At last, the mandatory week of rest came to an end, and Kel found herself sitting in the emperor's study, listening to Ira's monotone voice as he finished the daily reports.
Why am I here, she wondered as the white-haired man listed off the numbers for the capital's latest shipments of fruits and vegetables. Her bitterness most likely stemmed from the fact that she hadn't found any of the answers she was searching for. But the fact that this meeting seemed like an entire waste of her time also contributed heavily to her foul mood.
Amid the droning, she suddenly picked up on a word that caught her attention.
"Wait," she blurted, "can you say that again?"
"What, mandelos?" Thane piped up. He'd been sitting alongside Kel, likewise wondering why he was being subjected to such boring reports.
"Let's see…" Ira remarked, thumbing through the stack of documents in his hands, "there should be at least one crate of them in the palace kitchen if you'd like to eat some."
