[...how odd, to somehow have a man's respect and be so sure there is no love between them. It isn't what Yuan expected from this meeting.]

[It might, in point of fact, be better.]

...The shop, then.

[Yuan's pause on the way back out is for Kratos, not Mac Gabhann, to make sure Kratos handles the weight of it combined with his balance well enough.]

[In the front of the shop he finds an appropriate flat surface and takes the time to write out a note of draft, for the precise number quoted him; his handwriting is careful, precisely legible.]