The carriage is waiting.
I climb in and sit in the dark. My hands are still shaking. I press them flat against my knees. It doesn't help.
She came again.
I don't know what that means. I don't know if it means anything. But she was there. Standing in the corridor. Waiting.
You are nothing to me.
I close my eyes. They sting.
She didn't mean it.
I don't know if that's true either. I don't know anything anymore.
All I see is her standing there, face like stone, eyes giving nothing away. As if I were nothing more than a stranger passing through.
And yet
she came.
That's what I hold onto.
It isn't much.
But it's enough.
---
The compound is quiet when I get back.
The servants are nowhere to be seen. The guards at the gate stand stiffly, their eyes fixed ahead as if they've been told not to notice me at all.
I don't need to ask.
I already know.
My footsteps echo across the courtyard, too loud in the stillness. The doors to the main hall stand open, light spilling out across the floor.
Someone is waiting.
My father stands by the window. His back is straight. His hands are behind him. He looks like he's been standing there for hours.
I stop in the middle of the room. I don't sit. I don't speak.
The silence stretches.
"You went to the palace," he says.
"Yes."
"You were summoned."
"Yes."
He turns. His face is calm. Too calm. His eyes are cold.
"You told the Empress the princess is not dangerous. That she is just alone."
My heart stops.
He knows. He already knows. He has people in the palace. Of course he does. He's the Prime Minister.
I don't deny it. "Yes."
He steps closer. His voice is low. Controlled. But I hear the fear underneath.
"You defended her. To the Empress. In front of the court."
"She asked me what I thought. I told her."
He laughs. It's bitter. Hollow. "You told her the truth. You think that matters? You think the Empress cares about the truth?"
I don't answer.
He walks toward me. His face is tight. His hands are fists at his sides.
"The Empress has been trying to destroy the princess for years. Marriage, Exile, Accidents none of it worked.
"And now my daughter walks into her court and tells her the princess is merely lonely."
He stops in front of me.
"She will destroy you."
His voice cracks. Just a little.
"I can't protect you from her."
I look at him the man who spent her whole life hiding her, keeping her safe.
And now he stands before me afraid.
"I'm not asking you to protect me."
He stares at me. "You think you can protect yourself?"
"I think I can't stand by and do nothing."
He is quiet for a long moment. Then he turns away. His shoulders drop. He looks old.
"You are your mother's daughter," he says. Quiet. "She said the same thing. Before she died."
The words hang in the air.
I want to ask. What happened? What did she say? What did she do?
But he walks to the door. Stops with his hand on the frame.
"The Emperor listened to the Empress today. He always does. She told him you're naive—that the princess has twisted your mind, that you're young and foolish."
He pauses.
"He agreed."
My chest tightens.
"Stay in your rooms. Do not go to the palace. Do not write to the princess. Do not draw any more attention to yourself."
He leaves. The door closes.
I stand alone in the hall.
I walk to the garden behind the kitchens. No one comes here. The flowers are overgrown. The stone path is cracked. I sit on a bench and stare at nothing.
The rain hasn't started yet, but the air is heavy. Grey. Cold.
I think about what my father said.
The Empress knows your name now. She knows your face.
I wrap my arms around myself.
She will destroy you.
I knew this. I knew it when I sat in the princess's garden. I knew it when I wrote that letter. I knew it when I opened my mouth in the Empress's hall.
I knew. And I did it anyway.
I press my palms against my eyes.
What am I doing? What am I even doing here?
I came to this world to save her. That was the whole point. The only reason.
And now she won't even look at me. Now the Empress wants me gone. Now my father looks at me like I'm already dead.
I sit there, letting the cold seep into my skin. Letting the weight press down on me.
But then
I open my eyes.
No.
I didn't cross into a novel to sit in a garden and feel sorry for myself.
I didn't leave my entire life behind my apartment, my phone, my stupid instant noodles to mope under a grey sky while the woman I came to save stands alone in a corridor telling me to stay away.
I came here for her.
That's the truth. The real truth. Not because I wanted to be brave. Not because I wanted to be important. I came here because I couldn't stand the thought of her ending up alone.
And I'm not going to let that happen.
I sit up straighter. My back aches. My clothes are damp. My hands are cold. But inside my chest, something is burning.
I will save her.
Even if she never looks at me. Even if she never thanks me. Even if she never sees me as anything more than a girl from a minister's house who happened to sit in her garden once.
That was never the point.
The point is her. The point is making sure she gets the ending she deserves. The ending the author denied her.
I came to this world for her. And I will not fail.
I stand up. My legs are stiff. I almost fall. I catch myself on the bench.
I know things. Things no one else knows.
I know who will betray her. I know who will stay loyal. I know the General's secrets. I know the Empress's plans. I know the names of the people who will rise and the names of the people who will fall.
The author wrote it all. Every move. Every ending.
I know it all.
And that knowledge is a weapon.
I start walking back toward the compound. My steps are faster now. My heart is beating harder.
Let them think I'm naive. Let them think the princess twisted my mind. Let them underestimate me.
They don't know what I know.
They don't know why I'm here.
I came to this world to save her. And I will.
The game has just begun. And I'm going to win.