[Boat — Open ocean — No land visible — 9:40 PM]
No combat.
No training.
The boat moving slowly under a sky none of them remembered seeing like this since land — without the lights of any city competing, without low clouds cutting the horizon, just stars as far as the eye could see in every direction.
The ocean calm.
The first night in weeks without anything urgent to resolve.
---
Emily at the railing with her eyes on the sky.
Alex arrived with two blankets and handed her one without saying anything. They sat together on the deck, their backs against the railing's wood, their legs stretched out.
"Do you know what I was thinking the other day?" said Emily.
"What."
"About what we're going to do after all of this."
Alex looked at her.
"After the Eastern Island?"
"After everything." Emily. "All seven Fragments. The Reset. The Gods." A pause. "If we make it to the other side of that."
"When we do."
Emily smiled a little.
