"Good," she says with quiet fervor. "Think we can talk the kitchens into making us some dinner, and Lelian into fetching it?"

It's a rhetorical question. They are the emperor and the empress; their wish is everyone else's command.

She cut out on a meeting and two audiences earlier in order to make it to the infirmary, mostly just to sit and wait for test results, her heart in her throat. She has catch-up to play, and feet to put up.