BIAS

This is highly improper—

I must speak

with the governor.

Ismidon de Primarette

is flustered

by the girl

before him.

The twelve-year-old

he was betrothed to

was unpolished, wild,

but surely I’ve been refined

in his years away?

I have traveled

from the duchy of Anjou

and before that

the convent at Salette

and before that

my own home

which is now a morgue

filled with rotting bodies

of my parents and our household.

Our families are meant to be allies.

I must speak with the governor.