Theo Marsh came back four months later.
This time the visit had none of the tension of the first one — he arrived with a proper delegation, three council aides and a stack of documents, and the first thing he did upon arrival was ask, with what seemed like genuine warmth, how Rowan was doing.
"They're walking now," Sera told him. "Properly walking. As of about six weeks ago. Before that it was a lot of determined falling."
"And talking?"
"More words every week," Sera said. "Their current favorite is 'no,' which they deploy with tremendous conviction about things that have no possible objection — 'no' to sunlight, this morning. 'No' to a sock that was, by any reasonable measure, an excellent sock."
Theo laughed.
"My niece went through that," he said. "It passes. Eventually. Mostly."
