Elise wanted to know whether she could return before she agreed to go.
Mara sat with her at the office’s cleared desk. The morning shift had taken the place of the night one unevenly: a late sleeper still carried a blanket through the passage, and somebody at the kitchen sink was washing bowls slowly enough to make Gideon look at the clock.
“We’d check capacity and the care you needed then,” Mara said. “You wouldn’t lose the right to ask because you chose somewhere else.”
Elise put the folded receipt beside her entry. The loose thread was still inside it. Its edges had become soft from being opened and closed.
“I don’t want the big book near me when I sleep.”
The civic ledger had its own brass, but it stood in the hall, not near every room door. Asha had shown her the available space through a supervised visit yesterday. She would have company she had chosen, an assigned sleeping place, and an evening check that did not ask her to remember the extraction chamber.
Mara could list reasons Candlewake was closer to Luis and his supplies. She had already given those in the comparison. Giving them again now would be trying to improve Elise’s answer.
