"The convening was worse."
"Yes."
"Aldis was worse."
"Yes."
"So this was—"
"Manageable," Mitch said.
"I keep hearing that word," Ziko said.
"It's the right word," Mitch said.
---
Caius stayed for two days after the withdrawal.
Not for anything specific — the work was done, the documentation was filed, Brinne had confirmed the council had received the withdrawal and the acknowledgment was now unchallenged and formally established. He stayed because the compound, in the time since his last visit, had become somewhere that felt like it had room for him. Not his room — he understood the distinction, I could see it in how he moved through the spaces, careful and respectful of what had been built without him — but room.
He spent most of those two days with Ren.
I want to be precise a
