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“No, you don’t.” She looks at the window. “You’re still in your own home. Everything I brought from mine is in one bag.”

The request lies ready beside me. I spent most of the night on it, but she will still wake tomorrow in a house she never meant to enter on these terms. I leave the paper where it is until she turns back from the window.

“What happens while we wait?”

“The room remains yours. You can go wherever other residents go; Reivaka will show you the safe paths. Eat with us or have food brought to you. If you need clothes, we’ll provide them. None of that depends on you working for my court.”

“And if I want to go to Tesseny?”

“I won’t stop you. But the request I’m sending makes the sale disputed, and until the council rules, the market treats a disputed bride as returned. It could detain you there. Staying under my protection avoids that risk.”

“What if you tell them I’ve done nothing wrong?”

“I’m telling them that in the request. My word doesn’t cancel their record. I can keep you safe here while they correct it.”

She looks toward the doorway, then back at me.

“I hate that answer.”

“So do I.”

She gives a short, unhappy laugh. “At least it was an answer.”

“I want the release,” she says. “I want to be able to visit my sister without being locked up. Tell me when you hear anything, even if it’s only another date.”

“I will.”

I put the request where she can read it. It states Neimura’s deception, asks the council to obtain the Tesseny registrar’s account and approve her release, and leaves every cost with the Ilden.

Vai reads it without touching the pen.

“The money’s already gone to the bondhouse. Will they take it back?”

“No. Your family’s debt stays paid. Your sixty silver stays yours. Any further expense comes to me.”

“I owe you seven hundred silver if I leave?”

“You owe me nothing.”

She reads the last lines again. Then she sits back.

“You’ve put that in here.”

“Yes.”

I sign the request and press my seal into the waiting wax. Reivaka adds her name as witness.

“Ziku will carry this today,” I tell her. “Ask him to bring proof of delivery.”

“I will.”

“Vai gets every answer when it comes.”

Reivaka takes the paper and leaves to find him.

Vai watches the door close. We’re alone for the first time.

Without Reivaka at the door, the room seems too large for the two of us. Vai has both feet planted beneath her chair, as though she expects to stand again soon. I leave the space between us clear.