When she first decided that she wanted to live openly and honestly, Ariadne thought it would be a simple matter of telling the truth once and being done with it. But she realized now, that was palace life talking. The mindset that the people she lived among would never change, that the same faces would pass her in the hall again and again.

The multiverse wasn't like that.

She was beginning to understand that her idea of permanence was...misplaced. And an unfortunate side effect was that there were a lot of people around who hadn't heard her initial announcement and had no idea who or what she was.

The idea of making the announcement again and again actually made her physically ill. So as a compromise, she decided she would start spending a few hours each day in her natural state.

Which meant there she was, out in her orchard, quietly clearing the snow away from the trunk of her lemon tree. In her natural state: Skin green like the underside of a maple leaf, hair blue as candy floss, lips a deep, dark purple.

Also part of her natural state? Talking to her trees.

"You're looking lovely today, Dagmar," she said sweetly, as if she expected the tree to return the compliment.