Sophia Vale's office was oval, which was either an architectural choice or a statement. The kind of room that said: nothing here has corners because corners are for people who need walls to lean on.
She sat opposite Lord Bala with the composed attention of someone who had received unexpected visitors before and had a system for managing them.
"You're not any usual visitor," she said.
"Valid assumption," Bala replied, "if my daughter wasn't your student."
"Of course." She accepted the correction smoothly. Then: "Are you here because of the Hogsby incident?"
His eyes didn't move but something behind them did. The specific stillness of a man filing information he hadn't previously had.
"What happened at Hogsby?" he asked.
Sophia read his face and understood immediately that she had just revealed something she hadn't intended to. She course corrected without pause.
