In between the lines is the only place you'll find
What you're missing

It's important, she'd said in her first letter, but it wasn't important enough to handle that day, or the following day, or the one after that. This was so very much in line with his expectations for the Ministry — and so contrary to what he would have expected from Zelda — that he didn't know what to think. Should he be worried? Was it even important? And if it was, what did that word mean, important? It could have meant that he was dying, for all he knew, but that had started to seem increasingly unlikely the more distance he had from the day he'd met her on the ship. He still didn't have any symptoms, or at least none that he'd noticed. It was most likely about the Voyager, then, as she'd said in her letter. While that should have been a relief, it only made him more anxious to know what was coming. He was reasonably certain that he wasn't dying, after all; he had no proof that the same was true for the Voyager. He hadn't even been to see her since his last encounter with Zelda there on the twenty-first.

He arrived too early, but the Welcome Witch who showed him up to the room let him wait inside and even offered him tea. He turned her down; he didn't think tea would help his nerves. He just wanted to hear what the news was. And, more and more, he was starting to wish that someone other than Zelda was around to deliver it. If she was just going to be all Cold Ministry Official about it, anyway, scheduling so-called important meetings nearly a week after telling him she had something to say.

Alfred was already sitting when she entered, and remained so, but straightened slightly in his chair. "Hey," he said, not sure what sort of greeting was appropriate for this sort of meeting — even setting aside their history, which was impossible to do. "So, uh — what's the news?"

@"Zelda Fisk"