“Yes,” said Quona. “All right. That’s fairly simple. There’s a Scholar in Parliament who recently decided to change sides on the zilfium vote and vote with the Industrialists to legalize zilfium use. I stole the varane formulas to bribe him back.”

“Bribe him back!” Hava repeated incredulously. “Is this the man we heard people fighting about at the Cavenda dinner party?”

“I’m not going to tell you everything,” said Quona, with an interesting, tired resolve in her voice. “You already have the power to ruin me, but I want this deal to go through. The Scholar in question has a friend in Kamassar who will pay him a fortune for the varane formulas. In return, the Scholar will switch his vote back, vote against zilfium, and help to ensure that zilfium use does not begin to pollute Winterkeep. Simultaneously, Kamassar will develop workable airship technology, reducing their dependence on zilfium.”

“And that’s so important to you?” asked Hava. “You would break the law, steal from your own sister, even ruin your own family’s transportation monopoly, to ensure that zilfium remains illegal and Kamassar gets airships?”

“Yes,” said Quona, shooting the word out. “It’s so important to me.”

“Why?” demanded Hava.

“Because it’s our duty to care for the environment. We are bound by a promise to protect the earth and the sea. What happens if we don’t? And people know it,” she said wearily. “They know it matters, but they have other priorities. I nudge their priorities back into place.”

“By stealing,” said Hava.

“A big rule follower, are you?” said Quona sharply.

“What about all this other stuff?” said Hava, who seemed almost cheerful in the face of Quona’s antagonism. She nudged her head at the open drawers in the desk, at the papers Giddon had been going through. “Letters to Ada Balava, and who knows what else?”

“My foxes bring me many things,” said Quona. “They visit many homes, go through many desks, fireplaces, and garbage bins. I can’t be sure what they’ll bring back, but I keep everything in case it becomes useful later. In fact, that letter to Ada Balava might indeed be useful someday, to you. If you can demonstrate that the importers who cheated your queen out of her zilfium knew they were cheating her, you’ll win a lawsuit in the Keepish courts.”

“So, you did know about the importers,” said Hava.

“Of course I did,” said Quona. “Everyone in the Ledra elite knew about the importers. But I know more. I have more eyes than anyone else, and it’s good that I do, because there aren’t many people here who can be trusted to remember what matters.”

A moment of silence passed. This was a new, unsettled version of Quona Varana, and Giddon would decide what he thought about it later. For now, the things she was talking about were not, in fact, the things that mattered to him.