Chapter 19: The Door That Should Not Open, and the Price of Closing It

The Cartographer arrived at eleven o'clock exactly, which Seris had predicted to the minute and Aeron had predicted to something older than minutes.

He wore the same coat as before — charcoal wool, well-kept but not ostentatious — and he ordered black coffee from Margaret with the ease of someone who had been ordering coffee for a very long time. Margaret made it without expression. She had been making it without expression since she saw him come through the door, which was a different kind of without-expression than her usual one. Aeron watched her hands. They were careful in the way hands were careful when the person they belonged to was performing an action they had decided to perform and was not going to let themselves be talked out of.

The Cartographer settled into the chair across from them that Aeron had left empty for him, which the Cartographer noticed, which Aeron had intended.