Saskia turns and walks to the window, tears in her eyes. Ysolde and Brynna don't move at all, which is somehow worse.
Noemi's hands slowly curl into fists.
"It's my brew," she says.
"You sold it." Saskia rounds on her from the window, and for a moment, I think I'm about to watch her take apart the spell shop brick by brick.
Noemi doesn't step back. She's half Saskia's size, and she doesn't give up an inch.
"I sold it at a licensed amount of the potion , watered down to last only a month, and it’s legal in every realm," she says. "And I told your brother to his face exactly what it would cost both him and whoever drank it." She crosses her arms. "I've refused stronger men than him over this counter, my lady. I didn't refuse him because he asked how to do the least harm. Men planning harm don't ask that."
Her chin comes up.
"Be angry at the thief. I am. And before you get angry at her, Lissy was right not to tell you what she overheard in my shop.The confidence was mine, and I made it clear the transaction was private.”
Saskia turns toward her.
“She should have asked your brother once she knew him,” she says. “She didn’t. That was fear, not betrayal. Don’t confuse the two.”
Saskia holds her stare. Then something goes out of her shoulders, and she turns back to the window.
"Tell us the rest," Ysolde says.
Noemi tells them what she told Torgan so long ago, only this time in more detail. Details we can already see in Mirelle's detached gaze. The flatness. The politeness. The feelings she once emanated now lifted out clean like someone scooped it out.
"It can't be undone," Noemi finishes. "Emotional potions can't layer without disastrous consequences. A counter-draught would make a bigger mess of her." She nods toward Mirelle, pity in her face. "The only cure is time. A month from the dosing, give or take a few days."
"Fuck," Saskia groans, rubbing her face.
"And then she'll feel all of it," Noemi says quietly. "Everything the draught held back, arriving at once. And everything she did while it held. Sending the letter. Giving up the ring."
Brynna writes the date of the wedding at the top of a fresh page and underlines it twice. Her pencil shakes.
Noemi goes to stand beside Mirelle.
"My lady," she says gently, taking Mirelle's hand in both of hers. "Somewhere underneath where you can't reach, there's a door, and everything you felt for Caden is sealed behind it. The potion locked everything inside the room. It didn't empty it."
She holds Mirelle's eyes.
"In a month, when the door opens on its own, it will hurt more than anything has ever hurt you. When it does, I want youto know that none of this was your fault. Not the letter. Not the ring. Not one word you said while it held. Keep that. Promise me you'll keep that."
Mirelle considers her for a long moment before nodding, bewildered.
"I promise," she says.
Then she turns pleasant again, the door swinging shut.
"Though I really do feel fine."
Out on the street,the sisters close around Mirelle like they’re guarding a celebrity, and I don’t blame them. Mirelle is like a ghost of the person she once was, like she’d float away if the wind picked up too much.
Ysolde turns to me with cold courtesy. "Thank you," she says.
They're leaving.
They came for answers, and now that they have them, they're going home to deal with this.
And I will be left here by myself.
