“Indeed.” Teela contemplated Kaylin’s outfit. “You have the assessment with Mrs. Erickson in three days. We’ll visit the High Halls in four days. You have suitable clothing, and you had better be wearing it when I drop by to pick you up.”

“I’ll trade. Tell me about Azoria.”

Teela glared at her and walked away.

Kaylin knew—from Mandoran—that the Academia was setting up mirror access to the rest of the city. Mirrors were a part of daily life in Elantra. They were very seldom used in the fiefs of her childhood. But Helen didn’t like them, and allowed access only in what she termed a “safe” room. Tara, the Avatar of the Tower of Tiamaris, didn’t like them either, and made the same choice Helen made. Had her lord, Tiamaris, not required mirror network access, she wouldn’t have allowed them at all.

The former Arkon—Lannagaros—was accustomed to mirror use; Kaylin would have expected mirror functionality to be one of the first things the new chancellor of the Academia instituted.

Apparently, she would have been wrong.

She looked up at the sound of the internal office clock—its cheery, friendly voice giving tired Hawks information they actually wanted: time to go home. She had far too many things on her figurative desk at the moment; her mirror feed now looked like an extremely unartistic collage. It was hard to focus on just one thing; she had the instinctive sense that many of them were somehow connected.

Home was Helen. Kaylin had the privilege of being tenant to one of the very few sentient buildings in Elantra. Helen was an oddity, even among sentient buildings. She didn’t have masters, she had tenants. Kaylin would have felt more insecure about this had she not known that most of Helen’s tenants had remained her tenants until their deaths. Helen was waiting for Kaylin as she set foot across the property line; she stood in the open door of the front foyer, where she always stood when Kaylin came home. Kaylin had been fond of her old apartment, but not in the same way. Having someone to come home to made a big difference.

Today, however, not so much.

“What were you doing at the office today?” she asked. While she generally asked about Kaylin’s day at work, there was usually less concern in Helen’s tone.

“Research and initial investigations into possible murder cases.”

“Ah.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Teela was shocked or upset enough by the mention of a Barrani individual that she failed to entirely mask her reaction from the rest of the cohort.”

“Oh.” Kaylin exhaled. “Sedarias?”

“She is concerned, yes.”

Great.

06

Kaylin entered the foyer. She wasn’t particularly surprised to see Mandoran at the height of the stairs that led, in the end, to the rooms all of Helen’s tenants and guests occupied. He was usually the bridge between Sedarias and everyone else.