Sarah, the queen's youngest handmaiden, had seen the eerie flashing lights in the night skies by the woods, not far from the castle. She had seen the strange creatures disembark from their metallic airships. She connected the dots when soon after, the king had began acting strange. Some sort of mind control had to be the explanation, and it also was affecting the queen to a lesser extent. One day, as she went to fetch some pristine water from a special spring, to heal her sister who worked in the kitchen from a bad cold. The creature was standing still on the roof in an ominous way. As she squinted in disbelief, she felt like the being could see her through his glossy dark eyes. Her heart was racing and when she heard a branch crack in the distance she looked away. Upon looking back at the castle, the creature was gone, just like that.
After consulting with the magician, who acted like something must be wrong with her and the priest, who seemed concerned but also quite powerless, she went to see another magician, a woman living with her partner in the woods, also a woman. They were obviously together, and that was no big deal in the kingdom.
Her partner, Samia, had seen the creatures before, and she told the witch, Esmerella, all about the encounter. It was very similar to Sarah's experience, except she saw an animal with incomprehensible anatomy, 6 legs and a dog head with scales. Se described the creatures playing catch with it, and they all laughed.
A week later, when Sarah came to see the women again, they all had collected evidence showing that the rule of the land had been hijacked by these dangerous but likeable visitors.
As more servants came on board, they had arranged for the monarchs to be asked about their favourite things, which they all got wrong. The preferred vanilla to chocolate, they thought that yellow was for celebration and not for grief, that the queen had two daughters when she had four, all of it was wrong. Neither were being themselves.
The rumours spread like wildfire, creating a schism both in the staff and the clergy, because Sarah's theory was hard to prove.
To this day, the culture of this kingdom has radically changed, quarries have been built to extract minerals thought to be useless and most of all, the horses have become disobedient.
Sarah has had further encounters with this race, who seemed to consider her to be an ambassador, although she never got a sense that these meetings led to anything at all. They even offered her presents like fruits, jewellery and many other trinkets.
When Sarah was in her later years, she threw a fit at them, accusing them of stealing her youth, of manipulating her people and of attacking the legitimacy of their governance. They began dancing around her, and she was wondering if this was meant as an apology. Then, one slightly prominent creature, there was a handful that stood out and that she could recognize, put their long fingers on her forehead. She felt something strong, a rush of joy and appeasement. This was the last time she saw them.
She married and had 3 children. A book was found in her attic after her death. It was to be an important factor in the later war against these visitors from another world.