Balthazar looked at the two chairs and waited.
The observer opened her record book.
“Is there a problem?”
“No.”
He sat. The cushion slipped beneath him. He adjusted it, found the chair unchanged by the effort and put both hands on the table.
Lyra had to stop herself enjoying it.
Outside this room, Nadia was arranging somewhere to sleep. Vera was trying to keep a workshop running. A preserved account might explain what had happened to people whose relatives still set places for them. Her uncle’s inadequate cushion did not answer any of that.
The observer read the terms of the interview. A fixed time. Both accounts recorded. No private agreement replacing matters already before the inquiry.
