She left Dr. Senne's office at ten past ten.
The session had run long, not because either of them extended it deliberately but because there had been more to say than usual and Dr. Senne did not cut things off when the material was still moving. Aelara had noticed this in the first year and had come to trust it. Some practitioners watched the clock. Dr. Senne watched the room.
Outside the building the grey morning had become a grey mid-morning, the same ambient cold, the city doing what it did regardless of what had happened in it yesterday.
She walked without particular intention, not toward the office, not toward home. Just through the streets, which was something she did when she needed to let her body do the moving while her mind did its own kind of processing.
