[Oracle]

Laroa:

"When I left the service, you were... maybe eight or nine patterns old. I do not expect you to know or remember me." He would not put down his hood, and it would do her no good to see his face. So much time had passed in between that she would not remember him. In her youth, he had been kind to her, because after all she was the King's daughter. They had all been kind to her then. The wheels of time did much to change things, and indeed, he had followed a divergent path, one that had led him ultimately to the service of a group that, in effect, was taking up the reins in the void left behind by the King's death. It was true that in political terms, she should have ascended the throne, but the Gray Circle had interceded before that could happen. She could, of course, sue for the throne, but what would that gain her in the end?

"You were always a curious child," her host said now, his hood crinkling a little as he shook his head from side to side, a strangely human gesture. Things were not always as they appeared, and the longer Laroa lingered here in the house of those who were technically her enemies, she found more secrets that muddied the water. Nothing was black and white, not even here in the White City. There was a brief pause, and he said, "You have come to find out why we are doing this, why we have blocked your path to the throne. We are doing it for your own sake, whether you believe this or not. In time, you will understand what we are protecting you from."