"A few years, yes, although senior recruits don't do as much of that. By that time we're too busy preparing for our final tests before the Vigil." He set dishes aside as he finished drying them, careful in stacking them as he went.

"It does. I've never lived alone. I have privacy in my own quarters now, but there are still people all around. I don't know if I could take the quiet." He never had been able to imagine himself in a house by himself. It would stay empty so often it might as well be a ruin. It probably would become a ruin quickly enough. Buildings never seemed to do well left to their own devices. "I'll propose seafood night in place of liver night and see how that goes."