Countess Evremonde, the Queen's lady-in-waiting, greets Asymara as she arrives at the palace. She tells her that she is looking forward to her guidance this morning. She asks her to stop curtsying to anyone who is inferior to her, and she agrees to do so. She then tells her not to make the kind of expression that would lose her "charming as a princess" . She says that she might have knitted her eyebrows too often, but she is sorry that she did something wrong last night. She also says that her etiquette coach is her favorite lady in the kingdom, and that she has been known to be gentle and polite. As she is about to leave, she feels suffocated by her surroundings.