He did not mean to be there.
Soran was crossing the corridor outside the river window room — the route Gamma Reese had shown him, the way from the east wing to the main kitchen that avoided the busiest junction — when he heard Sera's voice through the door, which was not fully closed.
Two words.
*Oh,* and then a pause, and then *Darius.*
Not alarmed. Not in pain. The specific quality of someone responding to something that had arrived and was too large for a longer sentence.
He stopped.
He should have kept walking.
He stood in the corridor and heard, through the door that was not fully closed, the sound of footsteps crossing the room quickly. Darius's voice. Then both of them quiet in the way of people who are doing something that requires their full attention and no words.
Then —
