Kael asked her something in the library on a grey afternoon in late spring that she had not expected him to ask.
They had been working through the expanded framework language for two hours, the documentation for bereavement and abandonment cases taking shape in the careful and exacting way of legal language, where every word either protected or failed to protect depending on its precision. Cassia had sent two more letters since the first, each adding detail to her case and the cases of two women she knew in similar circumstances. The documentation was solid. The subcommittee meeting was scheduled for the following week.
Elowen was reading through the final draft when Kael set down his pen and said, "Can I ask you something unrelated to the work?"
She looked up. "Go ahead."
He was not l
