Beatriu has always had some difficulty with her goddess's domain of hope. She was grateful to Milani for empowering her, and she used her gifts to needle the Thrunes and their lackeys when she could. She could even give a fairly convincing speech about the fundamental weakness of Asmodeus and the inevitable fall of infernal rule (not that she ever had the chance to deliver it to more people than could fit in her shop's cellar). But after the bloody failure of Kintargo's attempt to join the revolutions in the eastern Empire, after years of executions and reprisals and narrow escapes, it was hard to believe that there was anything real to hope for at the end of the Ravens' desperate underground struggle. She kept going, of course. There was a reason Milani had chosen her. She just couldn't imagine what path could lead them to victory.

Then they heard that Egorian had been destroyed. There was a brief debate over whether this was a trick to provoke another failed uprising, but it quickly became clear that royal forces in Kintargo were being frantically redeployed to fight a real invasion. There was another brief debate about whether to lay low until they had a better idea what was going on, until Beatriu got a report that it was Cyprian's armies doing the invading, and they were already deep inside the Empire. She was not about to give up her city to the man ruling over the Galtan Revolution's corpse, not when they finally had a chance at real freedom. The Silver Ravens hastily adapted old plans, pinned roses to their armor, and tried to take Kintargo back.

In retrospect, waiting a day or two could have saved several hundred lives. Beatriu tries not to think about that too much. With the Alabaster Academy's strongest casters having already teleported out, the Ravens' initial strikes went off surprisingly well, and after some bloody street fighting what remained of the garrison was surrounded in Castle Kintargo. But by that point the war was practically over. So much talk about the underlying contradictions of Asmodeanism and the hidden strength of the people, and what actually takes down the Thrunes is more archmages than have existed in centuries showing up and leveling the capital. Beatriu can't help but laugh. And somehow one of them is Élie Cotonnet! She has to go check her illicit copy of his speeches from the revolution to make sure she isn't misremembering the name. Is this really what she was supposed to be hoping for all this time?

The recently created Silver Council are not the new queen's most ardent supporters, but they recognize the utter futility of trying for an independent Ravounel now. There's enough to be done at home, between trials for the worst of their former rulers, standoffs with the Court of Coin over Kintargo's new political order, and discoveries that various original Silver Ravens have been secretly imprisoned or unexpectedly resurrected. Beatriu gets a seat and does her best to help establish the new government. By the time the constitutional convention is announced she is thoroughly fed up with managing guild disputes and listening to the advice of ancient heroes with no concept of what Cheliax was like for the past few generations. She volunteers for one of the Milanite seats and sets out for Westcrown. If Élie wants to play at recreating his precious republic, there should be someone there willing to take that to its logical conclusion. And if (when) they can't get rid of the queen, she'll just have to win as much freedom for her city and the people of Cheliax as she can.