Liya fell into a silence for a moment, and then sniffed, and cleared her throat, drawing away from Helly slightly.

"Helly?" she asked, still not really looking at nem, but very clearly done with talking about the report. "Whose bed is this?"

Helly blinked, seeming slightly taken off guard by the change in subject. "Hm?"

"It's too small to be your bed. And do you even sleep?" Liya asked. Then she paused and took another look at the bed, going from merely distracting herself to actually considering what she was seeing. "It's like a little kid's bed."

Now she looked up at Helly in surprise. "Wait--do you have kids?" she demanded. "Do they sleep? How come I never seen 'um?"

"Oh, no," Helly replied gently, smiling a bit. "This is Cynn Numair's old bed."

The wind seemed to go out of Liya's sails then. The color rose in her face again, but she didn't say anything, merely looked at Helly with her mouth hanging slightly open.

"I've meant to move it out for some time now," Helly said, a bit ruefully. "He hasn't used it in, oh, 250 years? Time blends together when you're as old as I am, I suppose."

"O-oh," Liya mumbled. She looked around the room, the pieces clicking into place, and then said sort of hollowly, "S-seradh. You're his seradh."

"Why, yes," Helly agreed, seeming pleased that she even knew the word. "I brought Mari up from an infant."

"Oh," Liya said again.