ログインThe problem with knowing she would not stop next time was that Rhys still existed the morning after.
Cerys discovered this while pretending to listen to a complaint about storage shelves.
She answered the part that required an answer, finished the work in front of her, and kept moving. The growing rooms were warm, damp, and ordinary. Plants did not care that she had stood close enough to Elis the night before to feel his breath and then stepped away.
They also did not car
The first person through the doors could barely stand. A shout cut across the main level just after sunrise, and every head turned at once.Cerys was moving before she knew she had decided to.The man who stumbled inside had blood down one side of his face and somebody else’s arm around his waist. Behind him came a woman Cerys recognized from the lower residential level, limping so hard her shoulder struck the doorframe.Then three more shapes appeared in the gray outside. None of them looked like people returning from the Wolf Nights Cerys knew.Those nights left bruises, torn skin, sometimes broken bones. She had seen enough ugly mornings to stop flinching at blood.This was different.The first man’s shirt had been ripped open across the back. Deep, ragged wounds crossed from shoulder to ribs. The woman behind him held one arm tight to her body while blood soaked through cloth at her side. Another person came in with bite woun
After the doors closed, nobody knew what to do with Cerys. For several minutes, that included Cerys.The main level emptied by degrees. The people who had stayed inside drifted away from the entrance, talking quietly or not at all. Someone asked whether she wanted company.“No.”Someone else asked whether she was sure.“Yes.”Cerys left before a third person could improve the question. She went back to her room because that was where she would have gone on any other night if the moon had not been waiting outside.The room had not changed. That irritated her.Her cup was still on the desk. The book she had been pretending to read all week was still open facedown beside it. Her work shirt hung over the back of the chair because she had changed before going downstairs to say goodbye.Everything looked ready for a normal evening. Cerys sat on the edge of the bed. Then she stood again.Sitting made the
The first goodbye found Cerys before she had decided what one should sound like.Elis was waiting near the main corridor when she came down from her room. Around them, the silo had taken on the compressed quiet before Wolf Night. People spoke in low voices, then stopped. Nobody lingered without a reason.Cerys did.“You came.”“I said I would.”“That has never stopped you from being difficult,” someone said.“True.”She had meant the joke to make the moment smaller. It failed.Cerys had seen him ready for Wolf Night before, usually as part of everyone moving toward the same thing.He glanced toward the corridor behind her.“Do you want to do this here?”“No.”They moved into the short passage beside the storage rooms.Cerys crossed her arms. Then she uncrossed them.“I had a speech.”“That s
The part Cerys hated most was watching everyone else know what came next.By late afternoon, the silo had begun to bend around Wolf Night in the familiar ways. Conversations shortened. People stopped pretending they were not counting hours. Work that could wait until morning was left alone.Cerys had spent years moving with that current. Now it passed around her.She stayed on the hydroponics floor until Mara took the last set of notes from her and said, “Go eat before you start reorganizing things that do not need reorganizing.”“I was not going to.”“You were looking at the storage shelf like it had offended you.”“It has poor standards,” someone said.“Dinner.”Cerys went because arguing would only prove Mara’s point. The dining room was louder than she expected. Not cheerful, exactly. People were talking too much because silence would have made the approachin
By morning, everyone had decided Cerys needed less to do. Nobody said it that way.Mara had already moved two routine checks off Cerys's list when Cerys reached the hydroponics floor. A supply request that normally waited on her desk had been handled before breakfast.Cerys stood over it with her hands on her hips.“Mara.”From the next row came, “Not me.”“You answered too quickly.”“I answer quickly when innocent.”“You are never that innocent,” Cerys said.Mara appeared between the racks, glanced at the chair, and grinned. “That one actually wasn't me.”Cerys dragged the chair back where it belonged and took the old one. The work itself was ordinary.Plants did not know she had been ruled unfit to shift. A tray still needed attention because it needed attention, not because Cerys had almost died or because the silo had decided she was safer
Rhys found her before she had to go looking for him. He was standing outside the dining room, talking to two people Cerys barely registered. The moment he saw her, the conversation ended.That annoyed her before he said anything. Cerys stopped in front of him.“You asked me to tell you today.”Rhys went still. She did not make him ask twice.“I’m not cleared. Elis said I’m unfit to shift.”The relief came first. It crossed his face so fast he could not hide it, a release through his shoulders and jaw before the rest of him caught up.Cerys saw the exact moment he realized she had seen. Rhys closed his mouth.“Don’t,” she said.“I wasn’t going to say anything.”“You were going to say you’re sorry.”He looked away for half a second.“Yes.”“I know you are.”That did not erase the relief.Rhys looked back at her. “I hate that you’re hurt by it.”“But you’re glad I’m staying.”His answer took longer.“Yes.”The honesty hurt less than denial would have. Rhys did not tell her it was for the







