The very fact that she does not need his guard makes it dearer, and she smiles. In truth, she would not laugh; not at him, not in a hundred day-months. But she cherishes the right, the knowledge that she could, that like as not he would simply laugh with her.

"I am still learning how to learn," she admits, settling at the table without relinquishing his hand, though her fingers loosen. "Gathering texts, finding words for what I have seen already."