was providential: if I was to help topple the Bane, it would not be from some hidey-hole in the slums of London.
“So I came back. I’d bought this house shortly before I was assigned to Eton College. I return twice a year to appear normal—our superiors are suspicious of anyone who seems to be cutting ties with Atlantis. I pay to keep the house and the garden in good shape, host dinners for my neighbors, and tell them how much I look forward to moving back when I’m retired.
“And I submitted cheerfully to the interrogations—under truth serum, of course. But what my interrogators didn’t know was that I’d taken an anti-truth serum before I left my house.”
“What?” exclaimed Titus. “An anti-truth serum exists?”
She sighed and nodded. “It was one of the things that haunted Icarus Khalkedon.”
Icarus Khalkedon, while he yet lived, had been the Bane’s personal oracle, providing answers to the Bane’s most pressing questions.
“I told you that the Bane often asked about those who presented future threats to his rule. One of the answers Icarus gave was the name Ligea Eos. Mrs. Eos was troubled by the Bane’s practice of interviewing his senior staff under truth serum on a regular basis—her husband being one of those senior staff. The moment her husband began questioning the regime, she knew he was doomed, unless she could do something.
“And that something was the invention of an anti-truth serum, which prevented the truth serum from taking effect—and gave safety to those who didn’t entirely agree with the Bane. Or would have given safety, if she’d been able to disseminate the antidote as she’d have liked. As it was, agents watched her carefully for months. When she finally succeeded in producing a batch of anti-truth serum, they confiscated her entire output and took her away. She was never seen again.
“But her creation was not immediately destroyed. Instead, it became a carefully guarded cache at the Commander’s Palace. The Bane was considering giving doses to his military commanders on the eve of campaigns, so that they could not give away strategic secrets even if they were captured. I don’t know that he ever did, but Icarus, during his seemingly innocent exploration of the palace, managed to pilfer a small quantity of it, in case I needed to lie under truth serum someday.
“My actual interrogation was relatively uneventful. The one who questioned me was someone I’d never met before—someone far higher up the chain of command than those I usually thought of as my superiors. She was quite annoyed that somehow I’d managed not to discover the plot against the Bane, despite having lived under the same roof for so long.
“I pointed out that by all appearances, the Master of the Domain was attending to classes and sports just like the other boys. Not to mention that he showed up on time for meals and Absences. And despite not being particularly warm or helpful, he gave no trouble as far as anyone could see.
“Thankfully, in this regard I could hide behind the Bane’s own failure—he lived in that household for a number of weeks without realizing that the one he sought was just a few doors down. Of course I didn’t say such a thing aloud, but that he didn’t perceive it went a long way toward absolving me, a simple woman whose powers of observation by no means rivaled his.
“When they were satisfied I’d been guilty of nothing more than incompetence, they put me on temporary suspension and let me go. I went to the nearest cathedral to give thanks and then, for old times’ sake, I went to the library at Royalis and sat down in a garden.”
“Royalis, throughout the Bane’s reign, has always been open to the public—it was one way in which he sought to distinguish himself from the old kings, who hoarded the wealth of the realm and left the people to starve. He was determined to show himself a kind overlord. Royalis was and is available for weddings and other celebratory receptions for only a nominal fee, and the mage on the street is welcome anytime—except during curfew hours—to enjoy the beauty of its many gardens.
“From what I understand, in the early years of the Bane’s reign, Royalis was a practically never-ending wave of revelry in honor of nuptials, milestone birthdays, and so on. We were at last a realm prosperous at home and respected abroad, and the populace as a whole was in a festive mood that lasted a