The man inside the shelter had a spear aimed at the opening and the posture of someone who had already used it.
Mara straightened first, just enough to show she was not about to lunge, though she kept her own weapon ready.
Leon stayed a little to the side where he could see into the shadow under the slab.
The shelter was tighter than it had looked from a distance, but still real. Dry ground. One narrow entrance. Stone thick enough to block the wind and break a charge if anything rushed in stupidly. The man inside sat braced against the inner wall with one leg stretched out and bound tightly just below the knee with torn cloth darkened by dried blood.
He was broad through the shoulders and chest, with short dark hair, a square jaw, and the kind of face that would have looked open and decent in another place. Here, with the spear steady in both hands and a fresh cut along one forearm, he simply looked tired and prepared to do what he had to.
That was good.
Good was not the same as safe.
Mara said, "You alone?"
"For the moment."
His voice was low and controlled. Not aggressive for the sake of it. Measured.
Leon respected that too.
Mara glanced once at the bound leg. "Can you stand?"
"If I need to."
"Will you?"
The man's expression did not change. "That depends on whether you keep advancing."
Leon said, "This is already a much better conversation than the one I had this morning on a scaffold."
Neither of them looked at him.
That seemed fair.
The man inside said, "You talk too much."
Leon nodded. "And you're armed in a hole. We all cope differently."
That got the first actual shift from him. Not amusement exactly, but the kind of forced patience people developed when they had no energy left for annoyance and still found something mildly annoying.
Mara lowered the spear a fraction. "Night's coming."
"I noticed."
"We're not here to take the shelter."
"Everyone says that before they try."
Leon looked between them and saw the shape of the room clearly enough.
Mara and the man were speaking to each other as direct threats. That made sense. They were the obvious combat variables. Leon, which suited him very well, occupied the less impressive part of the field. Too thin, too tired, too recently dragged out of a beach fight to be the central danger.
Good.
From there, he could work.
He said, "If we wanted to push you out, we wouldn't still be talking. If you wanted to kill us immediately, you would've thrown the spear when Mara took the second step."
The man's eyes moved to him.
Leon kept his tone even and reasonable.
"So here we are," he said. "Three breathing problems, one shelter, not enough light left to search for a better option."
The man looked at Mara, then back at Leon. "You a negotiator?"
"No. Just attached to living."
Mara said, "He's right."
Leon almost smiled at how reluctant that sounded.
The man inside shifted slightly, testing his leg without letting it show too much. "Name."
"Mara."
He looked at Leon.
"Leon."
The man nodded once. "Toma."
Good. A name always made the shape of a person firmer.
Mara asked, "What hit your leg?"
"Not what. Where." Toma glanced toward the open ground behind them. "Bad descent. Loose stone. I went over once and got lucky."
"Lucky," Leon said, looking at the binding and the way Toma still held the spear steady. "Interesting word."
Toma's mouth moved faintly. "I'm revising it as I go."
Mara took one careful step closer to the entrance, then another. Toma did not raise the spear further. That mattered.
Leon said, "We can keep this part going if it helps, but the light's dropping."
He looked over his shoulder.
It was. The sky had not darkened dramatically, but the color had thinned until everything seemed flatter and colder. The sea behind them had become a dull band of steel, and the spaces between the rocks below already looked harder to read.
Mara said, "What have you seen after dark?"
Toma answered immediately, which told Leon two things. First, he had seen enough to be sure. Second, he wanted them to understand it.
"That depends on where you are," he said. "On the lower coast, the shell things get bolder. Inland, you hear less before they arrive. Some places stay quiet. Some don't. I'm not interested in finding out which this is from outside."
That was honest.
Not all of it, maybe, but the part that mattered.
Mara lowered her spear fully now, though she kept it in hand. "Then let us in."
Toma was quiet for a moment.
Leon could almost see the choices moving behind his eyes. Injured leg. One shelter. Two strangers, one clearly dangerous, the other harder to read. Night closing in. No clean answer.
So Leon gave him one.
Not with a speech. With shape.
"If we split now," he said, "you spend the night injured and alone in a place two other people already know exists. We spend the night exposed. That gives the Shore three easy decisions instead of one difficult one. I don't think it deserves the help."
Toma studied him.
Then he shifted the spear aside just enough to open the entrance.
"Inside," he said. "But if either of you starts something stupid, I'm finishing it before I die."