“Surely you guys must have something in common,” said Anne, who, after a few cupfuls of tea spent listening to them go at it, was starting to get a bit tired of Agis and Sebastian’s bickering. “Why don’t you both start listing things that you like and see if anything matches up?”

“Do we have to?” said Agis. “I don’t want to have anything in common with the shitty human prince.”

“Come on, Sebastian’s not a bad guy!” said Anne. “Just try it, okay?”

“I’m willing to give it a try, Saintess!” said Sebastian.

“Ugh, fine,” said Agis. “What’s something that I like…? Arrows.”

“Fine linens,” siad Sebastian.

“Bows.”

“Those little finger sandwiches our chef sometimes makes with cream and strawberries.”

“Back-flips.”

“The point at one of Lettie’s parties where everyone’s a few drinks in and people stop being quite so stiff and formal around me.”

“Horses.”

“Horses!”

“There you go!” said Anne. “Talk about horses.”

Anne almost immediately regretted her instruction.

“I have the most wonderful horse in the world!” said Agis. “My swift, noble, and loyal steed Iramis, and—”

Anne kind of zoned out for a while while Agis described his horse.

Anne glanced over at Corvina and then immediately looked away when they accidentally locked eyes. Corvina hadn’t really been saying much while they were having their tea, which seemed odd. And she kept staring at Anne with this strangely intense gaze that was making Anne feel squirmy. She didn’t understand what it meant. Was Corvina mad at her for some reason? They had parted on such good terms the night before.

“Iramis does indeed sound like a noble steed!” said Sebastian. “Tell me, I simply have to know if elves have any unique horse breeds. What sorts of horses do you have in general? What breed is Iramis?”

“He’s a beautiful, deep shade of brown!” said Agis.

“Yes, but… what sort of breed is he?” asked Sebastian again.

“I don’t know what you mean,” said Agis. “I already told you he’s brown.”

“Right…” said Sebastian. “Have you been to the Cathedral’s stables?”

“Yes!” said Agis. “They have some really beautiful horses. None of them as good as Iramis, of course.”

“Oh? What breeds are they… Never mind. You should just show me!”

Agis agreed and the two of them got up from the table.

“You girls will be alright without us, right?” said Sebastian.

For some reason he looked at the bouquet, now in the center of the table in a nice vase, and then at Corvina, who wouldn’t meet his eyes, and then back at Anne, all with the same sort of knowing look in his eye.

Anne was baffled. Whatever it was that that look knew, she certainly didn’t know it. So she just said, “Yes, of course!”

With their brothers out of the way, Anne and Corvina were left alone in the Blue Courtyard with what was left of the tea things.

“Do you know much about horses?” Anne asked, munching on a tea cake.

“I know how to ride one,” said Corvina. “I don’t pay much attention beyond that. I rarely leave the city, so I don’t often need to ride, and I don’t find it a particularly interesting or useful hobby, so I can’t say I’m an expert.”

“Ah,” said Anne. “I don’t even know how to ride horses.”

“You should learn sometime,” said Corvina. “It’s a useful skill to have. Just in case you need it.”

“Oh, sure,” said Anne. “I’ll ask Eva about it sometime, I guess.”

After that, there was a bit of an awkward pause. It felt like something was hanging in the air, but Anne couldn’t figure out what it might be. Anne was fully aware that she wasn’t very good at picking up on subtle social cues, so she just decided to ignore whatever it was as best she could.

“Oh, uh, Agis said he can get a message to Elyon,” Anne volunteered, attempting to restart the conversations.

“Oh, good,” said Corvina, nodding. “I’ll compose something to send him.”

Another pause.

Anne made a few more attempts at introducing topics to discuss, but none of them got very far.

Finally, Anne gave up. She sighed. “Do you have anything you want to talk about?” asked Anne. “I’ve run out of topics and it seems like maybe you kind of want to say something, but it’s hard to say? Are you mad at me?”

Corvina looked surprised, and then she shook her head. “No, Anne, of course I’m not mad at you. I—”

At that point their brothers came crashing back into the courtyard again.

“Well, those certainly were some horses,” said Sebastian.

“They don’t have to be one of those fancy breeds you were talking about to be good horses!” said Agis, sitting down heavily at the table. “They’re all strong and valiant and have good hearts! I can tell!”

“I never said they didn’t have good hearts,” said Sebastian. “I’m sure they’re perfectly well suited for the sort of work the Cathedral has them doing.”

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“So you’re calling them work horses!” said Agis.

“They are work horses!” said Sebastian.

“But I can tell you mean that as an insult!” said Agis.

“I don’t—” Sebastian sighed and shook his head. “Never mind. What have you two beautiful women been discussing while we were gone, huh?”

Anne snorted so loud in response that everyone turned to look at her, confused.

“Oh, uh…” said Anne.

Truthfully, Anne had never considered herself particularly attractive, at least in her old world. She supposed that now that she had taken over as the Saintess, she had to at least admit that she had a nice face. After all, the original Saintess had been a renowned beauty. But Anne couldn’t help but feel that she ruined that by being, you know, who she was. Not just the way she did her hair or what clothes she wore, but the way she acted and carried herself. No matter how Anne thought of it, she just didn’t feel like she could fit herself inside a category where “beautiful” would be a relevant compliment to receive.

“I’m sorry,” said Anne. “It’s just kind of funny to hear that word to use to describe me. Obviously Corvina’s extremely beautiful, but… I mean, look at me. You guys have all met me.”

“Handsome, then,” said Corvina, smiling and taking Anne’s hand across the table. “Would you be happier being called an exceedingly handsome woman?”

Anne felt her heart skip a beat.

But she quickly regained her composure and pulled her hand away, laughing. “You shouldn’t tease me like that!”

Anne knew better than to take that sort of thing too seriously.

“I wasn’t—”

“She’s right, though!” interrupted Sebastian. “You’re without a doubt the most handsome Saintess in history.”

“If you say so!” said Anne, laughing again.

They whiled the hours away with this kind of light-hearted and empty talk until the tea had long gone cold. Finally, late in the afternoon, the two royals got up to excuse themselves.

“Thank you again for the flowers,” Anne told Corvina. “I’ll keep them in my room and maybe the nice smell will help me feel a little less like I’m under house arrest.”

“I’m glad you like them,” said Corvina, with a small smile.

Anne sighed and rubbed the back of her head. “I kind of wish the Bishop or whoever would just say what they’re going to do to me already. It’s nice to have a break from that hellish schedule they had me on, but I don’t like feeling like I’m about to get in trouble and not knowing how exactly.”

“Whatever the church hierarchy decides, we’ll find a way to leverage it to our advantage,” said Corvina. “This is what I’m good at. Trust me.”

“Of course!” said Anne, grinning. “Always!”

“And I promise, I’m really not mad at you,” said Corvina. “I’m so sorry if I was acting strange today. I... have a lot on my mind.”

“That’s understandable,” said Anne. “You know you can talk to me about anything, though, right? I’m here for you!”

“Of course,” said Corvina. “Thank you, sincerely.”

“Bye, Saintess!” shouted Sebastian, waving from a few feet away.

“Bye, Sebastian!” said Anne, waving back.

Anne had enjoyed spending the afternoon with her friends, and she did like having time off, but she also got bored if she just sat in her room all day. She was a little surprised Eva hadn’t returned yet. Eva was rarely gone this long without telling Anne where she was going.

“Where do you think Eva went?” Anne asked Agis, after their guests were gone.

Agis shrugged.

“I’m gonna go look for her,” said Anne. “For some reason it makes me nervous, not knowing where she is.”

----------------------------------------

Corvina couldn’t believe how badly that had gone.

Corvina had taken so many careful notes and made so many plans for how she was going to charm Anne when they next met, but as soon as they were actually together and alone, Corvina had suddenly forgotten everything she’d planned to say! Corvina, the center of the Wyernwolf aristocracy’s social world, who always had the right word for the right moment, had been at a complete loss! How devastating! How embarrassing! Anne had even though Corvina might be mad at her! How awful!

And now Corvina’s brother was following her in the street, grinning knowingly at her.

“I believe the imperial palace lies in the other direction, your highness,” said Corvina, as she walked swiftly down the street towards her estate, where she could hide in her office until she felt better.

“I was right, you do like her, don’t you?” said Sebastian, ignoring her attempts at brushing him off.

Corvina couldn’t respond, but instead just stopped in her tracks and covered her face with her hands to try to hide her blushing.

“I knew it!” said Sebastian triumphantly. “I saw those flowers you gave her earlier. Your ‘devoted to her charms,’ are you? You flirt! But why were you acting so coy about it yesterday?”

“I wasn’t sure how I felt when we spoke yesterday,” hissed Corvina. “After you left…”

“After I left…?” said Sebastian, his eyes sparkling and eager.

Corvina stared at him for a moment, and then continued walking again, even faster this time.

“Oh, come on!” said Sebastian. “You can tell me!”

“No, I can’t,” said Corvina. “If I said it out loud I think I might actually die.”

“I think you should just tell her how you feel,” said Sebastian. “She already said that she’s okay with the idea of two people of the same sex being in love, so you’re already halfway there if you ask me.”

“I didn’t ask you,” said Corvina. “Besides, I’m certain a subtle approach is best! Someone like that deserves to be wooed. And confessing your love too soon is too risky, you might—”

“You might what?” asked Sebastian.

Corvina had almost said, If you confess your love too soon you might turn out to have been the second male lead all along, who only ever gets to be just-friends with the female lead after she gently turns him down, while the person who confesses next gets the girl.

“Never mind,” said Corvina. “It doesn’t matter. The point is that careful planning and subtle action have never failed me in the past, and there’s no reason they should fail me now.”

“Whatever you say,” said Sebastian, although he looked skeptical.

Corvina was tired of being the focus of the conversation. “What about you?” asked Corvina. “Is there anyone you have your eye on?”

“No, not really…” said Sebastian, suddenly looking more pensive. “Honestly, I’m thinking of giving up on the prospect of romance altogether.”

“What, why?” asked Corvina. “I told you, you don’t really have to pay much mind to Marshal’s blackmail attempts.”

“Oh, no, I told him off already, thank you,” said Sebastian. “I’m not really worried about that anymore. But, well… it’s not like I could really have much more than a physical relationship with any of the servants I flirt with anyway…”

“What about other nobles?” said Corvina. “If you’d like me to get you a list of which young noblemen are… inclined that direction, I could do that.”

“You have access to that kind of information?” said Sebastian.

“Of course,” said Corvina.

Sebastian paused for a moment, as if considering it, but then shook his head. “No, no. There’s no need. After what you told me about what happened to Giltbert… when he tried to go to my father… I… I know he was trying to hurt me, but… I can’t risk anyone else dying because of me. I just can’t. So I’m just going to stick to harmless flirtation from now on and just give up on ever taking anything any further. It’s okay.”

“Sebastian…” said Corvina, reaching out to him.

“There he is!” someone shouted in the crowd. It was one of the imperial guards, pointing right at Sebastian.

“Whoops!” said Sebastian, with a smile. “I slipped my escort in order to go to the Cathedral. Looks like I gotta go!”

Sebastian ran away laughing.

Several guards charged past Corvina, shouting for the Crown Prince to stop.

Corvina shook her head. Prince Sebastian… would really be an exceedingly easy person to kidnap.

The main reason no one dared touch him up until now was really just out of sheer terror of the Emperor himself. No one wanted to be branded the Emperor’s enemy.

Although according to Anne’s prophecy, even that protection wasn’t going to last…

But all of that was still secondary in Corvina’s mind at the moment. Most of her thoughts were still taken up by Anne, and by the strange new sensations brought about by being interested in someone. Who knew that the highs could be this high, or that the lows could be this low? How was one supposed to gain their bearings when any little thing could send you spinning? It was exhausting and exhilarating.

And Anne had said, ‘you know you can talk to me about anything?’

Yeah, right, thought Corvina. You’re the one person in the world I absolutely can not talk to about this.

When Corvina finally arrived back home, Ulrich was there in the foyer waiting for her in his full butler regalia. He bowed when Corvina came in.

“My lady,” he said. “I must inform you—”

“Whatever it is, can it wait until later?” asked Corvina, heading to the stairs. “I really would like to have a cigarette and maybe even a nap before supper. I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

“My lady, I’m afraid I really must insist,” said Ulrich. “Your fiance is here.”