The hall watched.
And it understood, even the section that would have preferred not to, that what Julius had announced was not the beginning of something but the recognition of something that had already existed long enough for the recognition to be arriving late and exactly on time simultaneously.
Outside, in the territory that had just stopped being called Goldcrest and now carried the name of the family that had transformed it, the afternoon was still afternoon. The streets were the streets. The people who lived there were going about the business of living there, mostly unaware that something had just been said about the place where they kept their things and raised their children that gave it a different name and the same character it had always had.
The absences were still absences.
But the four of them were standing together in the right place, with what they had in front of them being enough for this moment.
Enough, and more than enough.
♢♢♢♢
