That gets a small smile from her.

"Thank you, Aria."

"Go," Ishaza says. "There will be time enough for more meetings later. Enjoy your first day of classes, Ms. Quill. I understand if you must take some time to rest."

She pauses. 

"And I would strongly advise you not to let that diviner out of your sight," she adds. "Things have a tendency to get cleaned up by the local maids if not closely supervised."

Of course they do. 

She's just going to leave now. 

Neither Ishaza nor Aria make a move to stop her.

They're left in the room, alone together.

"She's a willful one, isn't she?"

"I'm surprised, actually. She seemed much more timid the first day."

"Well enough. I hope you enjoy spending that favour later."

"Of course, Your Grace."

Aria curtseys, and leaves as well.

Around an hour later...

A certain red-haired woman knocks on Ms. Quill's door.

A very, very weary-looking Corvina answers the door. 

"Hello," she says. "What is it now? Come to tug at me for the conservatives, is that it?"

Leah looks away. "I'm sorry, I knew you must be... tired, after all you've been through in the past few days..." 

She sighs. "I hate politics. I've never had the talent for it and I never will. I..." She intermeshes her hands. "I just... I know there must be so many people offering you advice, but - I doubt there's anyone who's really tried to get to know you."

She looks down at the floor. "And... I just think it would be awful if you ended up alone in this new world without even one person you could call a friend. I've been there, and... It's not..."

Leah pauses for a long moment. "... I'm not so far from you," she says. "My father discovered an artifact. An old-style diviner, one of the first known. His research on it made him wealthy, but... not nobility."

She squares her shoulders. "But I had something I wanted, as a little girl. I wanted to serve the realm, to do something real, to help people, to defend those who couldn't defend themselves. And so I decided to enlist. My father's money paid for a commission, but it didn't make me noble." 

Leah steadies a little, and looks back up at Corvina. "But it turned out I was good at it. I proved myself in combat on the border and ended up a knight of the realm, at the age of twenty. That was three years ago now."

She looks Corvina in the eye. "Which is to say... I've been where you are. With all the nobles treating me like a plaything. With talent, maybe, but no sense of what I wanted to do with it. And that... makes me want to help you."

Corvina meets her gaze. "Swear on your honor this isn't a conservative plot?"

Leah winces. "I can't swear to that. I am their messenger, I can't and won't deny that. But... I can honestly swear that I want you to be happy and succeed and grow. It's personal for me too."

Corvina sighs. 

"If you'd just sworn to it I would've shut the door in your face. But..." 

She shakes her head. 

"Promise you won't try to pitch me on how great the conservatives are or get me to commit to anything or fuck with my stuff or - generally do things on behalf of the conservatives - for one conversation, and I'll let you in."

Leah takes a long moment to consider. 

"... Yes, I think I can agree to that."

"You promise?"

"I promise I won't represent the conservatives' interests for one conversation, and just talk to you as a fellow human being trying to get by in a world of nobles that they never prepared themselves for or expected."

"And you don't report that conversation to anyone. You don't share it. It's private. You keep it to yourself."

"I swear I won't repeat our conversation to anyone, summarize it, or otherwise tell anyone else anything about our next conversation."

Corvina looks at her. 

Despite everything, the words have weight to them. 

"You'd better come in, then."

She steps back from the door.

Leah steps into Corvina's rooms, and looks around.

The standard Academy guest room - all red cushions and carved oak furniture - is bare of any trace of habitation or care. 

There's a small table, bare, with three chairs around it. The sitting room of the suite is otherwise unoccupied.

Corvina closes the door, walks over to the the table, and sits down facing the door.