⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣
SYLVANNA — SPECIALIZED RESEARCH FACILITY, HOLDING SHELTER
Kit followed the guide down the ramp.
Vines climbed the walls in trained patterns, trimmed into stone with precision. Warm light settled across the platform in even bands.
His room waited at the end of the corridor.
A low bed. A table grown from pale wood, surface warm to the touch. A window opening onto a courtyard of slow water and tiered green. The air carried sap and clean stone.
The guide stopped at the door.
“You’re free to move about the shelter,” she said. “Common areas are open. Someone will come for you at supper.”
Kit didn’t respond, he just looked around the room.
The door slid shut behind her.
For the first time since stepping off the rail, Kit stood alone without instruction. The room held still around him. Just space.
He stood for a moment, hands loose at his sides, then turned and left.
The corridor bent gently toward shared space. Voices reached him first, familiar and grounded.
The lounge opened into view.
Mae sat on a long bench, one leg tucked beneath her. Colt stretched across a chair with his braced ankle propped up. Lisa and Arian sat on a sofa near a living glass panel where tiny organisms floated in soft light.
Mae spotted Kit and smiled. “There you are.”
She crossed the room and pulled him in close, firm and quick. “You holding up?”
“I’m good, you?”
Colt lifted his head. “Whole gangs here, what else could we ask for?”
Kit shrugged and shared a soft smile.
Lisa stepped in, squeezed his shoulder once, then motioned to the sofa. “Sit.”
Kit joined them. The room settled around their voices.
For a few minutes, conversation picked up where it had left off. Mae and Aria talked about the food they hoped to be served. Colt complained about the brace itching. Lisa listened more than she spoke, eyes moving as she tracked the room, the doors, the timing of footsteps outside.
Eventually, the talk slowed.
Mae leaned back on her hands. “So,” she said, casual but deliberate, “did they all ask you the same questions too?”
Kit glanced up. “About the mission?”
“And everything around it,” Lisa added.
Kit nodded. “Name. Condition. What I saw. When we boarded. Who I was near.”
Colt snorted. “Same. They asked me to describe moments like they already knew the answers.”
Mae tilted her head. “They asked me twice about the rail stop.”
Lisa’s gaze sharpened. “To see who all boarded?”
Mae thought. “Both times.”
Lisa exhaled slowly and crossed her arms. “They’re comparing answers.”
Kit watched her. “Is that weird?”
Lisa met his eyes. “Kinda, but everything’s been weird since we left that day.”
Mae shifted, rolling her shoulders. “They didn’t ask anything that mattered.”
“What do you mean?” Colt asked.
“They didn’t ask how it felt,” Mae said. “They didn’t ask what stayed with us.”
Silence followed that for a moment.
Kit looked down at his hands, then back up. “They asked me about Buck.”
Mae’s expression changed, just a fraction.
Lisa’s eyes flicked toward the door, then back to Kit. “What did you say?”
“That he left at the Borderlands station.”
Mae nodded once. “Same.”
“They didn’t ask me why he wanted to,” Colt said. “Just when.”
Aria finally joined in, her fingers tapped once against her arm, then stilled. “Because they already decided what matters.”
Mae looked between them. “We all heard that woman today.”
Kit nodded.
“She wasn’t really asking,” Mae continued. “She straight up calling them out on their bull.”
Kit nodded.
Lisa said, “They moved fast after that.”
Colt leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “Buck was our friend.”
No one argued.
Mae’s gaze softened. “He was hurting.”
Kit swallowed. “He didn’t feel the same at the end.”
Lisa closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them. “Trauma does that.”
The room held their words without judgment.
Kit leaned back, listening. Learning.
Footsteps passed outside the lounge. Someone laughed faintly down the hall before the shelter continued its quiet rhythm.
Mae broke the silence with a small smile.
“Whatever this turns into, we move together.”
Kit felt that land somewhere steady.
For now, that was enough.
⟢───── Ashes × Aether ─────⟣