The Balcony Rule

The next evening Junia returned the folio herself, though no one had asked her to. She told the archivist she needed Master Sorell’s signature. She told herself she was only finishing a task. Cassian was waiting on the same balcony. This time no mask hid his face, and without it he seemed less distant, though no less dangerous to her composure. The silk drapes moved in the night breeze around him like slow water. A tea service had been arranged on the low table near the railing, two cups already poured. “You expected me?” Junia asked. He lifted one shoulder. “I hoped. Expectation would have been arrogance.” “And hope is not?” “Hope is merely better dressed.” She laughed before she meant to. It startled both of them, then softened the air. Cassian offered her the second cup and motioned toward the balustrade. Beyond it, Lyravel gleamed under a moon still bright from the festival. Music drifted upward from some distant courtyard. “There is a rule for this balcony,” Cassian said after a moment. Junia stiffened. “I suspected there might be.” “Only one. No one is permitted to lie here.” Of all the rules a prince could impose, that was somehow the most intimate. “That sounds impractical.” “It is,” he said. “Which is why I value it.” She traced a finger around the rim of her cup. “And if honesty becomes inconvenient?” Cassian watched the moonlit rooftops. “Then at least inconvenience will be truthful.” The simplicity of it disarmed her. In court, everyone spoke through silk and ceremony. In the archives, every document arrived wrapped in someone else’s agenda. Yet here, on this balcony, the rule felt less like protocol and more like sanctuary. They spoke for nearly an hour. Junia told him about the joy of repairing damaged texts — the way restoring a line felt like returning a voice to the world. Cassian told her he envied scholars because they were allowed to love things privately, whereas princes were expected to love everything in public and convincingly. “You say that as if the crown is a costume,” she said.…