Ink & Crown

Chapter 91 – The Last to Arrive

Kiro repeated the word. "Maybe."

"Yes," Eiran said.

"You know half the people in this building and your answer is maybe."

Eiran looked around the room again. "Some of them I only met recently."

"That's not better," Sera said. She was already writing something in her notebook.

Eiran looked at her. "Are you writing that down?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because it's interesting."

He decided not to ask what she meant by interesting.

A few people turned toward the entrance at the same time.

Lucien had already moved toward the door.

A moment later it opened.

Cerys stepped in first.

She stopped just inside and looked around, her eyes moving across the service counter, the display cases, the tables, the staff positions.

Darius came in beside her.

He didn't stop. He just looked at things as he walked, steadily.

Alina was already inside before either of them had crossed the threshold.

She looked around the room and said, "There are so many people."

Several nearby guests smiled.

"There really are," Kiro said.

Alina looked at him, then at Sera, then at the notebook in her hand.

"What are you writing?"

"Notes," Sera said.

"About what?"

"Everything."

Alina thought about this. "Why?"

"For a fan page."

Alina turned and looked at Lucien with the expression of someone who had several questions and intended to ask all of them.

"Later," Lucien said.

She didn't look fully satisfied but let it go.

Lucien reached his mother first.

Cerys looked at him, then at the branch, then back at him.

"You've been busy," she said.

"A little."

"This isn't a little."

Darius stopped beside her and gave Lucien a brief nod.

Lucien nodded back.

Then Alina grabbed his hand. "Can I look around?"

"In a moment."

"Now?"

"In a moment."

She accepted this but had already started looking anyway.

Her gaze landed on a group of people she didn't recognize. She pointed.

Cerys moved her hand down without looking. "We don't point."

Alina lowered her hand and looked with her eyes instead.

A few nearby guests were trying not to laugh.

Riven spotted her across the room and came over immediately.

He crouched down to her level. "There she is."

Alina looked at him. "You're being loud again."

"I haven't said anything yet."

"You walked loudly."

Several nearby guests were struggling to keep straight faces.

Riven looked at Lucien. "Is this your doing?"

"No," Lucien said.

Alina folded her arms. "Lucien says you mean well."

"That's the nicest thing you've said to me all week."

"You were louder last week."

Riven stared at her, then at Lucien, then back at her. "I don't know how to argue with that."

Several fan page members nearby were already grinning. They had met Alina before, and she was exactly as they remembered.

Dorian appeared beside Riven.

Alina looked up at him. "Dorian."

"Alina."

"Are you being responsible today?"

"Always."

She nodded, satisfied.

Riven pointed. "She never asks me that."

"No," Dorian agreed. "She doesn't."

Riven did not look particularly pleased about this.

Kaelen had been waiting nearby. When Alina turned toward him he held out his palm with a new sketch on it.

She looked at it. "That one's different."

"Load-bearing columns," Kaelen said.

"The other one was better."

Kaelen looked at his hand, then back at her. "The proportions were off on the other one."

"I liked it anyway."

He considered this. "Fair."

Alina showed him her wrist with a new ink figure on it.

Kaelen studied it. "The head's too big."

"It's supposed to be."

"Intentional?"

"Obviously."

He nodded slowly. "Then it's correct."

Meanwhile Cerys had made her way toward the counter.

Mira noticed and followed at a slight distance.

Cerys moved along it slowly. She looked at the display case arrangement, the spacing between stations, the angle of the serving area relative to the kitchen entrance.

Then she stopped.

Mira waited.

"The gap between the third and fourth stations," Cerys said.

"I noticed that too," Mira said. "We were planning to adjust it next week."

Cerys looked at it again. "Move the fourth station half a step left. The flow will be better."

"We'll do that."

They stood there for a moment.

"You've done well here," Cerys said.

"Thank you," Mira said.

Cerys moved on.

It was Evelis who handled the introduction to Chancellor Voss and Professor Aelric. She brought Cerys over quietly.

"Chancellor, Professor. This is Cerys Ashborne."

Both of them recognized the name immediately.

Voss looked at her. "You have a remarkable son."

Cerys smiled. "I know."

Then she paused. "Thank you. Both of you. For what you've done for him."

Voss tilted her head slightly. "We haven't done very much."

"You gave him the scholarship," Cerys said. "When we weren't sure how things were going to go, you looked at him and said yes." She glanced toward Lucien across the room. He was being cornered by Alina again. "And when things got harder, you let him find his own way through instead of pushing him out. He doesn't tell us most things. We figured out most of it on our own."

Aelric looked at her for a moment.

Cerys continued. "Please keep looking out for him. He works too hard to notice when he should stop."

Aelric smiled. "In my experience, telling him to stop rarely works."

"No," Cerys agreed. "It doesn't."

Voss said, "We'll continue to support him. He's earned it."

Cerys nodded.

Aelric looked at her. "The first time I met him, he already knew exactly what he wanted. Not the way most students do, but the way someone does when they've already decided."

Cerys looked at him. "He's always been like that."

"You should be proud," Voss said.

"I am," Cerys said. "Don't tell him I said that."

Aelric laughed.

Darius appeared beside Cerys a moment later. He looked at Voss, then at Aelric.

"Thank you," he said. "For not giving up on him."

He nodded once and moved on.

Voss watched him go, then looked at Aelric.

Aelric said nothing, but he was smiling.

Gareth had been watching the arrivals from across the room. When Cerys moved away from the Chancellor, he came over.

"Gareth Rendon," he said.

Cerys's face lit up the moment she heard the name. "So you're Gareth. I've been wanting to meet you for the longest time."

Gareth blinked, caught slightly off guard by the warmth. "Likewise."

"You've been taking care of Lucien's books all this time and we've never even had the chance to thank you properly."

Gareth shifted, not entirely used to being thanked. "He's made it easy. The press is doing better than it has in years." He glanced toward Taren. "We ordered additional paper stock twice last month."

"Good," Cerys said. "That's good to hear."

Gareth looked across the room toward Lucien. "A lot of first-time authors fall apart when the attention arrives. It gets to their head, or it scares them off."

"He doesn't let it," Cerys said.

"No," Gareth agreed. "He doesn't."

Darius came over to join them. He looked at Gareth.

Gareth looked at him.

"Darius Ashborne," Darius said.

"Gareth Rendon."

They shook hands. Neither said anything for a moment.

Then Darius said, "Thank you for what you did for him."

Gareth shook his head. "He did it for us. I was just the one who said yes."

Darius nodded once, and that was that.

Polvin stepped over a moment later.

"Mrs. Ashborne. I'm Polvin Sarett, from Lunecrest Bank."

Cerys turned to him, and her expression warmed again. "Oh, of course. You're the one who made the loan work."

"Chairman Thale approved it," Polvin said.

Cerys shook her head slightly. "Lunessa told me how it happened."

Polvin didn't argue with that.

"We're glad to be involved," he said. "Whatever Lucien builds next, we'd like to be part of it."

Cerys studied him for a moment, then nodded. "I'm sure you will be."

Polvin seemed to understand that perfectly well.

Lunessa had been standing a few steps behind him. Cerys spotted her and her whole face changed.

"There you are. I was wondering when you'd turn up."

Lunessa smiled. "I came with Polvin."

"You should have come to find me first." Cerys looked her over the way she looked over anyone she hadn't fed recently. "Have you been eating properly? You look thinner."

"I eat at the café almost every day."

"That's not an answer."

Lunessa opened her mouth, then decided against arguing.

Cerys nodded, satisfied. "I'll make you the citrus tart this week. The proper one, the home recipe. Not the version we sell."

Lunessa's eyes lit up. "The one with the glaze?"

"The one with the glaze."

"When?"

"Come up after your shift on a quiet day. I'll have it ready."

"I'll be there."

"Good." Cerys patted her arm. "Bring an appetite."

By now Alina had walked up to Chancellor Voss on her own. Nobody had pointed her in that direction. She had simply decided.

The Chancellor looked down when she realized the small figure had appeared beside her.

Alina looked up.

"Hello," Alina said.

"Hello," said the Chancellor.

Alina looked at her for a moment. "Your hair is very straight."

"Yes."

"Mine doesn't do that." Alina touched her own briefly. "It looks like it listens."

Aelric, standing nearby, said nothing.

Voss considered this. "It took years," she said.

Alina nodded seriously.

Lucien had caught most of this from across the room. He rubbed the back of his neck.

Cerys appeared beside him. She gave him a look.

"I didn't say anything to her," he said.

"I know."

"She just—"

"I know," Cerys said.

The room had been filling all morning and now it was full. Every conversation that could start had started. Everyone who was coming was here.

Lucien looked at Mira across the room. She gave a small nod.

"I think we're ready," he said.

The room settled.

Lucien walked to the entrance. Outside, a ribbon had been strung across the doorway.

He reached for it.

Then stopped.

He turned back and looked at Alina.

He didn't say anything.

Alina looked at him, then at the ribbon, then back at him.

"Me?" she said.

"You," he said.

She stood still for a moment.

Then she ran.

She moved through the room fast enough that several people stepped out of the way, and she skidded to a stop beside Lucien slightly breathless.

Cerys had her hand over her mouth.

Darius stood still.

Lucien crouched down. "Ready?"

She was already nodding.

He handed her the scissors. She took them in both hands and the room went quiet.

Alina looked at the ribbon, then at Lucien, and cut it. It fell in two pieces.

Someone started clapping, and the rest of the room quickly followed.

Alina stood in the doorway and looked at the ribbon on the floor, then at the scissors still in her hands.

"Can I keep these?" she asked.

The room laughed.

"No," Cerys said from across the café.

Alina looked at Lucien.

He looked somewhere else.

"No," he said.

The scissors were returned.

Outside, students had stopped on the path. They were looking through the windows.

Mira turned. Around her the staff were already moving — Lira stepping behind the counter, Rian and Jareth heading toward the back, Mariel crossing through the seating area, Edrin standing ready with a tray.

She nodded. "Go."

They went.

The first customers came through the door. A small group of students, slightly surprised by how many people were already inside, and more surprised by who some of them were.

One of them noticed Chancellor Voss and became significantly more anxious about what to order.

Voss didn't notice. She was talking with Aelric.

Lucien stepped back from the doorway.

Alina reappeared at his side. "Can I help?"

"With what?"

She gestured at the café.

"Pick a table," he said.

She walked to the one by the window, sat down, folded her hands, and looked at him like she was waiting to be served.

Lucien looked at Lira.

Lira was already smiling. "I'll get her something."

He shook his head, but he was smiling too.