The council chamber had a long oak table, twenty-two chairs, and not one person in it who thought Talia should be there.
She sat where the steward placed her, two seats down from the head, and folded her hands. The head chair was empty. It was her mother's chair. Everyone in the room kept looking at it like it might suddenly fill itself. Half of them would like that.
The treasurer opened with the quarter's accounts. He spoke for 10 minutes. Somewhere in the third minute he used a word Talia did not know. Then he used it again, and built an entire recommendation on top of it, and Talia wrote the word down in her notes and did not ask.
[Amortization... I'll find out about that one later.]
She kept her face still. She had been keeping her face still since she was 6 years old. It was the one thing in this room she was certain she could do.
