They all did. For them, Rest Areas have always been forbidden. I was the last to understand.
"The Rest Area is inaccessible to us," I say.
My voice comes out colder than I intend.
"We are the monsters here. We make our own safety."
I turn from the light. From the comfort. From the lie.
The corridor ahead is long, dark, and hostile. I point to a defensible corner along the wall.
"We rest here. Stoney, first watch. Fenris, second. We take shifts."
No complaints. No questions. They move into position without a word.
I lean against the cold stone wall, the weight of everything pressing into my chest. This is what it means to be one of us now. No safe havens. No warm lights.
Only the cold. The dark. The mission.
But I look at them, Reina, Fenris, Lillith, Stoney, Clobber, and something stirs in my chest.
They are not friends.
They are more.
They are my family.
But that dark elf, Chloe… she served with a devotion that felt too familiar, too intimate.
