The first thing Kael noticed about walking with Samantha was how quiet she was.
Not the forced kind of quiet—the kind that came from discipline, control. She didn't fill silence with words or hums or nervous pacing. She walked like the road itself asked her not to speak.
Kael didn't mind. He'd lived in silence too long to crave noise.
But he noticed the difference.
When he walked alone, silence was a shield.
With her, it felt like space being offered.
---
They moved through the dead valley without incident. The BTs had withdrawn after Samantha's presence cleared them, and even the Odradek refused to spin. The pod child—still unnamed—slept deeply, rocked by the slow, steady rhythm of Kael's steps.
Mire hovered behind them both, her form steady now. She watched Samantha with unblinking, almost reverent curiosity. At one point, she even walked beside her for several minutes, silent and present.
Samantha didn't acknowledge her.
But she didn't pull away either.
---
They stopped near the ridge as dusk settled in. The remnants of an old UCA mule shelter provided some cover. Samantha examined the beams before deciding it would hold, then set down her gear in practiced silence.
Kael removed the pod first, propping it on a reinforced crate. The child's pulse was calm. Almost warm.
Samantha leaned against the wall, arms folded.
Kael finally broke the silence.
"You don't talk much."
She smirked faintly. "Says the ghost."
He blinked, unsure how to answer.
She tilted her head. "They call you that. Among what's left of the couriers. The Ghost Who Tames the Dead."
Kael frowned. "Not a name I chose."
"None of us choose the names that stick," she said quietly.
Silence again.
Then:
"Was it true?" she asked.
He turned. "What?"
"You talked to a BT. Stopped it. Turned it back."
He hesitated. "Yeah."
"Did it understand you?"
"No. But it recognized something in me."
She nodded slowly. "I believe that."
Kael stared at her. "Did you… ever speak to them?"
Samantha didn't answer right away.
Then she said, softly: "I used to name the ones I cremated. Before the UCA told me not to."
"That's not answering the question."
Now she looked at him—truly looked.
"I tried," she admitted. "When no one else could hear me. When I was alone in the zones… I asked them not to take me. I asked them why they stayed."
Kael studied her face. It wasn't fear he saw there. It was exhaustion.
"And what did they say?" he asked.
She looked away. "They didn't. But they left me alone."
---
Later, they ate quietly—nutri-packs and water, passed between them without fanfare. Mire sat beside the pod now, her form flickering slightly as if resisting sleep. Kael hadn't seen her rest before. But the BT lion she'd subdued two days ago had clearly drained her. Or changed her.
Samantha eyed Mire with subtle curiosity.
"She's different from a BB."
Kael nodded. "She's… something else."
"You think she's the same as the child?"
"I think they were one once. Or meant to be."
Samantha thought about that. Then, almost softly:
"I wonder what she'll become."
---
They took turns resting.
Kael slept first. He didn't dream—not really. Just flickers of the crater, of Mire, of a woman's voice echoing his name like a song he hadn't learned the words to yet.
When he woke, Samantha was sitting outside the shelter on a cold metal plate, watching the stars.
The world around her looked still. Almost peaceful.
He joined her without a word.
After a long pause, she asked, "Do you regret surviving the Collapse?"
Kael didn't answer right away. He followed the stars first.
"Sometimes," he said. "But not today."
She turned toward him slightly. "Because of her?"
He looked down at the pod.
"No," he said. "Because of you."
Samantha's breath hitched—but just faintly.
Then she said, "Me too."
---
At dawn, they moved again.
Together.
Their pace wasn't fast. It wasn't tactical. It wasn't out of urgency or duty.
It was something else.
Measured. Chosen.
Kael looked down at his Odradek. It spun, slowly, as if waking for the first time in weeks. Not alert—just aware.
Ahead of them, the land sloped upward. A mountain path. A wind-scoured path carved by Timefall and forgotten porters.
Samantha stopped and gestured to a half-buried UCA marker.
"Courier trail. Pre-reconnection days. I used it before."
"Where does it go?"
"Somewhere they don't watch."
Kael smiled faintly.
"Then lead the way."
---
Far behind them—unseen beyond the valley—a different set of boots stepped across tar-stained ground.
Not a BT. Not a courier.
A man in old Bridges black.
Eyes glassy with chiral frost.
Tracking residual footprints Kael and Samantha didn't know they were leaving.
He smiled faintly.
And kept walking.