The court had decided what she was.
The language they used was not kind.
Lady Mira warned her.
Nora listened.
Asked one question.
Then went back to her book.
Lady Mira found her in the library on a grey morning and said without preamble:
"You need to know what they're saying."
Nora set down her book. "Tell me."
"The court ladies. The older ones. The language they're using in the chambers — it's not admiration. It's not even hostility, exactly. It's the specific vocabulary people use when they've decided to reduce someone to something manageable." She paused. "They're calling you the king's distraction. His novelty. A merchant girl who caught his eye and will be forgotten when something more important requires his attention."
Nora listened to this completely.
"Is that all?" she asked.
"Lord Harven's wife has been heard saying that girls like you always overestimate their position," Mira said. "That the king has had temporary interests before and they all ended the same way."
"Has he?" Nora asked. "Had temporary interests before?"
Mira paused. "No," she said. "That's actually the thing. He hasn't. In seventeen years there has been nothing like this. Which is why Lady Harven's argument doesn't hold even on its own terms."
"Then the argument isn't based on evidence," Nora said. "It's based on what she needs to be true so the situation stays categorizable."
Mira looked at her. "You're not upset."
"Why would I be upset?" Nora said. "They're calling me a distraction because they can't explain me any other way. That's a them problem, not a me problem."
"They have influence," Mira said. "Lady Cassian — the senior ladies — they shape what the court believes. If enough people believe you're temporary, it becomes a kind of pressure."
"Do the words come from people with power," Nora asked, "or people performing it?"
Mira thought about it carefully. "Both," she said. "But different kinds."
"Then I'll pay attention to the first kind," Nora said, "and ignore the second." She picked up her book. "Thank you for telling me. I mean that."
Mira looked at her for a long moment.
"Doesn't any of it bother you?" she asked. "Even a little?"
Nora considered this with genuine honesty.
"No," she said. "People have been deciding what I am since I didn't kneel in the marketplace. They were wrong then. They'll be wrong now. The only opinion in this palace that matters to me is the one belonging to the person I actually talk to."
Mira was quiet.
Then she said: "You know, I came in here to warn you and I'm leaving feeling like you should have been warning me about something."
"I'll let you know if I think of anything," Nora said pleasantly, and turned her page.