The next few days passed in a flurry of activity.

Since Anne was essentially banned from the Tulin estate and the church was now full of imperial soldiers sent there to guard her, they all had to travel out to the rebel camp each day in order to get anything done.

From the first moment she stepped in the camp, Corvina could feel the hostile gazes of the rebels. It wasn’t surprising. Until recently, Corvina had been one of their most powerful enemies. Of course they would hate her.

Of course they would hate her. Corvina knew it was inevitable that they would. But after her conversation with Anne she could finally admit to herself that even though it was inevitable, it also seriously pissed her off. How dare they judge her without even knowing anything about her?

Although, oddly enough, openly acknowledging that she felt that way also gave the feeling less… weight.

Being prejudged that way did upset Corvina, but also it ultimately didn’t actually matter that much.

After all, Anne trusted her, and that was what was most important.

“Ouch,” said Corvina, wincing.

“I’m sorry, my lady,” said Helen. “Please bear with me a moment.”

Helen was helping Corvina change the bandages on her wound after a bath, making sure that the healing poultices were properly in place. The Tulin family’s doctor made use of minor alchemy in the preparation of the poultice, which theoretically should boost the healing properties, but…

“It really doesn’t seem to be healing properly,” said Helen, a worried expression on her face.

It wasn’t a deep wound, so it should have healed quickly, but whenever they changed the bandages it was clear that it had barely healed at all. It didn’t look infected, either, and it was no longer actively bleeding, it just looked as red and raw as it had on the day it had happened. And it still hurt. Corvina winced whenever anything happened to brush against it.

“I wonder if the assassin was using alchemically enhanced gear and weapons,” Corvina speculated. “I don’t think she could have done what she did without some sort of magical assistance.”

“Should we try to find an alchemist to take a look at your wound then?” asked Helen, finishing up with the new bandage. “A dedicated alchemist, not the doctor. Clearly he doesn’t know enough about alchemy.”

Corvina shook her head, standing up so Helen could help her get dressed for the day. “It’s not getting any better, but it’s not getting any worse, either. Let’s just leave it as it is for now.”

As soon as Corvina was dressed, there was a knock on the door and a servant stepped into the room with a bow. “Excuse me, my lady, but you have a visitor.”

Corvina’s agent, the one she had sent ahead of her to Longren, was standing behind the servant.

Corvina gestured to the agent to come in and said to the servant, “Have my breakfast sent up to my room today.”

While Corvina ate she listened to the report from her agent.

“My lady, I was able to find records of several Evas born in the territory within the plausible time frame, but none of them were given up to the church. Just to be certain, I tracked each of them down. One died of an illness at the age of eighteen, one of them works as a baker here in Longren, and one of them appears to have moved to the city several years ago. I found several corroborating witnesses for the identity of each woman.”

“You couldn’t find any useful details in the church records?” asked Corvina.

“Not in the public records,” said the agent. “I have a contact in the church who said she would investigate further on my behalf, but she hasn’t been able to uncover anything either.”

Corvina stared off into the distance for a moment while slowly stirring her tea. Then she turned back to the agent.

“Stop looking into birth records, that’s clearly getting us nowhere. I want you to ask around to find out if there were any notable incidents in the area around the time when Sister Eva would have been eight years-old or so.”

“Incidents?” said the agent. “What sort of incidents, my lady?”

“I’m not sure,” said Corvina. “But it’s unusual for a child to be given to the church so late in life, so there’s a real possibility something happened that made a significant enough splash that someone might remember it. Focus on talking to commoners. It’s rare for the nobility to give their children to the church.”

“Understood, my lady,” said the agent, saluting before exiting the room.

Corvina continued to stir her tea for a moment before finally taking a sip. The tea in Longren tasted different from the tea in the capital. It was a lighter flavor. She wondered if it was a difference in the soil the tea leaves were grown in.

“Lady Corvina?” said Helen.

“Yes, what is it?” asked Corvina.

“I apologize for speaking out of turn, but don’t you think you should tell Anne what you suspect about Eva?” asked Helen. “It has a big impact on her life, and she did get mad at you recently for not telling her stuff.”

“I understand where you’re coming from, Helen,” said Corvina. “And I’ve put a lot of thought into it. But I’m worried that if I tell Anne anything before I know the full details of the situation and how to plan for Eva’s reaction, I might be putting Anne in danger by telling her.”

“In danger?” said Helen, looking alarmed. “How?”

“You saw how Eva snapped before,” said Corvina. “From what I can see, Sister Eva is obsessive, unstable, and unpredictable. I’ve dealt with enough unstable personalities in my life to know how truly dangerous they can be. But I feel absolutely confident that, as things stand, Eva would never deliberately hurt Anne in any way. But if Eva is the true power behind Anne’s miracles, and Anne were to find that out, who’s to say how Eva might react? And we don’t know the extent of Eva’s magical powers, if she truly has any. If we don’t know anything about what she can do, then we can’t fight back if we end up needing to. Upsetting the status quo is too risky.”

“I guess I can see your point,” said Helen, although she didn’t sound convinced.

“Trust me, Helen,” said Corvina. “For now, at least, Eva is our ally, and until we know more about her there’s no point kicking the hornet’s nest.”

Across town, the woman Corvina had just described as a hornet's nest was bustling around her secret magic lab, muttering to herself and chewing anxiously on her thumbnail.

Things had been awkward with Anne ever since the day of the second assassination attempt. Anne hadn’t said anything, she’d just started acting differently. She avoided Eva when she could, and avoided eye contact with her when she couldn’t. Their conversations had become short and terse. Eva tried to show her extra kindness and affection, but it wasn’t making any difference. Anne just brushed off any attempt Eva made to reach out to her.

Instead, Anne was spending more and more time talking to Corvina… going off in their own corner to whisper to each other every day at the rebel camp.

This was all that damned assassin’s fault, giving Corvina an opportunity to act the hero, which allowed her to manipulate Anne’s feelings and make Eva look like an unreasonable fool.

Eva continued to search through her collection of forbidden texts.

There had to be some sort of spell somewhere for reaching out and killing someone remotely. Or at least for tracking someone down so Eva could just kill him in person.

She was convinced that once the threat of the assassin was gone, Anne would stop clinging to Corvina’s skirts and they’d be able to go back to how they were before.

Eva put the book she was holding down. She sighed and rubbed her nose.

Anne used to smile brightly whenever Eva walked into the room, lighting up the world around her, making it seem like this life was worth living after all.

It felt like it had been an eternity since Anne had last smiled at her like that.

Now she only smiled at Corvina.

Just then, the portal in the corner of the room lit up and Bishop Geist walked through. “Good morning, Sister Eva. It’s so pleasant to see you,” she said, with a smile.

Eva glared at her. “I never should have told you about that damned portal. I should have broken that portal the second I arrived here. I should have broken it the second we cut ties.”

“And yet you didn’t,” said the Bishop, leaning against a table.

“Why are you here, Cerelia?” asked Eva. “I told you we’re no longer allies.”

“Oh, please,” said the Bishop. “You and I may have our differences at times, but ultimately don’t we want the same things? Ultimately, aren’t we the only ones who can understand each other?”

“Why are you here, Cerelia?” repeated Eva.

Finally, the Bishop dropped her smile. “Do you have any idea how that little shit of an Emperor is treating me? Me! After all I’ve done for him. You know, when I was a young acolyte, I was the only one, the only one, who was ever there for him. When his pious asshole of a father would make him stay up keeping vigil all night in the chapel, fasting and praying to ‘purify’ his sinful spirit, I was the one who would sneak bread and water to him. I was the one who would secretly keep him company when he was meant to be secluded as punishment for his wickedness. I listened to all his complaints about how he was treated in the palace. We made plans together, for how we would change things once he was the Emperor and I was the Bishop. And then as soon as he ascended to the throne he began his long campaign to reduce the power of the church. He undermined me. He abandoned me.”

Bishop Geist stood up straight, wagging a finger in front of her in her anger. “And then, and then, when he finally reached out to me for help, when I finally clawed my way back into a position where I have the right to advise him directly, he suddenly won’t take any meetings with me again! He’ll only see me in official council meetings, but he never even lets me speak in those meetings. Or if I manage to get a word in edgewise everyone there just ignores me! Me! The Bishop of Coris! The representative of the Goddess on earth”

“How is any of this my problem?” asked Eva. She was largely ignoring the Bishop’s rants and continuing with her work as well as she could with this interruption.

“I can help reinstate the Saintess,” said the Bishop. “I can put her back in her proper place. Make people worship her again. Grant her even more power. You know that I can, if I want to.”

Eva looked over at Bishop Geist. “You’ll ruin your new alliance with the Emperor. He’ll have you killed.”

“Not if we kill him first!” said Bishop Geist, with a strange sort of look of desperate glee on her face.

Eva continued to look at the Bishop.

“Look, I heard about the Crown Prince’s little ‘hunting trip,’” said Bishop Geist. “I’m not as stupid as all the nobles are. I know you must have him around here somewhere. Which means you have some amount of control over him. If we get rid of the Emperor and have Sebastian take the throne then he can reinstate the full political power of the church and of the Saintess, no problem.”

Eva considered this option.

It honestly seemed like an easier and more straightforward plan than whatever Lady Corvina was trying to do. Just one simple assassination to install a weak puppet monarch, and Anne would be one step closer to her proper place.

And sure, Anne didn’t love Sebastian now. But they were friends at least. Would a political marriage to a friend be so bad? If that made her the Empress? Well, and if Anne ended up falling in love with someone else they could always assassinate Sebastian later, after Anne was already on the throne. Then Anne could marry her true love and finally have a truly perfect life, like she was always meant to.

More importantly, it was Anne being denounced that ultimately led to the current situation in which Anne was avoiding her. When Anne was busy working as the Saintess, she really relied on Eva to help her through it. So surely if Anne was reinstated to her full, proper position, then Anne would start to rely on Eva again.

“Fine,” said Eva.

“You’ll help me?” said the Bishop, looking eager.

“Yes, but I’m busy right now,” said Eva. “Go back to the capital and wait to hear from me. And don’t do anything stupid in the meantime.”