The circulatory system. The heart. Blood moving with elegant, reliable efficiency to exactly where it needed to be.
Clear. Comprehensible. Consistent.
Unlike everything else.
"Quiet meant thinking about that," Elara said. Back in the garden, back in the present, her voice completely even. "About what was missing. About not understanding why everyone else had an operating system I apparently hadn't been issued."
The System was very still beside her.
"So you stayed busy," it said.
"There's no gap when there's work," Elara said. "Work has clear inputs and outputs. Clear success metrics. You either accomplish the objective or you don't. It doesn't require—" she paused, searching for the word, "—fluency in something I don't speak."
"Emotion," the System said.
