Once Amie had finally communicated to Adora her feelings on the matter, and convinced the under-spy of her ability to enforce her wishes, Adora revealed that the same message telling her of the Animuslaver had also given her the recipe for a potion that would temporarily restore reason to the demon's host. Adora admitted that it had not been her plan to use it. The potion sounded revolting, as it included such ingredients as fattened leeches, but that was not why Adora hadn't planned on using it.
"Animu Slah'ver, which is the name of the demon, always eventually abandons its host anyway," Adora explained, "Admittedly, the host dies when they're abandoned, but knights are imminently replaceable, unlike spies. I figured to just lie low and stay clear until the whole thing blew over."
Amie felt her anger towards Adora rapidly rising to hatred, but her newly patient view of the world interposed, and gave her insight, revealing that Adora spoke from simple ignorance. Adora didn't really understand the depth of evil found in demons, or the agonies inflicted upon the demon's host. She did not care if Steven died because she did not understand the value of life. To her, he was just another thing in her world, an uninteresting and therefore imminently dispensable thing. It was not from wickedness that her cavalier attitude came from, but from thoughtlessness. Not because she was stupid, but because she was self-centered and vain and lacked any experience to make her question her natural way of being. She lacked empathy because she didn't know what it was.
Not that it improved Amie's opinion of Adora. Such a thoughtless girl in the position of spy was a dangerous and potentially damaging thing. And the things that came out of her mouth were not only uncouth, they were also intensely annoying, at least to Amie.
"And if Steven came back and destroyed Freedonia with that sword?" Amie demanded, trying her hand at making Adora think, "You realize Animuslaver in the hands of an expert swordsman is a little different from Animuslaver in the hands of an old fisherman, don't you?"
The attempt failed utterly as Adora shrugged, "There are other kingdoms."
Amie was rendered speechless and staring at this, but Adora didn't seem to recognize her disgust, much less understand it, as she continued,
"Anyway, I can make the potion, but getting the ingredients would be a lot of work."
Amie glared at her to express he complete lack of sympathy. Frankly she didn't care how much work it was to save Steven, and she cared even less how much effort Adora would have to put it. However much was required, Amie intended to see that Adora did it.
Ignoring the look, Adora continued, "Besides, I can't just pour it on Knight-Boy once its made, I have to convince him to drink it. And while I am quite popular and gorgeous and amazing in every possible way, he doesn't seem to be very fond of me."
"Well, you do keep stealing his stuff," Amie pointed out mildly.
"And you're basically a jerk to everyone, but he likes you," Adora retorted, "The only explanation for that is incredibly low standards."
"At least I've never betrayed him," Amie snapped, her eyes flashing briefly, "Or Freedonia!"
"I didn't betray Freedonia," Adora protested, "I did exactly what the Royal Adviser told me to. That's called serving, not betraying. The Knight-Boy would agree with me."
Amie raised her staff, and it began to glow menacingly.
"Okay, okay!" Adora said, raising her hands to show she wasn't interested in seeing any more of what a wizard's wrath might look like, "I'll get the stupid ingredients for the stupid potion. But don't blame me when the stupid knight refuses to drink it."
"It's Steven we have to convince, not Animu," Amie said, lowering her staff, adding with feigned certainty, "He'll drink it. You just get the thing made."
Inwardly, Amie was less sure of herself. Too well did she know Steven's politeness and gentle manner, even with people he did not like. She believed that he was her friend, but what if he had always just been nice to her because that was his way? If it had been mere tolerance and not friendship this entire time, it was unlikely that he would trust her. But she had to try.
Steven absolutely would not trust Adora. Briefly Amie considered Rupert, but just as rapidly she discarded the notion. It was true that Rupert was Steven's friend, but the simple fact of the matter was that, if the potion didn't work or Steven refused to drink it, the encounter might well end with him drawing his sword. Rupert had a family. Amie had less to lose. Besides which, Amie could cast a healing spell on herself. Her spell-casting also allowed her to attack and defend herself from a distance if it came to that, whereas Rupert would be forced to get up close and personal.
Amie had seen both Steven and Rupert fight. If it came to a clash of swords, Rupert would lose. Not only would it be wrong to endanger Rupert's life in such a way, Amie could not imagine what it would do to Steven once he was free. No, better to leave Rupert out of it.
"Fine," Adora was saying in response to what Amie had told her, "But I'm not getting the leeches out of the river and fattening them myself."
"I don't care where you get leeches from," Amie replied, "Just get them."
"Fine," Adora repeated, then added, "But they're going to cost a bit."
"I don't care what they cost," Amie snarled, her eyes flashing dangerously, "Pay it!"
"And what are you going to do in the meantime?" Adora asked.
"I'm going to collect the plant materials, and keep an eye out for the ship's return," Amie replied.
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Adora asked, apparently eager to get rid of Amie and realizing there was little chance of it.
Amie looked at her and replied steadily, "Not today. And not any day ahead unless and until Steven is free again," her eyes narrowed to slits as she added, "And neither do you, for that matter."
"I was afraid of that," Adora sighed.
Amie said nothing, simply gazed at her expectantly.
"Alright, alright, I'm going."
Amie watched Adora leave, and then looked out the window to watch as she made her way to the village. In truth, Amie already had the plants needed for the potion. But for some reason she had not wanted to admit what she was actually going to do.
Leaving the spy's quarters and returning to her tower, Amie first prepared some new spells, and then she began to scry. On a personal level, Amie didn't want Adora to know that she had to forget spells in order to memorize new ones, and that a part of that embarrassing process was whacking herself in the head with her staff repeatedly. She also wanted to keep Adora in the dark as to what she could actually do at any given time. But she also just didn't want to share any vision of the future she saw with Adora.
The future was not certain, it was made up only of possibilities, and Amie could not entirely control what future she saw, though she could focus on certain people in the vision, or examine aspects of it. She often viewed the most likely future, or the anyway the one most likely if she did nothing to intervene, as she had when she saw the death of The Pit Beast.
This time, she viewed a future in which she had failed to restore Steven's free will. She was not certain how far in the future she was looking, but she saw a strange knight had taken Steven's place.
A pale figure, with almost white blond hair, a solitary man with little interest in his guardsmen, who had taken the mantel of knight primarily for the adventure and glory it promised. A lesser knight than his predecessor, who relied on the security measures established by Steven to keep the kingdom safe, rather than putting any effort in for himself. She saw this knight sailing, and going off into the forest for long periods in search of excitement, leaving the kingdom without her knight's protection for hours or even days at a time as he pursued his own interests.
Despite this, Freedonia appeared to be continuing on, even thriving as it had before. For some reason, Adora was gone, replaced by a functionally identical spy. Amie smiled bitterly at that. At least Adora overestimated her own importance. That was some consolation.
Lord Spaulding was also gone, though Amie did not see why. She saw that the son had taken on the father's role. It was not clear from the vision why, but it was evident that Jeffrey was not as well-loved as his father, either by the people of Freedonia or those of its annexed territories. She did not see Rhona, but was unconvinced that the wife of Lord Spaulding was dead, merely not in immediate view. Amie didn't much care about Rhona, and so did not look for her.
Rupert and Rhianwen remained, their number of children increased to three, all girls of exceptional beauty, inheriting the best of looks from each parent. Rupert seemed not to have the ear of Freedonia's new knight, and Amie saw a melancholy to him in the future that was not there now.
Jeffrey had kept Greta as Royal Adviser, and Krispin as Build Master. They seemed largely unaffected by the change, continuing to behave as they always had.
In fact, many things about Freedonia seemed utterly unchanged.
And then Amie saw herself. A powerful wizard in her tower. Perhaps the most powerful wizard ever, with staff and home furnishings worthy of her power. But she was almost completely alone.
It didn't seem fair. Steven had done so much to protect Freedonia, to improve her and expand her monarch's power within the realm, often at no small cost to himself. He was the best of Freedonia. More, he brought out the best in all he associated with.
Without Steven, it seemed to Amie that there should be no Freedonia. And yet, from what she could see, the world would go on. Even she herself would go on. The lesser for the loss of the Knight-Captain, but going on nonetheless, perhaps even eventually to forget there had ever been a Steven Westmoreland. It seemed so wrong that such a thing could take place, but Amie had learned not to doubt her visions of the future.
Amie closed her eyes then, and cried for her friend, the Hero of Freedonia.