The clerk checked Lyra’s credential before offering her a pen.
Lyra appreciated the order more than she once would have.
“Current issue,” he said. “The abandoned seal is canceled in the gate record as well.”
“I asked for that when I lost it.”
“And now we’re checking it reached the place where someone might use it.”
He set the verified entry beside the final deed.
Across the table, the family solicitor watched every movement. Celia sat beside her own adviser, reading the clauses that preserved her separately recognized property. Vera Kest had brought the trust’s current account and no intention of allowing friendship to substitute for a correct figure.
Nobody had arranged a vase.
