They used the room with the long table.
Not because it was formal, or not only because of that. Because it had four chairs and enough space and the window that faced the courtyard, the one that let in the afternoon light without asking anything of it. Aelara had been in this room for difficult conversations before. She knew what it could hold.
The twins sat across from them.
Lyra had come in knowing something was coming, the way she always knew, the specific quality of attention she carried when she had felt something in the house that had not been said yet. She sat with her hands in her lap and her eyes on Aelara and she waited.
Caelum had come in the way Caelum came into rooms, reading it first, deciding where to put himself, settling. He sat beside Lyra and looked at Vaelor and then at Aelara and he did not say anything.
He was already listening.
Vaelor started.
