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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Cerebral Paladin" data-source="post: 3528870" data-attributes="member: 3448">“You have our condolences for what befell your sister,” replied Alistair seriously, “but I must correct your misapprehension.  I am not the father of this child.  I have never met your sister, nor ever been to the Principality.”The Baroness’s eyes widened.  <>  After a moment she composed herself.  “But I saw you.  You had dinner with my father, and claimed your right as a noble to our hospitality, for shelter and food.  And Echila was most taken with you.”  The last sentence became an accusation, with equal parts sadness and anger.“And then the one who looked like me ill-treated her?”“Yes!  He… you!... forsook all chivalry and…”  The Baroness broke off mid-sentence, but there could be little doubt what she was going to say.“I swear to you, with Lord Glor’diadel as my witness and upon the honor of my family, that I did not do this thing.”“Lord Alistair speaks truthfully,” vouched Dame Brionna.  “He was not in Korflok when your sister was assaulted, and he could not be the father of her child.  We fear that there is an imposter seeking to harm His Grace’s reputation, and using your sister as a tool to that goal.”“But… but I saw him.  And I know, he was the Archduke.”  Still, Dame Brionna’s statement made her wonder.  Dame Brionna was a Knight of Valor, and probably a paladin.  Surely she wouldn’t lie in the face of an oath to Glor’diadel, even to protect her liege?  Unless she was as false as he…“No.  You know that he looked like me--like someone you had never met before and are only seeing more than a year later.  Magic makes it trivial to appear as someone else.  Watch.”  Alistair cast alter self, which as an illusion could affect the projected image, and transformed the image so that there were then two Dame Brionnas in front of her.  “If you look very closely, you could probably spot errors in the disguise, and certainly I might say or do things while disguised as Dame Brionna that would give away the illusion.”  He gestured and the illusion faded, returning to the image of Alistair.  “But could you tell the difference, when looking at someone you had never met before, and comparing them only to rumors and story?  And that was among the most petty of disguise magics.  We fear that the imposter uses much greater magics, that he may inflict more harm.  And so I swear to you:  we will take in this infant, if you wish, and ensure that the child has a fine life and noble rank, as befits its mother.  But I also swear that I am not its father and did nothing to harm your sister, though I fear my enemies did as a means to strike at me.”The Baroness thought this over.  <<The Archbishop is right to ban all arcane magic, then…>></blockquote>

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