“Everything’s fine,” I said quickly, seeing panic start to overtake her. “They just came early. About a month ago. They needed lots of medical help, but everything looks great for them.”

She relaxed, but her blue-gray eyes were still wide. “Then you’re ... wow. You’re a mom. And I’m an aunt.”

I smiled. “Yup. Their names are Isaac and Ivy.” I wasn’t going to say a word, not even to her, about their location, but their names were safe enough. That revelation got an even bigger reaction. Jasmine filled with delight.

“You named her after me!”

I frowned, not entirely sure where that leap of logic had come from. Because of shared botanical names? “Well, I—”

“Oh, Eugenie!” She jumped up from her chair and hugged me again, leaving the cloak behind. “You’re so awesome. Thanks so much!”

She seemed so happy that I figured it wasn’t worth mentioning the plant names were coincidental. Just as my un-layered state had surprised her, I was astonished to look at her now and see how skinny she was. I could feel her ribs when she hugged me.

“What happened to you?” I exclaimed, once she’d sat down again. “You’re skin and bones!”

Jasmine glanced down with a scowl and picked at her too-loose dress. “Oh, that. Well, there’s not a lot of food anymore. Plus, trying to keep the lands alive takes a lot out of me.”

Guilt ran through me. I certainly knew communing with the land took a fair amount of energy, but it hadn’t occurred to me until now that doing so in these conditions would be extra taxing—especially since she was just the substitute. Maybe that bonding wasn’t solely responsible for her weight loss, but I didn’t doubt that keeping the land in check played a role in some of the gauntness in her face.

“Jasmine, I’m so sorry—”

She waved it off. “Don’t worry. It had to be done, right? Besides, once it’s charged, the land can go a while in these conditions. And you did what you needed. Everything’s okay with Isaac and my namesake, which was the whole purpose.”

She then proceeded to give us an account of how things had been in both kingdoms. Jasmine didn’t use quite the technical language and statistics that Shaya might when describing people and resources, but she did a much better job than I would have expected. In filling in for me, Jasmine had ended up taking on a lot more responsibilities than just being the lands’ caretaker. Her report gave me more specifics on the situation here, but the big picture wasn’t much different from what Roland had described. As close as Jasmine was to Pagiel, she hadn’t accepted any of his stolen goods—though she was undecided on whether what he was doing was wrong.