Mira appeared from around the bend in the path, wrapped in a long shawl the color of deep water, her light brown hair loose around her shoulders. She had a cup in each hand and the expression of someone who had not entirely stumbled upon this by accident.
She stopped when she saw Phaeryl.
"Oh," she said. Then, with a small smile that knew exactly what it was doing — "I come here when I can't sleep too."
Phaeryl looked at the two cups.
Mira looked at them as well as if noticing them for the first time. "I have a habit of making too much tea."
"You knew I was out here."
"The garden is the easiest place to breathe in this manor." Mira settled onto the other end of the bench with the ease of someone who had sat there a thousand times. She set one cup between them and kept the other in bo
