“And see.” Raven opened a jewelry box that sat on the vanity. Inside was a necklace of seed pearls. She lifted the strand of tiny beads from the box and strung them around my wooden neck. The pearls were luminous drops of moonlight, but all I could think of was the tortoises I had skinned for their nacreous shells, their thick bodies trying to blunder out of my grasp.

“There,” Raven said, satisfied. “And we shall have better than that, when we come up in the world.”

I touched the cool little beads. Pansies nodded at me from the green window box. This room was all I could have wanted. It was a room not for a servant, but for a daughter.

“Nirrim, I understand that you are surprised, but my generosity warrants some thanks, I think.”

“What about Morah and Annin? Do they have rooms here?”

“That’s hardly necessary, is it?”

“So you want me to live here with you.”

“Of course, my girl.”

“Without them.”

“Someone must manage the tavern.” She saw my face and leaned forward to clasp my hands. “You have always known that you were my favorite. Look at everything I have built for us. Imagine everything we can do together. Why do you think I allowed you to go to the High quarter with that imperious foreigner? Because I trusted my clever Nirrim. I knew you would gain access to a High-Kith passport and forge one perfectly, and you have, haven’t you? If I turned such a tidy profit on Middling passports, just think what I could get for selling High passports to Middlings. And you’ll forge one for me, of course.”

I understood, then, why she had had Aden make a heliograph for her, the one I lost the night I was arrested. She continued, “Eventually, we will move to the High quarter. We shall live like queens!”

“No,” I said.

Her nails dug into my hand. “I’m sure I didn’t hear you. Speak again, Nirrim, with the respect due to your loving ama.”

“No. I won’t forge any more passports for you. You don’t care about me any more than you do about Morah and Annin. I’m just more useful to you.” Her nails drew blood. I tugged my hand away.