Mara arrived at noon, as she always did.
She came through the back entrance, past the flour sacks and the broken proofing rack, and she stood at the bottom of the stairs for a moment before she came fully into the room, which was something she only did when she was carrying something she'd been deciding how to carry.
Aiden saw it.
He didn't say anything yet.
He waited.
She looked at the room first. The standard assessment she performed every time she arrived, the quick read of who was present and what the room's temperature was, not the air temperature, the other kind. Nia at the sensor rig with Suri. Tal cross-referencing the Davan research. Rell in his corner with the notebook.
Kael at the east wall, not repairing anything today, just standing near it the way he stood near walls sometimes, the particular ease of someone whose body had a long relationship with the infrastructure of buildings.
