Malachite must’ve taken my plea about introducing Lucien to other girls to heart, because I start to see Lucien walking with someone who isn’t Varia or Fione; a beautiful girl with pale milk-blond hair and warm brown eyes of cinnamon. She’s as graceful as Y’shennria and far quieter than I. On the first day, Lucien is as cold as winter toward her—ignoring everything she rarely says, walking fast as if trying to ditch her. But she keeps coming back. Malachite keeps smiling at her when she walks up. He approves of her, that much is clear, and I feel a pang of regret that I can’t be the one he’s smiling at.

The beneather is smart, and he knows how Lucien works—he keeps talking to her long enough to force Lucien to engage with her as well. She walks quickly to keep up with Lucien, sometimes running—an unsightly thing noble girls are never supposed to do. But unlike the other noble girls, she doesn’t seem to care how she looks. Her dresses are simple, her hair even simpler. She trips over carpets as she runs, but she always gets to her feet instantly and determinedly continues after Lucien, apologizing for her own clumsiness.

It doesn’t take long for me to overhear exactly who she is—Lady Ania Tarroux, a Goldblood whose father’s money is funding a great deal of the war effort. The nobles call her simple and rather hopeless, but the way she so genuinely tries to keep up with Lucien despite him ignoring her—something about it plays on my unheart strings. She doesn’t laugh excessively, or bat her eyelashes, or desperately try to get him to talk. She’s just…there, steady and gentle. I’m half in awe of how well Malachite knows Lucien—steadiness and persistence are the two things a girl pursuing Lucien needs more than anything, and she has it in spades. He’s picked well.

Sometimes, it gets hard to breathe when I think such thoughts. But I like to blame it on the dust in the palace.

I ask around about her—the kitchen maids more than happy to gossip with me. Lady Tarroux lost her mother at a very young age, and by all accounts she’s the one raising her four other sisters. She’s very devout—spending most of her time in prayer in the Temple of Kavar in the center of the city—and often she’s spotted handing out food and clothing with the priestesses. She’s due to debut next year at the Spring Welcoming, and the rumors are, of course, already circulating about it, seeing as Lucien hasn’t announced his engagement to me. Or to anyone.