(Caius)
It happened in the library.
Three days after we returned from Ashcrest Isla had started moving through the pack house with a little more ease. Not much. She still mapped every room before she settled in it and she still kept her back to walls where she could and she still ate carefully and not enough at the main table. But she was moving. Exploring in the quiet way she did everything, a little further each day, like she was testing the edges of how much space she was allowed to take up.
She hadn't heard me come in. She was standing at the shelves along the far wall looking at the books with the particular expression she had when she was interested in something but wasn't sure yet whether being interested was permitted. I watched her from the doorway for a moment before I crossed
