The broth was close.
I'd stuck my head into the kitchen on the way past earlier. The color was right. The smell was exactly where broth smell ought to be when it's almost done. Another few minutes, probably. I put the lid back on the pot and came out carrying the kettle.
The common room was still at its current volume. It had been roughly this loud since morning and showed absolutely no intention of reconsidering. I started at the near end of the bench and worked my way along with the kettle.
The council chair was explaining something about the scope of the council's authority over infrastructure technically inside the city's boundaries, even if those boundaries were currently sitting in the Abyss. The guild representative was explaining something back.
I refilled cups along the bench and moved toward the hearth end.
Vassara still had the chair she'd claimed when she arrived. The fire was going well over there. Clean burn, steady light.
