Chapter 18: NOT EVERYTHING NEEDS TO COME FROM VALENCE

DIANA’S POV

The housekeeper had apparently spent the afternoon preparing to give Selena Valence a piece of the South inside Blackharrow.

Diana began removing pieces.

She pushed the Valence banner fabric aside first.

The housekeeper watched.

"You do not want those?"

Diana wrote:

THIS IS RAIGORO’S HOMECOMING.

The woman read it.

"And your formal reception as Grand Duchess."

Diana added:

OF BLACKHARROW.

The housekeeper looked at the gold fabric again.

"That is true."

Diana moved to the flower list.

Winter roses from heated Southern gardens. White lilies shipped in insulated wagons. Decorative vines from the warmer coast.

The prices were absurd.

She passed the merchant letter to Alma.

Alma read the first number and looked offended on behalf of mathematics.

Diana wrote:

WHAT GROWS HERE?

The housekeeper answered slowly.

"Winter pine. Frostberry. Mountain holly. Several kinds of evergreen. We use dried redleaf in ceremonial arrangements."

USE THOSE.

"The roses are traditional at Southern royal receptions."

Diana wrote:

THEY WILL DIE.

"Eventually."

BEFORE OR AFTER THE GUESTS?

Alma coughed.

The housekeeper’s mouth moved slightly.

"After, if the merchant packs them properly."

Diana pushed the letter aside anyway.

Blackharrow already possessed plants capable of surviving Blackharrow. Importing flowers across mountains so Selena Valence could watch them die in a warm hall seemed an unusually expensive way to prove she missed home.

She did not.

The musicians were next.

"A Southern ensemble already contracted for the winter homecoming is lodged in the lower town," the housekeeper said.

Already here.

Diana wrote:

PAID?

"Yes."

SEND THEM HOME AFTER THEY PLAY.

The housekeeper looked surprised.

Diana continued.

USE BLACKHARROW MUSICIANS TOO.

"For the same reception?"

Diana nodded.

If the Southern musicians had traveled this far and already been paid, dismissing them would waste the journey.

That did not require replacing everyone else.

The housekeeper made a note.

The menu was easier. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

Diana kept one Southern dish Alma liked, mostly because Alma had defended her through fifteen days of road travel and deserved at least one meal containing spices she recognized.

Everything else remained Blackharrow food.

The final set of boxes contained decorative textiles.

Black banners embroidered with silver thread. Dark green winter cloth. Several old military standards.

And folded lengths of mourning black.

Diana touched one, then wrote:

FOR A HOMECOMING?

"Yes."

Diana pointed toward the mourning cloth.

The housekeeper understood.

"Those are required."

WHY?

The answer seemed obvious to everyone except Diana.

That bothered her.

The housekeeper walked to the nearest military banner.

Its lower edge had been repaired in several places.

"This belonged to the Second Northern Company."

Diana waited.

"They left the Citadel last winter with seventy-three soldiers."

The housekeeper’s fingers rested against one repaired section of fabric.

"Sixty-one returned."

Diana understood the mourning cloth now.

"The homecoming is not only for those who came through the gates."

The housekeeper opened another folded banner.

"We acknowledge the units that returned, the wounded they brought home, and the people they did not."

Diana had seen funerals in Valence, but they happened separately. Royal celebrations stayed bright. Death was moved somewhere quieter, where grief would not interfere with the flowers.

People who became politically inconvenient could disappear even more completely. Portraits came down. Rooms changed use. Names stopped being spoken.

Someone had repaired a tear near the old banner’s edge rather than replacing the whole thing.

Diana wrote:

WHO CARRIES THESE?

"Family representatives and surviving members of the unit."

Diana pointed toward the Third Watch guest list.

"Their families as well."

The chalk stayed between Diana’s fingers.

The housekeeper continued.

"Captain Toren’s widow will carry his command sash during the memorial acknowledgment."

The woman from the arrival courtyard.

Her shallow bow made more sense now. She had lost her husband waiting for supplies from Valence, and then Selena Valence had arrived wearing the title of Grand Duchess.

Diana closed the textile box.

The housekeeper asked, "Do you want the mourning portion moved earlier in the program?"

"Some Southern courts separate memorial observance from celebration."

Diana wrote:

WHY?

The housekeeper considered.

"They find it uncomfortable."

Diana wrote:

THE DEAD ARE STILL DEAD AFTER DINNER.

Alma became intensely interested in the music list.

Mistress Hale read the answer before nodding.

"Yes, Your Grace."

Diana added:

KEEP IT.

The woman wrote the instruction into her ledger.

They spent the remainder of the afternoon adjusting the gathering.

Blackharrow’s own musicians would open the larger reception. The Southern ensemble would perform later because they had already traveled and been paid. Local winter greenery would replace imported flowers. The Valence banners would remain in storage except for the single formal standard required to identify Diana’s royal house.

Diana disliked that one.

Removing it would create questions she could not answer.

So it stayed.

Blackharrow let her change the flowers, musicians, and banners when she had a practical reason.

Selena’s name was different. Diana had no safe reason to remove it.

When the meeting ended, Mistress Hale led Diana back toward the Inner Keep by a different route.

They climbed through Government Terrace, where the passage toward the residential levels passed the memorial gallery.

Diana had seen part of it yesterday without understanding what it was.

Names had been carved into black stone panels along the wall. Some belonged to soldiers. Others carried titles Diana did not recognize. Small shelves beneath the panels held objects much like those at Third Watch.

Beneath them were broken buckles, old gloves, children’s painted stones, and letters folded beneath glass.

Diana slowed.

Alma stopped beside her.

There were too many names to read during one walk.

Diana found Toren anyway.

CAPTAIN TOREN

THIRD WATCH

A narrow place beneath his name remained empty.

"The family brings the command sash tomorrow," the housekeeper said behind them.

The empty place made sense now.

Blackharrow had not forgotten to fill it.

They were waiting for his family.

Mistress Hale gave Diana time before speaking again.

"There is one more household matter tomorrow morning."

Diana turned.

"As Grand Duchess, you will need the household keys before the reception."

Diana thought of every door she had spent years waiting for someone else to unlock.

Tomorrow, Blackharrow intended to put the keys in her hands.

She had a bad feeling about how many.