Joan turned around.
She didn't sit. She leaned back against the counter with her arms folded and looked at the table, and it was the same posture she'd used in a hundred rooms full of gray coats, and everyone in the kitchen understood that they'd just become one of those rooms.
"Before I start," Joan said, "I want to establish something about the mechanics."
"Joan."
"No, this matters." She nodded at the others. "Every person at this table has a system in her mouth. Yara has a bond. Selah has a bond. Maren has a bond. Dani has a bond. When any of them wants something, there's a thread pulling, and an index, and a number that goes up."
"And you don't," said Soren.
"I have never received a single notification in my life." Joan said it evenly. "No index. No tier. No ceiling. The system has never once told me what I feel about you, because the system can't see me."
"That's been true since the start."
"Yes," Joan said. "So understand what that makes everything I'm about to say."
