The corridor outside the chamber was not empty.
It should have been. Recess protocol meant the observers cleared the gallery and used the side exits, which fed into the outer hall, not this one. But three people had found their way here anyway, the kind of people who always found their way to corridors they were not supposed to be in, and Aelara walked past them without slowing and without acknowledging that she had clocked every one of their faces.
Rhea was half a step behind her.
Caelum had appeared from somewhere, which she had stopped being surprised by. He simply materialized in the places he was needed and she had learned to accept it as a feature rather than ask how it happened.
She turned the corner into the narrower passage that ran behind the clerk's offices and stopped.
Aelara: "Talk to me."
Rhea: "The intake form. You said two sources."
Aelara: "I said two sources."
Rhea: "Who are they."
