“Haeun! Stop clinging to Jia like that—people are going to—urk!”

Eunae’s chastisement was interrupted by Rika’s tight embrace.

“We missed you too, dummy.”

Eunae’s flustered sputtering brought a smile to Jia’s face, and for a moment, it was as if they’d never been separated. Then Eunae finally gained her composure and pried herself out of Rika’s iron grip.

“Oh, ancestors—let’s just get inside. You’ve already given the palace enough gossip to last a season. Thank you for your help Aecha, as always. You’re welcome to join us.”

Hyeong Aecha bowed deeply.

“It was nothing, Mistress. Please enjoy your reunion—I will remain outside if you need anything.”

Eunae frowned slightly, but didn’t press the issue, her smile quickly returning as she ushered the group towards one of the largest buildings nearby. Jia began to follow, but paused when she noticed Ja Yun was rooted in place.

“Ja Yun? Are you coming?”

The question seemed to take a moment to register, and Ja Yun let out a small squeak when she realized she was being addressed.

“Um, r-right. Just—Lee Jia, you’ve got a princess hanging off your arm.”

Jia looked down at Haeun, who gave Ja Yun a little wave. The little fox girl had grown since Jia had last seen her, and sprouted a fourth tail along the way. Jia had been tempted to pick her up and carry her, but Jia was now only a head taller than the seven-year-old—which was a little depressing. Jia returned her gaze to Ja Yun and shrugged.

“Yeah, I guess so. Haeun’s cute though!”

Ja Yun nodded slowly.

“Yeah...just...that’s Seong Haeun. She’s kinda famous. Youngest mage in the history of the nation, they say. She’s a national celebrity and you—you’ve got her clinging to you and calling you ‘big sis.’ Lee Jia—who are you?”

Jia blinked, not really certain how to respond to that. To her surprise, Haeun reached out and gave Ja Yun a comforting pat on the arm.

“It’s okay, Miss! Don’t be sad. Maybe we can be friends too!”

Ja Yun chuckled mirthlessly.

“Ancestors, the seven-year-old is taking pity on me. I really need to shape up. Sorry, Miss Lee, I guess I was just feeling a bit out of my depth.”

Jia couldn’t help but snort with amusement.

“Ja Yun, I feel like that literally every single day. I’ve just gotten used to it at this point—maybe you will too.”

“I’m not sure I want to get used to that, but thanks.”

The so-called ‘guest quarters’ assigned to them turned out to be an entire estate comparable to Jia’s already sizable house in the city. It was to be shared by their entire party—with the understanding that they were likely to entertain guests from the nobility—but nonetheless felt far too large for such a small group of people. Eunae led them into a well-furnished sitting room where she had already prepared tea and—Jia’s eyes lit up at the sight—the same pastries that she had always served back at the academy. Jia had missed those almost as much as Eunae herself.

“Please, make yourselves at home—it is effectively yours as long as you remain guests of the palace.”

Eunae served them all tea as they settled in around the table. The entire experience had Jia feeling nostalgic, and once again she felt almost as if they had never left the academy. Then, Eunae sat down with a heavy sigh and the illusion was broken.

“I had hoped to meet with you all under slightly more circumspect conditions. By this time tomorrow, the entire city is going to know that I am unequivocally on your side.”

Jia raised an eyebrow at Eunae—she had never known her friend to be so guarded about appearances.

“Why does that matter? We’re friends, aren’t we? Why shouldn’t we be able to meet each other? It’s nice to see you again, by the way.”

Eunae’s face flushed red with embarrassment and she offered Jia an apologetic bow.

“Of course! It’s good to see you too. I wish I could treat you with the easy informality from before, but two years back in the palace has reinforced habits that I’d rather have forgotten forever.”

Eui gave Eunae a rueful smile, glancing at the small fox girl still clinging happily to Jia’s side.

“Doesn’t seem to be a problem for her, does it?”

Eunae sighed, giving her little sister a small frown.

“Seong Haeun is given a little bit more leeway because she is so young—besides which, the entire family spoils her completely rotten, and she’s smart enough to realize that and take full advantage.”

Haeun stuck her tongue out at her older sister and giggled. Apparently she’d developed a bit of a precocious streak since Jia had seen her last. Kaede took advantage of the lapse in conversation to cut in.

“I can understand why you might have wanted to keep your allegiance secret. An agent within the Seong clan might have been useful for gathering information, but if your association is so blatant, that limits your ability.”

Eunae smiled stiffly and shook her head.

“With the exception of Haeun and my aunt, most of my family is more than happy to simply pretend that I don’t exist. My epithet as the “forgotten princess” is well-earned, I’m afraid. No, it’s not them I’m concerned about, but other noble families. Still, you are otherwise quite right, Miss Hayakawa.”

“I see. However, regardless of the assumptions of the nobility, how can we be certain that your interests are aligned with ours?”

Rika elbowed Kaede in the side.

“Kaede, don’t be so rude! Eun-eun literally bought Jia and Eui a house—by the way, where’s my fancy estate?”

Eunae covered her mouth with a sleeve and giggled.

“Don’t be so greedy, Rika—you already have a family home in Yamato. Besides, it was rather difficult to arrange that—my ability to speak for the Seong clan is extremely limited.”

Eui frowned.

“I was going to ask about that—is that why you can’t forgive my family’s debt?”

“Yes. It’s only the promise of return on that debt that allowed me to make such bold moves in the first place. Though, given their track record, I have no doubts that your parents will be able to do so in short order. Speaking of which—you both look absolutely stunning!”

Jia and Eui both blushed under the praise. Eunae was one of the most beautiful women either of them had ever met, and to receive that kind of compliment from her felt strange. Though that did remind Jia that the list of unusually beautiful women she’d met had suddenly exploded.

“By the way, Eunae, we met your whole family today. That was...interesting.”

Eunae nodded.

“I know—my condolences. That wasn’t the entire family, by the way—the Seong clan is enormous, and there are dozens of branches. What you met were simply the main branch—the most powerful women in the clan.”

“Huh...does everyone in your family look so similar?”

Eunae cocked her head curiously.

“I’m not sure what you mean. Of course we have a family resemblance.”

Rika ended up being the one to respond before Jia.

“Eun-eun, most families don’t all have the exact same eyes, hair, skin, build, and face. Seriously, I already thought it was kind of weird when both of your sisters looked so similar, but your whole family?”

Eunae shrugged.

“I suppose I’ve never thought to question it. It’s perfectly normal to me.”

Nobody was certain what to say to that, but in the classic childlike manner, Haeun cut through the tension in the air by simply being unaware of it. She shook Jia’s arm to get her attention.

“Big sis Jia, where’s the kitty?”

Come to think of it, Jia was a bit surprised that Heian hadn’t already materialized—she should have been excited to be reunited with her friend.

“Heian is here, let me see if she’ll come out.”

With a gentle mental prodding, Jia felt Heian stir within her soulscape, but she sensed a strange hesitation. What was wrong? She tried communicating mentally with her adopted spirit daughter.

“Heian, honey, what’s wrong? Don’t you want to see Haeun again?”

The cat spirit didn’t respond except to slowly materialize herself in human form at the edge of the room—as far away from Haeun as possible.

“Kitty!”

Haeun got up and tried to run over to Heian, but the spirit vanished as soon as the princess had taken her first step, leaving the girl looking hurt and confused. A pulse of frustration came from Heian along with the understanding of what was happening. Before the little princess could start tearing up, Jia quickly moved to explain.

“Haeun, sweetie, Heian is part of our domain. She can’t manifest inside of yours.”

“Oh!”

The little princess perked up immediately, and Jia could sense her domain shrinking back into herself. Until now, Haeun hadn’t appeared to have any control over her domain, and Jia had politely avoided suppressing it. She hadn’t even realized that was why Heian couldn’t manifest—there simply wasn’t enough room. Finally, once the princess’s domain had been restrained to only her own body, Heian appeared once again, only to be immediately glomped by the excited princess.

“Kitty! I missed you!”

Heian awkwardly returned the hug, still not entirely accustomed to human displays of affection.

“Me too. My name is Heian.”

Haeun held her friend out at arms length and blinked in surprise.

“You can talk!”

“Mm.”

Heian’s noncommittal grunt seemed to be all the acknowledgement the little princess needed, and she quickly dragged the reluctant Heian off, chattering excitedly.

“Come on! There’s so many more games that we can play now that you can talk! Oh, this is going to be so much fun!”

The two left the room, no doubt to find mischief to get up to somewhere while the adults weren’t looking—though of course, it was impossible for Jia not to be looking. Eunae giggled at the display.

“It’s nice to see Haeun so excited to have friends her own age—it’s very rare for her.”

Eui snorted.

“Depending on how you think about it, Heian is either five years younger or thousands of years older than Haeun.”

Eunae frowned uncertainly at that.

“That’s—hmm...”

Kaede broke the awkward silence that followed with a sigh.

“We’re getting off-track. Assuming, then, that Princess Seong is our ally, then we should discuss our strategy in the upcoming months.”

Eunae nodded.

“I’m afraid that’s going to be more complicated than you might think. Normally I would say that as long as you can convince my family, you can expect Kim, Seok, and their subordinate families to fall in line. The Yi family has been consistently growing in power since the descent, however, and with the introduction of the elementals, allegiances have gotten difficult to determine.”

Kaede raised an eyebrow curiously.

“How so?”

“Well, while my aunt was fairly quick to dismiss them, the other high noble families have taken them in. Their motives are inscrutable, but it’s impossible to deny that following their guidance has proven extremely beneficial to the houses that have done so. You’ll likely have a chance to meet the strange creatures for yourself soon enough.”

Jia cut in, remembering something that Seong Minhee had said during the audience.

“Your mother seems to think that the elementals are trying to push Goryeo into upsetting the standoff between Qin and the demons so that they can get their hands on one or more of the keys.”

Eunae furrowed her brows.

“You have me at a disadvantage, Jia. Keys?”

For what felt like the thousandth time, Jia recounted her experiences during the descent, the tale of Sovereign Chou and his tomb, and her goal of recovering the Sovereign’s Tear to keep it out of the hands of the divine realm. Eunae huffed irritably.

“How come nobody told me any of this? I just thought we were establishing a defensive pact between Yamato and Goryeo. Ugh, ancestors, Dae can be so scatterbrained in his reports. This changes everything—the elementals are going to be crucial to the negotiations.”

Kaede nodded.

“I agree. We should assume that the elementals are adversarial to our goals, and determine which houses are most strongly influenced by them. Then we can set up meetings to...”

Jia’s eyes began to glaze over as her friends started to talk politics. She surreptitiously snuggled up against Eui’s side and quietly pretended to be paying attention. She’d dutifully memorize everything being said, but there was little chance that she’d have anything else to add to the conversation. She suppressed a sigh and prepared herself for a long and boring evening.