Aldric brought three colleagues.
Serena had not been consulted on this. She had been brought back inside from the garden by the guard and Mira — who had appeared with the supernatural promptness of someone who monitored things from a position she never disclosed — and had been settled in the sitting room with tea she didn't drink while the palace medical staff assembled outside her door with the discreet efficiency of a household that had long practice in managing crises without appearing to.
The garden episode had lasted eleven minutes. She knew this because she had counted them — had anchored her focus to counting while her body did something she didn't control, because counting was the kind of simple, repeating task that kept a person inside their own mind when other forces were attem
