Elorin’s face was a mere outline in the pale circle of moonlight streaming through the window. “There has been a change in you since she died,” she said. Leela nodded. That, at least, was no secret. “It seems to me as if you carry a heavy burden. Yet I do not know what it is or what I can do to help. And I would very much like to help you.”

“I . . .” Leela’s heart stuttered out a painful beat. She so badly needed a friend but she was unsure if she could truly trust Elorin. Besides, if she did believe, then was Leela putting Elorin in danger too?

“They said you wanted to visit Plenna, to see her happy because you miss Sera,” Elorin said. “But I do not believe that. You were never close with Plenna. I asked myself, why would Leela break a sacred rule for a Cerulean she has no strong attachment to? And then I realized that there is a Cerulean at the birthing houses who you might break the rules to see.” Elorin leaned forward and whispered, “Sera’s purple mother.”

Leela inhaled sharply, her eyebrows shooting up her forehead. Elorin’s satisfied smile was a glint in the moonlight.

“I knew it,” she said. “But I still do not understand why. Was it merely to comfort her? There are some novices who whisper that it feels too soon for her to bear another child. Others think she must be overjoyed by the chance to have a new daughter. It is not for me to question the will of Mother Sun, but . . . I think Sera’s purple mother must be very sad. Yet I still cannot believe that you would go against such a firm rule without good reason, and comfort does not seem to be enough.”

Leela listened to her work all this out and realized that Elorin was far more perceptive than she had ever given her credit for. Sera had never liked her much because she was so pious, but Leela was beginning to see that her piety was only one facet, that the girl as a whole was someone entirely more layered—that maybe she kept things about herself secret too.

“What if,” she began hesitantly, “I told you that I did not believe it was Mother Sun who chose Kandra to be blessed to bear another child?”

Elorin blinked. “But who else could possibly do that?”

“Who indeed?” Leela held her tongue and waited; it felt like she could hear the wheels turning in Elorin’s mind. Leela knew she could not suggest the High Priestess’s name herself—it would not be as it was with Kandra, who already had a reason to distrust her. Elorin was a novice. She had chosen a life of devotion to Mother Sun and, by extension, the High Priestess herself. If she could not or would not make this connection, Leela thought, then she would know where the girl stood.