Lovisa entered and sat on the rumpled blankets of Nev’s bed, patting around for Little Guy before remembering that Little Guy was gone. Nev leaned in her window comfortably, with her arms crossed.

“Who would you vote for?” Lovisa asked Nev.

“Someone who gave silbercows a voice in government,” Nev said, without hesitation.

“Really?”

“Really. I think it’s a travesty that they’re unrepresented. Also, someone who protected my family and understood our needs in the north. Someone who cared for the land.”

“That sounds more like a Scholar in name,” said Lovisa, “but not necessarily in practice.”

“Maybe you should decide what you want to change in the world,” said Nev, “instead of which party to join.”

“I think you’re being too idealistic.”

“If you start waxing poetic about how it’s because I’m a northerner who talks to glaciers, I won’t make you any tea,” said Nev.

Now Lovisa was grinning. “What kind of tea?”

“What kind do you want?”

“Something that’ll help me make an important decision.”

“Hm,” said Nev. “How about I make you something harmless that won’t interfere?”

“That sounds fine.”

Nev set her little pot on her stove, then came to sit with Lovisa, cross-legged, while the water boiled.

“What are you trying to decide?” she asked.

Lovisa spent a moment finding a way to express it without revealing the queen’s offer. “I’ve been thinking about my father,” she said. “About how he used to protect me.”

“How did he used to protect you?”

Lovisa shrugged. “My mother would have these rages. I would run to my father, knock on his library door. He would sit me in his favorite chair, fuss over me. Order me some tea or something nice to eat. If my mother came looking for me, he would hold her off at the door, telling her he was handling it. It was nice. It’s one of the reasons I’ve always felt like my care of my little brothers is inadequate. I never held my mother off from them.”

Nev sat up straight, something hard in her face. Lovisa shrank, certain Nev was angry at her for not protecting her brothers better.

“Lovisa,” Nev said. “Do you understand that it was never your job to stop your mother from hurting your brothers? That was the job of your father.”

This seemed wrong to Lovisa, for she was big. Her brothers were little. The big protected the little.

“It was my job too,” she said.

“With your father there?” said Nev. “As big as he was, the man that he was? I’ve seen him, Lovisa. He would leave you to defend your brothers?”

“It’s not that simple,” Lovisa said. “My mother was his wife. He had obligations to her.”

“After you would spend that time in your father’s library,” Nev said. “When you were little. What happened next?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well? Did your mother forgive you?”