The kitchen of the Veyne house had never held seven people from the time they came into this house. But now that Selene and Helga came into this house and sat together with Lys's family while having their first dinner with them, the table felt too full.
Elara realized it halfway through setting the table and fixed it by dragging the narrow bench from the hallway. It wedged tight between Mira's chair and the wall, forcing Mira to twist her knees sideways. She didn't complain, though.
The food stayed simple, the same stew Elara had planned for five, but now stretched with extra bread and pickled vegetables from the shelf. Helga reached into her bag without being asked and set a block of hard cheese on the table like it were her contribution to make.
Elara glanced at the cheese, then at Helga. "Where did it came from?"
"I bought it from the market when I came," Helga said. "Use it as you want."
That was just their introduction talk. By the time the bowls emptied, they talked so much that they had already worked out how they would split the work around the house. Elara would handle breakfast, and Helga would take the evening meal. They agreed not to make the kitchen a battlefield between them. All of this mutual understanding took only forty minutes of shared space and a satisfying dinner.
Selene sat between Helga and Mira. She ate in small, careful bites and said almost nothing, while her eyes moved across the table, taking everything in. Mira filled the gaps, jumping from the loom tension problem to the neighbor's goat eating her favourite tree seeds. Most of the time, she laughed at her own stories loud enough that no one else had to force a sound.
Twice, Mira turned to Mitsu with easy questions that needed easy answers. But Mitsu just gave slightly longer replies than usual, her voice gaining a little strength each time.
Lys noticed that. He noticed most of what happened in this table: Helga slicing the cheese into even pieces and sliding one in front of Selene without asking, Elara refilling Mitsu's water before she could reach for the pitcher, Selene's shoulders dropping inch by inch over the course of the meal, still braced but less rigid than she is.
No one made a big deal of any of it. The table stayed loud enough that awkward silence never had any room to grow. Which was a kindness he wanted this house to have, but it seems it already had enough of it, without him doing anything about it.
When the last spoon scraped the pot, Elara stood and started stacking plates. Helga rose at the same moment. Their hands brushed once over the same bowl. Neither of them pulled back, though; both wanted to do it themselves, as if it would prove something between them. They carried everything to the sink together like they were in a competition to do it.
Elara said goodnight first. Mitsu followed soon after, then Helga, as she was going to share the room with her. Mira lingered in the doorway long enough to see Lys still at the table, squinting at Sara's guild documents like the map had insulted him personally.
She opened her mouth to say something. But seeing him deep in thought, she went to bed.
Lys pulled the map closer. He could read enough of this world's writing by now to catch the general shape, but most of it seemed like scribbles to him yet. He turned the paper sideways, as if that would help him understand the words.
"You're already holding it right," Selene said from the doorway.
He looked up. She stood there in her night clothes, hair loose and dark against her shoulders, a cup of water in one hand. She had clearly been heading to bed and stopped to talk to him.
He just hadn't heard her footsteps till now, being focused on the map.
She crossed to the table, set her cup down, and looked at the map from above. Then she pulled out the chair across from him and sat. She didn't ask permission. She simply reached across, turned the map back the right way, and pointed to the line he'd been stuck on.
"That's a toll station," she said. "It seems to be inactive now, but the guild will want to know if it really exists, so you should take note of it. This one…" Her finger moved to another mark. "Seasonal flooding. The route dies in the wet months."
"Hmm, that's useful," he said.
"I know." She slid the next document toward herself. "Give me those."
They worked through the stack of papers and maps for nearly an hour. Selene read each page, summed up the important parts in clear sentences, and flagged what mattered to him.
Lys listened and asked questions when something didn't click, and added his own notes beside hers. A few times, his questions made her pause and reread a section because he had caught something she had missed. Though she never commented on it or showed any signs of being mad for making mistakes. She just reread and answered again.
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When the last paper landed on the finished pile, she sat back. The candle between them had burned most of the way down. The house sat completely quiet.
"You can ask me again," she said. "Whenever more documents show up, show them to me. I don't mind."
He looked at her. "Okay, I'll do that."
She held his eyes for a moment, then gave one short nod and stood, picking up her water cup.
"Goodnight," she said.
"Night." Lys also said it to her.
She walked down the hall, opened her door, and closed it softly behind her.
Lys stayed at the table a minute longer, staring at the neat stack of papers and the low candle flame. The quiet house felt different tonight. More fuller than usual. Less empty in the spaces between sounds.
After a while, he blew out the candle and headed to his room.
He lay in the dark and listened. The house settled around him in new layers. He could hear almost every sound around the house, the creak of the walls cooling, Mira's workroom door not quite latched, the faint movement of air through the upstairs hallway.
He stared at the ceiling.
'Hffff, tomorrow is definitely going to be a busy day for sure.' He thought that while sighing and closing his eyes.
But before he could fall deep in sleep, someone knocked on his door.