“Canelle Dara Mila, what is with that face?” Valkom stopped his narrative and pointed at her with his fork. “Lior told you about Fati, did she?” He was amused, and that made Canelle shift uncomfortably in her seat.

“I know of her.” She took a nervous sip of her drink. “I can tell it hurts Lior to talk about her, so I never press her when she does.”

Fatima Argos was Lior’s first love, but also someone that tried to weaponize that very fact against her. It had been ugly, and more importantly, unresolved. 

“I can’t believe she told you… Your relationship must’ve been closer than I presumed.”  He spoke with a giddiness to his tone that he would go on to explain, “I’m glad she did, I can speak openly about my disdain for the woman. That’s hardly something I can do around Lior.”

“Respectfully, would it have kept you from doing so if I hadn’t known about her?” 

“Ha! You’re correct! You’re so funny, please never change. Anyway—” He took a bite of his eggs. “From what you’ve heard, what’s your impression of her?”

Canelle thought back to her near-interaction with the woman. She and Liorit had gone back to her hometown to visit her family when Fati called on her. Liorit pretended she wasn’t home. No one communicated this to Canelle so she nearly ran into her unintentionally. 

The small, doll-like woman had a demanding presence, far larger than her small, thin frame. From what she had heard, Fati was calculating and played on emotions to get things done her way. She’d also heard from Liorit herself that Fati was insecure and scared because of her family’s unfortunate circumstances. Canelle could almost not fault her for her actions, except…she’d been poor her whole life, and she couldn’t fathom doing any of the things Fati had done. She, too, was a woman in a society whose intelligence society didn’t value. 

“I can understand her actions without condoning them, I suppose.” She shrugged.

Valkom rolled his eyes. “Oh c’mon ‘Elle, she was a heartless bitch.”

A half-chuckle slipped from Canelle in the form of a huff.  “Art… I don’t know how to ask this kindly. If she were of the opposite sex, would you be saying the same thing?”

He didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Although I understand what you’re trying to say. If she were a man, she would be me.”

“That’s not what I—”

“No it’s true. I’m not above calling myself a heartless bitch,” he said playfully. “I have been known to be heartless, and I have been known to be bitchy.” 

Canelle relaxed a little. If he could be playful, she could try. “Well, as long as we’re in agreement about that.”

The table server came by to collect their unused dishes and refill their waters. They watched him silently, and Valkom thanked him when they excused themselves. 

He picked up the journal and pocketed back into his travel bag. “It didn’t start out that way, but you’re right. In a way, I became Fati. Not because I wanted to, because it was required of me.” He relaxed back into his seat. “And while I don’t hate her outright, I do think I hate that.”

It occurred to Canelle that Valkom was being rather forthcoming with information on Fati. This was a chance to get information on her without having to make Lior uncomfortable. There was a theory that she’d had and wanted to confirm, and asking Lior would definitely upset her. 

“Do you think that’s why Fati liked you?” she asked. 

She obviously wasn’t as sneaky as she hoped to be. His reaction told her so, and he was more than happy to oblige her curiosity. 

“I don’t know. I never really understood that part of her.” He took a well-timed sip of his drink and grinned slyly. “We fooled around as teens at her persistence. I gave in because I was a teenager with raging hormones. But afterward, she would always go back to her hostile nature.” His mouth twisted in thought and with a tilt of his head he added, “Actually, she wouldn't ‘go back’ to it, the hostility was part of it.” 

He caught Canelle’s eye, and he walked it back a few steps. 

“It ended far prior to Lior’s… infatuation of her. I would never knowingly fool around with anyone that I knew was of Lior’s interest.”

Canelle’s theory had been correct. Her feelings were mixed on the matter. “But she remained fixated on you?”

“That I don’t know.” He was being honest. “If it was, that was probably my fault. I never ‘officially’ communicated that nothing would ever come of it. I think she knew that, though.”

She nodded, absorbing the information and letting it marinate in the pit of her stomach. 

“You know, your version of Fati is a lot different from Lior’s.”

He half-winced, half-smiled. “Of course it is, Lior is blind to her hostility. Although… I do think she’s gotten better at it, and I do think it’s because of you.”

Fifth love

“Liorit, can I ask you something?” I said, looking over my cards and watching her play her hand. 

“You should’ve played the plague card,” she said absentmindedly.

We sat on the floor of her father’s study, playing cards on the carpet. 

“Not about the game.” I said putting down my hand. There were two turns left in the game, but there was no coming back from the slaughter Lior had delivered. “About the mine.”

Her right brow tightened. “The silver mine? What do you want to know about it? You probably know more about it than I do.”

“I don’t know anything about it, other than we were the biggest producer of silver at one point. My father doesn’t discuss these things with me.”

“Yeah… we’ve fallen quite a ways down that list.” She collected the cards and shuffled them.

“Is my father worried about it?” I asked, having prepared my questions to Lior the evening prior. 

“I think so,” she said truthfully. “It doesn’t help that there are far stronger metals available now.”

“Is Bevij in trouble?”

“I’m not privy to that information. Based on conversations I’ve had with my father, it sounds… concerning if the trend continues, but not hopeless.” She sorted through the deck and placed a card down facing up. 

‘Profitable mine’. 

“The card is worth what it’s worth, no more no less,” she said. “You can build a strong deck with or without it.”

I picked up the card and flipped it back and forth. 

“You and your father have discussed this at length, I presume.” I hummed. “If you had a say in how we moved forward as a country, what would you propose we do?”

She made a face of hesitation, set down the deck of cards, and took a sip of her tea. 

“You think my father is going about it the wrong way, so you don’t want to say,” I said pointedly. “Well, if you won’t say, at least tell me what he’s doing about it now.”

“Your great-grandfather and grandfather both invested a lot of resources into building the Palace of Bevij which put a huge strain on the treasury. Your father is trying to pull the country in the opposite direction.”

My father’s disdain for the glorified hunting lounge suddenly made a lot of sense. He was in fact the exact opposite of his father. 

“While I understand his intentions, I—rather—some folks believe it won’t work in Bevij. Somewhere else maybe, but not in Bevij.”

“Why?” I asked. 

“Because when Bevij severed ties with Idon, the motherland, it was in large part a protest of the closes ties between religion and the monarchy.” Her voice got quiet, “Your father reintroducing the religion angle in an effort to reign in the frivolous culture your grandfathers created won’t work on people whose entire being comes from their desire to step away from religion.”

“Fair enough.”

The tension in her movements lessened, and with it her reservation. “I think he should embrace the culture your grandfather created, to a lesser extent. Less of a focus on the party culture, and a greater focus on the cultural hub that was born in Gaidos as a result. Think about it. Creative minds from all over gather in Gaidos— you know the modern printing press was invented there right? We can become the overseas version of Edensol, a place where intellectuals and creatives meet, create new technologies and discover new things. We already have some of the best medicine on this side of the Tegran Sea because of all the visitors that pass through here on their way to Dofev.” 

“Does your father like that idea?” It sounded like they had definitely discussed it at length then. 

“He has similar ideas… not the same. He wants to build waterways that take boats straight to Dofev from here.” She took the card from me and reshuffled the deck. “I think a locomotive might be better for that, but I guess there are geological impacts to worry about, and other logistics.”

“And creating new waterways won’t result in geological impacts?”

“That’s what I’ve been telling him, but again, I don’t know the whole situation.”

She re-dealt the cards.