But that greatness had passed. The facades of the buildings were chipped and stained, the gilding worn off, the shop signs faded. Grand palaces that once housed Ardentine river-merchant lords were now let out to visiting Raverrans, or had been broken up into shops and inns. Litter and grime besmirched the streets once walked by some of the greatest artists and thinkers of Eruvia. Perhaps it was my conversation with Lady Savony, but I seemed to notice more Closed signs and quite a few more beggars than I had two years ago.

On one corner, a handful of tradesmen gathered around a broadside posted on a hostelry wall, talking animatedly. I peered at the large blocky print and got as far as THROW OFF THE SHACKLES OF EMPIRE! FOR THE SAKE OF OUR CHILDREN before the coach rolled past. And someone had painted GO HOME RAVERRAN SHARKS across the boarded-up windows of a defunct artifice charm shop, with a crudely drawn domino mask beneath. That was new, too, and it left an unsettled feeling in my stomach.

Our coach turned from the route I expected. I almost protested, but caught the words behind my teeth. Of course we weren’t heading to the Serene Envoy’s Palace this time; Ignazio was no longer the envoy.

By the tightness of his jaw as he looked out the window, Ignazio was thinking the same thing.

If the brick town house Ignazio had rented for us disappointed him with its faded grandeur, the same could not possibly be true of his welcome back to Ardence. The day of our arrival found us at a fete celebrating his return to the city.

Ignazio was not a dancer. Lord Waldon, the Ardentine noble hosting the affair, seemed to know it; the soft strains of music were calculated to support pauses in conversation rather than to inspire dancing. Ignazio stood radiant, surrounded by the Ardentine elite, each of them seeking his attention with serious faces and thinly disguised anxiety. As I lingered by the wine table, looking for people I knew, I kept hearing his voice drifting across the crowd:

“Well, as you know, I’m no longer in a position to say anything official, but …”

“I can’t make promises in my current situation, of course, but I’ll see if I can …”

“Naturally I no longer have the intelligence access I did as envoy, but my understanding is …”