Their eyes met across the table, and for a long moment, the hum of the mess hall around them — the clatter of trays, the low murmurs of tired shard users — faded into something distant.
The memory of their talks in the pod room pressed in close — her stubbornness, his grudging encouragement, the long, slow fight to hold a shard stable without breaking themselves in the process.
They parted with a small nod, quiet and certain.
The mess hall's noise returned behind them, but Cube X's heavy hum stayed steady, a backdrop to the shared weight they both carried.
Vardency's threat pulsed faint and far beyond the walls, but closer than either dared to admit.
The pod quarters in A Block stretched quiet and dim, the modular units lining the walls like sleeping sentries.
