Seraphine was already in the kitchen when Aelara came downstairs.
She had been there a while. There was tea, two cups, placed on the table the way things were placed when a conversation had been anticipated. She looked at Aelara when she came in and said nothing, which was her way of asking everything.
Aelara sat down. "You felt it."
"The moment it started," Seraphine said. "I was awake in seconds." She paused. "I considered coming in."
"Why didn't you."
"Because it was resolving correctly on its own and sometimes the most useful thing is to not be in the room." She looked at Aelara. "How are they."
"Asleep," Aelara said. "Caelum had a harder time coming down than Lyra. Lyra catalogued it and filed it. Caelum needed time with the bigness of it." She looked at her hands around the cup. "They weren't afraid."
"No," Seraphine said. "They wouldn't be."
"I was," Aelara said.
Seraphine looked at her.
