Kamal had been officially reinstated in his former position as chief steward of the imperial household of Nuria and was currently inspecting everything that had been done during his seventy-two-year absence.
The position had changed less than the equipment surrounding it.
The household administration office now occupied a bright suite on the eastern side of the imperial residence, with climate control integrated into the walls, transparent ether displays suspended above the main workstations, and an automated system tracking everything from staff schedules to energy consumption in the sealed residential wings.
Kamal disliked most of it on principle.
Not because the technology was poor. Nurian ether engineering was efficient, elegant, and considerably quieter than the systems he had seen in Agaron. He simply objected to a household-management program attempting to tell him that replacing damaged guest-room furniture required approval from four different departments.
