"I don't like this, Linda."

Linda Cogswell finds that she has to agree with her prince in principle, although she has the feeling that there's a different 'this' that the two of them would have in mind when making such a comment. The raven-haired prince's handsome face has been increasingly marked the past few days by a haunted look, an impression that his eyes aren't quite seeing the world in front of him. At first, in the hours after the disastrous fight with Valkyrie Brightsky, the man had been the epitome of commanding. Plans had been drawn up, orders were given, preparations made. Whatever training young Thaddeus had received in the subject of leadership as a young man seemed to serve him well in a crisis.

Unfortunately as the 'crisis' had drawn out into days and now almost a week, it seemed as if his nerves had begun to fray. He was constantly having Tizzy go out to keep an eye out for spies, and he'd ransacked Pulg's belongings to try and find out if Yulia had left any clue as to possible sabotage actions she may have performed. He'd stopped going to the Association to train, worried that they were working with the dungeon, but that meant the man was hardly leaving the Lucky Bastard these days at all. As for the dungeon itself, he refused to return there until all the pieces were in place for one final great assault towards the core chamber, but those pieces were moving so much more slowly than they had hoped.

First it had been the loss of Fletcher, Jason, and Ruckus. There was a real concern after that that the dungeon might be attempting to kill all of them on sight, pulling out every dirty trick it could imagine, and it'd taken an actual speech from Thaddeus to keep the other teams from refusing to continue delving. Then there had been that spate of minor injuries - almost a relief, really, since it implied that the dungeon wasn't necessarily trying to kill them. It had slowed down the schedule however, and while some of the warriors enjoyed the break it had only given the prince more time to second-guess himself.

And now there's yesterday's business with the confessions. Linda has to admit, the whole setup sounds extremely suspicious. Honestly, the dungeon's strategy seems impossible for her to figure out - first death, then injuries, and now...what? Personal questions? If there's a theme there she can't claim to see it. But as much as it simply annoys her, it's clearly eating Prince Thaddeus alive, and that is a problem she can handle. Or at least, so she hopes.

"Let's...not get lost in circles again trying to divine Xenia's purpose, shall we, my lord? We spent hours on it talking last night. Perhaps we should focus on more pragmatic issues? For example, does this change the overall plan?"

The man throws a hand into the air. "Well how am I to plan my next move if I don't know my opponent's strategy!? There must be something she hoped to gain with that confession booth scheme yesterday, something important. Are we certain that Yulia could not have possessed one of them while they were isolated?"

The blonde mage sighs, although not loudly enough to be noticed. "Tizzy and I discussed this last night, my lord. From what we know of Yulia's school of magic, her possessions are inherently fatal to the possessed. The original soul is evicted to make room for her own. We've discretely checked that with Challenger sources, and that would count as a death for the dungeon, and that means it would have violated the safe floor rules. When something like that happens apparently it's obvious to all mortals in the dungeon, to alert them that their safety is at risk. No such warning was felt by anyone present, on our team or otherwise."

"Fine. Fine!" The prince shouts briefly before walking over and collapsing into a chair. "To answer your question then...no. To wildly alter our plans every time the dungeon does something we can't explain would guarantee chaos for us, and ever-slimmer chances of success. If we can't determine Xenia's strategy today, then the teams will resume delving tomorrow. We're very close, soon everyone will have cleared up to the start of Floor Eight."

"And mimics and oversized bugs won't be the slightest threat to a team our size, will they, Thaddeus?" Linda gives her prince her warmest smile but the effort is wasted, again it's as if the man is looking at the opposite wall and seeing the dungeon, not her.

"No, no...but there will be more than that. More tricks, more surprises. Count on that, Linda."

"...I'll be prepared, of course. I won't be taken by surprise again, you can be sure. For now though...I think I need to stretch my legs. Would you join me on a walk of the town, prince?"

Thaddeus simply shakes his head and waves her off. "No, thank you. I need to...to think a little more. But enjoy yourself, please."

"...Until later then, my lord." With a slight bow of her head Linda turns and leaves the room, but as the door closes behind her she pauses - and rather than turn left towards the stairs, she turns right. She needs help - the whole party needs help, really. For a battle like the one ahead they need a leader with his head on straight, and a Prince Thaddeus like the one they have now is likely to get them all killed. There's precious few she can turn to, though. Most of their remaining party members aren't actually that close to the prince, and even if they were, they don't have the sharp minds needed to handle a situation like this. So instead of going out, Linda makes her way to Tizzy's room.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Before she knocks on the scout's door however she stops, getting the feeling that something is wrong. A quick check with her mana senses - essentially pulsing a small wave of mana into the hallway and feeling where it meets resistance - quickly tells her why. Tizzy's door has been reinforced by magic. The realization mostly serves to confuse the mage though, as it's difficult for her determine why that would be the case. As a 'Force Mage' barriers are one of her specialties, but that only allows her to quickly determine that the magic on the door isn't of the sort to make it stronger. Given Tizzy's skills, that would most likely mean it's some sort of illusion spell instead, but why would the woman need to cast such a spell on her door?

It seems unlikely that it's there for a long-term purpose, as that role is served by runes and enchantments. Ongoing spells require an ongoing upkeep of mana, and even with their mana conversion artifacts their reserves are still a limited thing in this realm. That implies that the scout is doing something right this moment that she feels the need to protect, contain, or conceal from other inn residents. Could...could Tizzy also be possessed by the dungeon? She hadn't gone there alone in quite a while, but perhaps Yulia had lept from Pulg's corpse to her while Thaddeus was distracted and she was nearly unconscious? Pulling her wand from her robes, Linda makes a quick decision.

She has to take Tizzy by surprise and be prepared to halt whatever the scout is doing behind closed doors.

Linda's detail-level spellwork with tiny forcefields isn't her best skill, but fortunately the locks the inn uses aren't the most complex. After just under a minute of working at the handle with her wand the lock releases, and just in case the action alerts Tizzy to her doings Linda immediately throws the door open and steps inside.

As she does so, the spells blocking the sounds from leaving the room cease to have any effect on her, and Linda immediately regrets everything. "Tizzy!?"

Tizzy doesn't respond right away. Certainly not because she doesn't see her new guest arrive - indeed, her widened eyes lock on to Linda's nearly immediately. However, the improvised gag made from a pillowcase prevents her from saying hello...and the man kneeling behind her on the bed, thrusting away, appears to be holding on to her arms and preventing her from removing said gag. Linda quickly averts her eyes, realizing she must have interrupted a rendezvous with a local - but they snap back on their own when her brain catches up and recognizes the face of the man on that bed. "...My lord!?"

"Ah, Linda, close the door, would you? I believe Tizzy here's almost finished her latest round of punishment."

Moving almost automatically, Linda immediately turns and does so before it occurs to her that she literally just saw the prince a minute earlier, and he couldn't possibly be the man in front of her now. She's about to pose a question to this effect as she turns back, but as she does she recognizes the tremors running through the half-imp at that particular moment, and the mage finds herself too busy blushing to find her words. As soon as Tizzy recovers herself though she snaps her fingers, and Linda gets at least some answers as Prince Thaddeus suddenly fades away.

"...By all the dark gods, Tizzy! What have you been doing in here!?"

This time it doesn't take long for the scout to remove her gag, and her first response is a plea. "Don't tell him! Shit, shit, don't tell anybody! You weren't supposed to see that!"

As the woman - still wearing her usual goblin illusion - quickly pulls up the bedsheets around her in order to hide her unclothed state Linda feels like she ought to turn away again. Instead, worried about what the scout might pull if she looks away for even a moment, she settles for simply relaxing the hold she still has on her wand. "What - what was it I just saw, Tizzy? Was that an illusion of Prince Thaddeus? But it talked! It sounded just like him!" As she says that she blinks, and realizes something more. "...Wait. It was holding on to you, wasn't he - it? That wasn't just a visual illusion, was it?"

"I...really?" Tizzy's expression grows confused. "That's the part that gets your attention? I mean...could be worse..."

"I mean, one thing at a time! You can make your illusions solid!? Since when?"

Tizzy pauses, and Linda can tell she's considering whether or not to answer at all. After a moment though she sighs, and begins to explain. "Well, at really small levels, for a couple years, I guess? I was first able to do a person maybe half a year ago, and I've been, uh...improving the fine details since then."

"...The fine details, eh?"

The scout shrinks into her sheets. Considering her size relative to the bed, that's not particularly hard for her to do, and soon only her head is visible above a clump of fabric. "Do you really want me to explain?"

Linda rubs the bridge of her nose. "...No, not really. But...wow. Prince Thaddeus? You...you know? I mean, I'm not criticizing your tastes, but..."

"Well, we can't all spend all our time around him like you do, now can we?"

The undercurrent in Tizzy's tone brings Linda up short. "Like me? ...Tizzy, the prince and I are not entangled! We've never even kissed, let alone..." Linda gestures at the bed. "...Done whatever you'd call that!"

"...Wow. Really?"

"Really! That - " The mage stops herself, and shifts her focus. "That's...not really the important thing right now. Tizzy, you can make realistic, solid illusions of people? Just the prince, or of anyone?"

"Um...could be anyone, but I'd need to have a clear picture of them in my head, if I want them to hold up to more than a few seconds of looking. Why?"

"I think...I may be able to use this."

"...Uh, you want a turn with the prince too?"

The blonde mage quickly shakes her head, although it doesn't hide her blush. "What, no!"

"..."

"...We can come back to that later."