“Well, what do you have to say?” said Duke Marshal, folding his arms. “If this is a waste of my time, it won’t go unpunished.”

Eva smiled. “Trust me, this could quite possibly be a life changing conversation for you. You may not know me, but I, of course, know all about you. And your personal… ambitions.”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you mean,” said Duke Marshal.

“Hypothetically speaking, I imagine that an intelligent and talented man, who had worked hard for his whole life to gain his accomplishments, would hate the thought of forever being subordinate to a useless, foolish man. Just because that man happened to be born as the son of a hereditary ruler,” said Eva. “I’m sure that, even if that man were to be poised to become the power behind the throne, there would be at least a small part of him, or maybe a large part of him, that wished to be on the throne instead.”

The Duke smiled wryly. “This is quite the hypothetical scenario you’ve concocted. And what is it that you think you can offer such a man?”

“The throne,” said Eva.

“Bold words,” said the Duke. “But how exactly would you give this man the throne?”

“I would suggest he get married,” said Eva. “Specifically, I would suggest that he get married to a prominent figure beloved by the common people with ties to existing rebel groups.”

The Duke cocked an eyebrow. “The Saintess?”

“With her fame and your power, overthrowing the empire would be easy, and you’d already have the support of the people for your new regime,” said Eva.

“And the rebels would be fine with me taking power for myself?”

Eva shrugged. “You know how radicals are. They’re always coming up with grand, unrealistic plans for creating a new world. But if you lead the coup, who’s to stop you from putting yourself in charge when it comes to it? With the Saintess by your side, of course.”

Duke Marshal carefully considered Eva. Her poker face was impressive. The fact that she could maintain that serene expression while casually offering to betray her own allies was impressive.

“There are conditions,” said Eva.

“Naturally.”

“You must share your power equally with the Saintess, you must treat her well, and you must love her,” said Eva. “And she must love you. If she doesn’t fall in love with you, then the whole thing’s off.”

“And what if I don’t fall in love with her?” said the Duke.

Eva looked confused. “That's not possible.”

The Duke shook his head, amused. "If you say so."

“I promise you,” said Eva. “If you marry the Saintess, then I will capture the throne for you. And if you ever mistreat her, I will kill you.”

“You realize I’m famous for my swordsmanship,” said The Duke. “I’m well known as the best fighter in the Empire. Not to mention the fact that I’m usually surrounded by guards or the actual military.”

“It doesn’t matter,” said Eva. “I will kill you.”

The Duke clicked his tongue. “Very well.”

“You agree to my terms?” said Eva.

“Let’s say I’m tentatively interested,” said the Duke.

“Fine,” said Eva. “You know what to do, if you decide you’re tired of ruling from the shadows.”

Eva turned to leave, but the Duke placed a hand on her shoulder. She shot him a look that made him release his grip and take a step back.

“I just wanted to ask, why are you doing this?” said the Duke. “Why are you so eager to betray your allies and sell off your friend?”

“Obviously it’s all for the Saintess,” said Eva. “The Saintess is the most important person in the world. And the world should be forced to acknowledge it.”

It sounded insane to the Duke, but he didn’t care much as long as the insanity benefited him. “Then why me?” he said. “Surely there were others you could have made this offer to.”

“You’re the best situated to actually take over the country,” said Eva. “And besides, I know exactly what you want. I can trust that you’ll act in your own self interest. The Saintess is currently trying to ally herself with someone whose goals are much less clear, and therefore far more dangerous.” Eva smiled. “I just need a way to steer her back onto the right path.”

#

When she was back out in the alleyway, out of sight, Eva let her smile fall.

Offering the Saintess up to such a man had been utter torture, but Eva was running out of options. She had planned on seeing if the two would fall in love naturally, but Anne had already ruined their chance at a casual first meeting. Making the offer directly was the most efficient way to go about it, in the circumstances.

After all… after all, a woman could only marry a man. And marriage was required to live a perfect, happy life. And Eva had to make sure that Anne would live a perfect, happy life. And if she had to marry a man, then only the most powerful man in the empire was good enough for her.

If the Duke made Anne happy, that was the most important thing. And if he didn’t… Eva was entirely confident she could follow through on her threats.

#

Anne and Agis were just leaving the cathedral to head for the Artisan Quarter when a palace guard ran up to them.

“Excuse me, sir, are you from the temple?” asked the guard.

“Yeah, we are.”

“We?” said the guard.

Anne looked around. Agis had disappeared again. Likely he had jumped into the shadows as soon as he saw a human guard approach. Anne sighed.

“Yes, I’m from the temple,” said Anne. “What do you need?”

“Oh thank goodness!” said the guard. “Do you know where I can find The Saintess?”

“Oh, um…” said Anne. It was best just to be honest, right? “I am the Saintess, actually.”

“What, really?” said the Guard, looking confused. Then, realizing, he said, "Oh no! I'm sorry! I didn't mean that, I mean." He placed a fist on his chest and bowed deeply. “His imperial highness Crown Prince Sebastian Wyernwolf requests your presence at the palace.”

The prince!?

“I’m actually kind of busy at the moment…”

“The Prince’s requests are mandatory I’m afraid sir—ma’am—your eminence,” stumbled the guard. He seemed incredibly nervous. “Please, your eminence. You must come with me.”

Anne really wanted to act on Corvina’s tip but she also didn’t want to see this poor man get in trouble.

“Fine,” said Anne.

Ten minutes later, Anne was sitting in some sort of small sitting room somewhere in the palace (Anne couldn’t keep track of where anything in the palace was), having her second tea of the day and listening to the Crown Prince prattle on about something pointless.

Anne tried to remember any information from the original novel that would help her in this situation, but in all honesty, Crown Prince Sebastian was a really minor character in The Foundling’s Wings. Technically he was the second most powerful man in the empire, but in reality he was a shallow hedonist who was little more than a puppet for the Emperor, the Duke, and Lady Corvina to use as they saw fit. And then he died about a third of the way through the book, which sparked the shadow war in the capitol. Even the author treated the Prince as nothing but a tool to move the plot along. Anne kind of felt sorry for him.

In person, the Crown Prince was a classical pretty boy, with well-tailored clothes, and long wavy blonde hair. He was attractive, Anne supposed, if you were into that sort of thing.

But also he was boring. The things he cared about—horses, social gossip, current fashions—meant absolutely nothing to Anne.

Luckily, it seemed like he didn’t really need a partner to hold a conversation. He seemed perfectly capable of talking to himself.

So Anne just tuned him out, occasionally chiming in with vague ‘active listening’ phrases, eating the tea snacks laid out on the coffee table, and thinking about her own stuff.

Mostly she was thinking about Lady Corvina.

I can’t believe she really said that she loves me! I mean, I know I told her it was just a ritual greeting, but still… Could it really be possible that Lady Corvina could maybe fall in love with me for real some day? I don’t even know if she likes women… I don’t even know if, if she likes women, if she’d be able to act on it… What is this world’s attitude towards gay people anyway? There weren’t any gay people in The Foundling’s Wings, at least not canonically, although as a reader, Anne had had some Thoughts. But the subject never came up in the book. It was an old-fashioned setting, but it was also fantasy, so it really could go either way. The original story as written was certainly heteronormative, but...

Anne glanced at the Prince. He was lounging on the setee, rattling on about some horse breeds or something Anne didn’t understand.

He may be useless politically, but he did grow up in this world. Surely he would know.

The plus side of Prince Sebastian not having any real power was that it meant that it didn’t really matter if Anne offended him. There wasn't much risk to it. So Anne decided just to ask.

“Hey, what to the people of the empire think of homosexuality?” asked Anne.

The Prince flinched. “What did you say?”

“You know, like, women being in love with women, and men being in love with men, that sort of thing,” said Anne.

“Why are you asking?” asked Prince Sebastian. He took a sip of his tea, but his hands were clearly shaky.

Anne shrugged. “I’m just curious. I was raised in the church, you see, so I’ve always been a bit isolated from the wider culture around here.”

Internally, Anne congratulated herself for a great excuse.

Meanwhile, the Prince was internally having a panic attack.

“It’s… wrong, isn’t it?” said Prince Sebastian. “It’s not natural. After all, obviously men should love women. Like, take me for example, I love all sorts of women! Ask anyone! I couldn’t understand a man loving a man… That would be… disgusting, wouldn’t it?”

Damn, so homophobia exists here after all, thought Anne. Just my luck. But she noticed that Prince Sebastian had phrased that last bit as a question.

“I don’t think it's disgusting,” said Anne. “I think it’s fine.”

Prince Sebastian seemed shocked by that. “But… you’re from the church, aren’t you? Doesn’t the Goddess disapprove of that sort of thing?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Anne. “But I certainly don’t disapprove of that sort of thing. It’s just the way some people are.”

“But you’re the Saintess! How could you not know? Doesn’t the Goddess speak to you directly?”

“Okay, fine, so the next time I talk to her I’ll ask,” said Anne. “And if she says she thinks it’s disgusting I’ll punch her in the face and take over as the new Goddess, because that would be a stupid thing to say.”

Prince Sebastian fell silent, staring at Anne with an expression of shock and… awe?

“Okay, well, this has been lovely,” said Anne, standing up. “But I really am busy this afternoon so I should get going.”

“Wait!” Prince Sebastian grabbed her sleeve as she passed. “Where are you going? Can I come with you?”

Oh man, I don’t want to bring the Prince with me.

But he was staring up at her with shining puppy-dog eyes.

She couldn’t bring herself to say no.