The Aerian Court Intrigue 2 - Royally Arranged

Last time, we summarized the circumstances leading to this part of the plot, then took a quick dive into Lunair's past. This ended up being informative on both Lunair's current character, as well as Rayne's general nature. 

Today, Lunair and Revier continue their journey to Aeria to rescue Serai. It's worth noting that even this early in his career, Kan's musician tendencies showed quite prominently - the entire(largely uneventful) trip is represented through a music video. Every Arc is ended with one too, and of course, later the emotional climax of To the Moon takes a similar form.

The Intrigue

Anyway, they reach there, and Lunair leaves Revier behind to get a feel of the situation in the capital first. She is given an appropriately royal welcome at the gates, however her dad is predictably upset at her early return. He reveals that he would have preferred her to stay for a year more, but it isn't much of a problem since he has a backup plan for her.

However, he cuts off early since he senses someone at the door to their chamber. He invites them in, then asks them to fetch Lunair.  His general, Dirk, gets a bit agitated about this, but he asks him to stay calm, so as to not raise unnecessary suspicion. Turns out, this person was Lunair pretending to be a royal maid. Thankfully nobody catches this ploy, and she gets to meet her father unawares.

That concludes Chapter IV of the game. Chapter V opens with Lunair and Rayne having a short talk in their quarters. He remarks on how inferior Prion is, and questions Lunair if she kept her abilities secret. Lunair assures him, and further plays to his ethnic hatred by remarking on how the Quintessence's powers are only useful for spying on "those mongrels", since one would only want to change their form if they were an "inferior being" in the first place. This causes him to go on a little rant about how awful they are.

Throughout his bits of casual racism, Lunair is visibly distrustful of him, and stays silent. He then congratulates her for her "tremendous deeds", and invites her for dinner, mentioning that he has an important announcement. She silently ponders where her mother is. Note that Lunair's mother isn't really visible in the story so far, outside of a few brief glimpses during Kardian's backstory.

At the dinner, she is cheered for her safe return from her mission. Rayne mentions that her mother is off for "diplomatic duties". Lunair questions him about it, and he merely says she's busy negotiating with other Aerian provinces. He then switches to his announcement - he and Fione, his wife, have agreed to resign and offer rule of the province to Lunair!

Naturally, everyone is shocked to hear this. He carries on, mentioning that the second largest province, the Second Quarter, has agreed to merge with them. Lunair questions him briefly about it, before realizing he's talking about an arranged marriage with the heir of that province. Rayne further informs that the marriage with Heath, her future husband, will take place after just three days! 

Everyone congratulates Lunair on this news, but she protests. Rayne simply reassures her that preparations are already underway. Heath himself strolls in with his retinue, and greets Lunair. She rebuffs him in a pretty bold(and amusing) manner:

Heath: I have heard much about you, and I see that the flattering rumors are indeed true.
Lunair:...And I have heard none of you, so I am afraid that I cannot say the same.
Lilly: (shocked) Sir Heath, such rudeness-...!
Lunair: No one asked you to speak.

However, Rayne and Dirk ask Lunair to calm down, and she reluctantly agrees. Heath, for the most part, seems to remain undisturbed, claiming that he has heard of her unusual behavior before and that he'll adjust to it. He gently informs her that his dad has great expectations from the marriage, and that they would best live up to his wishes. With that matter seemingly sorted, Rayne celebrates their marriage and the union of the two provinces.

That night, Lunair spies on Rayne and Dirk again. Rayne reveals that his supposed stepping down is merely symbolic - he still holds a place in the Aerian High Council, and he thinks both Heath and Lunair would be easy to manipulate. Lunair in particular is too dependant on Aeria, he claims. And when she does die at an early age, it would be easy to turn Heath into a puppet ruler. They then talk about another drug they plan to administer to Lunair through Heath, reasoning that since her lifespan is already cut short by the Quintessence, they might as well test other drugs on her.

Lunair backs away in shock. They begin to discuss about her mother, Fione, and her experiments, but she's cut short by a soldier taking her place. Back at Heath's place, he reprimands her briefly for coming late. They dismiss the guards from their quarters, claiming that it would be too inconvenient to date with them around. 

With them gone, Heath reveals to Lunair that her dad worries about them not getting along, and asked him to administer a love drug to her. He then tells her to keep it a secret from Rayne, and promises to dispose it tomorrow.

Both of them head upstairs, and Heath asks Lunair to play a song on the piano. When she's busy doing this, he prepares a drink for her, and slips the love drug in. Lunair's Quintessence enhanced hearing catches this detail, though, and she stops playing abruptly. Heath, unaware of this, asks her to take a drink. She requests that they walk around first.

At this point, the story briefly cuts to Kardian's journey to Is-fahr, but I'm not covering that side since it is of little relevance to the events transpiring here.

When it cuts back, Lunair is seen covering something near Kardian and Kaire's graves. She decides to bring in Revier at this point. A short minigame of dodging and fooling guards later, she meets him, and asks him to impersonate Heath. Revier is shocked to hear this, but she reassures him that none in the Third Quarter will be able to spot him since they aren't familiar with him. When he asks if the real Heath will notice, she all but tells him that he's dead:

Revier of course protests this, but Lunair coldly tells him that he barely knew him, and that this was a convenient way to get him in, since they were going to be married. Revier is still disturbed, but realizes that he has little choice, and goes along with her plan.

Thoughts

Overall, this was another solid entry to the plot, deepening the intrigue further and carefully introducing new elements to aid the story forward. The various character interactions work quite well in establishing them further, as well as illustrating their relationships - from Lunair being uneasy about her father's words, to Heath trying to win Lunair's trust while still deceiving her in the end, to Revier being shocked at what ends she will go to for their plan to work. Of particular note is the twist with Lunair killing off Heath to sneak in Revier - it is unexpected, yet sensible given the situation she's in, and really solidifies her as someone not afraid to kill to meet her ends.

Next time, Revier and Lunair sneak into the Duke's quarters, and hijinks issue. See you then!

Next: The Aerian Court Intrigue 3 - Role Play
Prev: The Aerian Court Intrigue 1 - Child's Play