When Corinne showed up that evening, she declared that they absolutely had to get out of the apartment. She seemed restless and worked up, so Yeijiro was happy to go along with whatever she wanted.

Vin had been talking up a food stand in the city, down by the water, that he claimed served the best tamales in the Empire, so Yeijiro took Corinne there. They grabbed a bag of steaming, corn-wrapped goodness and tall cups of iced sangria, and wandered down to the rocky shore.

A line of craggy, sharp boulders marked the high tide border. Corinne climbed up, stepping nimbly from rock to rock as she ate. Yeijiro walked at her side, keeping to the ground.

“So I’ve had a big day of invitations,” Corinne said. “Ambassador Soon-mi—she seems to have offered me a job here.”

“As an ambassador?”

Corinne flipped her hand and a wave reached up and splashed in his direction. “You don’t have to sound so incredulous. Not as an ambassador. I’m not sure exactly what I’d be doing, but she seems to think she has a place for me.”

“Is that something you’d want?”

“I honestly haven’t been thinking much about it, because after I got back to my hotel, I found another invitation. Lady Snow is hosting a private party in the City of Lights and wants me to come.”

Yeijiro knew how Corinne had been agitating to hear from her mysterious patron. He had some questions of his own, ideas and suspicions that were swirling in the back of his mind beneath the questions of demons and rifts and the strange symbols and writings Corinne had found. “Will you go?”

“Yeah.” They walked a little further before Corinne said, “I don’t know her. I don’t know anything about her.”

“That isn’t entirely true.”

“I don’t know who she is. Or where she’s from. Her clan. Her job.”

Yeijiro forced himself to pull out of the mental spiral he’d been stuck in for days, to really listen to what Corinne was saying. “Do those things matter?”

“Of course they do. How can you have a relationship with someone if you don’t know the first thing about them?”

“You know she likes you.”

“Do I?” Corinne stopped walking, turned to face Yeijiro and the ocean. “I know I want her to like me. But I’ve also noticed, that’s not how people do things at court. Which shouldn’t bother me, because it isn’t like my life was full of—” She broke off, made an angry throwing gesture with her hand and a five foot wave rose out of the surf and crashed back down.

Yeijiro tried not to be distracted by wondering what it would be like to be able to do that.

“This is all too pathetic for words,” she said, striking out with the water again.

Which was entirely wrong. “We haven’t spent a single moment together yet that would lead me to label you pathetic. So we’re going to reject that premise out of hand.”

“I want her to like me.” Corinne’s voice had dropped to barely more than a whisper. Yeijiro had to strain to hear her over the waves. “I want so badly for her to like me.”

“There is nothing—absolutely nothing—wrong with that.”

“Are you sure? Because an Adept,” she drew up straighter, took on a lecturing tone that Yeijiro suspected was mimicking someone, “doesn’t waste their time in worry about such things. An Adept thinks of their studies, of their power, of the clan.”

She sat down heavily on the boulder she’d been standing on. She held out a hand for the now-empty sack Yeijiro was still carrying. He handed it over. She balled it up, lay it in her flat palm, and watched it burst into flames.

“My parents don’t even like each other. But their marriage was a politically strong move. It helped them both get to where they are. And they both care about the clan, about making the Dragon strong and making the Dragon powerful and…and from where I sit, it just looks miserable to be both of them. Now my sister is starting down that same road, and I don’t want to watch her be miserable. But even more, I don’t want to be miserable.

“When the court happened, it was amazing. It was different. And I was all swept up. But now I wonder if I’m even equipped for this. And I tried to tell her—Lady Snow—that I wasn’t like the other people at her parties. Because they were brave, and I tell you I can face down a demon without flinching, but those parties terrify me. But it’s not just about brave. It’s—for them it’s all a game. And I want…”

“You want something real.”

“Yeah.”

She sounded tired. Yeijiro completely understood. “I’ve been struggling with…” It felt wrong, somehow to talk about this. But that was his Serpent instinct, to keep everything a secret. Corinne would listen. More importantly, Corinne would understand.

“If you’re not equipped for this, neither am I. I’ve been…with Lord Miyōshi. I know that’s dangerous enough. Marshal Elena knows, and she already didn’t trust me. She keeps reminding me of the games—that bad things keep happening to marshals who move through Lord Miyōshi’s space. I don’t want to listen to her. I don’t want this to be part of some game because…”

“Because you want him to like you. You want something real.”

“It’s more complicated than that, of course. Because everything is. What I can’t explain to her is that I trust him. I don’t think she understands what she sees. He’s not like she thinks he is. Or like the Lord Marshal believes. But you have to understand us—the Serpent—to see that.

“Or maybe I’m just more brainwashed than I realize.”

“Probably,” Corinne agreed unhelpfully.

“Thank you.”

“Look, as far as that goes, has he told you to do anything illegal?”

“No.”

“Has he had you do anything you didn’t want to do?”

Yeijiro shook his head.

“If he did, would you do it?”

He gave the question due consideration. Which was hard, because Yeijiro honestly couldn’t imagine Tōru asking him to do anything that would violate his oaths; nor could he imagine not wanting to do anything Tōru asked. But if that did happen… “I wouldn’t. The worst he’s asked of me is to keep the…intimacy of our interactions hidden from the Lord Marshal, but that’s really just good sense.”

“Roderich’s your boss. It’s not like you owe it to tell him who you’re having sex with.”

When Corinne put it like that, it sounded even more reasonable. “Still, I can’t help wondering if I’m not completely in over my head. I want…”

He wanted Tōru to see him. To want him. To think about him as much as Yeijro thought about Tōru. Which was foolishness, and he knew it was foolishness. But there it was.

“So I guess we’re in over our heads together,” Corinne said. And then, “You should come too. To the City of Lights.”

“Should I?”

“The party is one thing. But I need to talk to her about all this stuff we’ve been looking at. The idea’s we’ve had. You should be part of that. If you want to be.”

Yeijiro couldn’t deny he was curious about Snow. “I could probably justify a couple days in the City of Lights to Elena. There are plenty of Dragon investments in the city, and there’s a line I’ve been following—money that isn’t moving right.”

Corinne got that pained look that came any time he started talking about taxes, so he stopped. “Yes. I can join you.”

“Good. Day after tomorrow is when it starts.”

A spray of water hit the back of Yeijiro’s head. As Yeijiro shook it off, Corinne stood. “Come on. Tide’s coming in, and we’ve got two more nights to come up with something brilliant to show Lady Snow.”