The morning sun over the Capital was unforgivingly bright, pouring through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Aldenar estate's breakfast room. It was the kind of morning that usually brought a headache after a night of high-society posturing, but Verona felt remarkably refreshed. She was already dressed in a sharp, tailored traveling suit of deep hunter green, another of Elias's creationsm that made her look less like a porcelain doll and more like a woman with a destination.
Elric sat across from her, drinking a cup of tea. He looked at her over the rim of the porcelain, his eyes tracking the way she meticulously organized a set of parchment maps on the table.
"You're remarkably energetic for someone who treated my shoulder like a pillow halfway through a conversation last night," he remarked, his voice still thick with the gravelly sleepiness of the morning.
