The invitation came on Ivory paper with a table already booked, which told Vell the meeting had been arranged before the claim was filed. Regina Vance had chosen the Verrand House on the east canal, and she had chosen it three days before Jia stood on her demonstration floor.
Vell had spent the winter of his exile working the alley behind that building. The Verrand kitchen threw out bone stock, oyster shell, plus the trimmings of eleven meat courses every night at the second hour.
"She picked it," Yenna said, reading the card at the workshop bench, "and she keeps a file on you that explains exactly why that address matters."
"She picked it," Vell agreed, "which tells me she wants me thinking about the alley instead of the table."
Wren went with him as far as the canal bridge and stopped there without being asked. A Grade Three shadow-cat inside a dining room is a message, and Vell had decided against sending messages before he had heard the offer.
