"Indeed," she says.

At her most paranoid and self-loathing, she evolved a very sinister theory about Lady Ingress's solicitousness; but what value has the heir of the Ninth ever had but her seat or her genius?

"I am currently engaged in a great scholarly trial, and in the early stages it was every House for itself. But now that the locations of virtually all the keys are known, it is a matter of alliances and, I fear, violence."