NEVA POV
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Corven had stayed compound-adjacent through everything — not welcomed back, not fully exiled either, occupying the specific uncomfortable middle ground Reine's silence had left him in since the night he'd handed over everything he knew.
He'd helped where he could. Testified to the council investigators. Provided context the compound alone couldn't have assembled. And through all of it, he'd kept his distance from Reine specifically, understanding, I thought, exactly how much space she needed before any conversation between them could happen honestly.
She found him herself, three weeks after Silo's injury, the compound finally settling back into something like its ordinary rhythm.
I wasn't present for the conversation — some things weren't mine to witness — but I watched h
