Steam from noodle bowls curtained one corner table of a crowded restaurant, screening two cloaked diners from the whole room. The young transport agent ignored his own paid meal and watched his companion savor every slow, deliberate mouthful she took.
The proprietor passed their table without interrupting, which only left the agent with nothing else to watch.
He set his chopsticks down before she could make him sit through yet another mouthful.
"Did you finish?"
She chewed, swallowed, and kept one hand tucked beneath her cloak as if the question could wait for dessert.
His cup stayed untouched while his voice dropped beneath the clatter, "Or does our Lord's assignment need another course before you remember it?"
"Finished," she purred, tracing the cup's rim with one gloved fingertip, "and with a better instrument than the one you expected me to find."
'She wants applause, and she'll keep dangling that answer until somebody claps for her.'
