“As much as I had hoped never to see you again… I am glad you are here, revered one. There aren’t many people I can rely on these days.”

  “If my title bothers you that much, you can just use my name, you know.” She was good at guessing what was on my mind when I was little, and it seemed that held true now as well.

  The door opened and the young priestess from earlier entered, carrying two plates of food. The meals were more luxurious than I expected – another example of special treatment for noble visitors, I suppose. As I poked at the dish with my fork, something occurred to me.

  “Aifé, I thought servants of Metis were vegetarian?”

  She shook her head. “That’s just something the main temple came up with to look more pious. Not that there’s anything wrong with it, of course, but it’s not anywhere in our scriptures.”

  “An advantage to being exiled from the capital, then.” I smiled.

  She smiled back. “A silver lining, perhaps.”

  We ate in silence for a few minutes, and then she spoke up.

  “Have you been doing well? I know you’ve been working for Duchess Solana. I hope she hasn’t been overworking you, and you’ve had enough time to yourself to make friends.”

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  I could only assume Gen had remained in contact with her and kept her updated on how I was doing.

  “It’s better than being at home, at least. I’ve met many good people, I enjoy the work, and I’ve learned a few things from the duchess that will come in handy when the time is right.”

  “Everything that happened…” she laid her silverware down on her plate and stared down at the table. “… it makes me so angry. It shouldn’t be possible to do things like that and get away with it, let alone be rewarded.”

  Part of what made Aifé so frustrating to deal with was how often we agreed on things. If not for her history with my family, we probably could have been friends. Before everything went wrong, I admired her a little.

  “There’s a lot that needs to be set right, and many wrongs that can’t be undone. One thing I’ve learned, though, is that there’s no point in thinking about them unless there’s something we can learn.”

  “I’m sorry, Rosa. I shouldn’t have brought this up, it’s just that you-”

  She cut herself off before saying something I had heard many times before. At the very least, she knew not to make things worse.

  “I’m sorry. This isn’t the time for a discussion like this. Your friend, please tell me more about why she’s here.”

  I frowned. “You weren’t informed? I was certain the temple had spies in the estate.”

  She seemed genuinely shocked by this. “What? That’s ridiculous, we… shouldn’t have spies or anything like that. No, I haven’t been told anything, other than that the saintess fell ill and you were bringing her here.”

  As she uttered the words “fell ill”, a complicated expression crossed her face. “It’s not … like before, is it?”

  “As much as I want to believe otherwise, I’m afraid it is.”

  She grimaced and rubbed her temples. “We shouldn’t discuss this where someone could overhear.”