After etiquette lessons, the cousins scatter. Irenis is nowhere to be found. The twins hare off to invent and complicate more card games. Rudhek is talking about boring adult stuff to Countess Rusa.

Adulene stretches and goes to find Aunt Bay and Uncle Maedis. She has questions and also just wants to see them.

They’re in the office, of course. Nobles don’t have to work as hard as peasants, obviously, but if they take their duties seriously, there’s stuff like grain reports, travel reports, incipient feuds that have to be stopped in their tracks, and as margraves—the guardians of the empire’s borders—Aunt Bay and Uncle Maedis also have diplomatic stuff and purple dye trade to handle.

Adulene gets let in when she knocks, though. Uncle Maedis is busy with a document full of teeny tiny handwriting, but Aunt Bay stands up. “Hello, Adulene.”

Adulene smushes her face into Aunt Bay’s side. “Hi.”

“How are you? How did etiquette lessons go?”

“’M good. They went well.”

“That’s good. How is Irenis settling in?”

“Okay. The teacher asked if I was okay letting her copy me if she got lost.”

“Oh, good. I told her—Countess Rusa—that if Irenis had any etiquette training it was probably sabotaged.”

That reminds Adulene! She steps back and taps her amulet. The prickly bad feeling from her face touching a dirty thing disappears. “Why would it be sabotaged?”

Aunt Bay pulls out a chair for her. “Here. You’d better sit down. It’s a long story.”

Adulene sits down. “Does it have to do with her saying really concerning stuff like it’s normal?”

“Yes.” Aunt Bay clasps her hands in her lap. “Irenis is the natural daughter of Triolun Casmenoc and a maid.”

Adulene frowns. “Isn’t Triolun married?”

“Yes. That didn’t stop him from siring Irenis, and he refused to take responsibility for her. She just wanted to be loved, but was horribly mistreated for the crime of being born.”

Adulene twists her fists in the hem of her skirt. “Why?”

Aunt Bay shrugs, looking very tired and old. “I don’t know. I don’t understand. Apparently the Casmenocs all treated her very poorly and those servants who wanted to help her were fired. So she grew up believing she deserved her treatment and others were to be punished for treating her kindly.”

“That’s horrible.”

“It very much is. And it gets worse.” Aunt Bay takes a deep breath. “Apparently, the only person who was able to treat her as the child she is was their battlemaster, the prestigious sword master Calon of Druig.”

“I’ve heard of him! He was in the new history book!”

“Yes. Apparently the Casmenocs were able to hire him and he was able to be kind to Irenis without being sent away. Due to his training, Irenis has apparently become a sword master herself.”

Adulene blinks. “But she’s so young. Younger than me.”

“Yes. And for the crime of being a genius, or maybe just to get her gone, she was sent off here to fight.”

“That’s horrible.” Adulene feels sick with anger. “What do we do?”

“Well, Rudhek has been validated in his grudge against the Casmenocs, so we’re letting him work on how to wreak havoc on them. And helping, of course. We’re also going to adopt Irenis as our own so even if the Casmenocs decide to demand her back, they can’t get to her. As for what you cousins can do, my suggestion is to take her under your wing and demonstrate what a healthy cousin relationship is supposed to look like, not whatever the Casmenocs showed her.”

Adulene nods. “I can do that, and I’ll let the others know too.”

“Do, please.”

Uncle Maedis curses as his paperwork cascades to the floor. Adulene excuses herself while they fix it. She doesn’t really get his filing system because it’s very different from what she’d use. And she doesn't want to touch paper that she doesn’t know where it’s been.

She has an important announcement to make, so she digs out her special beacon stone from one of her pockets. Beacon stones are usually expensive and used for emergencies, but Uncle Hughal made this one and it’s mostly just to transmit that there is Important News to share. Then she runs down to the playroom, which is where their important announcements take place.

Everyone except Irenis and the toddlers are there when she arrives, which is probably good. Adulene doesn’t want to bring up bad memories for her or alarm the toddlers. She claps her hands. “Okay! So, um, I talked to Aunt Bay and Uncle Maedis. How many of you have figured out why Irenis is here?”

Everyone looks at each other.

“She was apparently sent here because she’s a genius and a bastard and the Casmenocs really hated that a bastard was better than the rest of them.”

Pegirn goes pale. She was born out of wedlock and her village hated her for that. She eventually ran across the duchy to seek sanctuary from Uncle Kerenol.

Rudhek nods sharply. “I’m already working on taking down the Casmenocs once and for all, and I’m calling sister dibs.”

“No fair,” complain the twins.

“You already have Sefer! I have no little siblings!”

Adulene can’t help but giggle. But she sobers up pretty fast, her stomach sinking, when she recalls Irenis’s drawn and pale face.

Rudhek comes to stand next to her. “Who would like in on my plans to destroy the Casmenocs?”

“Me!”

“Me!”

“Me me me!”

Adulene raises her hand as well, even though she wants to cover her ears and block the noise.

“Can do. We’re going to hit them where it hurts: their honor and their wallets.” Rudhek cracks his knuckles. “Adulene, write Mimi and Zozo explaining why they should stop importing anything from the Casmenocs.”

Adulene nods firmly. Uncle Maedis’s parents are in charge of a lot of the Itwellia-Asgrentwa trade, since they rule right on the other side of the mountains.

“Pegirn, Gwenlin, Inran, Cordis, you four are in charge of spreading the word once you go back to your homes and the academy. I’ll work on getting you evidence you can cite.”

Those four salute. Inran hisses to Cordis, “We should make some of the villains in our next game look like the Casmenocs. That way people who play our games before meeting them will see the Casmenocs as our villains!”

“Ooh, yeah, maybe we could try making this game have a storyline!”

And there they go.

“Cinmahr, I’ll make you an evidence packet. Don’t beat up the Casmenocs too much, or people will start thinking you’re the unreasonable one, but loudly declaring their breaches of honor will start getting the word out.”

Cinmahr salutes.

“Kelstren, you’re in a bunch of clubs, right? Start spreading the word and don’t buy any supplies from Casmenoc merchants.”

Kelstren nods, bouncing. “Yeah, I can tell my embroidery circle and the hawking club and the horsemanship group—”

Rudhek leans back and nods to himself. “And I’ll work on spreading the word to the more influential people I know.”

Adulene blinks up at him. “Doesn’t your academy have a strict student identity protection policy?” It makes sense, since it’s to keep nobles from flaunting their titles and give commoners a fair shot.

“It does, but I don’t need to know their families to know who’s going to be a big shot after school.”

Gwenlin surfaces from his planning to ask, “Hey, what’re we going to do about Irenis? Destroying the Casmenocs is all fine and good, but that won’t affect her if she’s gonna be one of us.”

Rudhek grins. “Don’t worry, I’ve got that covered. She’s gonna be my sister, after all, and I’ve always wanted a little sibling. I’m gonna cherish her so hard she forgets all about how the Casmenocs treated her.”

Adulene grins even as she brushes a finger over her amulet. It’s hard to forget the bad things that happened, even after years and years of being loved. Irenis will probably never forget the Casmenocs, just like Adulene will never forget the day her village died. But it’s possible to master the past and move on to a bright future. “I’ll help her, too.”

“Yeah!” cheers Inran. “I’ll teach her every game we invent and include her in the testing phases!”

“Hey, I’ll teach her too! Don’t leave me out of it!”

Kelstren giggles. “Maybe we’ll end up having a hobby in common!” Kelstren picks up new obsessions and hobbies like toys and often drops them after a couple of months.

Cinmahr smacks his fist into his palm. “I’ll protect her when you’re not there! Like on the training grounds!”

Gwenlin nods along with him. “I’ll squash cruel rumors about her.”

Pegirn smiles down at her lap. “I’ll show her all the best books.”

Rudhek nods and grins. “Excellent! Now we should toast to the success of our endeavors and the adoption of a new cousin. Who wants ice cream!”

Everyone wants ice cream, of course! Cinmahr runs off to find Irenis and the rest of them troop down to the kitchens.