I doubt your son in law was too pleased when I was running laps around his flaming tree face wearing nothing but that blasted Manikin Mask during his dramatic and important monologue, but he couldn't do a damn thing about it.

"Heh. Well, for–"

Mytha has begun giggling. She covers her mouth and attempt to stop but just snorts by mistake.

"Pardon me. Or perhaps not. So much of these noble manners and decorum – for what purpose? I look forward to the freedoms of your rule, o Monarch."

Did you really accidentally sabotage Vendrick and Aldia's expedition before they were even born?

"Yeah, basically. They did still learn a lot from the Princess' body and everything else we looted.

The important thing is that they failed. The fall of the kingdom was… tragic. Generations of soldiers lost their lives against the giants, and the undead suffered. But what would have happened if they'd succeeded? Would the King have used that power wisely? Would it have been abused by the Queen?

You, at least, have earned it. I think I can trust you to use it a little better."

Who was it that betrayed the Goddess of Men? What happened, for her to be left in such a state?

"That's… Better to ask her yourself. Well, she can't quite talk yet, but what's waiting a few years for an immortal like you? It shouldn't be hard to find her. How many women in that land without clerics can cast golden lightning?"

Filianore is called the Goddess of Humanity, but being a god, how much does she have in common with the humans she governs?

"Well, setting aside that she's in a human body now… I don't really know. She had the office of Goddess of Humanity, but what does that really mean? An overseer? Maybe it's time you took a trip to the Ringed City. I wonder… what would happen if you fought the Lord of Light in that memory?"

Perhaps, much like the War God, she is known by other names in different places?

"Can't say. Not much of a social scholar. But I have heard of a similar concept. Have you ever heard the word 'faerie'?"

"Well, after emerging from the memory, we ran into the 'woman with the pearl' at last. She was the princess' handmaid after all.

After we caused all that ruckus with the dragon, she knew that she just had to wait for us in the princess' chamber. Setting aside the panicking giants who had gathered outside, the actual cathedral guards had been sent away to make it easier for us. The Ringed Knights were gone, as were the royal guards and the princess' own guard.

Now I'd said at the beginning of this story that the handmaid was the one to save me before Syan found me and carried my body back down the Dreg Heap. Turns out that was because she recognized me. Because I'd mentioned the dragon had taken my limbs, she waited and watched for me during every petty king's attempt at invading the Ringed City.

The whole thing was a predestined loop. Talk about a mindscrew."

Bel throws her head back and plays with her hair in frustration.

"Because we'd already stolen her soul, the King couldn't finish his research. But then Aldia or the Queen didn't get their filthy hands on her. Still not sure whether that was for the best. All of it would have been for nothing anyway if you hadn't come along."

Mytha pulls Bel's hands away and forces them back down onto the table.

The former queen adds, "There are still many questions. What connection, exactly, did Berengel have to all of this?"

"She was a goddess, right?"

"It does seem the case. Be that as it may, she is a loose end. We never found evidence of her again. Vanished like smoke. And she is only the first matter left unresolved."

Bel shrugs.

"No sense in digging up the dead for now. We can leave most of it buried with the kingdom."

"So much misery built on that one spot. Generations of Men seeking the truth and finding only blood."

Bel turns to you again.

"Well, the princess' handmaid had one clarification for us. The old god wanted us to take his daughter's soul to a land where he wasn't worshiped. He wanted her to totally escape his shadow and forget everything.

So we decided to go on a journey to the distant east and see how authentic the Alonne Knights were. The answer is 'not very.'

As it happened we found a dead baby."

"Bel! That is excising entirely too many details! Honestly! We came upon a couple whose child had just been stillborn. Seeing the opportunity, I posed as a doctor and revived the child with the goddess' soul.

That land has a great appreciation for dragons. I felt it suitable for the sister of Lord Dragonborn."

"It was an interesting place for certain. A mad genius we met figured out how to miniaturize that harpoon gun and embed it in a prosthetic arm. I'm going to be ready when I finally go back and kill that dragon."

Bel looks over your shoulder. The sun is beginning to rise. Her story took all night to tell, but that hardly seems to have fazed anyone at the table, each of you a little more than human.

"Well, I cut and run, but I'm on a pretty aggressive timetable. I need to make it back to my client's workshop to appraise the first production run. Not that it's a particularly long journey, but Mytha likes to stop and smell the roses."

"It is not as if the world is ending any longer. At least not immediately so."

Mytha covers her face again, and Bel puts on her greathelm.

"Don't worry about the bill, boss. The Duke's paying. Feel free to drink him into poverty."

She waves as she heads toward the door. Mytha pauses to turn back and bow politely.

"If you need more questions answered, I'll be staying at the client's to supervise for the foreseeable future. Small city, but it's growing quickly. Looks like it might be a good place to put down roots. I might be hard to find, so try going to the big church and asking for Vicar Larry.

I'll see you when I see you. Good hunting."