Was this going to be the rest of her life? Slipping into coats she didn’t like, fretting about the state of the kingdom, and whether she ruled well, and what kind of world she would leave her own heir?

Her heir.

Oh, that meant love and marriage and—and other things. She barely knew what love was, and even so, she wasn’t all that sure he loved her, too, and thinking about it got her nervous. Had the room just become stuffy? She began to unfasten the coat, one button at a time, almost tearing off the last one to get it undone, pulling at the collar of her blouse to get some air.

Stop thinking. You’re okay. You’ll be—

“That color really doesn’t suit you,” said a voice in the doorway.

Surprised, Ana glanced into the mirror, and behind her stood Di. He looked just as tragically handsome as ever, clad in an evening coat as black as coal, designs of golden suns across the collar and cuffs, a ruffly white ascot tight against his throat, his trousers as dark as his polished leather boots. His bloodred hair was half up in a bun, silver stitches sewing together the wound on his cheek. He had a box under his arm that was tied tight with a piece of string.

She spun around to him. “You always seem to find me in a state of undress,” she noted.

She had barely seen him this last week, and standing there he looked both familiar and strange—someone she knew intimately and yet didn’t know at all.

“Seems so,” he replied. “You have a visitor who wants to see you. If you don’t mind your state of decency, I won’t say anything.”

She was about to tell him to shush when a familiar whirring made her pause. Her eyes widened. It couldn’t be. A moment later, a small square bot peeked over Di’s shoulder, its lens widening at the sight of her.

“E0S!” she cried, flinging out her arms.

The bot gave a shrill beep and flew around Di to her, and she grabbed it and squeezed it tight to her chest.

“I thought you were fried!” She laughed. It wiggled out of her arms and nuzzled her cheek. She wanted to cry, she was so happy to see it. She asked, “How did you fix it?”

He rubbed his chest where Erik had punctured him with the sword. It was fixed now, she’d heard, the wires soldered, but rubbing it had become a habit, like with the scar on her belly. “Well,” he began, “I broke the bot, didn’t I? So I had to fix it. Besides, I thought you’d need your little companion back. It’s much better use like this than you lobbing it at my head.” E0S swirled away from her and bumped against the side of his head again. He glared at it. “Or not.”

E0S blipped happily.

“Ah, you’re right. Almost forgot. This is for you.” He handed her the box from under his arm.