Caelum
I found her in the east corridor.
I was moving through the lower floors in the restless circuit I had developed since returning to Ashenveil. The sun had just set, and the sky was still painted with pinks and oranges.
Kaida continued to refuse to be my research subject with a pleasantness that was beginning to feel like aggression. I allowed her to refuse, as I was, at my core, a patient man.
The wedding preparations were proceeding on schedule.
The court was in its customary arrangement.
Everything was in order.
I was restless anyway.
The sound reached me before I turned the corner. Several raised voices, sharp and sour with the kind of self-righteousness and superiority that could curdle milk.
I turned the corner and kept to the shadows.
A human kitchen worker, Hetta, ha
