The room was not a dignified sight.Kaito was half off his bed, one leg dangling at an angle that suggested he had started the night in a normal sleeping position and had made several decisions during the night that had led to the current situation. Clark was flat on his back with both arms thrown wide like someone who had fallen from a height and was displaying where they'd landed. Dachi had his face pressed directly into his pillow, the pillow mostly covering his head, one foot uncovered at the wrong end of the bed.Eren was the only one who looked like he was sleeping intentionally, on his side, hands together under his cheek, the specific peaceful composure of someone who had decided how they were going to sleep and had executed the decision.Asta was on his back with his mouth slightly open.Roderick was the closest to upright, sitting position, half-slumped against the headboard, head tipped forward at the angle that necks arrived at when sleep came faster than the body expected

The former Lady Dragon Vessel was at the far end of the room.She was wearing a cooking apron, the specific practical apron of someone who had been doing the actual work of the meal rather than supervising it, the fabric carrying the evidence of the morning's cooking in the small marks and spots that active cooking left on aprons.She looked up when the group came in."Oh, you're here." She said. "Good. Sit down quickly, you don't want to be late for training on your first day."She was already moving, picking up plates, carrying them toward the table.Clark sat down.He looked at the plate that appeared in front of him."That saying." He said. "Was meant for the vessels, right? The non-vessels can take a bit more time." He picked up his fork. "We'll just be sitting back watching them train."The Lady Vessel set a plate in front of Kaito.She looked at Clark."That isn't true." She said.Clark looked up."The non-vessels are going to be trained as well." She said. She continu

The specific pause of someone looking at someone else in the room. "My predecessor. The way she looked at things before she spoke about them, which meant if you paid attention you could tell what she was going to say before she said it and you could prepare the response before it was needed."Elara was listening with her hands folded on the table.Flora had not reopened her book.Kaito had both elbows on the table and was watching the Lady Vessel with the expression of someone who was not just hearing the story but filing it, the specific listening of someone who understood that what was being described was relevant to something they were currently in."What about the former Emperor Dragon vessel himself.” Asta said. "Once he stopped being.." He paused. Found the word. "Once he stopped being like that. What was he actually like?"The Lady Vessel looked at him.At his face. At the specific quality of the question, which was not the same quality as the other questions."He was." S

The exhale didn't come again.That was almost worse.Roderick had his blade half-drawn before he consciously decided to draw it, theinstinct outrunning the thought the way it did in real combat. Flora had already moved tocover the stairwell down, back to the wall, eyes on the dark like it owed her money.Nobody had to call the formation. Months of fighting together had built it into theirspines before it ever reached their mouths."Report." Roderick said, low, to nobody and everybody."Nothing." Flora said. "No movement. No heat signature past the stairwell that I can feel.""Then what did we just hear." Eren said.Nobody answered that one, because nobody wanted to be the person who admitted the honest answer was ‘I don't know, and it terrifies me more than a monster would.’"Could've been the ruin settling." Roderick offered, in the flat voice of a man who didn't believe his own theory and was hoping someone would believe it for him."Ruins don't breathe out, Roderick." Flo

Darkness had a weight to it that torchlight never let you notice.Mira felt it first, pressing against her eyes like something physical, and then Elara'sflame answered,not the crowned blue-white she'd been holding back all night, but thefull cold blaze of Frostbite let loose without permission, because permission had stoppedmattering the second the torches died.The light it threw was pale and merciless, and it showed them exactly what none of them wanted to see.The stairwell was empty.Cassian was gone."Cassian!" Asta's voice cracked off the stone, came back distorted, wrong, like the ruin had decided to keep it for itself.No answer."He went down." Roderick said, already moving toward the stairs. "He put himself between us and it and he went ‘down’, the absolute…""Wait." Yuki caught his arm, hard enough to stop him. "Listen."They listened.Under the settling dust, under six people's ragged breathing, there was a sound comingup from the dark, not footsteps this time. Vo