The twins ate dinner in the east wing on formal occasions. On the others they ate in the kitchen with the staff, which Selene had arranged without discussion and which Alistair had never directly noticed or un-noticed, the distinction mattering to no one except the people it mattered most to.
Vane found out about the kitchen arrangement from Mia.
He had been coming back from the afternoon Crucible session along the east wing corridor when she appeared from a doorway at knee height, looked up at him, and said: "You're tall."
"Yes," he said.
She considered him. She was seven, with her mother's colouring and her father's precision in the eyes, which was a combination that would be formidable in about fifteen years. "Val says you're from Oakhaven."
"Yes."
"Is Oakhaven scary?"
"Parts of it."
She thought about this. "Leo's scared of the dark," she said, as though offering a trade.
"Most people are at some point."
"Not Val." Matter-of-fact. "Val's not scared of anything."
