NEVA POV
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The compound absorbed Arden Brack the way it absorbed most arrivals — immediately and without editorial comment, because Bekah had decided years ago that people at her counter got food first and questions were for after, and this had become, somehow, the compound's entire philosophy on newcomers.
She looked at him once. Set a plate down. Poured coffee without being asked.
He looked at the plate. Then at the diner around him — the booths, the round table visible through the back room door, the specific worn-in quality of a place that had been built for people rather than for impressing them.
"This is good," he said. Not the food. The place.
"Yes," Bekah said, and went back to the counter.
Arden looked at Silo, across the table.
Silo was doing the thing where he looked a
