Verena stepped out next, looking fashionably disheveled, bruised in all the right places, thanks to Clarina's oddly enthusiastic makeup job.
The knight had gotten way too into it. Something about "authenticity" and "method acting."
"Wait—is that Verena?!"
"How is she out?! I thought she was imprisoned!"
Evelyn held up a dainty hand like a noble conducting a symphony of gasps. "I heard…" she said softly, pausing with the dramatic timing of a stage actress, "that Lady Verena was kidnapped too…"
The crowd gasped again, right on cue.
"But no," she sighed, glancing over at Verena with faux sadness. "It wasn't her."
This girl was too good at this. She was following Verena's exact script, but delivering it with such perfect, trembling innocence that it was starting to feel real.
Was Evelyn acting, or was this just who she was now?
At this point, even Verena was unsure. And maybe a little scared.
"I... I-"
[Buff has been removed!]
