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"Brightness Navani? May I speak with you?"
Navani turns towards the door and sees the now-familiar face of Adolin's new betrothed, Shallan Davar. Her pale face is smooth and slightly flushed. She looks nervous, but stands up straight in the doorway.
Navani isn't sure what the girl wants, but she might as well be nice to her. Even if she and Dalinar aren't seeing each other anymore, she still cares about who Adolin might marry.
"Come inside, Shallan," she says, gesturing to a chair opposite her desk.
"What are you working on?" Shallan asks, leaning over to glance at the pages on Navani's desk.
"Oh, this is nothing important. Just a side hobby," Navani says, pushing aside the fabrial designs she's been trying to sketch out. It's so frustrating: she wishes she were more skilled in the visual arts. She knows what she wants them to look like, but it never turns out on the page.
"Why have you come to visit me?" Navani asks, putting on her most professional face.
"I- I hate to do this, Brightness," Shallan starts, the beginnings of what must be a well-rehearsed speech. "But I didn't know where else to go."
"Adolin has- he decided to pull out of our arrangement. But I must stay here. It was important to Jasnah, and it is important to me."
Navani isn't surprised that Adolin has let another good match slip through his fingers. She is surprised that Shallan is here talking to her, though. "I am sorry about my nephew, but if he does not wish to continue your betrothal, there is nothing much I can do," Navani says.
Even though the words themselves come automatically, the result of decades of courtly talk, Navani realizes that she genuinely means it. It took her some time to warm up to Shallan, but the girl is witty and intelligent in a way Navani appreciates (even if Adolin apparently doesn't). She can see why Jasnah took her on as a ward.
"Well, I could stay, if I could negotiate another betrothal," Shallan says. "Of course, to save face, I want to make it seem like a more desirable match than Adolin."
Does Shallan want to marry Elhokar? But surely the girl knows he's already married. Dalinar could be an option, too, though she can't imagine he and Shallan getting along very well. Her jokes would surely fly over his head. There's Renarin, but Navani doubts a marriage to him would bring up Shallan's social standing, comparatively to Adolin.
"I must confess, I am not sure who you are referring to," Navani says. "There are few men in Alethkar of higher rank than Adolin."
"I wasn't thinking about the men, Brightness," Shallan says. "I was thinking about you."
Navani's mind stops short in its tracks.
"You are the dowager queen of Alethkar," Shallan continues. "The king's mother, the most important woman in these warcamps. You are powerful, even if you do not hold the throne any longer. Your hand could grant me much protection."
"I- this- you are half my age!" Navani sputters. She wonders if Shallan has lost her mind, or is playing some sort of joke on her, but the girl looks serious and as put together as ever.
"That doesn't matter, Brightness. I just need someone to vouch for me. Someone strong, who has power here. Someone stable."
Navani wants to bite back with a hundred different retorts, but all of them bubble up at once, and she finds herself speechless again.
The idea that Shallan, a brilliant girl who's probably going places whether she marries a Kholin or not, would even entertain the thought of being betrothed to her, is completely ridiculous. The girl must be hiding something that's making her desperate. There's no way…
But she seems so earnest. She's still talking, describing to Navani the ways they could help each other, and all Navani hears is sincerity.
Maybe… maybe she has to consider the possibility that this is real.