In the seat beside her, Eti yawned. She had been following the lesson until then. But she’d become bored. “If this is what you plan on doing all day, then I’m going to practice my wielding,” she said.

Laya tousled her hair. “Go on, then,” she said, dismissing her. She turned back to Ariel, a renewed hardness in her tone. “I don’t believe our lesson is over quite yet.”

“Suit yourselves.” Eti set her pen down and swept from the room, no doubt to spend the rest of the afternoon crafting a bangle or two.

Ariel held Laya’s gaze, this time with a frown. “You truly don’t believe learning to communicate in these languages will be useful to you?”

“To communicate with foreign dignitaries, you mean?” she asked.

“To communicate with anyone who isn’t Maynaran.”

“When I am queen, I shall require any foreign dignitaries to study my language before I deign to speak with them. As for non-Maynarans . . .” Laya trailed off with a laugh. “I hardly think I will encounter them enough in my lifetime to make learning their languages a worthwhile endeavor. You, of course, are the exception.”

Ariel’s frown deepened. “With all due respect, Dayang, Maynara is but one small island in a vast world. I understand your people’s policy of isolation, but even isolation has its limits. There are dozens of countries out there with whom you might form a beneficial alliance. As a future sovereign, you must be at least a bit interested in this.”

Laya matched his frown with one of her own. “By the gods. You sound like you’ve been spending too much time with my mother,” she said, annoyed. She was willing to tolerate Ariel’s insolence, but she was not going to allow this foreigner to presume he knew what was best for Maynara’s future, more than she did.

“Hara Duja is being realistic,” Ariel said, frustration rising in his tone. “Maynara must open the door to the rest of the world in some way, be it through trade agreements or diplomacy. Openness does not always end in conquest.”

“Oh, but it does. We need only look at your homeland to know this,” Laya retorted. She slouched back in her seat, crossing her arms in front of her chest. “No matter what you believe, Ariel, Maynara does not need the rest of the world. We’ve survived hundreds of years for a reason. If closing our doors protects our people, so be it.”

“Maynara may not need the rest of the world, but the rest of the world needs Maynara. Did you once consider that?” Ariel shoved his spectacles back up the bridge of his nose and leaned in. “I watched you in the courtyard the other day, Dayang. Had I an ounce of your power, I⁠—”