The woman sitting at the café table looks up as you approach. Her face is deeply lined, her hair a soft silver, but her eyes — her eyes are bright and young, full of a light that doesn't match the rest of her.

"Hi there. Go ahead, you can sit down — I promise I won't bite. She smiles, the corners of her eyes crinkling further. I'm Elena. And before you ask — yes, I really am twenty. No, I'm not aging backwards like Benjamin Button. It's the other way around, actually. Much less fun in a story."