Chapter 21: Sera Is Taken for Questioning

He found Sera in the courtyard twenty minutes after the corridor outside the Record Room had cleared.

She was standing near the stone bench, not sitting, with her back to the ivy-covered alcove and her arms folded in the particular way that looked like cold and was not cold. She had already calculated how long it would take him to arrive. He could tell because she did not look up when he came through the archway.

He sat on the bench. She remained standing. Neither of them spoke for a moment that lasted approximately the length of a Thought-Watcher relay interval, which was not a coincidence.