"All night?" Corrival asked in amusement, stepping up to the armchair and picking up the sheaf of papers to rifle through them. "You do realise it's easier if you actually use the spells they're imbued with, right?" He held out a set of three which had quite obviously been copied, three times, by hand. "Didn't Wreath tell you about the triplicating spell?"

"Oops," Solomon said, completely deadpan. "Silly me. It plum slipped my mind."

"Are they always like this?" Melissa asked the air quietly, not minding exactly who answered.

"Always," Dexter agreed with a longsuffering sigh, and then grinned as he moved around the growing circle of chairs to press his hands down on midair again. "On the other hand, Erskine's payback is going to make things interesting around here."

"Children in charge of a nation. I'm ... actually not all that surprised. Sounds like every other government. Excuse me, Crossword Puzzler Extraordinaire." She would have stood up, but that meant moving Stephanie off her lap, and possibly not being able to hug her as easily, so Melissa shifted her a little so she could peer around the teenager. "My husband and I need to talk to you about your child-labour laws."

"Child-labour laws?" To his credit, he looked genuinely confused. Confused and willing to listen, completely ignoring the brewing argument across the circle as he sat in Dexter's newest chair. His gaze was on Melissa, his brow furrowed. "What child-labour laws?"

"The ones that state you can hire minors in the life-threatening capacity of detectives," Melissa answered, less shortly than she might have just because he was so confused.

"Minors as--Valkyrie Cain, just how old are you?"