Aiden had a piece of string between his teeth. It took me a moment to understand why.
The case beside him had lost a fastening. He held the lid shut with one hand while trying to pass the string beneath it with the other. The girl crouched on the floor was collecting the last of her scattered papers.
Nobody looked ready to begin a heroic journey.
"Under the handle," she said.
Aiden tried. The string caught.
"Other side."
He took it out of his mouth. "I see it."
I stopped far enough away that I could still pretend to be studying the hall notices. He was younger than the version I had controlled in the final battle. No ruined armor. No legendary weapon glowing with power I had spent six hours collecting. A plain travel bag rested against the wall behind him.
The face was the same. That was enough to make my right hand tighten against the folder.
I had watched him kill Cedric on more than one route. I had also spent thousands of hours making him walk into rooms before I knew what waited inside. Now he was losing an argument with a broken clasp.
The girl pushed the papers into a leather cover and stood.
"I can take it from here."
"Wait. If you lift it like that, the lid will open again."
Aiden pulled the string tight and tied it across the handle. The knot sat crooked, but it kept the lid down while she collected her things. He tested the weight before letting go.
Nobody had asked him to help. Nobody useful appeared to be watching, unless I counted myself, and I doubted he wanted my approval. He was being helpful because there was a case on the floor and someone needed a second pair of hands.
I knew how to deal with an opponent's attack pattern.
This was less convenient.
The girl thanked him and reached for her bag. A small card remained near the step, face down against the stone. I picked it up before someone walked over it.
"Is this yours?"
She turned.
Her gaze reached my face, then the crest at my collar. The gratitude she had been preparing disappeared before I could hand the card back.
"Yes, my lord."
She held out her hand, but not far enough to take it. I looked at the card. An arrival authorization. Nothing interesting to me, although she appeared to think otherwise.
"You dropped it."
"I apologize."
For dropping her own paper. I put it into her hand before she could apologize for something else.
Aiden had stopped adjusting the string. He watched me with the attention I remembered from the early scenes before a fight, except there was no music to warn me about it.
"She was moving out of the way," he said.
I glanced at the passage behind her. There was plenty of room.
"I can see that."
Wrong answer.
His shoulders settled into a position I recognized. He wasn't raising a weapon. He was deciding whether he would have to stand between us. I had given someone back a card and somehow reached the beginning of an argument.
The girl tightened her grip on the case handle.
"We won't delay you, Lord Cedric."
Aiden's eyes changed at the name. So he hadn't been certain until then.
I remembered an opening confrontation in the game. Cedric objected to a commoner occupying a passage, made an insult, then took offense when Aiden answered. The details around me were different. The chance to make the same mistake was not.
"Where is the west registration desk?" I asked.
Both of them looked at me. An ordinary question. I knew that because I needed an ordinary answer.
Apparently, they were waiting for the unpleasant part. I lifted the map slightly.
"The officer marked the main board. I still need the desk for the remaining forms."
Aiden glanced toward the far end of the hall.
"Past the second arch."
"Is it open?"
"It was when I left."
The girl looked at him, then back at me. She seemed surprised he had answered without adding an apology. I nodded and stepped aside to let her move the case.
It caught on the step again.
Of course it did.
Aiden reached for the other handle. Together, they lifted it into the clear passage. I could have walked away then.
Instead, I noticed the string beginning to slip where it crossed the polished lid.
"The knot will slide if you carry it by that handle."
Aiden looked down.
He checked the slipping knot, then looked back at me without answering the warning.
"We'll manage."
Fine.
I had no intention of becoming the man who insisted on helping until the person being helped wanted to hit him. I turned toward the second arch.
"Hold it level," a woman's voice said behind me.
Not to me.
I looked back anyway.
Seraphina stood beside the girl with the case. Silver-white hair lay in a long braid against white and gold cloth. She wore no expression of surprise, only the mild concentration of someone working out what was happening before joining it. Her gaze passed over me and paused at the wrap on my right hand.
I lowered it against the folder.
"The strap from your bag would hold it," she told the girl. "If you don't need it over your shoulder."
The girl began unfastening the strap. One end wouldn't come loose. She tugged at the buckle, glanced at me, and tugged harder.
"There's a pin beneath it," I said.
Her fingers stopped.
I recognized the buckle from my own travel bag. That explanation would have been useful before speaking, apparently.
Aiden turned the strap over without taking it from her. "Here?"
"Yes," she said. "I know. It's bent."
He withdrew his hand.
For a moment, all three of us watched her work. I became aware of how little that could be helping. I looked away first, toward a notice about arrivals, and read the same opening line twice.
The pin scraped free.
"There," she said.
Aiden reached for the strap, then stopped when she shook her head.
"I'll fasten it. Can you hold the lid down?"
He did as she asked. She ran the strap under the case and pulled it through the buckle, working more quickly once our hands were out of the way.
I remembered this part of the game as a reason for Aiden and Cedric to argue. I couldn't remember whether the girl had even been given a name. I still didn't know it. Asking now would probably sound like I intended to put her in a report.
Aiden held the case while they worked. This arrangement looked considerably better than the string. I recognized Seraphina as easily as I had recognized him.
Her route had been full of moments where a quiet question made the answer worse. I had usually appreciated that from a safe distance. The safe distance was becoming a problem.
"Lord Cedric," she said.
I inclined my head.
"Lady Seraphina."
Aiden looked from her to me.
"Were you looking for registration?" she asked.
"The west desk."
"The second arch is correct. The desk moved to the inner wall for the ceremony."
"Then I would have walked past it."
"Several people have."
She returned her attention to the strap, asking the girl before checking beneath the buckle. Aiden moved his hand out of the way to let her see. I preferred that to being asked what I had done to my hand in front of Aiden.
The case was finally secure. The girl lifted it, tested the handle, and thanked them both. She gave me a separate, much smaller bow.
I hadn't earned the difference today. Cedric had apparently arranged it in advance. Once she left, Aiden collected his travel bag from the wall.
"You could have let her pass without questioning her," he said.
Seraphina looked at him.
I wondered which part he had heard and which part my face had supplied for him.
"I asked whether the card belonged to her."
"She was frightened."
"I noticed."
He didn't like that answer either. There were several things I could say. I hadn't threatened her. I hadn't demanded anything. I hadn't chosen the face that made people prepare apologies before I asked a question.
Explaining the last one would create more problems than it solved. Explaining the first two would keep me standing in a hall arguing with the person I most needed to avoid provoking.
I looked at the map.
"I have the directions now."
Aiden's jaw tightened.
That probably sounded like a dismissal. I hadn't found a way to end the conversation without it sounding like one. Seraphina spoke before he answered.
"The desk closes for the next group shortly."
She wasn't taking my side. She was giving the conversation a reason to stop.
I used it.
"Then I'd better find it."
I left at a normal pace, resisting the urge to look back after the first few steps. The west desk stood exactly where she had said. I handed over the remaining forms and answered a question about my residence assignment while my pulse settled.
I checked the forms before signing. My hand had stopped shaking enough to keep the letters even. The conversation was over, and I had left without making it worse.
Aiden still disliked me.
That was acceptable. I hadn't come here to make him admire Cedric. Keeping his sword out of my chest would be enough for the first day. When the clerk returned my arrival card, I checked the name and put it away.
Across the hall, the girl with the case was making it through another doorway. The borrowed strap held. I followed the residence signs before I could become involved again.