"I'm the fool who didn't see that her fiancee and her best friend were so enamoured of each other. I am— I am the last resort. Not the born ruler, the one no one expected to lead. The one people were relieved was not to lead, because I am— I am as I am." Quiet, pensive, introverted. "Every day I'm blamed because I'm not Asvaldr. Every moment that Talonhold knows difficulty or disappointment, it's because I'm not my brother."

And now Lakshmi blamed her as well. "Maybe you would have been happier with him as well. Smiles and talking and the need to be right and to win." He was the charmer.

(When you are my whole world, she said. That should make her feel such joy, but it was said with such anger and venom that can't even give it thought.)

Her arms are crossed protectively over her chest and she's staring at the ground, rather than at Lakshmi, and tilts her head to the hallways that would lead them towards the courtyard and the gardens where the puppy was to be taken to await Lakshmi.