Location:Seven Peaks — Elian's Room; The Hall; The East Barracks
Date/Time:TC1857.05.21 – TC1857.05.25
Grandma Maren's letters came folded in three, and the paper was always slightly wrong, and Elian knew before he opened this one that it had been written over more than one day, because the fold had been made twice.
The first fold was sharp. The second one was soft and off by a finger's width, which meant somebody had opened it again after folding it, and added to it, and folded it a second time with their hands not working properly.
He put his thumb along the second fold and sat with it for a while before he did anything else.
Fifteen days. He had counted them on the wall beside his bed with a bit of charcoal and had then rubbed them out on the twelfth day because Mira had come in and looked at them, and had gone on counting in his head afterward, which was harder and which he did anyway.
***
She told him all of it.
