Greg had been paying more attention to her facial transmutation after hearing from the queen - through Tristan - that Sush didn’t smile a lot around anyone. He was surprised to learn that it was true. For someone who claimed to be able to extract humor from anything, she didn’t smile a lot. That entire morning, as she checked on each department and handed out orders, her lips either remained flat or were pulled to a frown. Yet he himself had witnessed her smile - even laugh - several times in the previous week.

“They’re still running through them. Nothing out of the ordinary yet,” she said, slipping her tablet...