'Names. All he heard were names.'
Elara held the thought long enough to test it. Orion had read two names off a page, one after the other, the way he would read anything. The pen had put her beside Isolde, and the pen cared about nothing. If Lucavion had seen more in it than that, he had seen it from the far end of the room, with no more to go on than she had.
He had looked at the gap on the bench. Then he had looked at the ledger, as though asking it who had done the arranging.
'He thinks she placed me here.'
It was a reasonable guess, and she noticed she was already building on it: why Isolde would, what it would gain her, how neatly it fit. She stopped with the first stone laid. She had one gesture and a ledger. That was a coincidence at best and a suspicion at worst, and neither was a verdict.
'Watch. Don't decide.'
