csevet gets away with being crazy bc he's so sweetie but his story arc within tge is pure bedlam, he just does it so elegantly and politely it glosses over. courier agreed to be imperial secretary after one vague and polite insinuation from the emperor in that direction, despite possibly not having learned to read until he was a teenager (and the circumstances within which he was sent into maia's service are HIGHLY questionable, it's possible csevet wilfully interpreted chavar's wording to get the outcome he wanted). he got offended when maia insinuated, not that he would covertly read a letter of imperial business entrusted to him, but that he wouldn't immaculately reseal it if he had done such a thing. about fifty pages later he is hustled into admitting he did that exact thing with the first letter he ever gave to maia. and he immaculately resealed it. he is the only person to land a punch on anyone on-page, and he did it in front of like half the government. he insinuated the emperor was insane, to his face, then promptly prostrated himself on the floor outside. in like, the gravel. he loudly guilt tripped priests in a holy building and wasn't sorry about it even a bit. he personally influenced and drove several state matters that rightly should not have really been up to him, including the emperor's marriage and the investigation of the assassination of the previous one. he then proceeded to pick an empress and present the proposal to the corazhas as if that was the emperor's opinion, even though maia had no opinion in the slightest. one can make a textual argument suggesting he might have sliiiightly lied to the emperor about a few things, including his age, or at least obfuscated. his only apparent objection to becoming lord chancellor was said nebulous age. he still somehow has time to read ethuverazhin jane austen. he compared his commitment to his role to celehar's Actual For Real Religious Calling. katherine addison please let me look in his brain just once it HAS to be absolute scenes in there
