Beatrice Prang

A young woman wearing a black lace dress walks into the garden behind Prang.

Her face and skin are completely hidden behind long sleeves, opera gloves, and a thick veil.

"Meet Beatrice! My new apprentice." Prang says.

"I planted the roses on a corpse that no one wanted. And Beatrice came out of the ground one day!

"She doesn't have any memories of the original owner of the corpse.

"I guess she is her own being."

"Hello Violet." Beatrice says. Her voice is high and slightly scratchy, as if shaped by vocal cords of plant material rather than human flesh.

"We don't have to adhere to traditional human conceptions of interpersonal relationships if that makes you uncomfortable.

"Family is, after all, a cultural construct designed to ensure survival for primitive hunter gatherer humans.

"But we are beings of magic. We are beyond such unsophisticated traditions."
"Beatrice is brilliant!" Prang adds. "She is everything I want from a real apprentice! Someone ...not disposable!"

"No ill intention meant." He hastily reassures Beatrice, who has turned her veil to face him.

"You heard her!" Beatrice calls to the guards. "She attacked Prang and now she is trying to flee."

As Violet flees, Beatrice crouches by Prang's side as he lies on the ground unconscious, and takes off one of her gloves - revealing skin of deep navy blue and purple intermixed, with the texture of petals.

"My father has passed away, unfortunately." A veiled woman will answer in response to queries regarding Prang's status. "The Stormlord has confirmed that his property has passed to me, Beatrice Prang."

"I am Edvard Ebersfarb. I'm helping Beatrice settle in and providing her with the security she needs to weather this transition."

Beatrice doesn't have the same ambient magical signature as a human, even a human with spellcasting ability, as some part of her nature disturbs the native Legacy of this Iterum. She also doesn't have the same signature as the creatures of the Forest.

Beatrice's voice and movements are rather stiff and awkward, as if produced by organs not made of flesh.

"The Door preceded my involvement in it, I am afraid." Beatrice replies. "I know only a little about it, that my father was teaching me before his passing. "The creation of the Door is a process my father preferred to keep as a closely held secret, unfortunately. "There are still some parts of it even I do not quite understand."

He then thinks for a moment. "Prang's daughter had an entirely different air about her, compared to you. I could tell she wasn't human, but she had a human name - Beatrice - and her voice was ... not altogether pleasant, unlike yours."

"Perhaps a different kind of creature then." The Younger Daughter says in response to Malephon, after thinking on his description of Beatrice.

Lady Prang is inside the study. She is carefully rearranging the long stems of the one of the plants in the office, seemingly of the variety that inflicted the burning sensation on Silvius earlier. The plant is as pliable as ribbon in Beatrice's gloved hands.

It is much, much larger than it was previously. Its long stems hang down from the shelf on which its pot rests, down to the floor. Vibrant blue flowers cover these stems.

The other plants in the study, both red and blue flowered, appear similarly enlarged, far more than would be expected in such a short time.

"The Ebersfarbs control the Door, because they have Beatrice Prang as their figurehead. It has the right by inheritance, and it has decided to share it with Edvard Ebersfarb." Joachim Posner says.

"If we can conflate the possibility that Prang was murdered by his creations, with the fact that Beatrice Prang was Prang's creation, we can convict it.

"Then, the Ebersfarbs lose their right to hold the Manor, and the Door."

"Feel free to sit." Beatrice suggests.

"Edvard and I wish to offer our financial and arcane support to the Crossroads as a token of goodwill.

"Specifically, we have learned from certain sources that you have exemplars unused - the Garments of Conviction, for some."

"Lady Prang and I wish to offer 80% exemplar cost to liquidate any exemplars you find, should you be in need of cash."

"Am I not the Lady of the House?" The creature called Beatrice replies. "Edvard and I are equals in these dealings."

"Indeed." The illusory Edvard says, smiling gently.

"We have come into possession of some lore that might be of interest in this matter, prospective world-knitters." The Beatrice-creature says.

"A ritual was uncovered that opens a way to a pocket-realm inside the Forest. A region pinched off into isolation from the rest.

"It suggests there is a way to accomplish this with the City of Light you describe, if it is not already inside its own sub-Iterum.

"Some research would be needed, yes. Agents from our side would examine your Stairway.

"Some magical resources might be needed to accomplish the Working of Iterum Division or Iterum Connection.

"Or some of this...unreality-resource that you warned of."

"There is no need for me to reveal any secret." Lady Prang continues. "If I can be personally present, I can perform the part of the bridging that needs a Door opened to the dark Forest."

"A full Lord? I don't think we've encountered one in the Forest before." Illusion Edvard looks astounded.

"This might change everything."
"But its city doesn't understand the Door?" The Beatrice-creature comments. "Most interesting."

"That...makes sense.

"What can we say to make it understand?" She ponders for a moment.

"Tell the Lord that it must be opened from this side. That's what it is missing."
The Beatrice-creature continues to think.

"Tell the Lord it is a true Door of escape. It is a fresh, new Iterum.

"That is what it wishes to know."

"Yes, yes. Very adorable." The Beatrice-creature says in a monotone. "We find the flame-creature to be just the cutest."

Unconcerned with Tek, Lady Prang turns to Nyalephon.

"It was a pleasure talking with someone who is also a true initiate into the secrets of the Forest."

"I shall think of a gift for you all, the next time we meet."

Leuvitte cuts in after the Beatrice-creature's farewell. "And I, you, Madam."

"If you wish to visit my Manor, you only have to call." He affects his deep lizard voice.

"If we are to build a Door below my manor, perhaps we should become better acquainted."