Diane woke up in the same bed with the same maid staring at her like a kicked puppy. Okay. So more sleep wouldn't resolve this.
She was probably just. In a coma. And dreaming all of this, more lucidly than she could imagine. Just like Inception. Okay. She could work with that.
Sitting up, Diane accepted her bland gruel for breakfast, hand clasping at her spoon... Differently, she thought, from her usual self. Was this muscle memory? Even the way she moved her spoon through her soup was elegant.
Interesting. "Lydia," Diane ordered, "Can you please fetch a larger mirror? I have a few things I'd like to confirm."
Lydia fetched a floor length mirror, and, standing and observing her face and body Diane confirmed that the face in the mirror wasn't hers. It had to belong to Lilith Seraphine, the cheesily named final villain from a game she'd lost interest in years ago. The character design was spot on, with long, ink-black hair, and alien lavender eyes. Not to mention the body-- Diane had always had smaller breasts, but Lilith looked like something out of a magazine. All of those features had looked so cute on screen, the strange colored eyes and hair of otome characters, but in-person they felt... unnatural. Strange. She couldn't help but wonder if her subconscious didn't have it out for her.
No matter-- she was here, and pinching herself didn't work, so she was either in a deep coma or dead and living a second life, and that--
That was fine. She was fine. Her only brother may or may not have left her for dead after she'd worked herself into having a stroke. Nothing abnormal about that, or this situation, or apparently inhabiting the body of a fictional character. It was all extremely chill.
...She needed to do something before she lost her goddamned mind. Finished with her gruel for breakfast, Diane stood to her feet, ignoring the wobbling of her legs. This body had been in bed for several weeks-- this was to be expected. Right? Normal. Perfectly normal. Everything about the situation was fine. She could just-- pretend to be Lilith, at least until she actually woke up. Right?
Diane wasn't terrified at all.
"Oh!" Lydia shouted, coming into Diane's-- well. Lilith's room, finding her standing. "Young Miss, you're not supposed to be up, you need--"
"Lydia, what I need to do is orient myself. It appears that I've lost my memory," Diane bulldozed, ignoring the twinge of guilt for it. "If you could please fetch me a pen and paper?"
The maid looked shocked again-- Diane couldn't help but wonder if this was just her usual expression. "...You've lost your memory?"
Ah. So Lydia was going to focus on the minutiae, here. "Yes, that appears to be the case. The pen and paper, please...?"
But Lydia was already lost in her own thoughts, tears in her eyes. Again. "No wonder you've been so different-- what will His Grace say? Oh, His Highness will be heartbroken!"
'His Grace'? 'His Highness'? Diane sifted through her own memories of the game Lilith had come from, Doki Doki Love Academy. Lilith had been the daughter of a duke, if she'd remembered correctly, so most likely 'His Grace' referred to her father-- there was very little mention of him in the game. 'His Highness' had to be...
Oh, right. The Crown Prince. He was Lilith's fiancé, right? The main character of the game, where she...
What exactly happened at the end of the game, again? "Lydia, the pen and paper?"
Shocked out of her own thoughts, Lydia bowed and left the room.
Alone again, Diane reminisced about Doki Doki Love Academy. What exactly had happened? If she wasn't wrong it included some player character who seduced the male leads, and Lilith was...
The image of Lilith glaring through the screen of Diane's Nintendo Switch came to mind. She was jealous of the player character for seducing her 'beloved' fiancé-- it wasn't exactly a groundbreaking game in terms of creative storytelling, but at least it gave Diane some context.
Lilith was in love with the Crown Prince, most likely one-sidedly. Okay. And when the player character took him, Crown Prince... Leo? Leonard? Fuck. She didn't remember his name. Whatever, that didn't matter. When the player character took him, Lilith...
Something bad happened with Lilith, and it wasn't the usual, 'expelled from the academy and sent to a monastery' ending, Diane remembered that. But what exactly was it...?
"My Lady," Lydia called, carrying a portable desk. "Your pen and paper. Also, ah-- His Grace has come to visit." Out from behind Lydia stepped a man with graying brown hair and a frown so settled into his skin that Diane was half sure it would never leave.
"I heard you've lost your memory," Lilith's apparent father stated, voice deep. He stared at her with a quiet intensity that Diane couldn't quite discern.
Strange. "I take it that you're my father?" Diane asked, as Lydia set up her bed-desk.
The wrinkles around Duke Seraphine's eyes grew deeper, and he ducked his head. Unable to look at her-- interesting. Usually that implied guilt, if Diane's courtroom experience was to be trusted here. "Yes. That's correct."
"I see." What exactly was Diane supposed to say to this man? 'Guess who's puppeteering your daughter's flesh suit?' If nothing else... "I'd like to request unlimited access to any libraries you have in this building." If she was going to be stuck in this body, she at least needed to know what she was doing.
Lilith's father agreed immediately. "Of course. Is there anything else that you would like from me?"
That was a loaded question, if Diane had ever heard one. "Perhaps some information on any... responsibilities, or duties that I need to fulfill?"
Apparently that had been the wrong answer-- Duke Seraphine went rigid, biting his lips together. That expression, Diane knew: grief. "Of course," his voice was rough. "Crown Prince Theodosius has requested your presence at the royal palace." A pause. "That would be your fiancé."
Theo! That was his name, at least the one Diane was familiar with in the original game. So that was his full name. 'Theodosius.' What a mouthful. Still, a more pressing question lingered: "And the state of my memory has no effect on our engagement?"
Duke Seraphine's eyes shot open. "No," he replied, firm-- almost... mad? "No, your engagement will not be broken, especially not for something as trivial as this."
So the man had political ambitions, and Lilith was a tool for that. "Alright," Diane decided, "Please inform His Highness that I'll be unable to attend to him at the royal palace for some time. This--" What was it called? "Selmaria is most likely a contagious disease, no? I would hate to put any member of the royal family at risk by spreading it," Diane lied. If the royal palace was a center of political power, she couldn't just go there with no memory or awareness of her circumstances-- she'd be a laughingstock.
No, she needed to arm herself. "Lydia, if you could actually take the pen and paper to the library for me?"
_______
Diane spent the days of her first week in the Seraphine library, and nights in what was apparently her body's room, staving off a breakdown.
Did she die? Did that really happen? Did Tom just let her die and take her life insurance money, and now she's in some stranger's body? She stared up at the canopy above her bed, trying to find some sense of reality here.
Magic was real. She'd read that in a book, and learned about it when she played that stupid fucking otome game. Magic was real, and so was she. Here and now, and... she had to deal with that.
There was a chance that she was in a coma and that this-- all of this-- was a dream. But there was also a chance that she'd died, and this was real, and that this was her life now, full stop.
She didn't know the answer, and that uncertainty swallowed her whole. And then morning came.
Diane took her breakfast in her room, dressed in the most uncomfortable clothes she'd ever come across, and then returned to the library. There, at least, she knew herself. Books, even in a strange foreign language that she mysteriously understood, were still books.
And she was still the person who'd graduated at the top of her class back in law school. Four or five books per week was nothing to her.
She was lost in the details of the Vierre wars when her maid Lydia appeared with news. "Lady Seraphine," she began, with that tremorous voice that always indicated fear, "It appears that His Highness the Crown Prince has arrived to see you."
That wasn't right. Diane had read in one of several etiquette books that visits required at least a day's notice-- as stuffy as it was, it indicated how people valued each other, and this...
This was rude. "Please have him wait in the parlor, in that case," Lilith replied, eyes never leaving her book. If he was going to be a dick, then the least she could do was return the favor.
Lydia looked stricken with shock. "My lady, do you intend to leave him waiting?"
So Lilith used to live at his beck and call, then. What a sad way of life. "Why, Lydia, I would never," Diane lied, "I just need to prepare myself mentally and emotionally after all this time. Could you please tell him that I'll be with him shortly?" 'Shortly' was one of her favorite adverbs. It was just descriptive enough to give someone hope for a fast response, and just ambiguous enough to keep someone waiting for hours at a time.
Yes, Diane decided, turning back to her book, she would be there shortly.
One hour and forty-five minutes later, Diane opened the door to the parlor to find the Crowned Prince of her apparent nation fuming. Sure, he didn't look bad-- well built body, dark brown hair, purple eyes, the usual coloration for a main character in an otome game. But going on the little she knew of him already, Prince Theodosius D'Etienne wasn't worth her time.
Still, her body bowed, and curtsied, and greetings jumped out of her mouth before she could stop them. "I greet the shining star of Etienne, Your Highness." So bizarre. Was this Lilith's muscle memory? Some kind of cross wiring? She had no way of knowing.
"Do you have any idea how long you've kept me?" Came the peevish voice of the Crown Prince. "Is this how little you value my time?" Looking up, Diane found him lounging on the parlor furniture-- not even standing up to greet a lady.
Yet more bad etiquette. Fine. Diane pushed forward with, "My apologies, Your Highness, however, I've been preparing myself due to my lack of memory--"
"Do you truly think I believe that?"
Oh, god. "Do you believe I'm lying?"
Theodosius sighed. "Oh, Lilith," he began in a patronizing tone, and Diane couldn't help but wonder why exactly Lilith had fallen for this guy. "I've known you for too long to believe that you're anything but fine. You wanted my attention, and now you have it. I sincerely congratulate you for that," Theo smiled, the same oily grin she'd seen on countless faces back in her law firm.
Lilith smiled tepidly back. "And may I ask how long we've known one another? For some time, I assume?"
This question seemed to surprise him. "Since we were children, as I'm sure you know. We were betrothed shortly after your birth."
"I see." Lilith rang her little golden bell, a truly obnoxious artifact given to her by her father, and ordered two cups of tea from Lydia. Once the maid left, Lilith turned back to the Crown Prince. "And if I may also ask the reason for your visit?"
Theo barely concealed a snarl with a smile. "Father asked that I check in on you-- for whatever reason."
"Interesting." Truly. Why exactly was the Etiennese emperor having his son run around the capital? "Well, as you can see, my health has greatly improved. Is there anything else that you need to know? I'd hate to waste any more of your time."
Once again, the Crown Prince looked shocked. He really did need to work on showing less of his emotions-- he was too easy to read. Surely someone would try and take advantage of that fact. "You're asking me to leave?"
Diane suppressed a laugh; she let the smile peek through, though. "I'm simply trying to prioritize what must be a terribly busy schedule."
They sat in silence, as Theodosius stared her down. "You really did lose your memory, didn't you."
"Unfortunately for both of us, yes, that is the case."
The Crown Prince had no response; he simply accepted the tea Lydia poured for them and watched Diane's every move.
The tea was weak.