She answered Maren's message on Thursday.
Not because she had forgotten it. She had thought about it every day since Tuesday, the way you thought about a thing you had set down deliberately and intended to pick up when the time was right. Maren had not followed up, which was characteristic. She understood the difference between urgent and important and did not confuse them.
The message was three sentences. The second-stage review body typically requested preliminary documentation within forty-five days of case number assignment. That gave them fifteen days after the objection period closed, assuming no objection was sustained. Did Aelara want to begin organizing the secondary file now or wait until the objection period was settled.
Aelara sat at the table in her apartment with her second coffee of the morning and thought about it.
