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Princess Despina gives you a considering look. She's been very steadily keeping her gaze on you rather than Meredith since you entered, you notice. "I suppose it would have been worse to risk word getting out," the princess says at last, "but I still feel you might have found a way to give me some measure of warning."

"The crown," Meredith says in a steady voice, as Letha's sword arm twitches. "Let me help defend it. I want it protected as much as you do."

Princess Despina snorts, though it comes out as more of a desperate huff. "I'm sure you do," she says. "You're hardly the only one with an interest in it." She glances at her cousin, just for a moment. You suspect the only reason Evander was admitted to the princess's private study is because Meredith distracted her so much that she didn't notice him in time to bar him entry. From the way he's been looking around at the furnishings, you're fairly certain he's never been in this room before.

Meredith bristles more than she did when Letha brought the blade to her throat. "The material value of the bauble holds no interest to me. I want the prophecy averted, the same as you do."

"Too much risk in a public execution, I fear," the princess muses, now no longer looking at Meredith at all. "And I've no time to properly arrange one. Her information's been useful. You say she can't use magic now? So imprisonment may stand some chance of working."

"She hasn't been using magic," Verity corrects, folded against the wall. "We don't know that she can't."

"This is where I need to be right now," Meredith says. "Keep me wherever you like. I've no intention of leaving."

Letha is staring Meredith down, her arm only just beginning to tremble. "Despina," she says, "what about Mardas's thing?"

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"Ah, yes." Princess Despina looks apprehensive. "I didn't expect to be testing it so soon."

"Wait," Evander says, straightening from his uncertain position against the back wall. "You've been talking to Chancellor Mardas, Despina?"

"Yes." The princess's voice is curt. "Once he started answering my letters. Apparently he's discovered some old warding spell to hold a demon in place. It's meant to set up a circle that a demon can't pass through by any means, not even teleportation. It's something the Realm-Warden devised himself, but it's fallen out of use because it's impractically difficult to hold a demon in place long enough to set it up. If this one's exhausted her magic, there's a chance, but I'm reluctant to take what Mardas says on faith."

"Because you don't want to admit it if he's right, do you?" Evander asks, eyes narrow.

"Because we'd be facing a creature who could kill us all with a thought, armed with nothing but a charm that's gone untested for three hundred years, Evander," the princess says, massaging her temples.

"That's the question, isn't it," the princess mutters. She looks to Meredith. "Do you know the spell? Will it work on you? Answer me."

"I know the spell," Meredith says. She knew the Realm-Warden—she might have seen it in person. "I can't tell you if it would hold me without knowing the skill of the caster." She hesitates a moment. "I don't recommend it, but if that's what it takes for you to trust me, so be it."

Princess Despina narrows her eyes, dissatisfied, but doesn't ask another question. Despite her dismissal of Evander's concerns, you've been involved enough in the princess's machinations that you're certain legitimizing a new Academy technique isn't as of little concern to her as she implied. Her mind's definitely made up about imprisoning Meredith, but you might be able to nudge her one way or the other about the spell.

"She doesn't seem worried, Princess," you say, gesturing toward Meredith. "Can we really trust what she's saying?"

"If there's one thing I know about demons, it's that you can, in fact, trust the things they say," Princess Despina says, looking unimpressed with you. "If a skilled mage couldn't hold her, she wouldn't have been able to say what she said. And as Mardas is something like the greatest living expert on demonic magic, I think I'm willing to wager on his skill with a demonic spell."

At once, the princess stands from her desk. "Mardas is still at the Academy, but he can be here tomorrow if I send word now. I'm not going to risk any Archan mages trying his spell. The demon will have to go unwarded for one night."

"I don't mean to go anywhere," Meredith says softly, "provided I'm not forced."

"Well, I'm glad that's settled," Princess Despina says, disguising an eyeroll. "Letha, will you see that she's escorted to the dungeon? Discreetly?" Letha nods, sheathes her sword, and after a reluctant swallow, grabs Meredith by the elbow. Meredith makes no objection as they leave.

Next

the time the door falls closed, Princess Despina is already thumbing through a bookshelf on her wall. Aside from a slight shudder that passes through her shoulders, you'd never know a demon had been in the room at all. "Wedding preparations," she mutters. "Don't think it's escaped my notice that the crown is meant to be disappearing on the same day as my wedding. I have a plan, and I intend to have a word with you about that, Jun, but right now I need to argue with some florists. Come back here…tomorrow afternoon, will you?"

"I don't require your entourage, no." You think the princess is deliberately avoiding Evander's eyes. "Just your particular talents."

Before you can ask for more details, Princess Despina slams a book she retrieved down onto her desk. "I really do need to meet with these florists, so I'm afraid you'll all have to leave," she says. "Any of you without lodgings in town are welcome to stay in our guest wing. The guards outside will show you the way."

Evander advances on her desk. "We need to talk."

"That's odd," the princess says, flipping through her book. "I hadn't heard you'd become a florist."

"Despina." Shoulders stiff, Evander lays a hand on the desk and doesn't move until she looks up. "You put people in danger just so you could publicly humiliate me. And now you're keeping your plans for the crown secret as well? We're going to talk."

At the mention of the crown, Princess Despina goes still. Evander so much as using the word seems to bother her, and you wonder how much of her scheme for the crown is designed solely to keep it out of Evander's hands. You also can't help wondering just how big a statement it would be if the relic somehow found its way there anyway. For a moment, you're certain the princess is going to order Evander out of the room entirely, but what she eventually says is, "Jun, if you wouldn't mind, tell the guards on your way out to delay the florists."

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