Chapter 9: Mara Tells Aleksa Almost Everything

The morning light had completed its passage across the table by the time Mara refilled the kettle a second time. Aleksa had not asked her to begin. She had simply remained where she was, both hands around the mug Mara had given her — the blue one with the chip on the rim, Edmund's mug, she realized too late and said nothing — and waited with the particular patience of someone who has spent her career waiting for buildings to tell her what they needed to say.

Mara set the kettle back on its base and looked at the documents still arranged in their rows across the table's far end.

She said: "I'll need to move those first."