"Well, I was up until the Archangel decided to up the stakes," Dexter muttered, choosing not to look at said Archangel except to throw a dirty look vaguely in his direction. "How can I top an Archangel? Am I even allowed to top an Archangel? I'm going to stop talking now."

He shuffled over in the seat to give Erskine a little more space to sit down, laughing quietly and spreading his hands at the Elder to let him join the hug. "Elder Reveller Ravel has too many cares to care about trivialities right now," he informed Saracen. "But I can think of a few holes we can shuffle you into."

"If you three will keep your hormones under control at least to the end of the meeting," Corrival said, "we can discuss something relevant." But, Dexter noticed, there was a persistent upraise at the corner of his mouth. Dexter knew that look. Corrival was enjoying having the band all together again too.

"Besides," Rafe said innocently, "who said he's not available?"

Dexter was fairly sure the whole room stopped. Corrival looked up from Saffron's sketches. Dexter turned to stare over Saracen's shoulder, his heart skipping two or three beats. "I'm sorry, what did you just say?"

"I said, 'who said he's not available?'"

"Descry's dead."

Raphael shrugged. "And?"

"That usually means unavailability."

"So?"

Dexter stared some more and found his mouth was too dry to actually ask the last question. But he remembered the feeling of being watched, and Saracen's little head-jerk when he 'just knew' something, and hearing Rover's voice loud and clear in his head. Rafe grinned at him.