Marietta spent nearly her entire morning, from the moment her maids had dressed her to now, writing letters. She wrote a letter to the royal court, in an official capacity as first princess and Bearer of Prophecy, telling them of her vision the night before. She wrote a second letter to her father, as a daughter to her father, explaining in greater detail and elaborating more on her personal thoughts. She wrote one to her brother James, also written in an official capacity but filled with plenty of coded personal messages as well. She even wrote letters to her less appreciated siblings, though those were simply generic letters copied meticulously to be completely identical.

She hadn’t even eaten yet, not that the princess could ever be caught eating in private, and she was beginning to feel a bit of fatigue from thinking so hard. Marietta’s Bearer of Prophecy title is a special one, or so she’d been told long ago, but what she’s come to realize that actually means is that its utility is questionable at best.

Yes, she can see the future, but she sees it from someone else’s perspective, and she has no way of knowing how far into the future the events occur. In addition, she’s learned time and time again that sharing the knowledge of the future invariably changes the outcome. Once, when she was younger, she saw a vision of a cat getting stuck in a tree, and James breaking his arm trying to get it down on one of his little adventures outside of the castle. She hadn’t told anyone about it, and it had unfolded exactly as she had seen.

But, as she knows now, it isn’t sharing the knowledge that ‘changes’ the future in her vision, it is that other people invariably take actions which alter the course of that history the moment they become aware of its current path. Which has led to a standard method of writing down prophecies being shared among all holders of the title.

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She only writes down the bare minimum of factual knowledge gained from the vision, like who’s eyes she saw from, the scenery, the events occurring and anything said by anyone there. She does not write down who lives or dies, or any details regarding speculations and assumptions. The only information she should ever share is what can be confirmed to be true from the vision itself.

Marietta only shares her full experience with her father and occasionally James, as the only two people she trusts to understand the full range of mental aftereffects the prophecies can have. All of this to say that she is extremely troubled by the knowledge of last night’s vision. An undead caster, capable of killing Violet Nondila, and an elf bodyguard, estimated to be on par with Maximillion Caul? The idea is absurd to her, on a fundamental level. Those two represent some of the pinnacles of mortal strength and achievement, adventurers and heroes whose personal feats are many and whose adventuring parties are the stuff of currently living legend.

She shivers at the thought of anything besting Violet Nondila specifically, as well as the thought that something could cause that paragon of the God of Redemption’s ideals to fall into an Oathbreaker. At the very least, the existence of that possibility in the future is incredibly valuable knowledge, and knowledge Marietta has elected to keep for herself. The knowledge that either the undead caster or the elf is named ‘Sera’ is similarly knowledge she has decided to obscure, on the off chance that whoever they are, they might catch wind of what Marietta saw in her vision.

The princess finally hands the completed letters off to her maid, with instructions on who the couriers are to deliver each to, and she begins walking off towards the gardens to clear her head. Still… even if the events of that vision are true… James could always resolve any threat to the kingdom at the cost of his life… I must not ever allow that to happen. Marietta reiterates her sole true conviction with a passion she knows she can never admit to anyone other than James himself. I will not allow anything or anyone else to have him.