NEVA POV
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Reine didn't come back to the main building that night.
Silo found her eventually, at the far edge of the garden, sitting in the dark among the tomatoes she'd grown with her own hands, and he did the thing he did best — he didn't try to fix it. He simply sat down a few feet away and stayed, the specific silent company that had become his particular gift to this family.
I found him there an hour later, having come to check on her myself, and he shook his head slightly when he saw me — not yet, the gesture said. Give her the space a while longer.
I respected it.
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Corven came to the compound gate at first light, alone, and asked for Mitch specifically.
He brought a laptop, external drives, physical notebooks filled with handwriting that looked, even from a distance, li
