She giggles.

"Okay, that's not a Ruava smile but I like it anyway. Maybe you're underestimating yourself."

...aww. She smiles again, quietly pleased.

Pet pet pet. 

"Maybe you just need more time to be yourself. I mean, you basically just told me that you're only around to experience horrible things. That's no way to live."

"I'm always around at least a little. But - yes, I think I might like doing things. I liked saving those people. I sort of liked talking to Jayce afterward, too."

"What else would you like to do? Or should I suggest something?"

"Not sure. What would you suggest?"

"Hmmmm. Nothing outside the apartment, probably. I'd offer to do a piece of art for you as well, but I don't think I know you well enough yet..."

"I drew some things earlier."

"Oh? I must not have noticed them..."

She gets the sketchpad and flips back to the page with the birthday dress.

It's a beautiful drawing. Ruava is beaming into a huge gold-framed mirror, with her bedroom reflected behind her, wearing a white dress that shimmers with tiny rainbows. It's like she's wrapped in light.

Jinx frowns. Something isn't quite right here.

"It's beautiful, but..."

"...I can explain if you want."

"... If you want to."

"Do you remember when Ruava said that her entire family was killed and she's only alive because of the Emperor's mistress?"

"... Yeah."

"She didn't say she was only spared because of the Emperor's mistress. Because she wasn't. The first Ruava died in the war. But the Emperor's mistress - Nirue, her name is Reihar Nirue - she's a Wood mage. She made a... copy, like a twin, from what was left of the first Ruava. And she made me pretend to be Ruava, and I learned to pretend so well that Ruava ended up really a part of me. And that is the dress she gave us on Ruava's seventeenth birthday - she was waiting, because she isn't interested in children that way..."

She flips a couple of pages.

"That's her."

"Good. Now I'll know her if I ever see her."

"It would be a bad idea to get in a fight with Nirue," she says.

"Wasn't planning to make it a fight." 

"What were you planning to make it?"

"Does Nirue die if she explodes and then has her lovely palace fall on her?"

"The trouble is that it's hard to be sure without trying it, and you're not likely to get multiple chances."