“He does.” Likh’s face was miserable. “I…I blurted it out in the heat of anger. He just stared at me like I’d grown another head. He had no idea. He hadn’t thought about me that way. That’s what made me want to drink and forget last night. That’s why I was flirting with your friends. I wanted to feel, for one brief second, how it would be if I were what I looked like, instead of what I really am. I know that’s no excuse…”

“I’m so sorry.”

He looked at me in amazement. “Sorry for what?”

“The rest of this wasn’t supposed to happen. You were supposed to be accepted as an asha and be an amazing dancer and star in the darashi oyun, without all these other challenges.”

“No one forced me to become an asha. I wanted it. I wanted it so bad that it was obvious to you. Even when I was a zivar shopkeeper’s assistant with a talent for weaves and a head full of dreams.” Likh smiled. “I thought about quitting, but if I did, it would only justify what others thought about me, that I didn’t deserve to be asha. There were some bad days, but there were a lot of good days too, and I won’t trade any of those for the world.”

He looked down at his hands. “Maybe I need to understand myself first, you know? So I can figure out what I’d like to change about me after that.”

I hugged him. “You are far wiser than I will ever be, Likh. Whatever you do, I’ll support you. But we must get the Blight purged from your system first.”

“Lady Tea, Lady Likh.” Lord Aden entered the hall with Lords Knox and Balfour. The big man was especially pale, and not from the Mireth Light; nearly escaping a terrible fate tended to do that, even to the bravest fighters. He also stank of his own runic wards. “I understand that I have you to thank for my life.”

“It was I who imperiled it in the first place,” I said, rising to my feet. As Kalen had predicted, I couldn’t quite meet their eyes after my show last night. “If Aadil hadn’t seen the azi, you all might have been spared.”

Lord Knox chuckled. “How red you are, Lady Tea! What’s spoken in our cups remains in our cups, milady. We’ve been down that road many times before.”