Part 3
The needs a re-write, The Moonfall Prince is smarter than this now
Heather was waiting inside when Svetlana finally made her way indoors from her discussion with Victoria, who didn't follow her immediately. Heather chose to talk to Svetlana in rusalki, at least at first.
"You spoke with the pervert." Heather said, shaking his head. "I wish she would leave."
"You have been most unkind to the dead, Prince." Svetlana replied, also in rusalki, gesturing outside. "Do not judge the dead, for they have already paid the ultimate price."
"Ugh, you're not one of those reformists are you?" Heather said, making a face.
"That ghost will remain for the rest of your life, Prince." Svetlana said firmly. "It's clear you don't like her, perhaps you never did."
"I did." Heather interrupted quite forcefully. "I... we all did." Heather continued, looking down.
"You learned a fact about a treasured comrade you wish you hadn't." Svetlana answered, breaking protocol and placing her hand on his shoulder. "She knows you can see her. Say something to her."
Heather glanced back up, and saw Victoria peaking through the wall, just her head visible, looking at Heather. She was crying, as usual, but Heather looked away again.
"You can't bear to look at her." Svetlana said, this time in Gilnan. "You're reminded of mistakes you made."
"We could have stopped it. We should have." Heather said, still speaking in rusalki, holding back tears. "Rebecca set her on a path of ruin." Heather finished, this time in Gilnan.
"No." Victoria said, floating up to Heather. "She gave me enough rope to hang myself, and I made a wonderful noose."
"Perhaps. Perhaps. Your Majesty, why did you want to see me here?" Svetlana asked, moving the conversation along.
"Victoria." Heather said, still looking away. "I need to talk with you later, alone. Wait for me by the flower garden."
"You did the right thing, your majesty. Come, let us talk."
Heather and Svetlana reconvened in the study, with Victoria going back to stalking the children, mumbling that nobody can see her anyway, between sobs. Soon, Rebecca and Hamlin joined them.
"Welcome, Praetor." Rebecca said as she sat, and the maids brought over tea and cake. "How was your trip?"
"It was fine until I got to Lichfield." Svetlana answered, recalling the issues.
"So I've heard. Rest assured, the populace will be... reeducated." Rebecca said with an unnerving smile.
"Your majesty, I'll get right to the point, why are you here?" Svetlana asked, skipping the rest of the pleasantries.
"Why indeed." Heather said with a smile. "Rebecca was determined to bring me back here as her husband, and to father her children."
"Does she know?" Svetlana asked Heather, this time in rusalki.
"Do I know what?" Rebecca asked, leaning forward. "Oh don't look so shocked of course I know a few words."
"What the result of a rusalka and human mating is." Svetlana said, continuing after gathering her wits. Seeing a look of confusion on Rebecca's face, Svetlana continued. "The boys, they will be normal enough, for humans. Slightly smaller, perhaps. But the girls, every single girl you give birth to will be a rusalka."
"Oh that." Rebecca said, waving dismissively. "That's why your Prince wanted you here, actually, in case my first pregnancy is a girl." Rebecca gestured at her stomach. "I'm already at least a couple months along."
"Did you really think I'd keep something like that from my own wife, Svetlana?" Heather asked, a look of confusion on his face.
"There is... one other matter." Svetlana said. "Something the Prince couldn't have known."
"Oh?"
"The biology of the rusalki... is parasitic." Svetlana began to explain. "Over time, as you two do what comes naturally, besides children, other changes will happen to you, Duchess."
"I don't like the word parasitic." Rebecca said, narrowing her eyes. "Hamlin!"
"Already writing it down, Rebecca."
"It will start at the womb, but you won't notice until you birth a male rusalka. By then, it will be far too late to do anything about it, and delaying will only make it worse." Svetlana continued. She paused to look at Rebecca directly in the eyes.
"I spent 118 years as a vampire, Svetlana."
"Fine. The best thing to do at that point will be to consume the Prince's... fluids, if you will, via the normal methods. It will make your eventual conversion into a rusalka far less painful, physically. Emotional pain is what I want to warn you about."
"Emotional?" Heather and Rebecca asked at the same time.
"There is a geis carved into the soul of all rusalka born this way. You will be compelled to hunt down and eat your eldest human child. Nothing short of death will be able to stop this. Tell me, is this a risk you are willing to take?"
"You are... remarkably well informed." Rebecca said, eyeing Svetlana suspiciously.
"100 years ago I witnessed an elven woman complete her transformation into a rusalka. I was assigned to bring her to our homeland afterwards, as she ventured deep into the frozen north. I watched her calmly drown her grown daughter in a bathtub in the dead of night, then feast on her right there. It broke her, and she is one of the many rusalki who refuse to speak, not out of fear, but out of shame."
"Heather." Rebecca said calmly.
"Yes?" He asked.
"How long is the lifespan of a rusalka?"
"200 on average, why?"
"So if I'm in my 30s now, technically speaking I could live another 150 years?"
Svetlana was taken aback. The mention of killing her oldest child didn't even phase Rebecca in the slightest. "You care not for your children's lives?"
"Oh don't get me wrong, Svetlana. I will calmly execute anybody who dares harm my children. But to give up a single child in order to live another 150 years?"
"Only male rusalki can eat regular food." Svetlana said as a last resort, realizing she was getting nowhere with Rebecca.
"What?"
"Female rusalki, even those transformed and not by birth, can only eat sapient life."
Rebecca got a look of disgust on her face. "This reminds me far too much of being a vampire. Heather."
"Yes?" Heather asked.
"When I fully transform into a rusalka, and I feel compelled to kill my eldest child, kill me on the spot."
"Pragmatic as usual." Heather replied.
"I have to be." Rebecca looked back over at Svetlana. "Why did you tell me?"
"Because I know the land dwellers find the idea of eating sapient flesh uncomfortable." Svetlana answered. "To me, you are simply food, that I can talk to."
"A very pragmatic worldview, I’m beginning to like you. When was the last time you ate?" Rebecca asked.
"4 days ago." She answered.
"This won’t do at all. There’s a spy you can share with my vampire, later on."
Svetlana was slightly taken aback at how casually Rebecca mentioned it. "You don’t mind?"
"If it wasn’t for Serge I’d be digging a lot more graves. As is, my plants are well fed with the bones." Rebecca said with a wicked laugh.