"Okay. Thank you."

They leave. She is shown, alone, into a room with a bunch of nondivided showers like a locker room and given a towel and fresh set of clothes in plastic.

They don't explicitly giver her a time limit but it's kind of implied. Officer Cooper keeps referring to her as 'hun', though she uses the right name when she uses a name at all. She doesn't seem malicious about it, just... Anyway.

Being held in prison, even when it's apparently not technically arrest it's still a prison, might actually be a bit familiar? General lack of freedom and privacy - but no insults, no pain, and they mostly leave her alone. Cooper fetches a beat-up library book of whatever rough category is asked for.

The "hun" is kind of unsettling but she doesn't verbally object. She finishes her shower well under the implicit time limit and changes into the fresh clothes. She's not super picky about the book but longer is better than shorter.

The Mountains of Sunset, a long, rambly fantasy novel by an author known for long, rambly fantasy novels.

That'll do.

Her magic starts feeling... Almost stale, when she doesn't use it all morning. It could use a quick stretch. They said repressing her magic was unhealthy.

Can she go out into the exercise yard and practice?

After lunch. We can't rearrange schedules whenever wherever for you, Spirit Bearer or not, Sera.

...She has a sink in her room. Maybe the water jet can be very small?

No she needs to be on her best behavior she will just curl up into a little ball of misery until lunch.

Well, magical emotional feedback doesn't have to be too severe before it will start compounding with things.

Lawyer and Mr. Foster Office Guy show up with lunch, with more officers and more paperwork. "Good afternoon, Miss Sawyer. There were some attempts to have you punished more harshly, but luckily this is being treated as a magical case so they have no authority. You should be out of here tomorrow if you like one of the guardianship candidates."

"Okay."

She carefully represses how shitty she's feeling right now and makes sure to pay careful attention to the lawyer and the foster office guy and not just rush through everything so she can magic sooner.

Isn't paperwork so compelling?

She's formally agreeing to stay under the supervision of the Spirit Bearer Corrections Office for twelve years, reductions possible through good behavior.

"...Have they been treating you okay, Miss Sawyer?"

"Yeah, um, it's just I wanted to do magic and I hafta wait is all."

"Oh, right." Foster guy looks up from his ever-present huge wad of paper. "I can get Miss Tiller-Tide to visit you at two if you like. She volunteers to train new Bearers a fair bit. And the interviews with candidates starting at four, if both of those times are acceptable?"

"Yeah."

"Good." Scribble scribble. Read read. Sign sign.

And now she has a cold lunch and then she can go outside for exercise again.

Okay, then she will hurriedly eat her cold lunch and then go outside!

Where everyone kind of avoids her again - though it's all women this time.

A few of the toughest-looking of them make a point of not ignoring her, continuing their jogging on a course not fifteen feet away from her, nodding at her when they pass.

...She is not sure what to do with that! She will nod back.

Spirit Bearers are kind of obvious! And not someone to mess with trivially.

Anyway she should totally practice magic. Maybe use the spear?

...Maybe? Water's probably safer.

Sure just the water thing is fine. Not a lot of variety though. She can aim it and vary the power/size of the jet and that's about it.

She would like to see if she can get it little and weak enough that she can be confident in being able to do a little magic while washing her hands without getting caught.

Well, if she specifically practices that, she can manage it. Small enough that if she messes up it could reasonably be a spill and not magic.

She will specifically practice that. It is useful.