"I've been doing well," he replies easily, focus drilled less on her smile and more on the space between them, flitting up and down to make sure she's also paying attention to his physical cues. Well as he can without Ike, anyway, but that needn't be mentioned. He begins to work out of just swaying along to the rhythm and takes his first step forward with her. "Nothing too eventful has crossed my life, which I will gladly take over catastrophe."

If only Soren could peer into the future, eight days from now.