...
Their carriage was already on its way back to the Mansion and Melinda no longer showed any of the previous resentment she held.
Once she told Hal she was being Audited, she returned the Communication Talisman into her spatial ring which she in turn put back in her spatial pouch.
Hal of course did not need to ask before she told him exactly what it meant.
The 'Audit' involved a visit from an Envoy of the Patriarch's. One who would go through the books and make sure all things were going well and the subject was not 'cheating' the clan.
And it was a complete insult.
Whatever she could make in this city meant next to nothing in the grand wealth the family already possessed.
The whole thing was most likely because she had destroyed her Father's mind imprint and was suspected to be very close to releasing the suppression on her Bloodline.