Her Rightful Place

40: The Conference

"So, tell me, Christelle: How does my mother intend for us to spend our time, now that I have been sanctified as a True Believer in the One True Faith?" Mireille asks her best friend as they eat breakfast with Monique, Laetitia, and Clothilde in Mireille's antechamber. "After all, we won't have religious studies to occupy three hours of the morning."

"No. It's been reduced to one hour," Christelle chirps, knowing this will annoy her friend. "Apparently one can never stop learning about and growing in the One True Faith."

"But one can get quite fed up with the Priest of the One True Faith," Mireille mutters in response, eliciting snickers from the other ladies.

"It appears that the other two hours are to be divided between additional lessons in Vyrunian and instruction in 'royal comportment,'" Christelle continues.

"I'm not sure what good either is intended to do, really," Clothilde remarks. "Your improvement in Vyrunian since your arrival here is nothing short of miraculous, and you certainly are capable of behaving as a royal ought, when you choose to do so."

"Thank you," the Princess responds with a blush, recognizing this as extremely high praise from a woman who, a month ago, thought Mireille was an imposter.

"I'm surprised they didn't increase dancing lessons," Monique comments, "given that the Midsummer's Eve Ball is fast approaching."

A knock at the door interrupts before anyone can speculate regarding that very sensible observation. Laetitia bounds out of her chair to answer the door, behind which stands a servant girl from the kitchen.

"A message for Her Grace, the Duchess of Alsantias," the girl announces timidly. Christelle immediately recognizes the girl; she is the usual help in getting messages from Christelle to Jerôme and back in the Palace of Roses.

"Thank you, Marie," Christelle smiles, moving swiftly to take the envelope from Marie's hand before Laetitia can. "Please, don't tarry. I shall likely bring a reply to you tonight."

"As you wish, milady," Marie curtsies. She is gone as quickly as she came. Christelle, perusing the envelope, notices that it is marked with hers and Jerôme's code for an urgent message: All of the S's in her title are written backwards. She plucks a hairpin from her updo and uses it to open the message with great haste; Monique, meanwhile, sighs because the architecture of Christelle's tresses has been disturbed and she will be the one to redo them.

"There is one for you, too, Mireille," Christelle reveals, passing her friend a separate note before her eyes begin to devour the message addressed to her. It is not long before she drops into her chair again, shocked by the note's contents, and Monique takes advantage of the opportunity to fix her hair.

Mireille, meanwhile, betrays no emotion as she opens the sloppily folded note addressed to her from Prince Xavier, though she knows that he had to be in quite a rush to send her something less than properly presentable. Something must be very wrong. He would not rush so from excitement, the way things have been going in Mordalce, especially so soon after my Holy Sanctification, she guesses.

To the Princess Mireille of Vyrunia, may this message find her in health and high spirits,

Congratulations once again on being sanctified in the Faith of your country. I am told the ceremony went well and wish only that I could have been there with you. I apologize that I was not, but truly, I was needed here.

My congratulations to you are not my main purpose in writing to you, as I'm certain you have already deduced. I write as a warning. Khandazarian emissaries--I have learned from preliminary interrogations that they were trained as assassins--interrupted a meeting between myself and the Royal Advisers. No one was harmed, but they sought to force us to agree to invite them to the Midsummer's Eve Ball and to allow them equal negotiation privileges for your hand. Regardless of your personal inclinations regarding a betrothal and marriage, I implore you to be on your guard. It is clear that the Khandazarians are willing to jeopardize alliances, breach protocol, and engage in violence to achieve their goals, and for whatever reason, matching you with their Grand Chancellor seems to be of great concern to them at present.