Lord Baek answered the door himself.
It was the fourth hour past midnight. His house was dark except for one lamp in the study window, which meant either he never slept or he had been expecting someone. Given what I knew of him, both were equally likely.
He looked at the three of us — at the documents under Kaien's arm, at the cases I was carrying, at Ren's expression, which could only be described as a man being dragged through history against his will — and stepped aside without a word.
The study was warm. The cat was still asleep on the Imperial correspondence. Nothing had changed, which was either reassuring or deeply suspicious depending on how much you trusted coincidence.
"You found the storage house," Lord Baek said. Not a question.
"We found more than that," Kaien said.
