It happened on an ordinary Wednesday, which was, Sera would think later, exactly how the important things in this compound seemed to arrive — not on the days you'd braced for, but in the middle of something completely unremarkable.
She got the call at eleven in the morning. Not an emergency call — the teacher's voice was calm, careful in the specific way of someone delivering something that mattered without wanting to alarm.
"Rowan's fine," the teacher said, first thing, which was itself a small mercy. "I wanted to let you know what happened this morning, because I think you should hear it from me rather than secondhand from Rowan tonight, and because I handled it a certain way and I want you to know what way that was, in case you'd have wanted something different."
Sera sat down at the
