(Isla)
Sera came for me the next morning at the same time she had the day before.
I had been awake for hours by then. The sun was only just coming up over the eastern forest and I was already dressed and sitting by the window with the book open in my lap. I had not read much of it. My eyes kept going to the trees and then back to the page and then away again. The warmth had not returned during the night, but I had slept lightly and every time I woke I checked for it before I checked anything else. When Sera knocked, I closed the book at once and told her to come in.
She entered with the same case in her hand and the same calm expression on her face, but something under it was different. I noticed that immediately. Not alarm. Not urgency. More like she had made a decision and was carryin
