"Food's free at the Great Hall," he says that gently as he makes a wordless offer to take her bag. "And even if it wasn't, I wasn't going to get food for myself without offering to get you some, too."

He hadn't asked her age, but he was fairly sure he could peg her at about the same age if not younger than Eve Brea, one of the girls his blademate Brigade had adopted from a mission way back.

"Let's go?"