When morning came the blue lamp in the Co-Sovereign's solar had long since been extinguished, replaced by the harsh, grey dawn of a winter.
Elias sat at his desk. His silver circlet was in its dark wooden box, hidden away behind a stack of god-knows-what-papers.
His hair, which he had allowed to grow to his waist over time, was pinned back neatly, and the collar of his hazel robe was fastened to his throat.
The flushed, heat of last night had burned away, leaving behind the cold, reality of a man who had tried to build a sanctuary out of another person's body and been gently, firmly forced back onto his own feet.
The silence in the room was tensed.
It wasn't the easy, synchronization that had defined their work over the past weeks. It was thick with the boundary Nico had drawn in the dark.
Nico moved around the edge of the oak table, his heavy leather vest creaking faintly with every shift of his broad shoulders. He laid the morning treasury logs on the center of the blotter.
