#also please note that csevet has kamet's dream job

[k-she-rambles]

Right, okay, but Queen's Thief characters meeting The Goblin Emperor characters

• both Attolia and Attolis like Maia very much, though for different reasons.

• Attolia continues to write Edrehasivar with loads of political advice. All of which Maia listens to gratefully, but very little of which he takes wholesale. Her instincts are effective, but violent.

(Attolia likes him even more for that, though there are many humorous comparisons to her husband between Maia and Sophos. "Gods, another king who would apologize to a viper," Irene says over a letter and Eugenia's curly head. Eugenides hums, and bends to kiss her where she sits, adjusting Hector on his right hip as he does so, then absently reaches around with his hand to remove a hairpin from his daughter's chubby palm before she can jam it in her mouth. Eugenia has naturally sticky fingers, in both senses of the word, and her brother is no slouch either. "Well then, it's fortunate some of the vipers are on his side. You bite." Attolia raises her eyebrows expressively, and Eugenides throws his head back and laughs.)

• Eugenides tries very hard to teach Maia how to sneak around the Alcethmeret (to Csethiro, to Idra, how to visit various officials unseen.) The nohecharei will not be thwarted. The Thief is unwillingly impressed, but adapts to stealing both Maia AND his guard. Nohecharei who think this is a grand adventure: Cala, Kiru. Nohecharei who are cataloguing this as a major security issue: Telimezh, Beshelar (and Cala and Kiru are considering ways to ward the escape routes.) Nohecharis who nearly gives the game away because he is vibrating with outrage at the security threat, the indignity of the emperor sneaking around, Eugenides' entire demeanor, etc: Beshelar

• Attolia is right: Maia and Sophos get along brilliantly. Similar feelings about not liking the responsibility of being ruler but knowing they owe it to their people to continue and to be better.

• "My god," says Eugenides. "It must be like looking in a mirror."

"Sounis and Edrehasivar?" Costis asks, though he knows the joke his king is after.

"You and that humorless nohecharis, what was his name again?"

Edrehasivar does not care over much for the dignity of his position, to the baffled pleasure and dismay of servants and soldiers alike. He says something, an aside to the nohecharei, something about making sure they eat and rest when they are able, and Beshelar flushes.

Costis winces in sympathy, and resolves to find a way to take the young elf out for a drink.

"It's a difficult position to be in," says Costis.

"Oh?"

"Standing behind a man who holds the happiness and safety of others more dear than his own."

"Or who has a very great faith in the one standing behind him," says Eugenides. "Poor man," he adds, looking at Beshelar again. "He practically breathes loyalty. I almost feel bad for making fun of him."

"Only almost, my king?"

"Ten gold cups," says Eugenides, and Costis feels his own face heat.

• Csevet and Kamet sizing each other up like two very similar cats.

• Csevet trusts Relius about as far as he can throw him, but tolerates him for Pheris' sake. Csevet thinks Pheris is a delight, and finds a way to have him meet the members of the clockmaker's guild visiting the court.

• Pheris doesn't know what the architects of this palace complex were on. Each element is mathematically brilliant but as a whole it does Not Work.

• The wisdom bridge works very well, in his opinion.

• Maia and Pheris going riding, with Idra, Mireän, and Ino.

• Helen, Irene, and Csethiro dinner party.

#queen's thief #the goblin emperor #also please note that csevet has kamet's dream job #and kamet is absolutely acting weird about it