“You say imagine, but I cannot imagine Rain in a manor with maids,” Byron said. “Sorry, Rain.”

“No. I’m grateful you pay enough attention to know I’m not a maid guy, if anything.”

“It would be maids and a singular manservant. A Jeeves type, if you will,” Swansong said. “If you’re to go that route—”

“I’m really not going to.”

“—it’s a good idea to have a same-sex servant who has the right sensibilities when it comes to your hygiene, fashion, and other needs.”

“I don’t want any servants at all. I’m saying my standards are perfectly good where they are. A house just big enough for me. A whole country is an interesting thought exercise, but if Goddess wanted me to run a country, I’d still lean toward having a small house, and no servants. Servants rub me the wrong way, after some of what I saw growing up.”

Swansong made a disappointed ‘tsk’ sound.

“Um, so, hm… you wouldn’t want a Jeeves, that makes sense,” Lookout said, before her tone of voice changed to a maximum unsubtle, “What about an—um, a you-know-who? Wouldn’t you want room for at least one more person in your cabin? Even as a maybe?”

“You-know-who and I haven’t talked enough lately,” Rain said. He paused. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever really imagined myself having both a house and someone I really care about as part of the same scene. Well, once, but… that was special circumstances, and it wasn’t a happy sort of special.”

“Now I’m curious.” Byron said.

“I’ll tell you and Tristan later, I guess. Anyhow, I wonder if it’s because it felt like even that was asking too much.”

“Set your standards as high as you can,” Swansong said, while Damsel nodded beside her. “Then live up to them.”

“If I set my expectations low, then me being in prison is tolerable. Things sucked before, and the only thing I wanted was out. I got what I wanted and I’m happy about that. I am—was actually genuinely reasonably okay with being here.”

“And now we’re free,” Swansong said. She looked around. “Or something.”

Something.

They were talking about future and dreams, and all I could think about was the uncertainty before us.

Either the Chris thing was all in my head, or they hadn’t been looking at the right times to see it.

“We need to get through this first,” Sveta said.

Thank you, Sveta, for saying it.

She went on, “Look at Goddess. She’s tense. Teacher isn’t done, and we still have enemies out there.”

“We have enemies in here,” I said, my voice quieter. “And that’s something we need to be careful of.”