Evander stayed with Narcissa to her room, and, in fact, came inside and closed the door.

“I'm all right,” Narcissa said mildly. “You could use the time better by sleeping.”

“Life has just turned very strange and unpredictable, in a number of ways,” Evander said dryly, sinking down on one of the padded benches that were also storage boxes. “So you'll have to put up with it if I'm rather concerned about you.”

Narcissa let the soft violet cloak slide off her shoulders and puddle on the floor, spreading her hands to either side wordlessly. The site of the deep and messy puncture wound no longer showed the faintest trace of injury.

“Physically,” he conceded. “But even you don't adapt that quickly and smoothly to having your entire future re-written. And earlier today, someone tried to kill us. There was a point when assassination attempts were something Diamantians compared over breakfast, but personally? I'm scared and I'm angry and there are a lot of other things going on I haven't identified yet. And I didn't even get hurt.”

She sat down next to him on the bench with a sigh and twined a hand into his. “I'm trying to stay positive about this and not think about how frightened I am. This is not a good time to let myself curl up in a corner and cry. I will not let whoever tried to kill us win, and that means trying to keep everything as normal as possible, at any cost. To whatever extent we can, with Phaidra and Thaleia as the first patients of the hospital and the presence of our new guards.”

“I'm not entirely certain I trust them. We only have their word for it that they're different from the bear and the eagle instead of working with them. Maybe none of this was meant to kill. Maybe the whole idea was to work through you.”

“They aren't the same. Truly. I can't explain how Lirit told me, but she did, and she was extremely emphatic about it. If the moon who apparently now rules my life would lie to me or mislead me, then we've stepped into one of those dreadful old tragedies where everyone dies or wishes desperately to do so. Even without that, I'd much rather have them where I can see them, hm? We'll only find out for sure with time.” She gave his hand a squeeze. “It looks like they're going to be an unavoidably central part of my future, so getting to know them is going to be important for many reasons. And really, what would be the point of trying to use me, when I'll only have a short time before someone begins to notice that I'm not aging? I do believe them about that. None of them are as young as they look.”

“Agreed.” He sighed, freed his hand so he could slide his arm around her; she leaned against him. “I'm scared for your sake, I'm scared of losing you... I think I'm scared of more different things right now than I have been in a long time. I like our life. Something important to do publicly, making things a bit better for everyone, and privately just the two of us on our own with friends at the Peacock.”

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“And you having to hide.”

“Less than most like me.”

“Away from here, no one would know you. No one would ever have to meet Evander, only Lysandra.”

“I thought of that. But it also means being out there without a home or any security at all. And it means possibly the length of multiple human lifetimes. That's not such a blessing, if you have to spend it in the wrong body.”

“I wish I had answers. Right now, what I know is this: without our new friends, one or both of us would be dead, and there'd be no hospitals, and everyone from the Peacock and the others would be looking for a place to hide before the violence starts. With our new friends, life is already changing and it's going to change more, but that path is at least more acceptable than the other. I know that, at any cost, we can't let this have a visible impact on what we're doing. We have to stay at least publicly absolutely unaffected, and that will be much harder to do if I let myself really think too much about the future. All I can do is try to focus on getting through this moment and then the next and then the one after that without letting myself give in to the fear. And I know that you're my sister and I love you and you are never going to lose me if I have any say in it at all. If you won't go sleep in your own bed, will you lie down here with me until we have to get up? I depend too much on you to be able to get through the day if you're exhausted.”

* * *

Kaveri lay next to Tyrel in what was, for the time being, their bed in their room. The bed was more comfortable than the ones in the rooms they'd rented above a bath-house: fine soft linen over multiple thick plushy sheepskins, laid over tightly-stretched mesh of leather straps anchored to the strong inlaid wooden frame, and more linen over them, with blankets of soft wool available but currently completely unnecessary.

So much to do. So much they were going to have to try to learn quickly, and more to puzzle out somehow. So much that could go wrong, with possible consequences for a whole country.

“Go to sleep,” Tyrel murmured. “You still need a couple of hours. And we need you alert.”

“Sorry. Trying to wind down.” She rolled onto her side and wriggled herself backwards, into the familiar curve of his body. He obligingly slid an arm over her to hold her.

“Mmhmm. We have a lot to deal with. We've never run into them before, and we don't know what they want or why they want it, and I hope we haven't completely ruined Narcissa's and Evander's lives. And we're doing it without Kieran for the next few days. I don't like it either. But we'll manage.”

Kaveri hugged his arm against her. “I'm glad the one thing you failed at was getting yourself killed in the first few years after we left Dunnval.”

“Me too.” He kissed her bare shoulder. “Sleep. Just think. Tomorrow you get to dress as one of Narcissa's bodyguards. No long skirt and mantle.”