Chapter 593: Watch Rotation

Ashe was insufferably pleased with herself the next morning.

She made no effort to hide it.

Valerica noticed first.

"You’re humming."

Ashe, crouched beside her bedroll, glanced over.

"Am I?"

"You are."

Valerica kept writing.

"It is an appalling sound. Please stop."

"I will not."

Ashe stretched with the lazy satisfaction of someone who had slept extremely well and wanted everyone around her to know it.

"Some of us had a restful night."

Nyx was rolling up her bedroll nearby.

She paused.

Then continued with exaggerated care.

"Some of us were audibly not sleeping."

Vane closed his eyes.

There it was.

Nyx’s expression remained perfectly innocent.

"I’d like it entered into the record that I heard the entire second half of that discussion about tactical restraint."

Ashe looked at her.

"Did you."

"Extremely educational."

Nyx tightened the straps around her bedroll.

"Very passionate discussion of tactics."

She nodded thoughtfully.

"Thorough, too."

Ashe didn’t even blush.

"Jealous."

"Devastated."

Nyx put a hand to her chest.

"My whole morning is ruined. Possibly my week."

Vane decided that silence was probably his best available defense.

It lasted three seconds.

Isole was methodically repacking the medical supplies.

"For what it’s worth," she said, without looking up, "the two of you are significantly less quiet than you think."

Ashe turned toward her.

"You too?"

"I’ve been meaning to mention it for approximately four worlds."

Vane looked at her despite himself.

"Four?"

Isole paused over a roll of bandages.

"Ossara counts twice."

Silence.

"There were two separate incidents."

Ashe stared at her.

"This is slander."

Isole resumed packing.

"It’s inventory."

Her tone remained clinical.

"I keep excellent records."

Valerica finally stopped writing.

She looked toward Isole.

"You’ve been keeping count?"

"No."

A beat.

"Not deliberately."

"That somehow makes it worse," Vane said.

"It makes it observational."

Nyx nodded solemnly.

"Very scientific."

Isole ignored her.

Mara looked up from her ledger.

Her brow had furrowed.

"What tactics?"

Everyone stopped.

The silence lasted just slightly too long.

Vane watched Valerica recognize the problem.

Then solve it instantly.

"Positioning."

Mara looked at her.

Valerica’s face did not move.

"Strategic positioning."

Nyx turned away.

Valerica continued with the effortless composure of someone who had apparently been waiting her entire life for exactly this emergency.

"It is an important discipline."

Mara considered that.

"Oh."

She looked down at her ledger.

"That makes sense."

Ashe’s mouth twitched.

Mara looked up again.

"You should teach me sometime."

Ashe made a choking sound.

Nyx abruptly became fascinated by a tree.

Mara continued, entirely unaware.

"I could probably use better positioning when I’m doing ration counts."

Isole bent farther over her medical bag.

Her shoulders were shaking.

Mara frowned.

"What?"

"Nothing," Valerica said immediately.

"Your instinct is correct."

Mara looked suspicious now.

"Then why is everyone acting strange?"

"No reason."

"That means there is a reason."

Vane cleared his throat.

"Maybe when you’re older."

Mara stared at him.

Her expression flattened.

"That’s what everyone says about everything."

She returned to her ledger.

"I don’t understand why age apparently determines when people explain basic logistics."

Nyx made a strangled noise from beside the tree.

Mara ignored her.

Vane looked at Ashe.

Ashe looked back.

Neither said anything.

Valerica resumed writing with the expression of someone who considered the crisis successfully contained.

"Excellent recovery," Nyx muttered.

"I know."

They broke camp within the hour.

The coast was still two days away.

The weather remained mild, the road uncomplicated, and for once there was nothing actively attempting to kill them.

Vane found that strangely difficult to adjust to.

After Ossara.

Vaelkirk.

Meridine.

Walking without a crisis felt almost suspicious.

Nyx fell into step beside him.

She had the look.

Vane recognized it immediately.

"No."

"I haven’t said anything."

"You’re going to."

"Obviously."

Nyx smiled.

"Watch rotation tonight."

Vane looked ahead.

"What about it?"

"I’m taking first shift."

"Why?"

"So I don’t have to hear round two."

Vane nearly stumbled.

"There isn’t going to be a round two."

Nyx looked at him.

Her expression carried genuine disappointment.

"Vane."

"What?"

"Don’t insult me."

"I’m not."

"There is very obviously going to be a round two."

"There isn’t."

"I’ve met you."

"That proves nothing."

"I’ve met Ashe."

Vane sighed.

Nyx continued.

"I’ve met Valerica and Isole too, actually, and I have never once been wrong about this particular category of prediction."

"You are deeply irritating."

"I’m accurate."

She stepped over a root.

"There is overlap. They’re not identical qualities."

Ahead of them, Ashe and Valerica were already arguing.

Vane couldn’t hear the subject.

Given the morning, he wasn’t sure he wanted to.

Nyx glanced forward.

"There."

"What?"

"Evidence."

"They could be discussing literally anything."

"They could."

Nyx grinned.

"They aren’t."

Vane gave her a long look.

Nyx’s expression softened.

The humor remained, but something warmer settled beneath it.

"For what it’s worth, I’m glad."

Vane frowned.

"About what?"

"That it’s loud."

He looked at her.

Nyx shrugged.

"This whole saga has been heavy."

Her eyes moved toward the others.

"Ossara was heavy."

"Vaelkirk was worse."

"Meridine spent most of its time trying to convince everyone that trusting another person was a tactical error."

She was quiet for a moment.

"I’ll take this."

Vane followed her gaze.

Ashe was gesturing aggressively about something.

Valerica had the particular expression she wore when she was technically winning an argument and knew it.

Isole was listening with a smile.

Mara walked between them with her ledger open.

"Insufferable?" Vane asked.

"Absolutely."

"Loud?"

"Painfully."

Nyx smiled.

"But alive."

The word landed more quietly than everything around it.

"Quiet and careful is what grief sounds like out here."

Vane looked at her.

Nyx’s expression had gone distant.

"People whisper around the dead."

She glanced toward the others again.

"They measure every word around someone who’s hurting."

A pause.

"They stop taking up space."

Her voice softened.

"I’d rather hear everyone being ridiculous."

Vane had no joke ready for that.

No argument either.

They walked another few steps.

"Second shift," he said.

Nyx looked at him.

"What?"

"You take first."

He sighed.

"I’ll take second."

Nyx grinned immediately.

"For me?"

"For everyone’s safety."

"Generous."

"You’re still insufferable."

"And still accurate."

Ahead of them, Valerica’s voice suddenly carried back along the road.

"That is absolutely not what restraint means."

Ashe laughed.

"You seemed convinced last night."

Valerica stopped walking.

Nyx nearly folded in half.

Isole laughed properly this time.

Not the quiet shoulder-shaking effort from breakfast.

A real laugh.

Even Vane couldn’t stop himself.

Mara looked up from her ledger.

"What happened last night?"

Six separate instincts collided.

Valerica answered first.

"Nothing relevant to the ration count."

Mara stared at her.

"That doesn’t answer the question."

"Correct."

Mara looked around at all of them.

Then sighed with the exhausted patience of someone surrounded by idiots.

"Adults are weird."

Nyx wiped at one eye.

"The wisest thing anyone’s said all morning."

They kept walking.

There was no grand ending to Meridine waiting for them on the road.

No final revelation.

No enemy emerging from the trees.

Just six people moving toward the coast.

Arguing.

Laughing.

Teasing each other about things nobody intended to explain to Mara for several years.

Warm in the uncomplicated way people could only become after surviving something complicated together.

Vane listened to the noise around him.

For once, nobody was counting the dead.

Nobody was planning an evacuation.

Nobody was measuring the distance to the next threat.

Mara was counting rations.

Valerica was arguing.

Ashe was humming again.

Nyx was already planning how to weaponize watch rotation.

Isole was laughing.

And Vane thought that perhaps this was worth marking too.

Not every proof of survival needed to be dramatic.

Sometimes it was simply six people on an empty road, making far too much noise.

Entirely, unglamorously alive.