And he stills again, halfway through tapping the grounds into the filter. That moment of terror as he landed on the Palace floor is written on his face. "Extremely."

Quickly, he forces his hands back into motion; the last of the grounds settle into the filter, and he sets the whole thing on the scale. His voice brightens, though not enough. "Of course, with you and the others there, I'm sure they won't pose any problem."

Damn it, he thinks, levelling the grounds and not meeting Crow's eye. He couldn't be more obviously not okay if he spelled it out in skywriting.