Eleanor pushed her plate away, barely touching the food as the freaky envoys from the "Indigo Court" rambled on with their crazy talk. Their words slithered out in bizarre, oscillating cadences, going on about cosmic outrages and profane pact breakings that made her skin crawl.
A glance to the side showed even Shane looked spooked by their eldritch revelations, his usual bluster replaced by a grim expression. Only Amethyst matched the inhuman envoys' babble for incomprehensible babble, her eyes feverishly bright.
"...and so by doing the True Finality thing, this Vincent dude has sanctified new whozdawhatsits across evenstreams throughout the whole shebang!" One envoy's statement cut off mid-word, its fragmented mouth re-forming in a grotesque way.
"Uh-huh," Amethyst murmured, steepling her fingers. "So the whatchamacallit matrices have already started buildin' up neutrinowhatnows along their edges, like the thingamabob tables say? Not good..."
Eleanor's head pounded as she tried and failed to understand their arcane metaphysical rambling. With a quiet grunt, she shoved her plate away and looked inward instead.
God, what she wouldn't give for a break from such soul-crushing awakenings, even for a few moments. To put aside the looming cosmos and reconnect with the simple worries that used to define her reign before--
Her thoughts skidded to a halt as memory stirred. Yes...before all this madness, before Vincent's reality-bending revelations, she'd had responsibilities way more down-to-earth.
Settling disputes between noble factions. Overseeing crop shares and ensuring justice for her people. All the basic yet vital affairs a ruler was duty-bound to uphold, to keep society running smoothly.
A frown tugged at her lips. While she and her allies scrambled to counter Vincent's eldritch schemes, how many of those humbler civic duties had fallen by the wayside? If they somehow survived this...transgression, would her kingdom even still be standing? Or would she inherit nothing but shattered remnants in the wake of such devastation?
The thought made Eleanor pause, jerking her mind away from its spiral of eschatological contemplations. Obviously stopping existence's unraveling was still the top priority. But if they succeeded--?
She became aware of Shane and Amethyst studying her, taking a break from their dueling verbosities. Shane arched an eyebrow at her distracted look.
"Everything cool, Your Majesty? You seem...momentarily lost at sea, as it were." His tone held the barest hint of its usual humor, however strained.
Eleanor considered for a long moment, chewing her inner cheek. Releasing a slow breath, she turned her attention back to their inhuman guests.
"My apologies, uh...messengers from elsewhere. But I'm struck by a disquieting notion." She leaned forward, toying with her fork's tines.
"For all your dire cosmic warnings...how much thought have we given to the more down-to-earth consequences of unleashing such conflicts?" Her eyes flicked to Amethyst and Shane. "Beyond just surviving it all?"
Amethyst's brow furrowed in confusion, mouth opening to protest. But Shane cut her off with a look, tilting his head consideringly at Eleanor.
The engineer pursed his lips, seeming to mull over the implications. "I see where you're going, Your Majesty. We bend every effort on avoiding the, uh, yawning apocalypse...but no one's mapped out potential ripples on the ground, so to speak."
His pipe trailed idle smoke circles as his brow furrowed in thought. "If Vincent sparks total oblivion and we...stop him, what happens to the foundations that nations rest on?"
Eleanor nodded somberly, seeing the point land. They strove single-mindedly to stop existence itself from unspooling into chaos. But at what potential cost to their world's more grounded affairs?
"Exactly. While Amethyst spins mystical jargon with these...interdimensional interlopers, perhaps you could indulge me?" She rose slowly without waiting for Shane's reply, gesturing toward the courtyard's shaded area.
"My mind turns to more grounded strategic wisdom. As sovereigns, we're duty-bound to consider all fronts this onslaught may prove injurious - from the stellar to the ground beneath our feet."
The envoys watched their departure with inscrutable obsidian pits for eyes, neither acknowledging nor stopping them. Amethyst threw an inscrutable look over her shoulder, but seemed to acquiesce to Eleanor's detour with surprising grace.
Out of earshot in the courtyard's western archway, Eleanor turned to fix Shane with an expectant look. "Alright then. If we assume we succeed in stopping Vincent's depravities, what shape is the kingdom I'm sworn to safeguard in?"
The engineer exhaled a thoughtful cloud of smoke. "Well, if our struggles prove victorious...the ugliest outcome I foresee is the realms briefly descending into anarchy with the power vacuums left behind." He shrugged expansively.
"Happens with any major regime shake-up, I guess. Peripherals get disgruntled, radical fringes throw their tantrums in the ideological disarray, genocidal purges get tried by whoever lost the power game..." He trailed off as Eleanor aimed a severe look.
"...but not to worry, I'd wager that can get brought to heel systematically within half a decade or so! Combine the right civic countermeasures with my patented Pacification Field tech and we'll have stability re-established pronto."
Eleanor said nothing for a long moment, regarding Shane with an inscrutable stare. Finally, she inclined her head slightly.
"I see. Then perhaps we ought ride out and survey the kingdom from the roads themselves. No better way to grasp the reality behind the strategic abstractions than conversing with the people." A ghost of a smile played across her lips.
"I don't know about you, but I find respite from our loftier woes in concerning myself once more with the nuts and bolts of governance. A reminder why one battles cosmic nightmares to begin with."
Shane matched her smile, something close to respect flickering in his eyes. "Well said, Your Majesty. I dare say this..." he waved vaguely with his pipe, "never-ending brouhaha of cosmological haggling has lost touch with ground-level realities. Recalibrating to more grounded concerns is wise, if we're to persevere on any plane."
With a decisive nod, Eleanor strode out into the sweltering Quothan sunlight, Shane falling in alongside her. Yes, she would ride out amongst her people while the metaphysical doom sayings unfolded within.
And in reconnecting with the humbler urgencies of governance, Eleanor suspected she may well find rejuvenated perspective on all the looming, existential confrontations still to come...