Rather than go home, I returned to the Repository for some private time with Tulip. I missed her intensely, the quieter and more innocent times we'd spent, exploring the halls and galleries of the archive, evading watchful pixies and her parents who would only put us to work if they caught us, thinking back, as I strode the muddled, crowded main thoroughfare leading from the entry and the giant foyer toward the Repository proper.

Sad to think we'd never have those days again. ...