When the telltale silver changed from a glow to a blaze behind her back, Eleni set down the coded parchment in her hands and closed her weary eyes.

"I don't suppose you have any news, do you?" she asked, not quite demanding because he'd probably leave again just to torment her.

"It's a very big world," came the nonchalant reply.

Eleni had to hold back a sigh. Father and son had the same ability to instantly bring her to the brink of exasperation, but the father, she could not read with her Sight. Nor had she ever managed to bring a note of contrition into his voice, as she once managed to find in George.

"Don't give me that," she said, steel in every syllable. "I don't have time to play games."

"You haven't since your marriage," he pointed out, something between amusement and annoyance in the inflection of his voice.

Eleni opened her eyes again, frowning straight into the light. It did not hurt her eyes; never had. "That's only one sort of game."

She thought about reminding him that her granddaughter's safety and Tortall's war were not games to her, but he already knew and, evidently, thought little of it. Nothing good came of constant repetition to those who did not care. Fuming inwardly, Eleni turned back towards the work she planned to help Myles with, before returning to advise Thayet.

Fingers, neither warm nor cold, touched her chin, lifting her gaze again. The god was watching her, expression caught, this time, between amusement and fondness. She looked back, not in the least diffident. Maybe time had worn her memory thin, but it was difficult to see him as entirely alien when she saw so much of him in George.

"She's my only granddaughter," Eleni said, quietly.

"And mine, love," Kyprioth reminded her. When Eleni blinked at him, a small smile stretched across his face. "Not my ONLY granddaughter, of course, but" - he shrugged - "she and her tragically law-abiding Da are of my blood."

"Then you know where she is," she said, catching his hand against her cheek. She had known that no mage could possibly hide Aly from the gods!

"Of course. I know that there are three thieves creeping around the royal palace, one hired by Tusaine, and the other two exiled from the Rogue's court. I know that two days ago, you foiled a spy's attempt to find your husband's codes. I know George is halfway on the road home, and about to run into a lone bandit who will meet with an unfortunate accident involving running into his bloodstone dagger." He smiled darkly - a father keeping watch. "I'm omniscient, almost. And I know Aly is," Kyprioth told her, leaning closer, "safe."

He pecked her on the cheek and disappeared before Eleni could demand - god or not - that he divulge Aly's location. Despite that, when Eleni returned to her codes, she found the fierce anxiety that made her fingers tremble, slightly, had faded a little.