The Saintess and the Villainess

Chapter 65

Anne watched Corvina's face for any sign of a reaction. Would she be disappointed? Angry? Would she know how to fix this? Anne felt kind of pathetic, sitting there on that fancy green couch (most of the furniture in the room was green), with Corvina sitting across from her like a judge or a disappointed teacher. And Eva sitting by her side with her usual unreadable serene expression wasn't really doing much to make Anne feel more at ease.

"What should we do?" Anne asked. "The whole plan depends on the elves being willing to fake kidnap Sebastian."

Corvina sighed and put the paper down on the table in front of her. She rubbed the bridge of her nose. "The letter is addressed to you, so you should write back," said Corvina. "Ask Prince Elyon to meet us in person. If the primary issue is that he dislikes me personally then that's not the sort of thing we could resolve through an exchange of letters."

"What if we meet up and he still won't agree to be part of this?" asked Anne.

"I don't know!" snapped Corvina. "We'll just have to figure it out if it comes to that."

Corvina's whole face and body looked incredibly tense, like the very presence of the physical world was suddenly painful to her. It made Anne feel guilty for even being nearby.

"Okay..." said Anne. "Sorry."

Corvina looked over at Anne and her expression visibly softened, releasing a lot of the tension.

"No, Anne, I'm sorry for snapping, I just..." Corvina glanced over at Eva, who was sitting next to Anne. "Look, Anne, can we talk?"

"Yeah, of course," said Anne. "Is that not what we're doing?"

"No, I was hoping to talk to you privately," said Corvina.

"Oh," said Anne. "Okay, maybe we can—"

"Absolutely not," said Eva, grabbing Anne's arm. "I refuse to leave your side. It's still too dangerous."

"Too dangerous?" said Corvina.

"Oh, um, I guess I forgot to mention," said Anne. "An assassin, maybe the same assassin who was supposed to go after Sebastian in my vision of the future or whatever, actually followed us to Longren and seems to be... trying to kill me... maybe."

"What!?" said Corvina, standing  up. "And you didn't think that was worth mentioning earlier?"

"There's a lot going on right now, okay?" said Anne. "It slipped my mind!"

There was a knock on the door and a servant came in bringing a tray of coffees.

Corvina sat back down and Anne and Eva both settled back into their seats. There were certain discussions you just didn't have in front of servants. Especially when they involved secret plans and assassins.

Then Anne noticed that, peeking shyly from behind the servant's legs, there was a little girl with her pink hair in two buns on each side of her head. She followed the servant into the room, still trying to hide behind him like she was trying to be sneaky.

Anne glanced at Eva and Corvina and they were both looking at the little girl, too.

When the girl realized that everyone in the room had already noticed her and was staring at her, she visibly reevaluated her strategy.

She stepped out from behind the servant and curtsied. "Excuse me, Miss Staintess?" she said, uncertainly addressing Anne. "I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, but I was really hoping to talk to you. My name is Liza. I think you know my sister, Belle."

Awww, adorable, thought Anne.

"Nice to meet you, Liza!" said Anne. "Is there something I can help you with? Did you want a blessing from the Saintess?"