"I’ll mention it to him," Sage said. "Whether he comes depends on him."

Valerie accepted that with the satisfied air of a person who considered the matter already settled in her favor.

"Who is Zaeryn?" Tahlia asked from behind them.

She had drifted a few steps closer while the conversation circled and the question carried nothing but plain curiosity.

She inclined her head, choosing her words with the care of a woman who managed etiquette for a living. "And, if I heard correctly... It is a HE?"

Valerie turned toward her with visible delight. "Someone I’m not supposed to find as interesting as I do," she said. "He’s Sage’s boyfriend."

"Oh." Tahlia’s brow creased slightly. And then her look settled into a look of realization and understanding, "A pet?" The word arrived with a faint distaste she did not bother to hide. "I heard those are rare these days."

"He is not a pet," Sage said, Her tone did not rise, but the warmth that had carried her through the entire tour was suddenly absent from it.

"Sage is right. He is not a regular male, Tahlia," Valerie said, entirely untroubled by the temperature change. "He’s more humanoid built than male physique."

Sage turned to look at her like Valerie had just insulted her. Which was a rare sight, "Humanoid built?"

"That’s not an insult, before you take it as one." Valerie lifted a hand. "I mean that he’s simply too perfect to the eye. No biological male looks the way he does. The face, the proportions, all of it is far too deliberate. If you told me a team of royal scientists designed him in a laboratory somewhere, I would believe that long before I believed an ordinary woman simply gave birth to him."

Tahlia was looking at Sage now with an interest that had fully replaced the distaste, and whatever question was assembling behind her eyes never made it out, because her occupation caught up with the hour first.

"Your Highness," she said. "The imperial council will start soon. You asked me to keep you on schedule."

Valerie sighed as though the council had personally wronged her. "So I did." She straightened from the railing and smoothed the front of her dress. "Duty calls, and unlike my couriers, I am expected to be punctual." She had taken two steps before she turned back. "Oh, and Sage, I nearly forgot. As the lead scientist of the Aegis Division, Athea wants you present during some of the imperial council meetings going forward."

Sage blinked. "The council meetings? I don’t understand why she would want me present. That’s not my job."

"I know. But Athea seems to like you. Dr. Veyne never got such a privilege in all her time as the lead." Valerie smiled, already moving, Tahlia falling into step behind her. "And also think about the Gala. The Capital could use the fun."

Their footsteps faded down the gallery, and then it was only the two of them at the railing.

Sage and Viora stood there in silence for some time. Below them, the courtyard carried on with its small afternoon traffic, and the light through the skylight slid slowly toward evening. Viora seemed in no hurry to end the quiet, and Sage found she did not mind it either.

Then, without looking at her, Viora spoke. "You’re not actually planning to bring him. Are you?"

Sage smiled at the courtyard. "Absolutely not. That would be a deadly mistake."

"Good." The word came out quiet and exact. "A room like that one is full of people whose entire occupation is noticing things. It’s the worst room he could possibly stand in." Viora let a moment pass. "Tahlia walked into this gallery today not knowing he existed. She walked out curious. That’s how it starts."

"I know."

"I’m surprised you do." Viora turned her head then, just enough to study her. "I’m surprised you know enough to call it deadly at all. He must trust you a great deal."

"He does," Sage said. "And you don’t need to worry. I can be trusted with this."

Viora considered that for a long moment, her ice-blue eyes giving away nothing at all.

"Then I’ll trust his judgment," she said at last, turning back to the view. "If he decided you were worth trusting, then you are. I hope... for everyone’s sake, that he’s right about you."

"He is."

Below them, Erythea and Aphrodite had drifted into the courtyard from one of the side colonnades, the two of them walking close together and in no apparent hurry.

Aphrodite was holding what looked like a folded length of fabric, turning it in her hands as she spoke, and Erythea was listening with her head tilted slightly toward her, the kind of small, attentive lean that close friends gave one another without noticing they were doing it.

They came to a stop somewhere near the middle of the courtyard, and Aphrodite said something Sage could not quite catch from where she stood.

Erythea laughed, a short bright sound that carried up through the open air of the gallery, and Aphrodite swatted at her shoulder in mock offense before the two of them settled together onto one of the swinging benches along the courtyard’s edge, talking quietly about whatever it was that royal cousins talked about when no one important was watching.

"Who’s that, with Aphrodite?" Sage asked, curious.

Viora responded. "That’s Erythea," and then she went quiet again without explaining more.

Sage let the quiet hold for a little while longer, and then she turned, resting one elbow on the stone and looking at Viora directly.

"You met him recently," she said. "For the first time. He told me about it, but I’d like to hear how it went from your side."

Viora did not answer right away. Her gaze stayed in the middle distance, somewhere past the courtyard, past the walls, and whatever moved behind her eyes was hers alone.

"It was good," she said. Then she straightened from the railing and walked away down the gallery, her footsteps unhurried on the pale stone, and she did not look back.

Sage watched her go, and then turned back to the courtyard where the two processes were seated.

As she sat there, her wrist comm chimed with a single soft tone. She glanced down, and her lips curved when she saw the name on the display. Zaeryn.