The garden as her sanctuary was extrapolating off of untranslated canon material, but I thought it fit (the dark haired girl is Serin, in the fic somewhere between that child and this). I'm really glad the undercurrents and her reactions came through here, and delighted you liked the interaction. I was really hoping I could do her character justice.
I admit I was wickedly tempted for a sequel--maybe when 0tp is finished, I'll give free reign.
If you're interested, the translated chapters are posted here, though Serin's character development takes a bit of time and is mostly in still untranslated chapters. Starts out a little shallow, rapidly bucks a lot of cliches.