Part 3
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.
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.
"I know. It was a test." Rebecca said, smiling. "To see if you would snap. You gave those guards quite the fright, though."
"Good. What would you have done if I had?" Svetlana asked.
"I would have had you executed and done experiments on your corpse." Rebecca said simply.
Svetlana was a bit shocked by how straightforward yet cruel the Duchess was.
"Such as?" Svetlana ventured to ask.
"I wanted to see if we could stick that horny ghost I'm stuck with inside a dead body." Rebecca said with a grin.
Heather practically leapt to his feet. "You can see her?"
Rebecca shook her head. "Heather, that was distressingly easy, you need to hide secrets better. I saw Svetlana talking to nobody earlier, for quite some time, so I had a theory I wanted to test. The fact you confirmed it immediately is quite worrisome. As you know, naughty Princes get punished." Rebecca turned back to look at Svetlana. "No, I lied. Lichfield used to have quite the rusalki infestation back in the day, so the people still remember the old tales."
"She's lying again right now, you know." Hamlin called out.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not." Rebecca said, flashing her teeth in a wide grin for a moment.