Chapter 109

Aria's POV

November arrived with the particular quality of a month that understood its position — the last of the full dark before winter made it official, the season's final considered statement before the long rest.

The institute's cohort was in its eighth week. The midpoint.

Beth had established a midpoint ritual: each practitioner wrote a single page about what they'd understood so far that they hadn't arrived with. Not what they'd learned — she was specific about this distinction in the framework — but what they'd understood. Learning was acquiring. Understanding was integrating. The page was for the latter.

She sent me all eight pages without comment....