She flinched back. “Yes, well,” she said quietly, “it turns out that my father’s legacy has stretched farther than I’d anticipated.”

What was I doing? I was a liar and she was laying herself bare. “I’m sorry,” I said, my head spinning, my chest hollow. Mephi was there beside me, propping me up. I dug my fingers into the fur of his neck, letting him steady me. “Give me a moment. I know it’s not your fault.”

She let out a long, shaky breath. “I don’t have anyone. I have no real family, no friends except for Thrana. But I can’t keep this all inside. I need to trust someone, to feel like I can still belong. That I’m still real and not just what he made me.”

Mephi looked up at me. He’d seen past my smuggler’s guise. He’d seen me as someone who tried to help. He’d seen me as someone who was good. It had been enough.

Who was I fooling? I’d never send that letter, no matter what she was. Gio might not be able to see it, but we needed Lin. We needed people like her. I took in a deep, shuddering breath. “If you were what he made you, you wouldn’t have ended the Tithing Festival. You wouldn’t have taken apart Bing Tai. You wouldn’t be traveling to the islands and trying to gain the people’s support.” It felt like I was explaining this to myself as I explained it to her. “Your father never would have done any of that. Neither would Nisong. They certainly had the chance.”

“Thank you,” she said. She wiped at her eyes. “Urame approved my plan, and I have volunteers for the shards, and a body. This isn’t me going back down that path, and I need you to understand that. This is me using the tools I have.”

I found myself taking the few steps to stand before her, taking her hands in mine. “I trust you.”

She sagged into me. I wrapped my arms around her; it came as naturally to me as breathing. Endless Sea could take the gossip. I might have been a smuggler and half-Poyer, but I was the Captain of the Imperial Guard and I had a song written about me – that had to count for something.

I was overthinking this.

The feel of her body pressed to mine did interesting things to my thoughts. I kissed the top of her head and heard her sigh. Her hands moved over my back, tracing the lines of my shoulderblades. I shivered, suddenly aware that we were alone in my room, that Mephi was staring studiously out the window and that the bed was three steps behind me.