He stepped out of his [Warp Gate] and into a war.
A war of paper.
The central reading hall of the Vraven royal archive had been conquered wall to wall: ledger towers rising like siegeworks, squads of crown clerks moving in supply lines, estate maps of the Ravenshade duchy pinned across three joined tables with knives through their corners, and runners coming and going with document crates stacked to their chins.
A clerk saw the gate bloom, yelped, and baptized the floor with a full tray of files.
"Stop arriving like that," Alexios said from behind a desk that had annexed two smaller desks, sleeves rolled to the elbow, not looking up from what he was signing.
"Why?"
"Because it's disruptive."
"Oh." Quinlan nodded, not intending one bit to change his methods of arrival.
Alexios's vein bulged for a second before, through visible effort, he restrained himself from speaking back to this arrogant creature. "Not today..." he whispered under his beard.
