The Saintess and the Villainess

Chapter 66

The Tulin Estate gardens were just as eccentric as the house had been. They were full of strange and exotic plants which must have taken an enormous amount of work (and possibly a bit of alchemy) to cultivate in Longren's climate. There were little porcelain figurines hidden throughout the flowerbeds. There were fairies, frogs, and garden gnomes, and Corvina even spotted something that looked like a bright-pink replica of a flamingo, although she'd only seen flamingos in books before so she couldn't be sure.

"Ooh, a hedge maze!" said Anne, hurrying ahead to the entrance of the maze. "Should we try to find our way through this?"

A guard standing at the entrance of the maze nodded at them as they went in.

Anne maintained her pace slightly ahead of Corvina. "I've always loved mazes like this," she said. "They're super fun."

Corvina watched Anne's back for a moment, and then reached out towards her shoulder. "Anne, I—" Corvina started, but Anne suddenly ran ahead.

"Ooh, look at this statue!" said Anne, running up to a marble statue of a cat with amber for eyes. "Isn't this super pretty?"

Corvina sighed. Anne had been the one who'd convinced Eva to let them have this alone time but now she was clearly avoiding having any sort of serious conversation. Fine. She could be patient. She would wait until Anne brought it up herself.

They reached a dead end and had to retrace their steps.

Anne continued to talk about this and that for a while, just empty small talk. But Corvina enjoyed listening to her speak anyway. Maybe just ignoring their fight and pretending it hadn't ever happened wouldn't be so bad?

But after a while Anne fell silent. She had a thoughtful look on her face, and Corvina braced herself.

"Hey, Corvina?" said Anne.

"Yes?" said Corvina. Corvina could feel herself holding her breath.

If Anne was still angry, Corvina would hear her out, just let her say what she needed to say, and then apologize afterward. No matter how much she felt she was in the right, she just... she just didn't want Anne to hate her.

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Anne, in a gently concerned tone.

That...wasn't what Corvina was expecting. "What?" she said.

"The letter," said Anne. "It can't feel good to have someone judge you like that when they've never even met you. I'm really sorry you had to read that. You don't deserve to have things like that said about you."

Corvina stopped in her tracks.

When Corvina didn't respond, Anne finally turned around to look at her. "Corvina?" said Anne.

Corvina was standing behind her, staring at the gravel path beneath them, her hands squeezed into fists by her side. Her nails were digging into her palms painfully but she didn't care.

"Why do you always do that?" asked Corvina.

"What?" asked Anne, looking flustered. "Do what?"

"You constantly bring up all these things like they're nothing! All these things that I've already— that I thought I already—" Corvina felt herself choking up. She took a moment to gather her thoughts. "All these feelings that I've spent years burying, good and deep so that they'd never see the light of day again, you always just... reach into my chest and pluck them out so easily. And the worst part is, you don't even do it on purpose, you're not even trying to manipulate me, you're just like this!"

"Corvina..." said Anne, tentatively reaching out to her. "Corvina, are you crying?"

Corvina reached a hand up to her cheek and it came away wet. She was crying.