Displaced Persons

Whilst Inquirer is discussing their futures with the "girls in gray" - namely Chiana, Chi and Aeryn Pip - the rest of us talk about and with our unexpected "guests". We want to find their correct reality - or rather realities, since there seem to be at least two involved and possibly three - and return them, but that may be easier said then done. The same goes for undoing whatever enchantments the two pairs of bawdy girls are under before we send them off. The mental changes seem likely to be tricky to undo, but the physical changes that Freda and Astra (and possibly Fifi and Bambi) have experienced may well prove impossible to reverse, our mages tell me. Given that Fertal has unexpectedly had a "doppelganger" reaction of fellowship for Fifi, it seems likely that she is really a Fred. Does that mean that Bambi is really an Astra, even though I have no feelings for her one way or the other (though I do for the bawdy girl Astra)?

Then there's the question of what Regent Malachi and Queen Astra will want to be the punishment, if any, of Queen Helia (so different in character from my own dear mother, it seems) and her court sorceress. We can't do anything with those two until we hear about that, though I'm ninety per cent sure that they'll go along with the idea that shipping them back to their own reality will be sufficient. I think that they've been foolish rather than wicked. From their viewpoint, it must have seemed as though the bawdy girls Freda and Astra could not possibly be who they claimed to be, and thus must either be deluded or else working to destabilise the realm.

But before they, and "their" Princess Astra, are sent back I hope that I can get to the bottom of the mystery of why this Princess Astra doesn't "feel" like one to me, even though both physically and in what she knows she seems to "match".

1. Whilst we keep the two pairs of bawdy girls asleep for the time being (it seems both kindest and simplest), we learn all that we can from the others - Helia, Princess Astra, Xyllis, Norla and Dr Vincent - in the hope of getting some leads.

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