Linda Catz as "the royal mistress" in the study

Whoever was behind all of this had declared today's event a themed costume party, which meant that, ridiculously, you had to stomp around in a king's crown and cape all day. It took a little while for you to work up the nerve to even make your way down to the guest hall dressed this way. You just knew that others were going to burst out laughing when they saw you dressed this way in the best case, or accuse you of something criminal in the worst case. They'd have every reason to feel offended, with you dressed up to lord over them as their ruler.

Breakfast proved less exciting than you'd expected. By the time you made it down, the only people still around were Eric and the butlers, meaning that you took your meal in silence. One advantage of this low turnout, however, was that it gave you ample time to think about your next move. It would be a waste to just laze around until the collection tour came around later in the day. Instead, you'd make a real move towards solving this case.

As you chewed over eggs and sausage links, you recalled the books you'd seen in Wanda Croft's study the first day you'd arrived here to the mansion. One of them had specifically named the Ring of Ursa Major on its cover. If there was something in the book that could describe conditions for using the ring or some kind of weakness-- a hole in its all-encompassing powers-- you might be able to counteract its effects, turning the table on the game master. You owed it to everyone in the mansion to try to solve this scheme in earnest, rather than kicking it down the road by naming scapegoats all week.

Wanda wasn't around to stop you, nor was Tallula; they'd both be confined to the second floor for the foreseeable future. That meant that even though you were't technically allowed on the third floor, it was easy to find an opportunity to sneak past the butlers, without ever having to worry that someone would bump into you up there. You still couldn't afford to take all day, as you risked becoming suspicious if people noticed your absence, but there was plenty of time to collect the book and hide it for later reading.

The third floor was supposed to be empty... but that wasn't how you found it.

It was too late to turn back once you opened the door to the study and saw the woman standing there. The only saving grace was that the one inside was the one person you knew would be on your side, even if she found you sneaking around up here. Linda Catz turned her head as she saw the door open, then held her finger up to her lips, giving you a conspirator's wink as you shut the door silently behind you. She wanted to make sure you didn't give away your position to the rest of the mansion-- or her position, for that matter.

When you'd spotted Linda yesterday, it was like opening a time capsule to your memories; nothing had changed but her height and to some extent her fashion sense. Now, the only way you could really recognize her was her hair color and glasses. Like Dee, she'd been given an entirely different outfit, starting from her hair-- rather than its long tail, the braid was coiled in a ring around her head in a somewhat elegant style befitting a princess, albeit without a fancy crown like yours. Her makeup was just a bit righter on the cheeks and her usual, plain glasses had been replaced by a different pair with brassy gold frames.

If all of that was meant to give her a regal appearance, it was immediately offset and undone by the plunging neckline of the vibrant, pink dress of gossamer silk she'd changed into. Her old pearl necklace was still in its usual place, but rather than resting upon a tasteful bed of mint green cloth, the pearls jostled between the mostly exposed upper side of her bosom. There was no way she was wearing a bra under there, either, given the way they were moving; a peak from the wrong angle would expose everything.

If that was the only immodest part, you could probably pretend that it was just a somewhat showy ballroom dress she'd been made to wear. Instead, it had huge slits up the sides of the legs, even higher than the feminine curve of her hips... high enough to make you realize you didn't see any straps for panties, either. Finally, you spotted pink, strappy high-heels, with a heel length that said "stripper" more than it did "princess." They matched the shag carpet pretty well in terms of color, but they didn't look easy to walk in, and you could easily imagine her tripping on the rug inside the study.

Linda stayed quiet, smiling and blinking awkwardly as she waited for you to say something. When you finally got your tongue out of your throat, you decided to be polite. You asked if she was costumed as a princess today.

"He he, um... Seeing your outfit, Malcolm, I wish I'd gotten picked to play 'the queen' or something! That would have been nicer. Instead I'm the... 'royal mistress.' Which I think is a nice way of saying I'm not supposed to be any type of royal, but rather, a lady who sleeps with the king outside of wedlock..." she giggled, rubbing one hand along the opposite arm awkwardly with the soft noise of silk dragging silk.

You gulped, then laughed along with her to ease her worries. Quite a colorful sense of humor your hosts had. You were... surprised she'd gone along with that.

"I don't think we have a choice," she sighed with a slight shrug of her pale, slender shoulders.

You were curious to know the reality of the situation, so you pushed further. You asked: "aren't you free to disobey the rules of the mansion, especially with the hostess being out of action?"

She tilted her head in confusion for a moment and a pink light flashed in her eyes. "I... don't think I can disobey them, no. I have to be a gracious guest..."

You hadn't tested back then if Eric would react the same way if you pressed him on his decision to dress up as the royal crier, nor Dee on her motivation for donning that cosplay fetish armor, but you expected it would have gone about the same way. Instead of focusing on that any longer and determined to pull your eyes away from the provocative costume your old friend had been made to wear, you refocused on the important question.

Why was she here, in the study?

She pushed her new glasses up with two fingers; you got the impression she wasn't used to the different fit of them yet. "For the same reason as you, probably. Wanda Croft's last location before she became hypnotized into... her current state, ahem... was this study. There could be some sort of clue as to how this all started or how to reverse it. I don't think we can stand idly by and let things happen, just because the butlers are trying to keep their master's old wish not to let anyone onto the third floor," she explained at length.

You nodded in agreement. However, unspoken, you had a different thought: you didn't want her being the first one of you to find that book on the Ring of Ursa Major. If she learned of its power, she might learn of the accompanying Ring of Ursa Minor, which would then bridge into the difficult conversation of how you'd come to wear it. It was good that she was forward-thinking at a time like this, but you didn't want her suspicions falling on you. It might be a good idea to intercede in some fashion.

"Malcolm? You've gone awfully quiet. Hey, don't you think we can still treat this as a vacation if we use our imagination? It's like you and I are solving a mystery together!" Linda continued with a soft smile. "Like Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson! Oh, speaking of mystery literature..."

As she turned and messed with one of the bookshelves, your eyes momentarily went down towards the exposed sides of her bottom, then back up towards head level. You asked how her attempts at writing last night had gone, wondering if that was what she was talking about when she said "mystery literature."

"It went well! This place really gets my inspiration flowing. But I wanted to talk about what I've already written! Look at this: Wanda had an extensive collection of my works here on this shelf. I knew she was a fan! This seems to confirm that this shelf is her personal reading archive. The other books look older and generally less recreational, so we can assume those belonged to her mother."

It seemed she was correct. You noticed that the other books looked more academic, many with a layer of dust partially coating them. Both in terms of content and the degree of their wear, they seemed different, apart from that one shelf.

Linda puffed out her chest with pride. " What do you think of my detective skills? You'll probably want to consult with me for other cases after seeing me in action, right?" she asked, pressing one hand to her hip and grinning excitedly.

You laughed along with her, but internally, your gut was doing backflips. Linda was standing in front of the exact shelf where you'd seen that book earlier, the one closest to the door when entering the library. That meant that she was mere moments before finding a clue that would lay out all of the details of this magic trick for her and point the finger at you in the process. You needed something to distract her from searching that bookshelf!