Sir Reginal released Hina’s collar only after the throne-room doors had closed behind them.
She straightened it with an offended little tug, then skipped ahead as though leaving had been her idea. Her shoes struck the polished marble in irregular bursts. Between them, she hummed a melody that rose abruptly, stopped before resolving, and began again in a different place.
Reginal could not find a rhythm in it.
“Princess, your mother will have something to say about your behavior.”
Hina spun around without slowing.
“She generally does.”
“This may end with you confined again.”
“Oh, probably.”
She turned forward and continued humming.
The corridor curved around the outer rooms of the palace. Lanterns lit the vine carvings along the pillars, leaving the spaces between them dim enough to conceal a person standing still. Reginal watched those spaces while keeping Hina within reach.
She had made that task progressively more difficult since they arrived.
The mess hall had been one incident. The throne room had been another. He could report both plainly. Explaining the changes between them would be harder.
Hina stopped so abruptly that he nearly caught her shoulder to prevent a collision.
He checked the movement before making contact.
She turned and looked at his hand.
“You are getting slower.”
“I am being careful.”
“Mother keeps you because you are loyal. Do you know that?”
Reginal lowered his hand.
“She expects you to follow instructions as well.”
Hina tilted her head, ignoring the correction.
“It is not because you are strong. You are terribly clumsy when something surprises you.”
A guard at the far end of the passage glanced toward them. Reginal waited until the man looked away before answering.
“You have made a considerable effort to be surprising today.”
She giggled.
“One of the weakest of the Sinister Seven, and you are the one Mother tells to watch me. Perhaps she likes giving you difficult things so you will keep trying to please her.”
The precision of it stung more than the insult.
Reginal kept his posture straight. He had no intention of defending his standing in an elven corridor while the princess tested which words would make him react.
“We are discussing your behavior, not my position.”
“Are we? You keep discussing it. I thought we were taking a walk.”
Hina stepped sideways into a patch of lamplight. Her uneven horns caught different colors as she leaned, one shoulder dipping farther than the movement required.
Reginal watched her face.
She had always noticed weaknesses. Lately, she seemed unable to leave them alone once she found them.
Ace and Queen had been absent long enough for the difference to become unmistakable. He did not know whether Hina was angry with them, frightened by their departure, or discovering what she could do without them nearby.
He had brought that uncertainty to Seraphine.
The queen had not shared his desire to resolve it quickly.
In their private audience, Seraphine had listened without interrupting while he described the changes.
She had closed her fan when he finished.
“Monitor her,” she said. “Do not restrain her unless it becomes necessary.”
“Her transformations are less predictable.”
“Then pay attention to what happens before them.”
Reginal had hesitated.
“Would it be better to keep one of her caretakers nearby?”
“That would tell me how she behaves with them present. I already know that.”
Seraphine rested the fan across one palm.
“I want to see what she does without Ace and Queen. Let her reveal herself.”
He had bowed and accepted the order.
Now he watched Hina turn away from him and wondered how much damage would be considered an acceptable observation.
She began another spin halfway between the pillars.
This time, her dress changed before she completed it.
The black deepened. Pink stripes broke into brighter streaks, and green markings moved through the fabric as though the pattern could no longer hold its assigned shape. The center of the outfit shifted open, exposing her midriff before the cloth altered again.
Crimson circles appeared beneath her feet.
Reginal stopped.
Hina’s horns brightened. Her grin stretched wider, the expression losing its usual exaggeration and settling into something more focused. Her eyes fixed on him with an attention that made his hand move toward his weapon.
He had seen preparations for an attack that offered less warning.
“Hina.”
The circles vanished.
The changed fabric returned to its earlier pattern, and she landed lightly on both feet. She looked down at the place where the magic had been, then back at him.
“What?”
“Did you intend to transform?”
She covered her mouth and giggled.
“Did you intend to draw that?”
Reginal looked at his own hand.
He moved it away from the weapon.
“You did not answer.”
“Neither did you.”
She skipped past him before he could decide whether another question would produce anything useful.
He followed, marking the place, the movement, and the expression in his memory. Seraphine had asked what came before the changes. This one had followed no visible threat at all.
Hina slowed near a window.
“I wonder what it feels like to own a calamity book.”
Reginal’s attention sharpened.
“Why?”
“Everyone gets so interesting around them.” She ran a finger near the carved edge of the window frame without touching it. “That queen was angry even while she smiled. Mother was doing the same thing with her fan.”
“Royal audiences are not games for you to interrupt.”
“Two grown women arguing over one boy.” Hina looked toward the corridor leading back to the throne room. “He only wanted peace. They would not even let him say so.”
Reginal studied her profile.
“You seemed amused by it.”
“I can notice something and still find it funny.”
“He was restrained.”
“So was I.” She touched her collar. “You just used your hand instead of making it glow.”
“That was to prevent another incident.”
Hina smiled at him.
“Is that what the queen would say too?”
Reginal had no answer he wanted to give her in that corridor.
She returned to her uneven humming.
Lenora and Lewd were approaching from the passage near the mess hall when Hina saw them.
Reginal noticed the change before she moved.
Her attention went first to the book held against Lewd’s side, then to Lenora. The smile remained, but her eyes began making quick, small movements between the two women and the space around them.
He stepped forward and caught her shoulder.
“Hina, do not start another conversation just to upset someone.”
Her body lit beneath his hand.
He felt the shoulder rise as her frame grew. Crimson circles opened around their feet, and thorned vines burst from the seams between the floor stones.
Reginal released her.
The thorns stopped inches from his throat.
He did not reach for his weapon. He could not be certain which movement the spell was waiting to answer.
Hina looked up at him.
“Touch me like that again,” she said, “and I will end you.”
The words were quiet enough that they did not carry far.
Then she covered her mouth.
A giggle escaped between her fingers.
The vines crumbled. Crimson light withdrew into the circles, and the circles disappeared. Her body returned to its smaller shape, leaving his empty hand suspended beside her.
Reginal swallowed carefully.
A few dark flecks remained on the marble.
Hina brushed one from her skirt.
“You look frightened.”
He lowered his hand.
“You threatened me.”
“You grabbed me.”
Before he could answer, she was moving toward Lenora and Lewd.
Reginal followed. For the first time that day, he deliberately left more than an arm’s length between them.
Lewd saw Hina roll across the passage and come upright in front of them.
“Hello there!”
Lenora stepped forward before she had identified the visitor, placing herself slightly ahead of Lewd. The gesture was small enough not to become a confrontation, but Hina noticed it immediately.
Her gaze moved down Lenora’s stance, then back up.
“I am Hina. That is Sir Reginal, my personal bodyguard.”
Reginal approached at a measured pace. His expression was controlled, though Lenora thought he looked as if he had just discovered an unpleasant smell and refused to acknowledge it.
“Princess,” he said, “allow them to continue.”
“I have not asked them anything yet.”
She circled Lenora before anyone agreed to a conversation.
“Where did you get your armor? Was it made for you? It looks comfortable, but perhaps that is because you stand so straight.”
Lenora turned enough to keep her in sight.
“Can we help you find someone?”
Hina had already moved toward Lewd.
“I like your dress. You smell nice. Is that a calamity book? Is it heavy? Does it speak out loud, or only where you can hear?”
Lewd tightened her hold on Blight Vein.
Her face reddened as the questions arrived faster than she could decide which one to answer.
“It is mine,” she said.
“I did not ask whether it was yours.” Hina leaned closer. “Does it get angry? What happens if you ignore it? Can I see—”
Lenora caught her by the shoulders and stopped her moving.
“One question at a time. And give her room to answer.”
Reginal’s hand lifted sharply.
Lenora saw the motion from the edge of her vision but kept her eyes on Hina.
The princess had gone completely still.
For a moment, the brightness left her expression. Her eyes moved toward Lenora’s hands, then back to her face.
Lenora loosened her hold as soon as Hina stopped crowding Lewd.
“We were having a quiet walk,” she said. “You are making it difficult to keep it quiet.”
Hina blinked.
Then she laughed, a little awkwardly this time.
“Sorry. I wanted to say hello.”
Reginal slowly lowered his hand.
Lewd glanced at him, catching the unfinished movement. He did not explain it.
Hina rocked once on her heels.
“I was actually looking for Ace. She is one of my caretakers.”
Lenora’s posture eased slightly.
“She and Vespera came back inside. They are in the mess hall.”
The response was so small that Lenora almost missed it.
Hina’s smile slipped at Vespera’s name.
Not vanished. Not enough for someone looking casually to decide anything had changed. But the corners of her mouth stopped holding the expression for an instant, and her eyes went toward the doors beyond them.
“Together?” she asked.
“They were sitting together when we passed.”
Hina’s fingers touched the cuff at one wrist.
Then the smile returned.
“Lovely. Sisters should spend time together.”
Lewd looked at Lenora.
Lenora did not look away from the princess.
“Are you all right?”
Hina laughed too loudly for the quiet passage.
“I am more than all right. I finally found someone who could give me a useful answer.”
Reginal moved to her side without touching her.
“Then we will thank them and let them go.”
Hina gave an elaborate little bow.
“Thank you for the directions.”
She skipped toward the mess hall.
The humming began before she reached the first pillar. It climbed, broke, and started somewhere else, unrelated to the pace of her feet.
Reginal followed in silence.
This time, Lenora noticed the distance he kept.
Lewd waited until both were out of easy hearing.
“What was that?”
“A conversation that needed fewer questions.”
“That is not what I mean.”
Lenora looked down the passage.
Sir Reginal had introduced no objection when she stopped Hina by the shoulders. Yet his hand had risen as if he expected something terrible to happen, and he had relaxed only after the princess stepped away.
A bodyguard should have been watching for people who might hurt his charge.
He had been watching Hina.
“She did not like hearing about Vespera,” Lewd said.
“I noticed.”
“Should we have sent her somewhere else?”
Lenora considered the question.
Ace knew Hina. Reginal was with her. Neither fact made the behavior they had just seen ordinary, but inventing a destination would only move the problem into another corridor.
“We told her where her caretaker was,” she said. “That was a reasonable answer.”
Lewd looked at the book in her arms.
“She asked about this before she asked about Ace.”
Lenora followed her gaze.
“Yes, she did.”
They remained beside the window for a moment longer, listening to the distant tune. Then a corner of the corridor took the sound away.
Lenora began walking again, more slowly than before.
She could not decide whether Hina had arrived wanting comfort, attention, or something to hurt. What unsettled her was how easily all three possibilities seemed to fit.
Farther along the passage, Sir Reginal kept his hands to himself.