Sweat gathered between Phalue’s shoulder-blades. Ranami didn’t grab her arm, but she could feel the tension of her wife’s posture – a bowstring pulled taut by her ear. Anger and consternation simmered below the surface of the room, just waiting for something to knock the lid off and send it boiling over. Her father would have ordered in his guards, removed the petitioners by force. Her father would have never allowed petitioners in the first place.

She almost lifted a hand to order it so – just to buy herself a little breathing room, a little time to come up with a proper response.

The law would be on her side but her father had made the laws. Perhaps it was time to unmake some of them. She wanted her people to love her, not fear her. She was not her father, and she would keep it that way.

Phalue cleared her throat. “You’re right. I did plan an escape. But the way I did it was wrong.” Her voice rang through the room, silencing the mutters. “I didn’t want anyone to panic, but I also wanted to plan for the worst just in case. It was an error on my part to keep those plans secret. The truth is – we shouldn’t panic. The islands that sank had witstone mines on them. It’s the only theory we have at the moment as to why they sank. Nephilanu has no mine. But we can prepare without panicking. I should have made my intentions clear. I shouldn’t have kept this a secret. I thought by doing so I could lessen the panic, but instead I’ve made it worse. For that, I am sorry.”

A chopstick dropping to the floor would have sounded ear-shattering, that’s how quiet the room had become. Phalue supposed they’d never heard a governor apologize before. Certainly she’d never heard her father do so.

“Everyone should prepare,” she said. “I’ll take the guidelines we came up with and distribute them.” She could feel Ranami staring at her. It took her wife a moment to remember to write this promise down. “Try to have witstone. Know which path you’d take to the ocean. Have a boat ready, or passage on a boat ready. Most likely we won’t need these precautions. But these are trying times. We should all be careful.”

“Do you think that’s good enough? You lied to us.” The woman who spoke had a rough look to her. Phalue’s gaze flicked to the knife at the woman’s belt. With Tythus and so many guards arrayed behind her, she’d never thought to check the petitioners for weapons. How many others had knives with them? Another thought occurred: how many had the Shardless Few planted among the petitioners?