“Today was one of the rare times when I stopped a future tragedy from happening. My contract with Kosandion put no limits on me. He didn’t ask me to guard him. He simply asked me to enter the selection and to act if I judged my intervention was needed. If Amphie hadn’t pulled the trigger, I would’ve continued to play my chosen role to the very end, taken my minor ask, and departed with no one the wiser.”

“What’s your minor ask?”

“A very generous donation to the Temple. I had to stay in character. A woman dripping in gold would ask for more wealth, of course.”

“I thought you would ask for Clan Nuan to become the preferred partner of the Dominion.”

She chuckled. “That is the major ask. A change like that would require reworking the Dominion’s entire interstellar trade. It’s all moot now. Don’t worry. Clan Nuan knew it was a very long shot. They are satisfied.”

The Temple would get their donation, Clan Nuan would drastically improve their trade with the Dominion even without the major ask, and Kosandion would look like a flawless ruler, who both anticipated threats and neutralized them. Declining the protection of the inn during the assassination was the ultimate power move. An overly poetic guest once described being inside of the inn as “being held in a god’s palm,” with your every need met in absolute safety. Even life’s little accidents like tripping and hitting an elbow on the counter didn’t happen inside the inn. Kosandion had showed to the Dominion that even in a god’s palm, he would make his own contingency plans.

I looked at her. “That seems like a lot to leave to chance. Did he help you move up? What if you’d been eliminated in one of the earlier rounds?”

She laughed. It was a light, melodious laugh, warm and infectious. “Kosandion has his faults, but he would never insult me.”

Even if he had manipulated public opinion in her favor, there was no way to fake the trials. She had done well in the debate, wowed in the talent portion, and then she effortlessly won the game. And when Prysen Ol’s sword-whip hurtled at his face, Kosandion didn’t even flinch. He had complete confidence in her skills.

“Kosandion and I are similar in a way,” she said. “Both of us trained from birth to walk the path predestined for us. We are both good at what we do. He understands empires. I understand people. The biggest worry was that Amphie might have been eliminated too soon. There are limits to how much public opinion can be swayed in the face of abject failure.”

“When did you begin to suspect her?”