Lena
Written for readers who have finished Book 1.
Lena is Sabine's daughter: twenty-eight, kind, and partnered with Anni. For most of her adult life she has done what her mother thinks of as the thing: the small tightening, the reading of a room before she enters it, the quiet sum of how much of herself it would be safe to bring through the door. Then one Sunday in the spring she turns up at the Lydia-Gemeinde of her own accord, with Anni beside her and a bottle of the good juice under her arm because she did not like to come empty-handed. Within weeks she is refilling the urn before Marlene has to ask. Washing up at the sink, Sabine overhears her daughter say she did not have to do the thing here, and has to stand very still.