Chapter 233

“Can’t we practice somewhere else?” Delta asked. “If our ‘public introduction’ is gonna be a whole thing we needa prepare for.”

“My father encouraged me to do this,” Rosalie sighed. “And I mean encouraged in the euphemistic sense. We don’t have a choice in the matter. We’ll need to acquaint ourselves with the training facility anyway. It’s one of the best places in the world to hone our skills.”

“Does seem like it would be easy to find good sparring partners there,” Delta mused. “Still. You seem tense.”

Rosalie considered her before sighing. “Yes,” she said. “Tense. Half for me, half for ... you three.” Her expression turned dry. “You two,” she corrected. “Madeline is more than capable of carrying herself in a dignified manner. I can trust her, at least.”

Maddy seemed flustered by that declaration. “W-Well. Sort of. I don’t hang around nobility often. The Sovereign are ... pretty separated from high society. That’s kind of the point.”

“You can control yourself, though. These two can’t.”

Delta made a show of being offended. “Excuse me? These two? Don’t insult Zoey like that.” She came to no defense of her own, mock or otherwise.

Rosalie sighed. “Your unexpected alliance with me will be of significant intrigue,” she said. “I hope you realize that. You do, right?”

“I don’t give a shit what a bunch of snotty nobles think of me,” Delta snorted. “Honestly, I’m excited to kick their asses. Bet they think they’re hot shit. They’re about to find out they’re not.”

Oddly, Rosalie seemed pleased by that answer. Or at least, half-pleased, half some other mix of emotions.

She glanced at Zoey next.

“I’m way out of my depth,” Zoey admitted. “You know that. I’ll do whatever you tell me. I don’t want to make you or your family look bad.” She reached out and squeezed Rosalie’s hand. “We’re on your side.”

Rosalie blushed. “Oh, don’t take it that seriously,” she said, huffing. “The d’Celestins are far, far out of reach of petty politicking.” She grimaced. “Just, you need to be aware that there will be politicking. We’re going to run into ... hangers-on. Sycophants. Enemies and allies.”

“Enemies?”

She waved her hand. “Of the smiling while scheming sort.” Her expression darkened. “We have private rooms reserved, but my father suggested we don’t use those. He wants us to show our faces. To use the public arenas.”

“Ah,” Zoey said.

She mulled over that for a second.

“We’ll be on our best behavior,” she said, bumping her shoulder into Rosalie. “Promise.”

Rosalie only sighed again.

“I wish I didn’t have to subject everyone to this,” she muttered darkly. “I know you three think you’ve come to terms with my family name, but you haven’t.”

“Wrong,” Delta announced. “I haven’t remotely come to terms with the fact I’m fucking a d’Celestin. Your dad can punch holes in reality.” She shivered. “I wonder what he’d do to us if he knew what we were doing to you last night.”

Rosalie glared at Delta, though for once, the comment seemed benign, or at least not explicitly delivered to tease.

“You’ll be dealing with the smaller-scale issues than my father today,” Rosalie said. “Rather, all the vying-for-position families, prominent or otherwise, inside Mantle. They’ll be fascinated by you three, without a doubt.”

“Which is why you wanted to give us advice?” Zoey prompted. The actual words she’d used had been ‘filling them in on how they needed to behave,’ but she could tell Rosalie was stressed, and Zoey was more than willing to ignore her more bristly than usual attitude.

“Advice,” Rosalie said, snorting. “The most important part is, can I trust you two not to fuck?”

Zoey hesitated.

“How are you hesitating at that!”

She raised her hands. “I literally need to, to recharge my mana. Me and Maddy burn through it pretty fast, much less when I’ll be testing out an entirely new rune.”

“Oh. Well, yes, that’s understandable, I meant more—” She sighed. “For fun. You and Maddy do what you need to, just be subtle about it.”