"Is it possible to send letters to relatives, if they live in Cheliax?"

"- well, we can send them. I don't know the odds they'd be delivered."

Nod. "Maybe I'll write something."

"Good for you!"

" - it is?"

"- learning to read and write so you can send your friends and relatives letters."

"Oh. Uh. I can already read and write. I went to school for ten years."

"Wow!"

"Almost everyone in Cheliax goes from six to sixteen."

"Huh. Well, your children will, here, but it's very rare outside the palace."

"I don't actually have children yet."

"Well, how long have you two been married?"

"A few months."

"Well, that's too soon to worry, sweetheart, and if there is anything wrong there's all kinds of things the healers here can try for you."

- she was mostly trying to challenge the assumption that she would definitely still be around to raise any hypothetical children in the palace by the time they were ready for school, but sure, fine, whatever.

"Yeah."

"Should we go?" Zakiya asks her.

"Yeah. Sounds good. 

"How do we eat breakfast?"

"I can pick it up and bring it to you, or you can eat with the, uh, widows of the rest of the royal family?"

She bites her lip. "Is there, uh - are there things I should know before meeting them, or - "

" - I think it's mostly just the obvious. All of the kids are dead."

Nod.

"Yeah. I can - go meet whoever's there. - do you know where Verita is?"

"I haven't seen her but I can look for you during breakfast?" 

So she can lead Korva to a courtyard of sorts, with the sky dark grey in between the magical lights, where some other women are dressed in mourning, eating breakfast.

One actually does have a live baby, maybe six months old, sitting on her lap. She passes the baby to her neighbors occasionally so she can get bites of food in between feeding said baby, who is very hungry.

"I just assume he's really busy right now and won't want to hear the petition till he's squared away the mess a bit more -"

"Oh hey, we can just ask," says one of those neighbors, "that must be - excuse me, are you his majesty's wife?"

" - yeah."

"Do you think we need to wait to ask if we can, uh, leave? - we're Masaharta's girls, but, uh. I'm Amina, that's Rabiah -" She introduces several more in their cluster.