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The warmth of her hand remains in the grain. I move my own hand off the table so I don’t follow the impression.

“Can you hear me through it?” she asks.

“No. I can’t hear your thoughts, either. I can tell whether someone is in a room if I attend to that part of the Heartwood. I won’t do that with yours unless there’s danger.”

“And the impressions?”

“If I encounter one you haven’t chosen to share, I’ll turn away from it.”

I wait for her answer.

“Tell me if there’s anything else like that before it happens.”

“I will.”

She reaches for her tea again.

“I need to write to my sister. Do letters go through you?”

“Give your letters to Ziku. He takes sealed post to the western trade station each day while the caravans are running. Riders carry it onward. Tesseny and Karath are two days by relay; the council office is one. No one here opens your letters.”

“He tried improving an apology at breakfast.”

“I heard.”

“From whom?”

“Reivaka. She told me you sent the guard to apologize to his sister in front of her children.”

Vai groans. “After I suggested he invite himself on their mushroom outing. His sister had already asked him to come. He’d refused. I should have asked why.”

She finishes her tea. I turn to the allowance so she won’t think she owes me an explanation for breakfast too.

“The contract entitles you to an allowance,” I say. “Forty silver a month, with the first payment available now. Food and clothing are provided separately. Reivaka can arrange for you to draw the money yourself.”

Vai puts down her cup. “Could twenty of that go to Asha and Tovi each month?”

“Yes.”

She waits after I agree. I begin to work out when Ziku can carry the money, and she starts explaining why they need it.

“The loan is paid, but they’ll need a new supplier. Tovi has a cousin who might know someone. The trouble is, Asha argued with the cousin over a delivery three years ago. But I could write to his wife first⁠—”

She stops.

I wait.

“They’re capable people,” she says. “I know that.”

“I’ll have the money sent.”

“Thank you.”

I have arranged the payment, but she still looks embarrassed. There must be other things to ask about her sister besides what she needs. How they spend an evening. Whether they quarrel over little things and forget them before morning. I have no practice asking any of it.

“Do you want help writing the letter?” I ask.

She laughs. “From you?”