She went on a Wednesday, early afternoon, when the compound's pace was at its quietest and Lena was usually in the kitchen between the morning's baking and the evening preparation.
Lena looked up when she came in, read her face the way she read most things now — with the specific, practiced attention of someone who'd spent years learning that what people actually brought to a room was often different from what they said they'd come for.
"You look like you're going to say something I'm not going to enjoy hearing," Lena said.
"I'm not sure how you'll take it," Sera said. "I wanted to be honest about that before I said it."
Lena set down what she was doing.
"Go ahead," she said.
Sera told her — the numbers, the sixty-three percent, the analysis of what created the pull. She didn't softe
