The learning program started on a Monday in September, the kind of crisp early-autumn morning that made everything look slightly more important than it was.
Rowan had opinions about the outfit. Several, expressed at length, none of which aligned with what Sera had laid out the night before. By the time they reached an agreement — a compromise involving a shirt Rowan approved of and pants Sera insisted on, with a jacket that satisfied nobody completely — they were running eleven minutes later than planned, which Darius noted with the specific dryness of a man who'd predicted this exact outcome the night before and had been overruled on the merits of starting earlier.
"I told you," he said, in the vehicle.
"You did," Sera agreed. "Don't gloat."
"I'm not gloating. I'm noting the accuracy
