responsibility to keep him safe from whatever was going to happen next. He settled for bringing the Prince close to an exit, so he would be protected from anything happening outside, but could be taken out the door quickly if the basement suddenly started to look dangerous enough that outside might be safer. On his way to the exit, he noticed that all the other guards he walked past looked like they were being controlled again. He heard a voice in his head:
-Please stay with the Prince, child. I have a faint sense of what the other guards and those who are still alive among the children are up to. I will tell you if going outside does, indeed, become the best solution.
Markus had to ask:
-Who are you?
-I remember you being smarter and more accustomed to the idea of things not being as you have been told than that, child.
The only person who had ever called him "child" with such emphasis was… it was a bad time to blindly believe certain things were as he thought they were, indeed. The voice spoke again:
-Good news, it seems like that young man had enough of a plan to have brought a pair of magic-sealing bracelets over. He just made things much easier for me. I'd like to focus my mind on other tasks, but could you do me a favor and try to figure out how much physical contact with you your current ward needs to stay upright? I suspect his "bad day" was deliberately induced, but it looked like he was able to move while you were holding him and collapsed in part because he tried parting with you. And before doing it, repeat what I just said to him. I don't think he can hear me.
Something about what the voice said didn't feel right:
-You're using those control things we have in our heads, aren't you? Shouldn't he also have one as a member of the Royal Family?
-If he does, something happened to it to keep it from being of any use. Keep him alive first, we'll figure out what's up with that later.
It felt like a previously unnoticed presence left his mind. Markus grabbed the Prince's arm and repeated what the voice – which he really hoped actually belonged to Niels – had told him. His first idea for the test he was supposed to do was to see what happened if he simply kept the Prince up by grabbing his arm, after pushing the sleeve back to ensure skin-to-skin contact, which Daniel had mentioned to be necessary in some situations involving magic. When he saw the hands and fingers moving, he got another idea:
-Hey, do you feel able only show a certain number of fingers at a time? It would make things easier if we associate answers with numbers.
The fingers moved. Into something familiar. Markus could tell he was trying to get as close to spelling "leg" as he could manage with someone holding his arm.
Emil figured out the meaning of the fact that the handful of orphanage guards surrounding him had just thanked him using an identical set of words, at the same time, after having briefly given the impression that the control on them had been cut.
-There's someone who isn't "Vivian" controlling them all, isn't there? Who are you?
The voices answered in unison:
-Someone who had a score to settle with the current controller of Vivian's body.
One of the guards pointed toward the restrained Tobias, who seemed unable to speak for some reason.
-Wait, how do you know…
The multiple voices spoke before he could finish the thought:
-This is not important. Some of those people just lost someone dear to them. All of them just heard me state that Vivian's body isn't being controlled by her at the moment. And there are plenty of people here who will be essential to the orphanage's recovery from what is currently happening. I'd rather not let go of any of them unless I'm sure I don't need them anymore, ideally in circumstances that will allow them to properly process everything that will have happened by then. Now, tell me, is the route you used to come here safe and can you take someone who can't walk on their own back through it if another person helps you?
Emil had suspected that his substitute was in the area, and that saving said substitute alongside the other royals was unfortunately going to be necessary for the sake of appearances. He suddenly realized that whoever was controlling the guards had only implied a desire to take one member of the Royal family to safety:
-What about the others?
-If you can do it and be followed without danger, the next to be sent to safety will be the other Royals, each with the assistance of one of the handful of guards who need the chance to back out of what will happen next the most, as far as I'm aware. If not, you and your helper may need to come back, provided you're able to do so.
Emil gave the best answer he could manage without thinking too much:
-I've been followed by one person while testing the passage with no problems. Two other people will be tight squeeze, but possible. If you're serious about getting the Royals to safety and giving those who might want to back out the most a chance… you can rotate helpers and those who still want to help here can come with me on the way back.
The multiple voices answered him:
-This works. The hardest person to move first.
Markus quickly showed up with the fake Prince. Markus' expression upon seeing him told him he wasn't being controlled, but the whole situation seemed to have either shocked him or made him slip into "professional mode". Those two things weren't mutually exclusive, either.
-Stay right behind me.
He took Markus to the part of the food storage room that used to be just the councilor of law's main basement, then to the wall in which he had blown a hole with one of the pocket explosions. He let out a sigh of relief when the large sand-repelling air bubble turned out to, indeed, be able to engulf all three of them. Of all the theories about that tunnel's existence, Emil was more than ready to adhere to the one according to which it was there because a councilor of magic and a councilor of law had once been secret lovers, a very, very long time ago. Anything involving mass movement of people or items seemed ludicrous. Then again, procuring a rune able to create the bubble without Daniel, Helena and Reynir's knowledge had possibly resulted in him getting a sub-par product. Markus spoke:
-Am I correct assuming that this goes to Daniel's place?
-Yes.
-Is Helena at home?
-Yes.
-In that case, we'll need to call her as soon as we have the Prince settled.
-Why?
-I think Daniel may be inside him, somehow.
After Emil's initial surprise, what Markus said made some sort of sense. According to Helena, the fake Prince had nothing resembling a mind of its own. In a way, he may have been like an empty prison cell waiting fulfill the exact function Janine was currently serving for Vivian's mind all along.
-I'll get Helena to him as soon as we get there, but I should warn you. We've been aware of a similar situation and trying to fix it for some time. Our household's mages have yet to figure it out despite Helena being able to communicate with the other person in that situation, and they're not exactly inexperienced in magic, either.
By the time Markus had processed enough to answer, they had reached the end of the tunnel and Emil was starting to fiddle with the trap door, which was made to be opened by people much taller than he or Markus:
-Where in the world did all of you hide… wait… does Janine have anything to do with this?
-Yes.
Emil managed to get the trap open and started going up the ladder:
-We'll continue this conversation later. We'll be walking by our more conventional prison cells on the way to Helena and I'm not sure what we can let our prisoner hear.
He and Markus managed to get the fake Prince up the ladder between them. As they walked by the cell, Markus briefly, but conspicuously stopped before quickening his pace:
-The faster we get this one settled, the faster you can go get the rest of the Royals and the faster I get to ask Katarina for an explanation.
When he asked Markus why he was so sure he wouldn't be accompanying him, he revealed that something he had gotten from Daniel, but couldn't easily leave behind, may hold part of the solution to Daniel's current predicament. Maybe there was a little hope, after all. Emil spotted Helena earlier than he thought he would, just a couple of cells down from the one in which Katarina was kept, which put her in the one right next to the stairs leading out of the mansion's basement. She seemed to be getting someone settled in the cell's bed. Emil called out to her:
-Can I ask you something?
-Go ahead, I just finished with the precautions this one requires.
Helena turned towards Emil, allowing him to take in the small frame and short blond hair of the person in the bed. Emil's utterance of the name got drowned by a mutual "What is he doing here?" exclamation from Helena and Markus. Fortunately, everyone managed to focus back on the situation at hand, Helena promised to explain what Håkan was doing in the cell whenever they had time and Emil managed to slip away toward the trap door while Markus was starting to explain what had happened in the orphanage's basement. On the other side of the tunnel, there was a weary-faced woman waiting for him, holding an unconscious Anna. As the woman followed him in the magical bubble, Emil couldn't help thinking of the fact that she was at least a decade older than Markus and clearly wearing an orphanage guard uniform. He knew the best way to know was to ask her, but could also guess that now was definitely not the right time. He wasn't even sure whether the woman was currently moving according to her own free will, or not. But he couldn't help but wonder if she was still a guard by choice, or because she hadn't been able to get a job anywhere else in all those years.
