"I ran into her at the library. She's fine. Also a child, but a normal one." Alec pauses to laugh a little, "She said, 'I've been like this before, so I know how it works.' Perfectly profound in its simplicity, don't you think?"

Alec rests his forehead against Seregil's shoulder for a moment. Moments of solitude are rare enough between them as it is, and when they're this small it just seems strange to be this close. Bad, perhaps, though he refuses to think of their love as bad.

Momentarily inconvenient. He'll settle for that.

"Oh, I meant to ask you," Alec says, and he's not sure why it occurs to him now of all times. "You know my friend John? The ghost woman?"