After seeing that her guests all safely made it into their carriages, Corvina went back inside. She sighed, rubbing her temples. She could feel a stress headache coming on.
“Helen, I should have received a report on the latest meeting of the Ladies’ Magnanimous Society, can you please fetch that for me, along with any other correspondence I’ve received today, and bring it up to my study?”
“Y-yes, my lady!”
Surprised to hear a different voice than she expected, Corvina finally noticed that the maid standing next to her was not Helen at all, but a younger woman with a slighter build, short, black hair, and a nervous expression.
“Ah, Patricia,” said Corvina. “Where’s Helen?”
“Oh, a guest came by for her so she’s receiving them in the kitchen. She asked me to cover for her. Oh,” Patricia lowered her voice conspiratorially. “Whoever it was was wearing a hood so it was hard to see, but I caught a glimpse and I think it might have been an elf! With short brown hair and— My lady? Where are you going?”
Moments later, Corvina swept into the kitchen to find Helen having tea with Agis.
They were smiling and laughing about something or other, but when they saw Corvina, they both sprang to their feet.
“My lady, are you done with your tea already? I’m so sorry, I must’ve gotten caught up in conversation. I’ll get this cleaned up and attend to you right away.”
Helen began to reach for the dishes, but Corvina sighed again, and waved for both of them to sit back down. Then Corvina sat down next to them.
“Thank you for your hospitality,” said Agis, squirming in his seat.
“What brings you here, Prince Agis?”
Agis flinched at the word ‘prince’ but clearly decided it was a losing battle. “I just wanted to thank Helen for her help last night,” he said. “And uh…” He rubbed the back of his head, looking embarrassed. “Apologize for… uh… sneaking into her room… like that.”
“You sneaked into—”
“It’s fine!” said Helen cheerfully. “Look at the present he brought me!”
Helen handed Corvina a little painted-porcelain figure of the third Saintess, who had been a blond woman with freckles. It was the sort of cheap knickknack local vendors sold to tourists—pretty at a glance, but not particularly high-quality or holding much artistic value.
“Are you a fan of the third Saintess?” said Corvina, raising an eyebrow. “If I recall correctly, she was the first Saintess to say that elves were ‘creatures unblessed by the Goddess.’”
“What the—” said Agis. “That’s terrible! Not that we need your dumb human Goddess anyway, since we’ve got our own and she’s way better.”
“You didn’t know who the figurine depicted?” asked Corvina.
“I had no idea,” said Agis. He rubbed his nose and blushed a little. “I just saw a street stall selling all sorts of these little statues of women and I thought this one looked kind of like Helen so…”
“Awww,” said Helen, putting a hand on her chest. "That's sweet."
Agis looked pleased by Helen's reaction.
Corvina smiled a little, fondly. “We’ll just say it’s a figurine of our Helen, then, shall we?” she said. She stood up to leave. “Helen, please take your time and enjoy your tea. Come and find me in my study when you’re through.”
“Thank you, my lady!” said Helen.
Corvina paused, something occurring to her. “Prince Agis, before I go. What can you tell me about Sister Eva, the cleric who came to pick you up last night?”
“Oh, Eva?” said Agis, shrugging. “She’s Anne’s oldest friend. I mean, I’m Anne’s actual brother and even I’m not as close to her. But that’s fine, I guess, I only met Anne a few years ago, but they’ve been together in the church since they were kids.”
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“I see,” said Corvina. “What is it that she does for the church, exactly?”
Agis shrugged. “She’s kind of like Anne’s personal assistant, I guess.”
“And what is she like, as a person?”
“Why are you so interested in Eva?” asked Agis.
“Humor me.”
“She’s nice, I guess,” said Agis. He was fidgeting again. “Pretty strict sometimes.”
Corvina cocked her head to one side. “Are you scared of her?”
“Oh, she scares the hell out of me,” admitted Agis.
“I see,” said Corvina. “Thank you for indulging my curiosity. Farewell, Prince Agis. I supposed I will see you tomorrow, at the miracle.”
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Across town, Anne was presiding over a sing-along.
There was actually some fancy church terminology for the kind of worship service it was, but Anne still hadn’t really gotten a hang of the jargon. But basically it was a sing-along. Anne led the music (with vague arm waves) while the audience all sang along to common hymns.
It was an open event, for clergy and for the public. It wasn’t held in the main chapel, but rather in a small side-room, since usually it was almost exclusively clergy members who attended, and usually only a small number of the clergy, at that.
Today, the Grand Duke and the Crown Prince were both sitting in the front row.
Anne did her best to ignore them. She actually liked leading this sort of event more than most of the others she’d had to do, because she actually liked singing. Not that she had any desire to perform, even now that she had the Saintess’s voice, which was much sweeter than her voice had been in her previous life. She just enjoyed singing in a group.
Eva stood by her side, smiling gently. Eva didn’t sing, but she liked to listen to Anne’s voice.
After the event, Anne shook hands with some of the more important clergy members as they filed out of the room.
When it was the Crown Prince’s turn, he shook Anne’s hand a little overly enthusiastically. “That was beautiful today, Anne!”
“Thanks, Sebastian…” said Anne, extracting her hand.
“Do you perhaps have some time before your next event?” asked Sebastian. “We could get tea together or perhaps—”
“I’m afraid the Saintess is quite busy,” said Eva. “In fact, we need to get going to the next event almost immediately.”
“Sorry, Sebastian,” said Anne.
“We could just chat for five minutes!” said Sebastian. His guards, looking suitably embarrassed, were already trying to usher him out of the room. “Oh, come on. I’m the Crown Prince, you know!” he shouted over his shoulder as he practically carried out the door.
“Saintess,” said Duke Marshal, who approached next. He had a kind smile on his face, and he held his hand out.
Refusing to shake the hand, Anne gave a small bow instead. “Grand Duke. Thank you for your kind attendance.”
“I was hoping I could properly introduce myself to you today,” said the Grand Duke. “Perhaps I could walk you to your next event?”
“Thank you for your kind offer,” said Anne. “I’m afraid it is not possible today. I must be purified for the next event, so it is essential that I spend my walk over there in quiet contemplation of the Goddess.”
Anne bowed again and left the room, leaving the rest of the crowd hanging.
Eva went to follow, but the Duke grabbed her arm.
“If you want this alliance so bad, help me,” hissed the Duke.
“Not here,” Eva snapped in return. “Wait a minute, and then follow me.”
Eva left the room, and the Duke hung back, tapping his foot impatiently. Finally, after everyone else had filed out, he went through the door.
Eva was waiting at the other end of the courtyard. She glanced at him once, and then walked away. The Duke followed at a distance.
Eventually, when she’d led him to some abandoned alcove in the maze of the cathedral, Eva spoke.
“I told you before you’d have to win her over yourself,” said Eva.
“She hasn’t had a chance to like me,” snapped the Duke. “She won’t even talk to me.”
Eva was biting her thumbnail.
The truth of it was, she’d already been rethinking this whole plan since Anne had revealed her prophecy.
Eva had studied the written prophecy closely, and a lot of it didn’t seem that bad to her. In fact, if anything it proved that her plan to ally with the Duke would work, leading the rebellion to come out on top.
The problem was all the collateral damage, and the fact that Anne knew about all the collateral damage ahead of time.
Anne was a deeply compassionate person, and she would never agree to a plan that would lead to innocent people being killed. Even if it would ultimately also lead to a victory for herself and the common people.
Eva was fairly certain that that was why Anne was avoiding the Duke. Anything to interrupt what she saw as the terrible events of the prophecy.
But that might be alright after all. Eva’s other big takeaway from the prophecy was that, although allying with the Duke was obviously beneficial for the rebellion, it might not be quite as necessary as she had originally thought. Displaced elves, bands of deserters, chaos in the capital… even if some of the specific outcomes were avoided, there were enough major disruptive events coming in the near future that the rebellion would be able to find its army, with or without the Duke’s forces.
“I’ll engineer a chance for you to talk to her,” said Eva. “Right now she doesn't trust you, but if you can convince her that you’re a safe, compassionate person then she might change her mind about you. But I’m telling you, if you still can’t get her to like you, the deal is off.”
“Fine,” said Duke Marshal. “When will you 'engineer' this opportunity?”
“Tomorrow, I want you to go—”
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A few minutes later, after discussing some details with the Duke, Eva found Anne wandering through a hallway, looking confused.
“Oh, Eva!” she said, smiling. “I know you told me to go on ahead without you but I’m afraid I got lost.” She laughed at herself.
“Don’t worry,” said Eva, slipping her arm around Anne’s. “I’ll guide you. You just worry about preparing your spirit for tomorrow’s miracle. It should be a memorable event.”