Anne watched Corvina’s face for any sign of a reaction. Would she be disappointed? Angry? Would she know how to fix this? Anne felt kind of pathetic, sitting there on that fancy green couch (most of the furniture in the room was green), with Corvina sitting across from her like a judge or a disappointed teacher. And Eva sitting by her side with her usual unreadable serene expression wasn’t really doing much to make Anne feel more at ease.

“What should we do?” Anne asked. “The whole plan depends on the elves being willing to fake kidnap Sebastian.”

Corvina sighed and put the paper down on the table in front of her. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “The letter is addressed to you, so you should write back,” said Corvina. “Ask Prince Elyon to meet us in person. If the primary issue is that he dislikes me personally then that’s not the sort of thing we could resolve through an exchange of letters.”

“What if we meet up and he still won’t agree to be part of this?” asked Anne.

“I don’t know!” snapped Corvina. “We’ll just have to figure it out if it comes to that.”

Corvina’s whole face and body looked incredibly tense, like the very presence of the physical world was suddenly painful to her. It made Anne feel guilty for even being nearby.

“Okay…” said Anne. “Sorry.”

Corvina looked over at Anne and her expression visibly softened, releasing a lot of the tension.

“No, Anne, I’m sorry for snapping, I just…” Corvina glanced over at Eva, who was sitting next to Anne. “Look, Anne, can we talk?”

“Yeah, of course,” said Anne. “Is that not what we’re doing?”

“No, I was hoping to talk to you privately,” said Corvina.

“Oh,” said Anne. “Okay, maybe we can—“

“Absolutely not,” said Eva, grabbing Anne’s arm. “I refuse to leave your side. It’s still too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous?” said Corvina.

“Oh, um, I guess I forgot to mention,” said Anne. “An assassin, maybe the same assassin who was supposed to go after Sebastian in my vision of the future or whatever, actually followed us to Longren and seems to be… trying to kill me… maybe.”

“What!?” said Corvina, standing up. “And you didn’t think that was worth mentioning earlier?”

“There’s a lot going on right now, okay?” said Anne. “It slipped my mind!”

There was a knock on the door and a servant came in bringing a tray of coffees.

Corvina sat back down and Anne and Eva both settled back into their seats. There were certain discussions you just didn’t have in front of servants. Especially when they involved secret plans and assassins.

Then Anne noticed that, peeking shyly from behind the servant’s legs, there was a little girl with her pink hair in two buns on each side of her head. She followed the servant into the room, still trying to hide behind him like she was trying to be sneaky.

Anne glanced at Eva and Corvina and they were both looking at the little girl, too.

When the girl realized that everyone in the room had already noticed her and was staring at her, she visibly reevaluated her strategy.

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She stepped out from behind the servant and curtsied. “Excuse me, Miss Staintess?” she said, uncertainly addressing Anne. “I’m terribly sorry to interrupt, but I was really hoping to talk to you. My name is Liza. I think you know my sister, Belle.”

Awww, adorable, thought Anne.

“Nice to meet you, Liza!” said Anne. “Is there something I can help you with? Did you want a blessing from the Saintess?”

At this point the servant had finished pouring the coffees, and instead of leaving the room he went to stand by the door. Perhaps in addition to serving he was also a sort of babysitter for the little girl?

“Um, actually…” said Liza. “I was hoping I could ask you some questions about divine magic!” The girl’s eyes lit up when she said the word magic. “I’m just so terribly interested in magic! We have a lot of books on the history and theory of magic but a lot of it still doesn’t make sense to me, especially divine magic. I know it’s rude to interrupt your after-dinner coffee, but I just couldn’t help myself, what with the actual Saintess being here. Won’t you please answer some of my questions about magic?”

Oh fuck, thought Anne, who didn’t actually know that much about magic.

“Well…” said Anne. “Divine magic is the power of the Goddess here on earth. She grants her power to the people she chooses.”

“I know that,” said Liza, rolling her eyes. “But how does it actually work? There are major contradictions in the historical record that I just can’t reconcile given my current knowledge.”

“Wow, you know a lot of big words, huh?” said Anne. “That’s really cool, at your age.”

“Don’t patronize me,” said Liza, with a childish pout.

Anne had never been very good at dealing with kids. She just didn’t have any experience with them. In her previous world Anne had been an only child and she’d been disowned by her family before any of her cousins had started having kids. And she didn’t have a lot of good memories of her own childhood so she mostly just tried not to think about it. Basically, Anne had no idea how to talk to a nine year-old, let alone a super smart nine year-old asking dangerously insightful questions.

“The thing is, I’m, um…” said Anne. “Not actually much of a scholar. I’m more focused on the… practical work of the Saintess.”

Truthfully Anne had also more or less ignored the practical work of the Saintess when she could get away with it, but Liza didn’t need to know that.

“Really?” said Liza. She didn’t look deterred at all. “Then maybe you could give me a practical demonstration? I’ve seen some of the miracles you’ve performed in town, but I’ve never seen one up close before!”

Oh shit, thought Anne.

“I can’t really just… call a miracle at will,” said Anne. “I don’t fully control it in that way. The will of the Goddess controls my miracles.”

“Then why were you able to perform scheduled miracles in the town square before?” asked Liza.

Anne floundered again. As far as Anne knew she had just gotten lucky. But before she could come up with a better-sounding excuse than that, Eva jumped in with an explanation.

“The more people are praying at once, the more likely it is for the Goddess to hear our requests and grant a miracle,” said Eva.

“Interesting!” said Liza. “Who are you?”

Suddenly, Anne had an idea.

“This is Sister Eva!” said Anne, putting her hand on Eva’s shoulder. “She’s actually much more of a scholar than I am. Maybe she can stay here with you and answer your questions about magic while me and Lady Corvina go on a walk in the garden.”

“Really? That would be incredible! Just a second, I’ll go get my books!” Liza ran out of the room. The servant followed her.

“No way!” hissed Eva. “I told you, I’m not letting you out of my sight. It’s too dangerous!”

“I’ll be at least as safe with Corvina as I am with you,” said Anne. “Corvina’s got a sword! You can see she’s wearing it right now. And I know for a fact she’s also got a hidden blade on her leg.”

Corvina blushed slightly at the mention of the hidden blade.

“And what weapons do you carry, huh?” asked Anne. “What are you going to do to protect me if the assassin shows up again?”

Eva opened her mouth like she was about to argue, but then closed it again.

“Besides, there are a lot of imperial army soldiers stationed on the grounds here. It’s probably one of the safer places in Longren. I’m not gonna die taking a walk around the garden here,” said Anne.

Eva looked from Anne to Corvina.

“I’m actually very well-trained with a sword,” said Corvina, mildly.

Eva looked back at Anne.

She sighed.

“Fine,” said Eva. “Just… stay safe, okay?”

“Thanks for being worried about me,” said Anne, giving Eva a brief hug. “I’ll be okay, though.”

“Yeah, yeah,” said Eva.

Corvina stood up and offered her hand to Anne to help her up. “Shall we go?” she asked.

Anne took her hand and smiled. “Just show me the way,” said Anne.