Location:Obsidian Academy — Pavilion Workshop / Courtyard
Date/Time:Mid Infernorest, 9941 AZI
Realm:Lower Realm — Doha
The night before, she worked.
Not because the reports needed doing. Because if she stopped moving her hands, they'd go to his fur. And if they went to his fur, she'd feel the warmth, and the bond would open all the way, and the thing she was holding behind her ribs — the thing that was not an objection because she'd already said yes, and not a plea because she'd already let go, and not grief because he wasn't dying — would come up through her chest and into her throat and she would say don't go and mean it, and that would be worse than anything else she could do to him.
So she worked. Formation schematics. Supply manifests. Cross-realm trade correspondence. The stack that never ended, the commander's refuge, the place where her hands could be busy without betraying her.
