“I’m jealous. When events took me by surprise, I fell all to pieces.” Patricia went quiet, staring down at her hands.

“Is Fred still in the eastern capital?” I asked.

“He kept saying that he ‘shouldn’t have taken advantage of my kindness,’” she answered slowly, “that he should have gone east the moment the rebellion ended. He looked so brooding, like he blamed himself. I wanted to go with him, but my father wouldn’t hear of it.”

Outside, the rain fell harder again, reducing even the academy’s Great Tree to a dark silhouette.

What can I say in a situation like—

My dear sister’s words came back to me.“He doesn’t know how to give up, so I can’t either.” That was my dear brother’s secret, she had told me on her return to the southern capital for summer vacation, beaming so beautifully that she hardly seemed like herself.

Yes, you’re exactly right.

“Acting Duke Gil Algren led his forces to a great victory over the Knights of the Holy Spirit on the eastern border the other day,” I informed Patricia as though it were no concern of mine. “I hear that old Harclay’s Violet Order led the charge.”

She mumbled a belated “What?”

From the standpoint of aristocratic custom in the kingdom, allowing a commander who had taken part in a rebellion, however reluctantly, to spearhead an assault must have seem