Copper Rose wanted the crown of the Cog & Garter Ball, and tonight she had three days to earn it. She stood in the doorway of the Brass Whistle Coffeehouse and let the elite see her. Her copper curls caught the lamplight. Her corset fit like it was welded on. Men stared. Women whispered. But not one of them stepped forward to speak her name. She understood the problem fast. Stares were cheap. The ball's judges crowned the girl everyone wanted to stand beside, not the girl everyone wanted to look at. Beauty opened the door. Charm won the room. And Copper Rose knew nobody here who could vouch for hers. She found a table near the hissing brass pipes and ordered black coffee she didn't want. A mechanical squirrel perched on the sugar bowl, brass gears ticking at its hip, goggles pushed up on its furry head. It chittered at her, then tipped a sugar cube into her saucer like a tiny host. A laugh cut across the room. Copper Rose looked up. The woman at the center table had silver hair swept high and skin the color of lavender. Her eyes were too large, too bright. An alien, and she wore it like a crown. She leaned toward a cluster of ball-goers and said something low. The whole table burst out laughing at once. Every important person in the room was already circled around her. Stella Starlight. Copper Rose had heard the name. Half the ball's elite wanted her approval. The other half pretended they didn't. This was the ally she needed. The only one who mattered. Copper Rose stood, crossed the floor, and sat down uninvited across from her. The table went quiet. Stella arched one perfect brow. "You're the girl in the doorway," Stella said. "The one who thinks walking in slow counts as an entrance." The circle snickered. Copper Rose felt her cheeks burn. But she held Stella's gaze. "It got your attention," Copper Rose said. "Everything gets my attention, sugar. Keeping it is the trick." Copper Rose nudged the brass squirrel toward Stella. It hopped onto the table, bowed, and offered up its sugar cube. Stella laughed, a real one this time, and the whole circle softened. "All right," Stella said. She studied Copper Rose like a jeweler studies a stone. "You've got nerve. I can work with nerve." She raised her voice for the room. "This one's mine for the season. Anybody who snubs her snubs me." The ball-goers nodded. Just like that, Copper Rose had her ally. Stella leaned close, her smile sharp. "But I don't back losers, darling. You wear my name now. If you don't take that crown, we both look like fools." She tapped Copper Rose's wrist. "And I don't forgive people who make me look like a fool." Copper Rose had her vouch. She had also just promised a stranger the crown she wasn't sure she could win.