"I am pleased to fill this void for you." Flap.

He beams down at her. A weed poking out of the street shifts and grows up into a delicate white flower, its crown of long pointed petals echoing the shape and shine of her feathers.

"Ooh." It can go behind her ear.

The Emperor giggles delightedly.

And she continues walking.

He goes back to his book.

He continues to not be home very much for the rest of that week and into subsequent ones.

It's a nice walking route anyway. Sometimes she flies instead.

The city is even lovelier from the air than from the ground.

She makes steady progress toward affording her house.

The Emperor is really not home very often, these days. It's a definite change from before they had their conversation.

She makes a mental note to ask about that next time she sees him.

And a while later, there he is again, sitting on the palace roof and forming subtle shapes in the clouds.

She makes wide circles. "Good morning."

"Good morning. How've you been?"

"Saving up for a house. You? You've been out of the palace a lot recently."

"Yes, it turns out I don't like being spied on."

"Oh. I'm mostly listening to the government at this point but I can stop coming by if that's preferable."

"Are you learning anything useful from listening to the government?"

"Bits and pieces. Less facts and more getting a feel for it."

"And inconveniently the government operates out of my house. I suppose I could probably figure out a way to guard my wing of the palace against eavesdropping by magic."

"As you like. We do a lot of solid stone construction for soundproofing at home, since Elf hearing is inconvenient for privacy. And we can conduct intraspecies conversations silently."

"A lot of the palace is solid stone, but I like windows I can fly out of. I'll figure out the magic."

"Good skill."

—he laughs. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

The clouds shift so that errant tufts of vapour form the silhouette of a castle, subtle enough that you'd have to be looking closely to see it.

She spots it when she banks. "Hee."