Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign

Morning came in ribbons through the blinds. Raizen lay quiet and let it all soak in for a moment. The room stopped feeling like a visitor station. His books were a small mountain at the foot of the bed. His cup was empty. The window showed a thin slice of cloudy sky.

On the rolling table sat the old slate Obi had forgot. Same metal corners. Same scratched back. He tapped the power, and the screen blinked to a dim photo. The last, unchanged one. Three people in a yard with the light a little too bright. Obi between them, too small to stand still. The mother with a smudge of grease on her cheek. The father with the same grin Obi used when he lied for a good reason.

He slid to the report. The page with the stamp. RECON EXPEDITION - NORTH RANGE. The last ping that ended in nothing. Unknown scientist. From inside the walls.

He thought about that part too long. A person who walks out alone. Fourteen dead. No Nyx signatures. No Eon readings.

The silence like a door that doesn't squeak.

Was the survivor a spy? A ghost? A runner who didn't look back? A traitor who learned how to breathe under guilt?

His jaw set without him telling it to. If there was a name, he would find it. If there was a face, he would remember it.

A motor whirred. The bed moved. He flinched on instinct.

The head of the bed rose in a smooth, practiced tilt. Metal inside the frame clicked soft. The nurse's hand shot to the panel with a cheerful efficiency that had conquered a thousand bad moods.

Up he went. Upright. He braced for that sharp, bright bite in his ribs.

It did not come. Not this time.

He blinked, surprised, and then breathed deeper on purpose. It didn't hurt. The breath went all the way to the bottom of his lungs.

The nurse smiled like she had waited to see that exact face. She was the morning one - short hair tucked under a cap, sleeves rolled, the kind of energy that made a hallway move faster without feeling pushed.

"Look at you! Finally sitting up, without breaking any rules!"

He exhaled a little laugh. "I thought I was about to invent new ways to float"

"Not today, sweetheart" She flicked a quick check on the monitor. "Your numbers finally start to love me. Your stitches love me less, but we're negotiating"

He glanced at the books again. Titles he had marked and memorized. The fishing one with bent corners because he read twice. It hit him that he was excited to be bored. He hadn't felt that kind of excited in a long time.

"How long left?" he asked.

She held up one finger and waved it side to side. "About a week if you behave. Less if you do not and we throw you out for being annoying"

He put a hand over his heart. "I am a delight"

"Sure, sure. You are also very popular" She leaned in, resting a hip on the bed. "You know that girl I told you about?"

He blinked. "Which girl"

"The hallway ghost! Cute bag. Big eyes. Thinks she is invisible because she walks very quietly. Honey, I am a nurse. I notice everything."

"Saffi…" he said before he could stop himself.

"Yeah, that one. Forgot her name" She smiled like she had a secret. "She comes, stops at your door, turns around like she forgot something in a different century. Then she comes back. I have seen her three times today. Less than usual"

Raizen rubbed the bridge of his nose with his thumb. "Please just ask her to come in"

The nurse's grin turned a shade mischievous. "No more instruction needed" She pressed the bed's control down a touch so he was comfortable, then went to open the door. "I will say nothing embarrassing at all!" she added in a voice that promised nothing of the sort and slipped out.

The room breathed only with him for a few seconds. He looked down at his hands. The scrapes at the knuckles had faded to thin lines. The bandages at his right wrist were less bulky.

He tapped the slate off. The screen went dark. But the unknown stayed unknown.

The door slid and sighed. Saffi stepped in.

Her cheeks were red. Very red. The kind of red that appears only when someone tells you something so embarrassing, that you literally pray that a meteor crushes you or something.

Her hair was in a loop that had given up staying straight. In her hand she held a small pastel pink gift bag with white rope handles.

"H- Hey…" she said, and then coughed. "Hi"

He did not say anything at first. It was funny and also weird to watch her fight herself. She took a breath, closed her eyes for exactly one second, and when she opened them the work face was switched on. Shoulders squared. Eyes sharp. Voice steady.

"I came to check on you. See how your vitals are" she said, grabbing the chart at the foot of the bed with a bit too much force.

The switch from normal Saffi to work mode Saffi was so funny, that Raizen laughed out loud. It startled him, but no burn followed.

She looked up, startled. "What?"

"You can't just transform like that!" he laughed again, just to see if his ribs would burn again. They didn't. "You almost passed out at the door and now you're extremely serious"

"I'm a professional" she said and tried to hide a smile. "Professionals adapt."

He shook his head and let the grin sit. "You are here. Just leave the other things aside"

She nodded. The flush had not entirely left. It made her look younger and braver at the same time.

"How are you" she asked, and this time she didn't mean the numbers.

"Better" he said, honestly. And this time, it was true. I breathe more, and now it's boring.

"Boring is good" she said lightly, but her shoulders dropped a centimeter like tension had been excavated by the word.

He lifted his chin toward the stack. "I finished most of them. The fishing one is wrong."

She stared. "About what?"

"Fish don't make sense!" he said solemn. "They're chaos with bones!"

Finally she let the real smile out. "That sounds just like you"

He looked back at her hand. The bag was still there, small and pink and very much not what Saffi usually carried. It had a tiny silver bow on one side like it wanted to be brave.

"The nurse told you to come in" he said.

"We don't talk about what the nurse told me" she muttered, then cleared her throat and tried the work voice again. "Ahem. I brought something"

He raised his eyebrows. "Is it pink?"

"No. It's for you"

He tilted his head. "What do you mean?"

"For you" she repeated. He looked at her face, not the bag. The redness had faded to a warm color. Her eyes were steady again. Worry still sat behind them. She had probably practiced this in the hall. She had probably turned away once, then twice, and come back anyway.

"Alright" he said, leaning a little closer. "What is it?"