"Nobody told me there would be candles."
"Does it bother you."
"No. I just wasn't expecting candles."
"Kane's second organised it. Apparently this is how it's done."
"How what's done."
"A witnessed mating ceremony under Council jurisdiction." Mason looked at me sideways. "You thought it would be different."
"I thought it would be more official. More paperwork. Less" I gestured at the room. It was small stone. Seven candles arranged in a circle on the floor. Kane standing at the far end with his hands folded and the particular expression of a man who had seen a great many things in his life and had quietly decided that this one mattered. "Less this."
"Does less this work for you."
I looked at the candles. At the circle. At Kane waiting patiently at the end of it.
"Yes," I said. "Le
