The study door had barely stopped shuddering from Morgana's exit when Jasmine slid the next decree in front of Quinlan, folded open to the right line.
"Sign here, my love."
Quinlan signed.
"We're through the worst of it. Hang in there~" she purred, kissing his cheek lovingly.
The pile under her arm had stopped looking infinite somewhere around the stable fees; what remained was the stubborn tail of a kingdom changing hands.
Across the room, Alexios's stamp kept its even rhythm over the crown's half. Ayame had never left her window seat, chin back on her knee.
Halfway down the next page, a chime started up from inside his pocket ring. He fished out a fist-sized communication crystal, glanced at it, and answered without breaking his signature.
"Myra. Miss me already?"
"Miss you?!" The crystal crackled with the force of it. "Do you know what reached my desk tonight, you impossible man? Do you know what I have been listening to for the past hour?"
"Enlighten me."
