Fraser gives Bea trauma/Varia goes from conquest to enemy

“May we meet again, my fair lady.” Eris smirks. Better to leave a lasting impression after all – seduction is a marathon.
But Varia’s eyes narrow and for the first time, she focuses her attention on Eris.
It’s not like this is uncommon – most people politely skirt past Tieflings. It’s the best you can hope for – much better, say, than being attacked or run out of a city. But this is no tolerance finally snapping, this is more focused.
“Where are you from?” The princess says. And everything in Eris plummets.
“Oh, ah that city that we was just travelling from.” She says. She had hoped she would take her grandiose farewell in a charming if not endearing way. But it seems she gave too much away.
She can tell the moment the words leave her mouth that the princess doesn’t believe her, she is already calling to her guard – a huge dragon born and Eris can’t run, can only struggle, which she does a fine job of but it’s not enough and the guard she was flirting with only earlier has her pinned.
Panic sets in now, panic at being caught as it always does and now the interrogation but- and it seems an interrogation won’t be needed.
“I’m not adverse to this but I need a safe word.” She tries.
Eris was wrong, when she thought everything within her had fallen.
“I was at your wedding.” The princess snarls, too close to her face.
Because there is so much more waiting to drop and now she feels like she is falling too.
And she knows also, that in that split second before the swagger returns, the princess saw the truth cross her face.
A zone of truth washes over her and Eris can feel it, of course she can, how many times has she been under one of these? She can feel its minty ting on her skin. And she resists.
Varia snarls in frustration and steps forward. Eris never finds out what for as her companions rush over shouting for her to stop.
“What are you doing with my friend?” Raiann demands.
Idiot, I’m not your friend.
Meriele is, of course, chatting some absolute shit like that will save her. If she even is trying to save her.
What is she talking about? Of course Meriele will save her – Eris is the only hope they have. The only one of them that can fight worth a damn (or rather, Meriele could if she could stop hesitating before each blow, stop blessing her sword to be swift and fucking stab it).
And now the princess is explaining everything – everything – to these people. Eris can’t hear all that she says but she captures things like ‘Tiefling’ and ‘wedding’, hears ‘Princess of Elith’ and, most shockingly, ‘death of the king’.
For one moment she panics, starts kicking again because no, her father can’t be dead. She thought she would see him once more, thought he would hold her close, thought she would kill him herself, thought she’d swagger through those doors in a carriage made of gold and he’d see all that she could be without him – see that he was wrong.
She has so many thoughts about her father and none of them involve a funeral that she is not there for – a funeral she does not even know about.
And then the princess glares at her again. Glare is the wrong word, it’s too powerful, like she would kill Eris herself if there weren’t so many witnesses or vows made on certain gods.
And Eris knows it’s not her own father that’s dead. But what does Eris have to do with the death of Princess Varia’s father – the king of this land?
“I didn’t marry anyone!” Eris screams, hoping that the truth of it will be recognised through the spell but evidently it has dissipated with her resistance.
The group are discussing something – probably her but it’s not going to help, is it? They would spend two hours debating how to even spell ‘plan’.
So she takes the opportunity to whisper sweet nothings at the guard who holds her and she feels the charmed laugh vibrate through his armour but she’s getting nowhere. The guard couldn’t want her more, of that she’s sure -but his loyalty will always win out.
“What are our options?” Meriele asks.
“There are no options.” The princess snarls. “I cast zone of truth and she’s resisting so I’ll take her to the nearest city and put her on trial.”
“On trial for what?”
“For high treason.”
Oh shit. Well, first of all, taking her to the nearest city will pull up a record as long as her arm and quite a bit besides but that’s the least of it. Her secret will be out. The life she has built will be destroyed. And that’s in a best-case world where she’s not beheaded for high treason.
She would laugh if she weren’t so close to hyperventilating.
She’s the princess of fucking Elith and she’s going to die in a harbour town for, of all things, high treason.
“Why are you resisting the zone of truth spell?” Meriele asks. Because of course she would. The frigid bitch probably can’t imagine why someone would lie.
“Why shouldn’t I?” She demands. “I’m being arrested without evidence for what? Because I look like some Tiefling princess? Do I look like a bloody princess? So what, all Tieflings look the same? Fucking racist-”
Meriele cuts her off before she can make things worse by calling the princess something that probably would be classed as high treason. “So why not say that under a truth zone spell?”
Yoxi argues for her. “Because she shouldn’t have to. There’s no evidence here.”
“I’ll have evidence for the trial.” The princess says. “For now it is more than enough that I, a member of the royal household, recognise her.”
“And her connection to your father’s death?” The gnome argues.
“It’s tenuous at best.” Meriele adds.
“That’s all I need.” The princess says.
And then the group are arguing and when they start suggesting they talk to Eris in private…so what? So that she can tell them everything? Do they not understand that’s part of what’s got her heart racing?
They can’t save her. She thinks maybe she should go to trial – that chained in a caravan she might be able to pick a lock and escape or else charm her way out. But what if she can’t? No matter how good she gets at such things there are always times when she fails.
“I’ll talk under the zone of truth.” Eris yells over them and they all glare at her. If she had just done that earlier they wouldn’t be stuck in all this. “But in private.” She meets Varia’s gaze. “Just to you.”
And god, just ten minutes ago hadn’t she been desperate to be in private with the princess?
The team look at each other because surely the only thing Eris could be avoiding is confessing to other things – she’s a thief after all. But why would they hide that from them and not the princess?
The guard holds strong even in the tent and the princess wastes no time before she’s casting that spell again.
Eris chafes under its feel but doesn’t resist.
She wants to kill this woman. Wants to rip her head from her shoulders with her bare hands.
The spell forces the words out.
“I hate you.” Eris spits.
The princess is obviously distressed and Eris is poised for anything. She’s been beaten under arrest before by guards who thought they could get away with it – and they did. If this woman thinks she’s the reason her father is dead then she can’t see why she wouldn’t.
She should at least be calling her horrible things.
But she just turns to her with poise and gentility no amount of lessons had ever given Eris. And she’d had many.
“Are you the Lost Princess of Elith?”
The urge not to answer is there, while at the same time the spell feels like it is choking her.
“Yes.” She hisses and her anger dissipates. She wants to cry, to sob, to fully breakdown but not in front of her. All she does is slump in her captor’s arms.
Seven years.
Seven years she’s kept that secret. Seven years of doing anything to hide it. And now this woman is forcing it from her lips. Not only that but telling her companions.
It should be her. Seven years and she’s never once trusted someone enough to tell them. And now she won’t have the chance to. They already know. At the very best, they now suspect. She should decide who knows and when. And she can’t even run from them now – she gave up everything to join them on this quest. She could leave, start over in a new city. She’s started with less – fewer skills and less coin. But she wants so much more, deserves this treasure all the more for this.
The princess’s smile gleams. She thinks she’s done it. Thinks she’s got her.
Eris can’t exactly argue that she hasn’t.
“What do you know of my father’s death?”
“That he died.” It’s easier now, the spell pulling it from her. She’s a puppet and the words come from her mouth but she’s in her own internal world.
“What was your role in killing him?” The princess demands because it’s possible to give half-truths.
The spell struggles because there’s no answer here. “I didn’t have one that I’m aware of.”
The princess stamps her foot – actually stamps her foot and okay, she’s a priestess now but clearly the princess still lingers.
“Were you part of a plot to kill my father?”
“No.”
“Your wedding is a proven factor in this. You married-”
“I didn’t marry anyone.”
“You were about to marry a man who-” She cuts herself off this time. “What did you think was going to happen that day?”
“That I’d get married and live happily ever after.”
The princess just stares at her, trying to work out how she could be lying even under the spell.
“You’re a Tiefling.” She says, because this is all she can say. She couldn’t possibly have believed she would live happily ever after.
“I’d commend your skills of observation but the truth spell won’t let me.” Eris says.
The princess almost smiles.
“I was naïve.” Eris says, of her own volition. “I’m not anymore.”
“Do you – or did you – have any ill intent towards my family?”
“I have some now.” That spell again, forcing it from her lips and the guard’s grip tightens. “But no, I never cared about your family at all. And frankly if I’d killed your father I wouldn’t hide out in his own lands.”
The princess nods but looks deflated, so disappointed to have not got her after all.
There are more questions, all variations and all with the same answer – that no, she had no involvement in a plot against the king and yes, she really was that foolish. With each one Varia grows closer to tears.
“What happened after the wedding?”
The spell strangles her but this time she fights. She has already given her so much, she won’t give her more.
The spell shatters and the princess grits her teeth in fury.
“You may cast it again if you have further questions about your father, your highness. But I won’t sate your curiosity about the Lost Princess and what became of her.” She twists the last words, snarls them.
The princess considers. “I believe you.”
“You’d better after a truth spell.” Eris glances at the man holding her. “Think you could get this guy to let me down now?”
The princess nods and he drops her.
“No hard feelings.” She winks at him and she didn’t know dragon borns could blush.
“Tell my friends you were wrong.” Eris says, that old royal command spilling through.
Varia’s eyes narrow. “I shan’t lie, it’s against my vows.”
“Then tell them I’m not who you were looking for.” Eris says, before throwing on with more anger but nowhere near as much as she feels. “It’s the least you can do.”
But when they emerge all she says is ‘I don’t believe she had anything to do with my father’s death’ which isn’t what Eris is looking for.
When Meriele asks whether she’s in danger from anyone else, it’s obvious they all think she’s the Lost Princess.
The only consolation is that when the princess says, “She’s survived this long.” There’s a hint of admiration to it.
Then she gives her a potion like that makes this all better and she says she will try to be in the capital when they arrive.
And fuck, the capital. Eris hadn’t even thought but Varia can’t be the only one who thinks the Lost Princess had something to do with the death of the king. She even refuses them a royal seal, saying that if they’re captured again it will only harm them.
Well this settles it, she needs to learn magic. She had been considering it anyway, thinking about the ways it could help her target higher, steal from richer. But she can’t enter the capital undisguised.
As they leave the others turn to Eris, obviously waiting for their own explanations.
They’re not getting one. Isn’t it bad enough they know, or think they know? They need it from her?
So Eris rolls her eyes even though she doesn’t think she’ll persuade them. “What a racist bitch.” She says, taking a drag from her flask. She still feels like she’s falling and doesn’t think she’ll be putting the flask away any time soon. “Idiot. You know how women are.”
And the others are so startled they just look forwards – towards whatever danger is waiting for them.