Selis woke before dawn.
Her breathing was ragged, but clear. The fever had broken sometime during the night. Kael was at her side when she opened her eyes—he didn't say anything, just helped her sit up and handed her a ration bar she couldn't finish. She asked only one question:
"Where is he?"
No one answered.
She already knew.
They helped her walk to the ridge where the others waited.
---
They had chosen the place carefully. A high bluff overlooking the valley, far enough from the last breach to feel untouched by the chaos. The wind here was cleaner. The light, softer.
For days, they'd carried the weight of Thorne's death on their backs—his scorched hammer wrapped in cloth, the broken visor, and the cracked comm-link tucked carefully in Arix's pack. There had been no time to mourn before. Only escape. Pain. The constant grind of survival.
Now, finally, they stood still.
Selis leaned heavily on Kael, her steps small but stubborn. She refused to be left behind. Calyx stood beside Arix, her leg stiff, her coat cinched tightly against the chill. The scars from the battle hadn't faded, but neither had the memory of Thorne's final stand.
There wasn't much to bury. The explosion had taken nearly everything. No body. No trace of flesh or blood. All they had were fragments—scraps of scorched gear, a melted patch from his uniform, and the hammer, blackened and inert.
Still, they dug.
Not just for Thorne, but for themselves.
Kael worked in silence, sweat mixing with dust on his face. Selis, despite Kael's protests, helped shape the cairn stone by stone, her fingers trembling. Calyx limped up the slope with Arix, carrying the bundle that contained the remnants.
They buried the pieces beneath a mound of red shale and slate. No headstone. No marker. Only the hammer placed atop the stones like a crown.
Scarred. Blackened. Resting like a silent promise.
Kael crouched and rested a hand on the hilt.
"He always said it wouldn't be the enemy that took him out," Kael said. "It'd be the choice."
"He made the right one," Selis whispered. "The only one."
Arix nodded, but didn't speak. His eyes were locked on the hammer, and on the shard in his hand, which pulsed softly.
Calyx stood a little apart from the others. She hadn't said much since the escape. Her silence was not emptiness—it was pressure, thick with unshed words.
Arix approached her slowly.
"He was more than just the shield," she said, finally. "He was the weight that kept us centered. The one we never had to worry about."
"He still is," Arix replied. "If we let him be."
Calyx didn't answer. But her eyes lingered on the hammer.
> [Echo Signature: Residual – Hammer Imprint Logged]
The shard had recorded something. The weapon had absorbed more than just impact. But this wasn't the time for that conversation.
They stayed until the sun began to crest the far ridge, warming the rocks in hues of copper and ember. Then they built the fire.
---
It wasn't for warmth. It was for memory.
Kael brought out Thorne's cracked visor and placed it into the flames. The plastic curled and split, black smoke rising into the open sky.
Selis added the damaged comm-link. "He always fixed our comms first," she said quietly. "Didn't matter how hurt he was. Said if we could talk, we could win."
Calyx stepped forward with a bundle—Thorne's field notes. Singed, half-erased by the explosion, but still legible in places. She hesitated.
"I read these on the first night after," she said. "He wrote about us. About you." She glanced at Kael. "About how he didn't think he'd survive, but hoped we would."
She dropped them into the fire.
Arix stood last. In his hands was the small holoframe Thorne kept in his field kit—an old image, its display corrupted, flickering with static and soft colors. None of them had ever seen it working.
"Whatever this was," Arix said, "it mattered to him. That's enough."
He lowered it into the fire.
They watched the flames consume each piece. Nothing was said for a long time.
Selis cried then—not loudly, just enough to remind them they were human.
Calyx didn't cry, but her hands tightened around her belt until her knuckles blanched.
Kael didn't move at all.
Arix stared into the fire until it was nothing but embers.
> [Mission Thread Updated – Subtask: Entity Classification – "The Devourer"]
[Threat Priority: Unresolved]
The fire burned low. Wind caught the smoke and carried it west, toward the Rift.
Calyx stood beside Arix.
"I'm going to kill the thing that did this," she said.
Arix turned to her. "We all are."
Their eyes met—bruised but unbroken.
The silence that followed wasn't empty. It was reverent.
---
They moved out at first light.
Selis insisted on walking as long as she could. Kael adjusted the stretcher to be ready but didn't fight her. Calyx walked ahead, her limp slowing her down but not stopping her.
Arix carried the shard and walked in silence.
The hammer remained behind, embedded in the earth like a buried oath.
They didn't see the faint shimmer that wrapped around its frame as they left.
Didn't hear the Rift whisper through its metal.
Didn't notice the way it pulsed—once.
And waited.