The hours had a texture that was nothing like the reading.
He had read extensively. He had prepared for every variable he could identify. He had understood, going in, that understanding and experiencing were different categories of knowing.
They were very different categories.
Dr. Yuen's colleague at Meridian — Dr. Bassett, a woman with the specific, grounded calm of someone who had done this many times and carried that experience like a steady weight — moved through the room with an efficiency that was also kindness. She talked when talking helped. She was quiet when quiet helped. She made decisions quickly and explained them after in a way that kept Seren informed without burdening him with deliberation in moments that required the opposite.
Caelan was there.
He had not left the room.
He had not, Seren registered distantly, looked at his phone once.
