Elias kept one hand near the wall as he stepped into the corridor.
Elara noticed immediately. She had always noticed too much. Even when they were younger, she could find the lie in a room by watching where people refused to look.
"Your gait looks like a training accident," she said. "Tell me whether I need medical staff or patience."
"Patience will be cheaper than medical staff today," Elias said. "The Doctor's penalty flipped my body control, and I am rebuilding the basics before my pride files for divorce."
Elara adjusted the tablet under her arm and started toward the cafeteria at a pace slow enough for him to manage without making it look like pity.
"You are ahead of the others, then," she said. "Tidwell was still on the floor when I checked the hall feed."
"He is upright now, angry enough to count as stable, and demanding extra protein for reasons he considers military."
That pulled a brief smile from her. It vanished when she unlocked the tablet and handed it over.
"This surfaced from a civilian camera near your hometown," she said. "I wanted you to see it from me before it becomes another filtered report."
Elias looked at the screen.
The video showed a street he knew too well. The grocery on the corner had changed signs, and the old bakery had metal shutters now, but the angle still put him ten minutes from the house he had grown up in.
A man entered the frame wearing a plain jacket and a cap pulled low. He stopped beside a woman near the bus shelter. Elias recognized her after two seconds and felt his grip tighten around the tablet.
"That is the woman from the robbery," he said. "The night I found the shard, she was the one those men were attacking."
Elara watched his face instead of the video. "She met him the day after you were moved to base. She gave him something wrapped in cloth."
On the screen, the man opened the bundle. A metal wristband caught the camera light before he fastened it around his arm.
Then he walked toward Elias's old street.
Elias stopped in the middle of the corridor. Someone in uniform moved around him without comment.
"That is my block near the old market," he said. "Tell me he walked past the house."
Elara did not answer quickly enough.
The man in the video entered Elias's home.
The old front door opened with one hard shove. The camera had no sound, but Elias knew the way that door should move. It stuck near the bottom in winter. His mother always kicked the frame before turning the knob.
The man did not need a second try.
Elias's hands tightened until Elara took the tablet before he cracked the casing.
"Your mother survived the attack and is alive," she said. "She has a cut on her cheek and bruising from being shoved against the counter, but she is alive and already moved inside a protected facility."
The relief hit first. Anger came after it and stayed longer.
"Why would he go to my house at all?" Elias asked. "My father is dead, the house has nothing worth stealing, and my mother would not know anything about military shard work."
They reached the cafeteria doors. Elara walked him inside and picked up two trays as if keeping her hands busy helped her stay precise.
"He asked for a keepsake your father owned," she said. "Your mother said she did not know where it was, and he searched the house before leaving through the back. The wristband interfered with local detection, which means someone supplied him with equipment meant to beat our systems."
Elias followed her down the food line because stopping would have made the whole room look at him.
Eggs. Bread. Protein packs. Fruit sealed in plastic.
Normal things looked insulting when placed next to the video.
"Who is the man in that video?" Elias asked.
"We are still confirming that, and his name may be Vincent, but I do not want to feed you a half-built answer."
Elias looked at her. "You came all this way to show me a half-built answer personally."
"I came because command would have wrapped it in phrases that made your mother sound like an incident site," Elara said. "I thought you deserved better than that."
That answer made it harder to stay angry at her, which irritated him.
They moved toward the exit with stacked trays. Dot's and Elara's Ikona drifted above them, whispering in little pulses Elias could not translate.
"What are they doing with you right now?" he asked. "I thought a soldier at your rank would be on a platoon instead of babysitting my bad news."
Elara's jaw shifted. "Valkyrie Base still owns my posting, but the shard changed my value to command. They want me nearby until they decide whether I am a weapon, a sample, or a problem with a uniform."
"That sounds uncomfortably familiar from here."
"It should feel familiar by now," she said. "You are newer to the cage, not outside it."
They returned to A Block. The door opened before Elias could press the panel.
Tidwell stood in the center of the room with both arms raised above his head. His knees shook, his face shone with sweat, and his grin looked almost violent.
"I got up before breakfast without screaming," Tidwell said. "Somebody put that on the official record before my legs realize what happened."
Elara set the trays down and gave him a measured clap. "You earned that one, even if the posture needs legal review."
Tidwell turned toward her, pleased enough to forget his feet.
His left knee buckled. His right leg corrected the wrong direction. He hit the floor flat on his side, hard enough that one of the trays jumped.
Nobody spoke for a beat.
Tidwell lifted one hand from the floor. "The record should also mention sabotage by gravity."
Elias took the top tray and lowered himself carefully beside him. "Eat before you try to win a second war against standing."
Elara watched them with the tablet tucked against her chest, and whatever she had not said about the video stayed behind her eyes.