He actually listened, rather than pretending to listen while waiting a suitable interval before it was his time to talk again.

It didn't escape Karou's notice that he found subtle ways of touching her.

Then there were things-- epic, terrible things-- that he didn't tell her but skirted around, like caressing the edges of a wound, hesitant, testing for pain.

She had fallen in love with him twice. She loved him now with both loves, so overpowering it was almost unbearable.

Daughter of my heart,' was the message Brimstone sent just for Karou. She wanted to cry again right here in the court, thinking of it. 'Twice-daughter, my joy. Your dream is my dream, and your name is true. You are all of our hope.

Because hope comes from in you, and wishes are just magic.

And yet, something tied them together, strong than any of that, something with the power to conduct her blood and breath like a symphony, so that anything she did to fight against it felt like discord, like disharmony with her self.