The sound of forms being dropped was surprisingly loud in the sudden quiet that spread outward from the registration desk like a stone thrown into still water. Conversations nearby faltered and stopped. Heads turned.
The clerk's face went through several expressions in rapid succession before settling on professional composure maintained through visible effort.
"Raikarndel," he repeated, his voice carefully neutral now.
"As in—"
"As in Clan Raikarndel," she confirmed.
"He is our young master, the heir of the Raaya Villa."
If it were somebody else, people would have laughed it off, but it was Raani, the dragon maiden, who was known throughout the land of Roakan, and her word carried weight.
The clerk nodded several times, too quickly, his hands moving through the registration process with the mechanical efficiency of someone falling back on trained procedure because their brain was too occupied with processing implications to manage anything more complex.
