She asked on a Wednesday morning.
Not the way Caelum asked things, with the hands on the knees and the direct look and the prepared question. Lyra asked the way Lyra did things she had decided on, by simply beginning them, the decision already made and the action following from it without ceremony.
She appeared in the doorway of the small sitting room where Aelara was reading after breakfast and she said: "Can I have a real room."
Aelara looked up from her book.
She said: "You have a room."
"I have the room I was given when we arrived. That is different from a real room." Lyra came in and sat down across from her with the specific posture she used when she had thought about something thoroughly and was now presenting the conclusion. "A real room is one that is mine. That has things in it that I chose. That looks like me rather than like a room that was prepared for a person."
Aelara looked at her.
She said: "Then choose what's in it."
"I want to choose it with you."
