The day after the wedding, the compound is the same.
That is the first thing I notice.
At five in the morning, I stand in the operations room with the coffee Reth left for me. The screens run their updates. Outside, the compound follows its usual rhythm without ceremony or adjustment.
Crew rotation at six.
Drace at the training ground.
The courtyard bird.
The kitchen beginning breakfast.
The ordinary sounds of a place that continues regardless of what happened inside it yesterday.
I expected something to feel different.
It doesn't.
Then Faye walks in at five fifteen carrying her own coffee and sits across from me.
The room changes instantly.
Not dramatically.
Not visibly.
Simply and permanently.
Like something has settled into the place it always belonged.
"You're thinking
