"You said we were going to talk," Lillian said not that long a time later. She wasn't totally sure how they had all three ended up settled against Dorian's pillows. Chaol had his arm around her. They all had tea.

"Yeah," Chaol said, trying to sit up straighter. She shoved another pillow behind him to help. "Thanks. Okay. This-" he gestured at his leg, her foot, Dorian's face - "can't happen again. Dorian should have known better than to grab you during a panic attack, he's helped Philippa with them before, but frankly we should have helped with this the second we knew it was a problem."

Dorian grimaced. "Philippa has offered to talk to you. She says talking sometimes helps."

"Also," Chaol said delicately, "Cain."

"What," Lillian said.

"Hollin was worried about you," Dorian said. "Apparently. Cain says he came mostly to make Hollin stop asking him if he thought you were alright."

"How many people saw me collapse exactly?" Lillian asked.

Chaol said, "Pretty much everybody saw you hit the ground after - the announcement. I didn't know anybody saw you panic. We waited a while before Dorian… well."

"She wasn't moving," Dorian muttered.

"So somebody told him or he was lurking," Chaol finished. "But he has been in war, and he said - grudgingly - that he might understand if you wanted to talk about it."

"My father was fine after war," Lillian said, but it wasn't true and she knew it. Who had he talked to? Surely someone.

"Lillian."

"I know," she said, sighing. "I know. It's a problem. I can't go around mauling you two."

"Or yourself," Dorian said, looking pointedly at her foot. He was playing with her fingers. She didn't think he noticed, but he'd had to set his teacup aside to do it, so who knew.

Lillian leaned back into Chaol's arm and put her head against his shoulder. She did it carefully so as not to jostle him, and he knew it. "Can things just go back to normal?" she asked wistfully.

"What's normal for you?" Dorian asked. He shifted so he could sit cross-legged, watching them both. He kept hold of her hand.

Lillian had to think about it. The shop? She remembered everything about it fondly, but she couldn't imagine doing it again, with no Glory or Dorian or Chaol or Nehemia or even Kaltain. The mines? Absolutely not. Her schedule when she first got here? Even that hadn't included Amerie or secret passage wandering.

"I have no idea," she admitted. "You two?"

They considered.

"I'd like this to be normal," Chaol offered. Lillian looked at him, but he looked carefully out onto the balcony though his arm stayed around her shoulder. "Us, I mean."

She looked at Dorian.

"I mean, yes?" he said. "Wait. We shouldn't be having this conversation on the bed. It might give the wrong impression."

"The wrong impression?" Chaol asked, looking away from the window to make an incredulous face at Dorian.

"An incomplete impression," Dorian amended. "Though admittedly I don't actually know if you like sex, Lillian, so the bed-"

"You're getting ahead of yourself."

"Says the man who sprung the idea on her out of nowhere-"

Lillian had half a mind to let them keep going just to see how long they could argue about who was propositioning her too boldly, but she had already had a long day and wanted a nap. She retrieved her hand from Dorian's so she could lean over Chaol and put her tea and his aside, lay back down against Chaol, and pulled Dorian with her.

"I'd like to try sex at some point," she said, "but for now, can we just lay down?"

"Yeah, okay," Dorian said, and promptly wrapped all of his limbs around her.

"He's clingy," Chaol said unnecessarily.

"I am affectionate," Dorian retorted.

"Nap," Lillian ordered.

She was almost asleep when Chaol said, "Wait, just to be clear, we aren't talking just about sex, we're-"

"My position as mistress is now officially real," Lillian said. "Let me sleep."


She started awake when someone else entered the room. The sun was setting outside, but there was still enough light to see Elaine.

"I have a note for you," Elaine said, unperturbed to see them all in the same bed. Lillian was still in just a robe, she realized.

Then again, it wasn't as if it was the first time Elaine had seen something similar.

"Elaine," Dorian said, voice muffled due to having his face buried in Lillian's neck, "is there some slim possibility that it could wait."

"It's from the king," Elaine said.

Dorian sat bolt upright. His hair was a mess - Lillian had a vague memory of running her hands through it during some half-awake point in the last few hours.

"Is it for Dorian or Lillian?" Chaol asked.

"I didn't read it," Elaine said reproachfully. "It was delivered to His Highness' door, but Brullo wasn't coming in here for love or money."

It took Lillian a moment to remember the name of Dorian's manservant, which she was sorry for, but she wasn't sure she'd actually seen him in Dorian's rooms before.

"You're much braver than Brullo," Dorian told Elaine solemnly, getting up to take the note.

Elaine didn't give it to him. "My lady?"

"I'm very comfortable," Lillian assured her, though what Elaine would do if Lillian said otherwise she didn't know.

Of course Elaine had access to all the food delivered to the rooms, so she could do real damage if she chose. Lillian was suddenly glad that Elaine liked her.

Dorian accepted the note with a smile, which he kept even as Elaine left.

"I knew I liked her," Chaol said.

"Philippa is an excellent judge of character," Dorian agreed as he opened the note. "That bastard."

"Presumably not Philippa," Lillian said. "What is it?"

Dorian threw the note onto the bed and started pacing furiously. Lillian picked it up and held it so she and Chaol could both read it.

"A duel?" Chaol demanded.

"How does that judge anyone's fitness to rule?" Lillian asked. "I suppose choosing champions, but -"

"He's not doing it to test me anymore," Dorian snapped. "Or not to test me for suitability. He's having fun because he knows you and Chaol are both injured, so either I man up and do it myself-"

""Man up?" Lillian asked derisively at the same time Chaol said, "Absolutely not."

"- or I send one of you out, injured, to try to beat Cain in a one-on-one duel," Dorian continued. He ran his hands furiously through his hair.

"You can't beat Cain," Chaol said. "You're competent with a sword, but only that."

"I don't see any other choice here," Dorian said. "Your knee isn't going to be up to it for another six weeks at best."

Chaol thumped his head back against the pillows.

"So obviously I do it," Lillian said.

"You are also injured," Dorian replied, and went back to pacing.

"What part of 'I've had worse' didn't he understand?" she asked the air.

"Lillian -"

"Look," she said, sitting up and away from Chaol. "So my foot stings a little. You know what happens to me if you lose?"

Dorian assumed a stubborn expression.

"He'll send me back," she said.

"He might not-"

Lillian stopped him with a look. "He'll do it because he thinks it's funny."

"She has a point," Chaol said.

"I want to be very, very clear," Lillian said, standing so that they knew she was serious. Probably the slightly askew robe lessened the effect, but sometimes that was life. "I would prefer to die than to go back to Endovier."

"Okay," Dorian said. "Chaol and Philippa will get you out of the city during the duel, and whatever happens-"

"No," Lillian said.

"Lillian."

"Dorian."

"Is the plan to tie her up and leave her in a closet?" Chaol asked. "I don't think Philippa would go for it. I don't think Philippa is going to let you do the stupid duel, either."

"I might win," Lillian pointed out, vaguely insulted that Dorian hadn't considered the possibility.

"You really could win," Chaol agreed, and to Dorian, "She has a better chance than you, anyway. A better chance than me right now."

"What if he doesn't let her have a staff?"

"I use my hands and feet," Lillian said, even though he had been asking Chaol. "I've known how to hit a man where it hurts since I was five, my parents were very clear about it."

Dorian stared at her.

"I can't carry a staff everywhere," she said. "Do you think Celaena and I exchange polite taps sometimes and discuss trade tariffs? You're thinking of my lunches with Amerie."

"That woman and taxes," Dorian muttered.

"You should put her in charge of the treasury when you're king," Lillian told him. "Which will not happen if you get stabbed to death by Cain."

"He probably won't kill me," Dorian said. "I mean. I don't think Hollin wants me dead, and Cain probably doesn't want to deal with the fallout of royal murder anyway."

"It won't happen if Cain beats you either, unless you assume I'll murder Hollin," Lillian said. "I'd really rather not even if your father doesn't send me straight back to the mines after you lose."

Dorian made an aggrieved sound into his hands and sat back on the bed.

"Lillian," he said into his hands, "I do not make a habit of seducing people and then immediately asking them to risk their lives for me."

Lillian looked at Chaol. He looked grimly back.

"In this case," she said slowly, "I think it's riskier to ask me not to."

Dorian hunched over farther. "I hate this."

"I hate him too," Lillian said. "Let's eat something and go back to bed. I am bringing Glory up here. No arguments, I want my dog."

"Please consider when we've argued with you outside of life threatening situations," Chaol said, a smile finally tugging at the corner of his mouth.

"I will go get Glory," Dorian said. "You get a nightgown or something."

"Why, so you can take it off me?" she asked, and darted through the connecting door followed by Dorian's choked laugh and Chaol's scandalized, "Lillian!"