The emberkit had spent the past year on my shoulder. Now she was on Laina’s, and she looked like she’d always belonged there.
And it felt right.
I left Laina to settle in and headed to my office to finish paperwork. Traig had reminded me twice this week that intake logs were due, and I’d been putting them off. I made it through two entries before I found myself walking back to the medical bay.
Laina was there, reorganizing supplies.
She’d moved things. The room still looked like itself, but she’d grouped items in a way that made more sense thanalphabetical. Syringes with syringes. Bandages with bandages. Labels faced forward.
I stood in the doorway and watched her work.
She’d labeled everything the same way I made entries in my notebook. Clear. Specific. No wasted words.
“Did I mess up your system?” she asked without turning around. “I thought I’d do some organizing before the vellicharm got here.”
“No. It’s better this way.”
“You sure?” She glanced over her shoulder. “I can put it back.”
“Don’t.”
She smiled and went back to organizing.
The clock on the wall read eight fifty-five.
“The vellicharm arrives soon,” I said.
She closed the cabinet and turned to face me. “What should I expect?”
“They pick up on whatever manner their handler displays.”
She nodded slowly. “So they mimic behavior.”
“Yes. This one came from a high lady in the kingdom. She unfortunately died and her family can’t take her. That’s why she’s coming here. We hope to place her in a new forever home. But it will mimic the high lady’s mannerisms for some time.”
“High lady, huh? What happens if I’m rude to it?”
I could tell she was joking. I was not. “It will cut you.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “Excuse me?”
“Their claws are very sharp. They use them if you don’t behave in the manner they expect.”
“I see. I’ll be polite.”
“Very polite.”
The door swung open and Krem stepped inside, pushing a rolling crate. The vellicharm sat inside, long-limbed and elegant, its luminous eyes watching us through the bars.
It was the size of a large dog but shaped like something between a deer and a house cat, with fur, whiskers, but a short, stubby tail that would wag when she was happy.
“Good morning,” Krem said. “Our guest has arrived. Let me introduce you to Duchess Filandra.”
The vellicharm tilted her head, studying Laina.
Laina stepped forward and bent at the waist in a small, formal bow. “Thank you for allowing me to meet you.”
The creature’s ears swiveled forward.
