It had all been very proper. Tisu had called the tower representative to his empty estate, and selected a pet at random. He had to force himself to do this, so he’d hardly deliberated, declined to even look at faces. He’d pointed to a name, and then invited the representative to leave.<br/><br/>And here was the day, and here was the hour. The first pet he’d had he intended to bed in centuries. He and Genna had never needed anyone for their bed but each other.<br/><br/>Bizarrely, the ancient, terrible creature could not help but worry a bit about himself—how he would perform.<br/><br/>He waited in the sunroom of a hulking mansion with overgrown gardens on every side. It was a sunny day, clear after the rains that still made the soil moist out in the gardens. Tisu saw the guards walking up with his first pet in centuries, and made his way through to the eastern solarium that was almost painfully bright.<br/><br/>He opened the door before they came. “Come in, boy,” he told the young man. “You are dismissed,” the guards were informed.<br/><br/>The only sound in the whole place was bird call, out in the gardens. It was quiet as a tomb in here.