The desert station's main room had become a sanctuary of fragile hope.
Axel stood at the window, watching the sun rise over the endless sands. Fifty chapters. Fifty battles. Fifty moments where death had brushed against him and moved on. He was still standing. They were all still standing. But the weight of what they had done pressed down on him, heavy and suffocating.
The young woman sat in the corner, her knees drawn up to her chest, her eyes hollow. She hadn't spoken since they'd rescued her from the Sanctuary. The trauma of years of isolation had left her broken, a shell of the person she might have been.
"She needs time," Mira said, her voice soft. "She's been through a lot."
"We don't have time," Axel said. "The inner circle is going to come for her. They're not going to stop unt
