Elias answered the release question first, because it was the one line he had chosen not to soften.
"The Council releases," he said. "At present. The wording is standard. I did not write it, and I expect you would like it changed."
"That seems likely."
"Then that is what the space is for." He tilted the sheet a quarter inch toward the blank at the bottom and left it there, an open field in an otherwise ruled page.
"Someone else's wording," Lucavion said. "And you're only carrying it."
"I am presenting it."
"That's a nicer word."
Lucavion still had not looked at the space. Head canted, two fingers resting on the edge of his own file, he looked at Elias the way one looks at a door before trying the handle. "Why now, President?"
