A packing montage in a video game usually involves pressing a single button to auto-sort your inventory. In reality, it involved Elian frantically trying to fit three broadswords, a week's worth of rations, and four changes of black velvet into a set of leather saddlebags without crushing his premium coffee beans.
It was three in the morning.
"Steward Vane," Mrs. Gable said, appearing in the doorway of Elian's solar with a stack of wool blankets. Her eyes were red-rimmed. The entire staff loved the Empress; she was famously the only royal who had ever treated the servants with kindness. "I packed the extra thermal layers. And the willow-bark tea."
"Thank you, Mrs. Gable," Elian said, stuffing the blankets into a canvas sack.
