The System tucked itself closer to her shoulder, wings folding neat, enormous eyes fixed on the entrance ahead. Its presence was warm and still and had been with her since the beginning — through the poison and the episodes and the politics and the frog reports — and showed up for every single thing she did regardless of how many times she told it the working list took priority.
Four sentences per day for ninety-two days.
It had stayed anyway.
She filed that in the left drawer too.
Somewhere next to Bernard's progress reports.
"Open the doors," Elara said.
Ken signaled.
The throne room doors swung wide.
She walked in.
The System flew at her shoulder.
Time to work.
The meeting went as usual ....
**Location:** Elara's Office, Next Morning — Before the Second Consort Arrived
***
The tea was wrong.
