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I nod and adjust my cloak. I already thought about how I was going to explain everything, but it still feels like being put on the spot.

"I'm sure you all received my note that a magic institution had sent me an invitation to come learn there. I made a stupid mistake in choosing to go without saying anything first."

Reyan snorts.

"When I arrived, they ambushed me, stole my weapons and casting materials, and threw me in a cell." Discomfort at speaking the memories steals over me, and my gaze shifts to the wall behind Sela. "They tried to get information from me. I didn't tell them anything. I couldn't have escaped on my own. One of the servant girls at the manor found me and ended up breaking me out and helping me recover."

Sela's frown is softer now, her expression simultaneously more compassionate and analytical. Reyan's face is hard-set, almost scowling. I look away from them again.

"My captor was Amarris Veradeaux, working in conjunction with a northern caster, a shaman."

Sela interrupts. "I thought Kadranians hated magic."

"As far as I know, they do. But they, and shamans themselves, supposedly argue that shaa isn't magic. We don't know how it works."

She frowns but nods.

I'm grateful that they haven't asked for clarification yet on any of the more personal details of the story. I didn't expect telling it to be so unsettling. I suppose this is the first time, though, that I've given any substantial thought to everything that happened there—the panic when they stripped me of my things, the hollowness of starvation and dehydration, the pain of their illusion torture...

I swallow and start back. "While I was recovering, the shaman tracked me down and attacked me. I managed to capture him instead. He wouldn't tell me anything. A few days later, I went to question him again and found him dead. I think a witch that was staying near where I was hiding found him, and for whatever reason, killed him." Such small words don't capture the image of his head barely hanging from his neck, but I'm not sure I would want it to. "Once I finished recovering, I rallied some help and broke back into the manor to capture Amarris. Shortly after that, I cast a spell that, though its effect worked, the price was too high. I survived because the girl that broke me out cast the same spell that—"

I study the floor, back of my nose burning. I feel like a child. I'm simply giving a report, yet I'm acting like a frightened servant girl. Surprisingly, neither of them prompt me to speak.

I meet their gazes again. "She cast the same spell Uncle did to save Sela. That's how Sela informed me as to what was happening here." I don't bother explaining the extra-dimensional nature of the Meadow; I know Reyan doesn't care. "After the spell finished, the three of us returned to our own bodies, with"—my hands clasp in front of me—"Uncle staying behind as the price for it. I was snowed in, though, deep in Draó, so I procured a spell from someone else that would let me teleport here with Amarris. I arrived in the forest outside the city and remembered an old passageway Agraund taught me of when we were young. I kept the traitor from knowing where it was but brought us through it. You know the rest."

It feels disingenuous to cut Leavi out of so much of the story, but it can't hurt her all the way out in Draó, and including her more would make it sound like I didn't do anything. Right now, I need to prove I'm capable, not grateful. That I would rather tell the full truth is irrelevant.

"There's a tunnel outside the city?" Sela asks.

I nod. "It's intended as an emergency escape route. A magician has to open it."

"Why didn't I know about this?"

I pause. It does seem odd that Uncle only ever told me about it the once. At the same time, Morineaux has been in relative peace for the past dozen generations. The only violence she's really seen has been border disputes with land-happy Draón warlords. "Maybe they thought we would never actually need it."

"Well, I knew about it."

We both look at Ren, startled.

"What? It's a weak point in the castle. Of course I knew about it."

"I wish you had told me, then," Sela says. "We don't need to worry about water because we have the system running from the river, but it's not like we can just keep generating food. With the tunnel, though, we can send runners out for supplies."

"Maybe," I cut in. "It would still be dangerous. The Kadranians have scouts in the forest. Plus, with it being winter, it's not going to be easy for the runners to find food that people can afford to lose. I think we're better off to try to end this before food starts being a problem."

"How long do the kitchens estimate we have?" Reyan says.

"If we continue with normal rations and with the increased castle population," she says, "maybe two months. That's being generous, not taking into account food spoilage or accidents we can't predict."

Less than two months. "But if we lower rations—" I say.

"The Ladies would rebel! They would simply make their maids get extra meals from the kitchen." I open my mouth to speak, but Sela raises her hand. "And I hope you don't expect the kitchens to be able to keep track of every family in this castle and how much food they're supposed to be receiving. It's an impossible task."

"Some of them would surely go along with it, though."

"And the rest would make getting anything done ten times harder."

Reyan's arms cross again. "Sela, you're the law. You'll get done whatever you need to get done."

She straightens. "Mother is the law, whether I'm wearing her signet ring or not. And the Ladies are the enactors of it. We can't afford to anger them right now. We still need the other provinces to send reinforcements here."

"Why wouldn't they help us?" I say. "This is their lives as well."

"We don't know yet where else the Kadranians sent soldiers. If the provinces send their armies here, then they're leaving themselves defenseless. If we want help, then we need the Ladies to want to convince their marquesses to send away their own armies."

A sinking feeling tells me it's more complicated than that. Whoever sends away their army might win medals but will lose men. With the royal army weakened, the Lady with the strongest force left after the war will have the Queen in a chokehold. And if we lose...

My gut twists. We won't lose, but if we do, then anyone that keeps their army will get to be an autonomous force, ruling their own lands, so long as that Lady can make it back to them from here. These women are like bored noble boys charging each other with horses. Their game's only point is to determine who will hold steady, magnifying their pride if it doesn't cost them their lives.

Reyan frowns. "This would run more smoothly if everyone just spoke directly."

Ah, but that would make it so much harder for the Ladies to manipulate the situation to their favor, brother.

Sela twists her ring. "Then perhaps you should stick to your battlefield strategy and let me handle the Auditorium."

"Fine," he says, shaking his head. "I have soldiers to check on." He heads toward the door.

"You can be dismissed," she says after him.

He raises his hand flippantly.

Expression tight, she turns to me.

"If I may," I gesture at the door. "I need to reorganize the wizards."

She nods, and I start to turn. "But, Aster." I look back. "I'm glad you're back. We're going to need every able hand in order to fix this."

The implication in her words stings. "I always have and always will do whatever I can for my people." My cloak flares behind me as I leave.