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The whole exchange had taken only a few minutes, but something about watching them together caught at me.

Duncan could be so imposing that it was easy to forget how gentle he became around his daughter. Sienna never seemed afraid of his size or his gruff voice. She pushed back, teased him, and expected him to listen because somewhere beneath all his caution, he had taught her that she could.

I liked that about him.

I liked far too many things about him already.

Sienna ate apple slices and cheese while working through part of her homework. Duncan returned to Human Assembly to finish the operator training, and I checked the last costume notes with two performers before coming back through the prep area.

Sienna had abandoned her math worksheet for a black sketchbook.

She tried to slide it partly beneath the homework when she noticed me looking.

“Is that private?”

She hesitated, then shook her head. “Not private. Just not finished.”

“I understand the difference.”

That earned me a small smile.

She opened the book again.

The page showed a costume design in pencil and colored marker. The figure wore a torn dress with darker shading along one side and an elaborate collar that looked half Victorian and half something from an old monster movie. Notes crowded the edges about fabric, makeup, and how the hair should be shaped.

“That’s yours?”

Sienna nodded.

“Can I see the rest?”

She turned several pages.

There were creatures, costume faces, room layouts, pieces of scenery, and makeup ideas. Some were quick sketches. Others had been worked over carefully enough that the paper had gone soft around the pencil lines.

I stopped at a drawing of a narrow room with a tall figure positioned near one corner.

“What happens here?”

Sienna shifted closer. “You’re supposed to look at the thing in the middle first. Then this one is behind you when you turn.”

I looked at her. She wasn’t simply drawing monsters; she was thinking about how someone would experience them.

“That’s really good.”

Her expression changed as if she wasn’t sure whether I meant it.

I tapped near the center of the page. “You’re controlling where the person looks first. Then you’ve put the second scare where they won’t notice it until they move. That’s the same kind of thinking we use when we plan a room.”

Sienna’s eyes brightened. “Really?”

“Really.”

She turned another page, this one covered with three versions of a face. One had stitches across the forehead. Another had a pale cheek with a dark hollow beneath one eye.

“My dad doesn’t like scary makeup.”

The brightness faded a little.