Ayan's head throbbed as she rose from her bed. "Note to self," she said to the empty room, "stop staying up so late."
Since Mat had been gone at dinner, Key had decided it was good chance for her to work on his baby shawl without him asking questions. She had come to Ayan's room and they stayed up until the wee hours of the morning, sewing. They probably would have stayed up later, but that was when Miriam had come in. She, apparently, had been playing cards with Tilli.
Ayan downed the glass of water on the dresser next to her bed and got dressed. Miriam was nowhere to be seen. She wondered if her roommate had risen at her usual time. The thought of it made her head hurt. "I'm only fourteen," she muttered through a strand of hair she held in her mouth while braiding it, "why do I feel so old?"
"What was that?" Ayan heard Tilli's voice behind her.
Ayan turned around, the hair still in her mouth. "When did you get up?" Miriam stood with Tilli in the doorway.
Miriam shut the door behind herself and took a seat cross-legged on her bed. "An hour ago? Maybe two?"
"Do you need help?" Tilli asked, eyeing Ayan. Her red hair was held back today in several braids.
Ayan tried not to roll her eyes. "No thanks. I've been doing this for years." She fastened the rubber band around the braid and let the end drop to her shoulder. "I guess I missed breakfast."
"No worries." Tilli pulled a napkin-wrapped pasty from her pocket.
Ayan took the pasty and ate greedily. After a few bites, her headache subsided and was awake enough to notice Tilli's unique sweater, which appeared to be made out of green yarn, in a large looping crochet, likely done without a needle. It made Tilli look more sprite-like than ever.
"Where'd you get that sweater?"
Tilli looked down at the sweater as if only now realizing she wore it. "My grandma made this for me," she told the sweater, "right before she died."
Ayan didn't have anything to follow that, and she suspected Audeni would frown upon her asking to carefully examine a sweater made by a dead woman, so she changed the subject. "What brings you here?"
Hanging on to Miriam's desk for balance, Tilli leaned back in Miriam's chair, lifting the front legs off the floor. "Just come to hang out."
Ayan rubbed her head, trying to think clearly. Tilli seemed overly casual, though Miriam hadn't called her out on anything. "You're not here to talk about Mat, are you?"
Tilli let the chair come back to the ground with a crash. "Actually, we wanted to talk about you."
A year of living with the Antaran princess and even more years spent among con artists meant that Ayan wasn't easily phased. "Why me?"
Tilli glanced at Miriam. "My sister told me you're gaining popularity in Antarand. Apparently, thievery is cool these days."
Ayan sat back. "You've wanted to know more about my thieving career ever since you found out who I was, didn't you?" Ayan wanted to tell Tilli that flattery would get her nowhere, but she knew Miriam would call out the lie.
Tilli leaned back in Miriam's chair again. "It's possible."
Ayan glanced briefly at Miriam, who was unusually quiet and still. Then, she caved. "Fine, what do you want to know?"
Tilli landed on the floor again. "How did you break into Audeni's chambers?"
"I told you, I disguised myself as her. Surely you've seen picture of her. It's not that much of a stretch."
"What the mind wants to believe, it accepts." Miriam voice sounded a little distant, as if she was talking on the phone, rather than present in the room with them.
"No," Tilli said, "I mean, how did you actually get into the room. Did you lift a key from someone? Did you pick the lock?"
This actually made Ayan laugh. "One of the servants let me in. I thought you were a diplomat's daughter. You should know people will do anything for someone if they think that person is important enough."
"Oh." Tilli sounded disappointed and Miriam covered a smile. "I guess I didn't think of that."
Ayan took pity on Tilli. "If she hadn't let me in, I would have picked the lock."
"That's what I'm talking about! You can pick locks! And with one hand, no less."
"There's a lot of things you can do with one hand. Honestly? Picking locks is fairly low on my list. It's way easier than putting on a watch." Ayan didn't mention that she'd never really tried putting a watch on her wrist, since her pocket watch was good enough, but it had the desired effect. Tilli looked genuinely surprised.
"Really?" She asked, mouth hanging open slightly.
"Yeah. My foster mother's friend, Paho, taught me. He said my nub gave me an advantage because a lot of people put too much pressure on the tension wrench."
"What's a tension wrench?"
"It's a metal piece you use to hold the pins in place. See, you apply tension with the tension wrench while you use the lock pick to press the pins..." She pantomimed and then trailed off. "Why are you asking me all these questions anyway?"
Tilli put her hands up, the way Mat did in class when he knew an answer and didn't want to say it. "Hey, I didn't ask you to show me, I was just curious."
"Just curious?" Ayan asked, "With how fast sprites learn, is there such a thing as 'just curious'?" She never would have said something like that in Antarand, but she didn't trust Tilli. Not with how late she and Miriam had stayed up the night before. She grabbed her jacket off her chair and walked out the door, muttering something about still being hungry. It wasn't until she reached the cafeteria that she realized she'd forgotten her key.
