Page 114 of Legacy Ascended

"They are part of the decor."

Jon reaches past me for the salt, his arm crossing in front of me. He smells like clean cedar, and he doesn't move away as fast as he used to.

Neither do I.

Halfway through dinner, I put my fork down.

"What do you like about teaching?"

Jon looks up. "That's a strange question."

"It's not. I've known you for two years and I don't know enough about you." I lean back. "I don't know one thing you like besides my lizard."

“And you.” He smiles at me and puts his fork down.

"The second week," he says.

"Of what?"

"Any course. The first week everyone writes down whatever I say. By the second, somebody's read enough to realize the lecture and the reading don't always quite agree."

"And you like that?"

"I like watching them decide whether they're going to tell me I'm wrong."

I laugh. "Of course you do."

"It's a good moment." He turns his glass a quarter turn. "Your turn."

"My turn what?"

"What do you like?"

"I like lots of things."

"Nothing about the archive. Nothing about the Fourth House."

I think about it.

"Maps," I say. "I like picking somewhere I've never been and imagining a trip."

"Where would you go?"

"North. The fjord side, where the roads stop and it's all water and ferry timetables." I turn my glass. "I've planned that trip about four times. I've never gone anywhere near it."

"What's in the plan?"

"Nothing. That's the point of it. A boat, a town with one shop, weather that's rude to you, and no reason to be there."

He starts clearing the plates and then he starts explaining something.

I don't even catch what — something about the reading for next week and how it would make more sense if I came at it through a different chapter first, and would I like him to write down the order, and there's a copy on the shelf he could lend me—

"Jon."

He stops with a plate in each hand.

"I didn't come here for a reading list."