Deciding upon it being probably unhelpful for anyone to debate how successfully she might have fended off a blade—probably, Julius would still have had to step in, only with significantly less subtlety—Petrana instead tangled her fingers with Julius's and suggested, “The downside of being so obliged to divide and conquer.”

Or build alliances, or at least encourage against the wrong ones, but she is so prone to the language of conquest when her guard is down.

Probably not anything to worry about.

“Perhaps we might see about a bath.”