When the maids had finished their work, Joseph found himself once again looking at himself in the mirror in disbelief. He felt like he was losing himself in the role of Mariana, to the point where he wondered if he could ever go back to being who he was. He touched his chest. He recalled the blood rituals Mariana and Iliana would subject him to. They said it was to make him stronger. The longer he played the part of Mariana, the more he felt something unnatural stirring within him. Was it only his imagination or was it something more?

He took a breath to steel his nerves before standing up, holding Iliana's hand as he told her, "Shall we be going? We mustn't keep our guests waiting."

Near the exit to the boudoir, maids were waiting with Mariana and Iliana's parasols. With Mr. Geoffries having gone missing along with Mariana, Joseph's own valet Mr. Cantreau took on the role and was waiting immediately outside the boudoir to escort them. As Count-Regent, Joseph's father was joining the other lords in the entourage of Prince Philippe as they received the envoy from the enigmatic Visitors. Joseph would have rather not be seen in such a public venue in the guise of his missing cousin, but Mariana and Iliana were well known for clinging to the Count-Regent's shadow and so he felt he had little choice but to maintain the ruse.

The Place Saint-Étienne was a large square in front of the Prince's residence of the Château de Champlain and the heart of public life in Montreuil. Opposite to it was the Église des Sept Vertus, effectively hemming in anyone who entered the square between secular and sacred authority. Idly, Joseph thought about the Church's prohibition on crossdressing. In days past, when the Church's influence was stronger and its precepts more strictly enforced, he would have counted himself lucky to spend days barefoot and clad in sackcloth in penance to avoid excommunication. Of course, the Church did not look fondly on witchcraft either, so he would likely be condemned along with his cousins on that note as well.

As Joseph's father came into view, he refocused himself on the here and now. He and Iliana stopped a few paces from the Count-Regent and curtseyed. It took no small amount of practice for Joseph to learn how to curtsey well without losing his balance, especially in the sort of voluminous dresses Mariana and Iliana wore. Joseph's father only gave a curt nod of acknowledgement. Joseph had not confided in his father what he was doing or why he was doing it, and, honestly, he could not tell if his father was just doing his part to keep up the charade or if he was so thoroughly under his nieces' spell that he could not see Joseph as anything but Mariana. If it was the latter, he could only pray that spell did not need to be actively maintained as he had no magical ability of his own to make that happen.

Joseph and Iliana fell in behind his father as they waited for the rest of the Prince's entourage to assemble and then the Prince himself to make an appearance. Prince Philippe was not even thirty, so he was younger than most of people there besides Joseph and Iliana. The Prince was usually on the more extreme end of the dandy fashion that was popular among men of breeding, typically wearing more makeup than the crossdressing Joseph, but for today's event, his minders had him dressed and made up more conservatively than Joseph had ever seen him. He would probably still be seen as rather gaudy to some outside observers, but by his own standard, he may as well have been a ragged mendicant begging for alms at the roadside.

The Prince turned to his entourage and spoke in a somewhat lilting voice, "Gentlemen, ladies, I shall take the lead. Please refrain from speaking unless spoken to and keep your answers short and well-measured."

From what Joseph understood, it was unusual for the Prince to take the lead like this. Normally he would defer to his councillors for official business, but this was an unusual situation. Perhaps he wanted to assert his authority in front of their guests. Perhaps his councillors were just wanting to let him be the one to stick his neck out.

On any other day, the Place would be bustling with a sizable portion of the city's residents and quite a few guests from near and far milling about, but today it was empty. There were surely quite a few people mostly keeping out of sight in the arcades that enclosed the square, but no one stepped beyond those bounds. Surely the Prince's Guard was ensuring that no curious citizens wander out where they were not welcome.

The general quiet about the square would have been unnerving if it had continued for long, but it was soon the appointed time and something like a giant black bird appeared in the sky and slowly descended to touch down in the middle of the square. Three legs extended from its belly with feet that looked something like snow skis. Surely the bird had to have a massive weight to it, yet it came to rest on the pavestones as light as a feather.

With a loud hiss, a door opened at the bird's neck and a plank extended from the portal and touched down on the ground. The plank then changed its shape to a staircase with a click, and then the first of the Visitors appeared. Survivors of the attack on the Ladrieu Barracks had spoken of black shadows that swept in and mercilessly cut down any who stood in their way. However, this was an ordinary man, olive-skinned with a pencil moustache, dressed in an elaborate military uniform. He could have easily been mistaken for the military attaché accompanying a visiting diplomat from any of the neighboring nations. A few other officers of lesser rank followed, then a good dozen tall, thickly-built men who must have been bodyguards, and lastly three young women in far simpler, unadorned uniforms.

Were Joseph in Prince Philippe's place, he would not have known how to respond, but it would seem that the Prince either knew what to expect or he was simply undeterred by what he saw. He stepped forward ahead of his entourage and performed what was known as 'the ballroom courtesy'. You crossed your legs and bent your knees much as a lady's curtsey, yet the right hand was held over the heart while the left arm was held out at a 45-degree angle. As the name implied, it was used in the ballroom setting primarily, a gesture of respect without asserting either dominance or submission. The Visitor would not likely understand the meaning, but the Prince's entourage would. It was a savvy move, a testament either to his own cleverness or that of whoever put him up to it.

The Visitor rendered a military salute and then touched his throat before speaking. When he spoke, the words were in Venturi, but his mouth did not move along with his words.

Joseph was no stranger to potentates with ostentatious titles, but he did not think he had ever heard such lofty claims before. The Father of All Humanity? The Lord of Ten Thousand Worlds? It was challenge enough to hold onto a mere slice of even one world.

That there might be a world beyond their own was not so unimaginable, but for there to be ten thousand, all under the rule of a single emperor... A title like 'the Father of All Humanity' did not seem like such an exaggeration. What could the servants of such a master want with them, they who were by no means the greatest among the Twelve Kingdoms? What else could it be but to demand submission, and what else could they do but bend the knee and pray for mercy?

General Sultana then asked Prince Philippe, "Which one of you is Giger Taus?"

One of the young women in the plain uniform stepped forward and said something behind the General's back that Joseph was not able to catch. The General then turned his head and out from the arcade stepped a green-haired man dressed in a gaudy cloak and robes. He could only be a wizard, but Joseph had never seen one walk out in the open so brazenly.

The Prince's entourage began muttering among themselves while the Prince looked at the wizard and demanded,"Who are you? Guards, what are you doing letting this man pass!?"

The wizard held up his hands as he continued to approach, saying, "You probably want to let him hear what I have to say."

One of the Prince's ministers took offense and shouted, "Hold your tongue, you dog! You are speaking to His Serene Highness Prince Philippe!"

The minister sputtered but could not string together any appreciably coherent rebuttal. Joseph had heard that wizards used to have a rather puffed-up opinion of themselves, but he could not imagine one speaking so to one of the Prince's ministers. However, if this wizard had an appreciation for the larger scale of things beyond the bounds of Bonaventure, he may have been right to regard the Prince and his ministers as little more than ants in the road.

Ignoring the exchange between wizard and minister, General Sultana asked the wizard, "You are the one with knowledge of the Aberration?"

The wizard stretched out his arms and said, "This world. I'd very much like for it to not end up like that patch outside Vigau."

The wizard narrowed his eyes and asked, "What about the woman you sent out to talk to him?"

Taus nodded to one of the women in the plain uniform and said, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to give me back my housekeeper?"

The General glanced at the woman and then looked back to Taus and told him, "Rekrut Takahashi is an Imperial citizen and now a soldier in His Imperial Majesty's Army." He paused. "If you were to swear fealty to His Imperial Majesty and prove yourself worthy of a commission, she could be assigned to you as your orderly."

Taus grinned and asked the woman, "How does that sound, Gally?"

One of the other women, a girl whose cap could not fully conceal her conspicuously pink hair, spoke up in annoyance.

Much as the minister had been left sputtering by the wizard Taus' sharp tongue, the pink-haired girl had the same effect on Taus and the woman.

Before this could continue any longer, an irate General Sultana interrupted, saying, "Might we return to the topic at hand, if you please?"

Taus adjusted his glasses as he regained his composure and replied, "I would like nothing more... Herr General? That's how you like to be called, isn't it?"

The General's eyes strayed to the pink-haired girl, but Joseph did not know if there was some kind of connection or not. He would have continued to wonder at the many mysteries of this conversation playing out before him, but then he felt Iliana's hand gripping his sleeve.

It was unusual for to speak up for herself and not simply echo what he sister had said, but even more unusual was the intensity with which she glared at the wizard Taus. However, the name she said was not the one Joseph had heard used to now, prompting a terrible mistake on Joseph's part. He was not sufficiently on his guard, so when he heard the unfamiliar name, the natural response escaped from his lips.

It was in that moment that the spell was broken. Iliana looked at him in wide-eyed confusion.

She took a step back.

Joseph reached out to her, only for to slap his hand aside, shouting, "Get away from me!"

The outburst drew the attention of everyone around them. Iliana drew a small knife she had hidden somewhere in the frills of her dress and at first, Joseph thought that she might stab him with it, but instead she slashed open the meat of the palm of her hand. She then smeared the blood down the shaft of her parasol. Marks that had already been etched in the shaft began to glow as Iliana then held the parasol at ready like a lance before darting around the cluster of the Prince's entourage and charged screaming toward the wizard Taus.

Joseph did not imagine he could catch up to Iliana even if he were not hampered by his voluminous dress and shoes that were not designed for anything more than the most delicate ladylike steps, but he felt compelled to try to stop her all the same. No one in the Prince's entourage seemed to have any idea what to do. The General's guards moved to protect him while training what must have been some kind of wrist-mounted weapon at Iliana. Before the guards could open fire, the third woman in the plain uniform, the one who had not said or done anything until now, ran with unnatural speed to intercept Iliana, knocking away her parasol just as it bust into flames.

Iliana's hand stretched out toward the parasol, but when it was clear that it was out of her reach, her anger turned on the woman who stopped her. Like a wild animal, she tried swiping at the woman with her nails, but the woman caught her by the wrist. It was then that Iliana's fury turned to shock.

The woman touched Iliana's forehead with her free hand, causing her to faint straight away. She caught Iliana as she swooned and set her down gently on the ground. She then straightened herself up and turned to Joseph. Before he had not gotten a good look at her face, but now he saw her. He would not have recognized her with her hair cut short, but there was no mistaking those odd eyes mirroring Iliana's own.

Mariana smiled at him and said, "Hello, Jojo. I see you've been taking care of Iliana in my absence. Thank you for that. I wouldn't have imagined you would look better in my dress than me."

Joseph was at a loss for what to say, but before he could think of anything, General Sultana shouted, "Rekrut Ladrieu, what is the meaning of this!?"

Mariana stood at attention like a proper soldier and replied like one too, saying, "The recruit apologizes for acting without direct orders, Herr General. The recruit wanted to neutralize the hostile nonlethally. The hostile is the recruit's sister."

She said the words with such cold professionalism that it took a moment for it to sink in. The wizard Taus was the one who killed Aunt Ariana. From what he had heard of her death, it was not the work of anything human. If this Taus were truly the one responsible...

Taus looked angry as he replied in turn, "The recruit's mother is responsible of plenty of deaths herself. And she wouldn't be dead if she hadn't tried to kill me first."

Mariana twitched but continued to stand at attention. While she would not likely have been thrown into a frenzy like Iliana, surely she would not have stood still around the man she blamed for her mother's death. Something had happened to her since the Visitors took her. Joseph could not help but think of her as a dog on a chain. This image was reinforced when the General spoke again.

Mariana glanced back at Iliana before returning to the ranks of the Visitors while two of the General's guards went over to bind Iliana and carry her off. Joseph wanted to object, but what could he do?

As he was left standing there removed from the Prince's entourage, and being involved in the current excitement, Joseph drew attention he would have much rather avoided, especially given the state he was in.

As if he had not been found impersonating his cousin, Joseph rendered the ballroom courtesy as the Prince had done and said, "Joseph de Ladrieu, at your service, Herr General."

He made a point to use the same form of address the wizard Taus and Mariana had done, which was apparently the custom among the Visitors. For his part, General Sultana did not seem to know what to make of Joseph, not that Joseph could blame him. The wizard Taus also seemed put off by what he saw, but given how he dressed, Joseph did not think the wizard had much place to look critically at him.

Taus was perhaps about to say something when his eyes bulged and he clutched at his chest.

Taus was still holding his chest, his breathing labored, as he said, "We've got company."

A faint sound of clapping could be heard and all eyes turned to opposite side of the square from which Taus first appeared. A young black-haired girl stepped forward. Though she could not have even been ten years old, the General's guards pointed their weapons at her as she approached.

The girl stopped.

The girl's body began to grow, taking the shape of a grown woman. She was rather tall and striking. The loose rags the girl was clothed in fit much more snugly now. Her body then began to shift again, this time taking the form of a man no less striking than the woman he was a moment earlier.

He paused for a moment. His jaw tightened. It seemed as if he was gathering his nerve before he tapped his collar and said, "Homo Ferus, this is Onager One. The Aberration is here. I repeat, the Aberration is here. Request an immediate purge. Over."

A moment passed with apparently no response, prompting the General to say, "Homo Ferus, do you copy?"

The black-haired man smiled cruelly and said, "Your fleet is not going to be much help. You should have taken my offer."