The chicken was delicious as was the sauce it was seasoned with. I marveled that it had been within my lifetime, admittedly my early lifetime, that the tomato had been introduced into the Tilean diet. The sharpness of the sun roasted fruit perfectly picked up the garlic, onion, and vinegar, blending them to perfection. I took a sip of the crisp sweet champagne and savored it for a moment. Kian was certainly proving to be an interesting man, he was widely traveled and surprisingly educated and erudite for a priest. So much so that I briefly considered if he might be some kind of spy merely playing the part of a clergyman. That notion had to be rejected, there was no way Imperials, with their simple and blunt faith in their God, would tolerate such a charade. Plus if it were a subterfuge he would have every reason to play up to the stereotype rather than cataloging, fairly bluntly, his somewhat ambivalent relationship to his church.


“Well, it isn’t anything as interesting as trying to learn magic,” I admitted.


“I’m an orphan too, I think my parents died of the plague when I was still a baby but I honestly dont remember,” I continued. That had been the story I had been told at the Convent and I didn’t see any reason to disbelieve it. Occasionally pretty children were sold to the Convent by parents who had no other options, but I didn’t think that had been the case with me.


“I was raised to work at court, as a handmaiden or a lady in waiting,” I explained. That was technically true, though most ladies in waiting didn’t learn nearly so much about secret communications, cyphers, and burglary. They weren’t trained to ingratiate themselves with others, emotionally or sexually, though they probably got a fair amount of on the job training. I had provided some of that myself when the situation demanded.


“There is always a place at court for someone who can read and write, recite poetry and dance,” I told him. A smile tugged at the corner of my mouth.

“Sometimes one does wear our their welcome at a particular court though, which is why it pays to be adaptable,” I confessed.