When I opened my eyes, the world was quiet.
Not silent quiet.
The kind of stillness that follows a storm so loud it leaves your ears ringing.
Sunlight crept through the cracks in the Spire’s ruins, falling across the fractured tiles. Dust drifted in slow spirals through the beams of gold. For a moment, I just watched it move proof that something still obeyed gravity.
Kira sat a few feet away, back against a wall that wasn’t really a wall anymore. She looked like she’d aged ten years overnight. Her jacket was torn, her hands shaking slightly as she stared at the shattered remains of her wrist-band.
No rank. No signal. No system.
Just us.
“Morning,” I croaked.
She glanced over. Her smile was small and tired. “You died for a minute.”
“Only one?”
“Yeah. You’re getting better at it.”
