Valeria arrived with names this time. She placed three pages on the sitting-room table and turned the first toward me before I could ask whether the agents had finally become people.
"The completed list," she said.
I looked at the names, the businesses beside them, and the short description of what each would supply. Training materials. Ordinary equipment. Replacement parts.
The proposal had improved.
That did not mean I liked seeing it two days before a public assessment and less than a week before someone examined my core.
"You chose an inconvenient afternoon."
"You have developed a talent for being unavailable at convenient ones."
She took the chair opposite mine. Ren set down the tea, checked whether we needed anything else, and left at my direction. Valeria waited until the door closed before looking at the glove beside my notes.
"The examination was expensive?"
"The replacement sword was ordinary."
"That wasn't what I asked."
"It was the part with a receipt."
