The twins went down easier than she expected, which meant they were either genuinely tired or they were giving her and Vaelor privacy on purpose, and she was almost certain it was both.
Lyra did not pretend to need to go to sleep. She simply looked at Vaelor before she went into the tent and said: "We're going to talk properly tomorrow. When there's more time." Not a question. A statement of schedule.
He said: "Yes."
She nodded once, satisfied, and went in.
Caelum lingered a few more seconds. He looked at Vaelor with the assessment quality, not accusatory, just still reading, still building. Then he said: "The thirty-seven questions are still there."
"I know," Vaelor said.
"Tomorrow," Caelum said.
"Tomorrow," he said back.
Caelum gave him one more look that was not quite a warning and not quite approval and was something in between that Aelara suspected was going to take years to fully decode. Then he went in.
