***Cadiz***
The banquet had come and gone.
The estate had finally remembered how to be quiet again.
Servants moved through the halls carrying away the last of the formal decorations, replacing polished silver with ordinary ceramic tableware, while visiting nobles departed one carriage after another until only family remained.
For the first time since we'd arrived, nobody seemed to have anywhere they urgently needed to be.
I found everyone exactly where I should have expected.
Out in the gardens.
The afternoon sun filtered through the old maple trees, turning the stone paths gold beneath our feet. The twins had escaped onto the grass with three wooden swords someone—likely Lyris—had apparently thought was an excellent gift for toddlers.
It wasn't.
"Mirin," Camilla called, standing at the edge of the lawn.
He immediately ignored her, dragging the wooden pommel through a dirt bed instead.
