“It’s cold,” I say, feeling a bit dazed, feeling the gaps between my clothes and my skin. And it startles me when she speaks again, because she does so very softly. “It’s quiet.” And then the words are gone completely, swallowed down like a pill into the stomach of the dark. Quiet, and still, and I just—breathe. Mechas strewn before us, shadowed edges of limbs, fingers dropped in half curls toward the earth. Eris sleeping just fine above my head. The slow stretch of the lungs in my chest, and hold still. Just for a minute, just for now.
