The transportation officer was already presenting when Wren arrived.
Wren entered during the second agenda item, after the ceremonial framing and before the Q1 projections she needed. The useful numbers came third.
Caelum sat at the head of the table.
He did not acknowledge her entrance. That was consistent with every meeting she had attended in the main wing. He did not pull attention toward latecomers, early arrivals, or anyone whose presence altered the room's geometry. The meeting ran. He observed it running. Those were separate functions, and he kept them separate.
Wren took the chair at the far end of the table.
Her chair now, though no one had assigned it to her. It had become hers through repetition, which was how most things had ever become hers in Ashveil: not because they w
