Severin had expected Felix Vance to look up.
Everyone looked up upon entering the old core. The seven rising conduits, the stone ribs and the slow blue light above them had been arranged to encourage it. Even engineers usually granted the ceiling a moment before asking where the drains were.
Felix looked down.
“Is that wet?”
“Condensation,” Otta said.
“Good. I was hoping your invitation hadn’t started leaking.”
Tamsin stepped around the patch and checked the seals on her instrument case.
Severin watched the two visitors pass beneath the oldest surviving control arch in the empire without acknowledging its inscription.
