The first thing Melody felt was a small hand closing around her wrist.
She woke with a start, nearly pulling away before she recognized Leo sitting upright beside her. His golden fleece cast a faint blue-gold glow across the mattress, illuminating his face beneath the dim emergency lighting. His eyes were wide, and he was staring at the ceiling of the subway car with an expression she knew all too well. For a moment, he seemed incapable of deciding whether he was awake or still somewhere beneath the collapsed building.
"Leo?"
He turned toward her so quickly that she winced on his behalf. His mouth opened, but whatever he'd been about to say seemed to disappear when he recognized her. He looked at her face, then down at her bandaged leg, his fingers tightening around her wrist.
"Umm... where are we?"
"Twenty-Third Street station, on Park Avenue South. Some people found us under the rubble and brought us here."
He looked past her toward the windows covered in cardboard and plastic. Beyond the train, a few survivors were still moving around the platform, their footsteps echoing through the station. It was well past midnight, judging by how many of the overhead lamps had been switched off, but the place hadn't gone completely quiet. Someone was coughing a few mattresses away, and a baby was crying somewhere beyond the train.
"Underground?" Leo asked.
"Yeah."
He looked toward the ceiling again, and Melody could practically see him remembering the concrete coming down around them.
"So, some good luck for a change?"
That earned a small smile from her, though it faded when Leo tried shifting his legs off the mattress. He made it halfway before pain crossed his face, and he stopped to examine himself. There were still burns along his arms, and his fleece looked considerably worse than it had before the fight. The fabric was scorched around one sleeve, with several dark patches where the golden material had been nearly burned black. Despite the damage, its warmth hadn't diminished.
"Don't try standing yet," Melody said. "Doc said we're supposed to rest."
"Doc?"
She gestured toward the older man sleeping in a folding chair near the opposite end of the car. Alvarez had finally stopped moving between patients sometime after midnight, though he'd apparently decided that sleeping in an actual bed was an unnecessary luxury. His glasses were still on, and his clipboard rested against his stomach.
Leo stared at him for a moment before looking back at Melody.
"Did you beat it? Did you get something cool?"
Melody knew exactly what he meant. She wished she had a better answer, but there wasn't much point pretending otherwise.
"No. We got wrecked. You... you got hit twice. Are you feeling okay?"
He looked down at his hands, turning them over as though expecting to find some evidence of what had happened. His fingers were still trembling slightly.
"I remember the lightning. I think." He frowned. "I remember getting big, and then there was this light. After that, I remember you carrying me, but it's all kind of mixed up."
"You were pretty out of it."
"Did I hit it? When I got big? I don't remember."
Melody hesitated.
"Not really."
Leo leaned back against the wall of the train car, looking genuinely disappointed with himself. He picked at a loose thread on his fleece, pulling it between his fingers until Melody gently moved his hand away.
"I thought if I got big enough, it would be an easy fight. Plus, it would draw the attention away from you so you could sneak attack or something."
"Well, it definitely noticed you."
He gave her an unimpressed look.
"Thanks."
Melody couldn't help smiling at that. The expression was familiar enough that, for a moment, he looked like the same boy who'd been making jokes and getting excited about every strange thing they encountered before the dragon had nearly killed them.
He wasn't smiling when he looked back at her leg.
"Did that happen because of me?"
Melody followed his gaze toward the splint. She could still remember the concrete crushing her leg, followed by the terrible sensation of trying to move something that simply wouldn't move anymore. It was healing, slowly, but even shifting against the mattress sent a dull ache through her knee.
"That happened because a building fell on us."
Leo didn't seem particularly convinced. He pulled his knees closer to his chest, carefully avoiding the worst of his burns.
"So we really almost died, again? I just made myself a huge target and got knocked out immediately?"
"Yeah, not your brightest idea," Melody admitted, giving him a small nudge. "But you also shielded me from that first explosion. I probably wouldn't be here without you."
Leo looked up at her, some of the disappointment easing from his expression.
"Besides, we both made mistakes. I thought my sword could hurt it, and that didn't work either. Apparently, we were both a little too confident."
Leo considered that before looking down at the faintly glowing fleece around his shoulders. He seemed to be taking the defeat personally, which Melody could understand. She'd spent enough time replaying the fight herself to know there wasn't much anyone could say that would make those memories easier to live with.
Eventually, he shifted closer and settled against her side. Melody adjusted the blanket so it covered both of them, careful not to put too much pressure on her injured leg.
They sat quietly for a while, listening to the distant sounds of the station.
"Melody?"
"Hm?"
"Next time we see or hear a dragon, can we just keep hiding?"
She let out a tired laugh.
"That's the plan."
"Good."
He closed his eyes, apparently satisfied with that arrangement. Melody rested her head against the wall, feeling the warmth from his fleece spread through her injured leg. She didn't know whether the dragon was still out there, or whether it would recognize them if their paths crossed again.
She hoped they wouldn't have to find out.
By morning, the station had returned to its strange imitation of ordinary life. Someone was boiling water near the far end of the platform, filling the air with the smell of instant coffee and whatever food had been scraped together for breakfast. People shuffled toward the makeshift food table carrying plastic bowls, paper cups, and occasionally the empty cans they'd saved from previous meals.
Leo had recovered enough to sit upright without assistance, though Alvarez had been considerably less enthusiastic when he suggested going for a walk. The doctor examined his burns, checked his pulse, and eventually told him he could move around the train car as long as he didn't attempt anything strenuous.
Leo had immediately asked whether carrying an axe counted as strenuous.
Alvarez looked at him for a long moment before turning toward Melody.
"Does he always ask questions like that?"
"It makes more sense once you get to know us."
Leo seemed pleased with the answer.
His axe had been returned earlier that morning by one of the guards, who'd apparently found it among the equipment recovered from the rubble. Leo examined it carefully, running his fingers along the handle before setting it beside his mattress. The weapon had survived with surprisingly little damage. Melody was considerably less fortunate. Her snake sword and lynx dagger were still missing, and although Gabriel had promised to keep an eye out for them, nobody remembered seeing either weapon during the rescue.
She tried not to dwell on it. There wasn't much she could do while her leg was still healing, and after what had happened to Daniel, asking someone to search the ruined buildings near Broadway seemed like an awfully selfish idea.
Outside the train, the volleyball girls had resumed their card game. One of them was arguing about whether somebody had cheated, while another insisted that the rules had never been properly explained in the first place. A few benches farther down, the bearded man Melody had noticed yesterday was helping a young boy arrange empty bottles beneath a slow leak in the ceiling.
The water dripping through the concrete wasn't particularly clean, but apparently nobody wanted to waste anything that might eventually prove useful.
Near the station entrance, Daniel's mother sat with a small pile of clothing in her lap. She was carefully folding a dark work shirt, smoothing the wrinkles with both hands before placing it beside an old pair of gloves. Someone had brought her breakfast, but the paper plate remained untouched on the bench beside her.
Melody caught herself looking at the food and immediately felt uncomfortable. A week ago, she wouldn't have given an untouched breakfast a second thought. Now, with supplies running low, she'd noticed it almost before she'd noticed the woman's face. Nobody else seemed interested in the plate, though, and Melody certainly wasn't going to suggest taking it away.
She looked toward the woman again. Daniel had probably been going to work, buying groceries, and worrying about ordinary things less than a week ago. Now his mother was sitting in a subway station, folding clothes he would never wear again.
Leo followed her gaze.
"Who's that?"
"Her son went outside looking for supplies yesterday. He didn't come back."
Leo watched the woman for another moment, his expression losing some of its earlier curiosity. He looked toward the staircase, where two men were struggling to move one of the cabinets blocking the entrance.
"Was it a monster?"
"Most likely. I didn't get the full story."
He didn't ask anything else.
A few minutes later, Gabriel appeared from the far end of the platform, carrying a folded street map and a dented metal cup. He looked slightly better than he had yesterday, though the dark circles beneath his eyes suggested he hadn't slept much. Someone had cleaned the cut along his jaw, leaving a narrow strip of gauze near his chin, and he was walking without the noticeable limp he'd had when he returned from the expedition.
He stopped when he noticed Leo sitting up.
"Well, look who's awake."
Leo glanced at Melody before looking back at Gabriel.
"Hi."
Gabriel smiled and approached the open train doors. He carried himself with an easy friendliness that Melody suspected was partly genuine and partly something he'd learned to maintain for everyone else's benefit. Even exhausted, he seemed determined not to let the people around him know just how worried he was.
He pulled a chair closer and settled into it, setting his folded map across his knees.
"You know, I just realized something. We talked yesterday, but I never actually got your names."
"Melody," she answered. "Melody Rosethorn. And that's Leo."
Leo raised a hand in greeting, his attention already drifting toward the hunting knife attached to Gabriel's belt.
"Well, it's nice to properly meet you both." Gabriel glanced at Melody's bandaged leg. "How's the leg treating you?"
"Still attached. That's progress, I guess."
Gabriel chuckled.
"After the condition they found you in, I'd say that's pretty good progress."
He unfolded the map across his knees, revealing several streets marked with circles and lines in different colors. Melody recognized Park Avenue South, Broadway, and several nearby intersections, though some of the markings had been crossed out so many times that she couldn't tell what they'd originally indicated.
"Mind if I ask you something about yesterday?" Gabriel asked. "I've been trying to figure out what to tell the people going outside."
Melody glanced at Leo, who was now examining his own axe again.
"About the dragon?"
"Yeah."
Gabriel looked toward the platform before lowering his voice a little. He wasn't exactly whispering, but it was clear he didn't want everyone nearby listening.
"We've had a few sightings. Mostly people seeing something huge flying over the streets. One of the men who came in yesterday said it was throwing lightning around, but he didn't stick around long enough to get a good look."
"Smart man," Melody muttered.
Gabriel glanced at her, then continued.
"You're the first people we've found who actually faced it and survived. I need to know what we're dealing with. How dangerous it is, whether it can be avoided, anything that might help."
Melody stared at him for a moment. She understood why he was asking, but the answer seemed so obvious that she wasn't sure where to begin.
"Run."
Gabriel blinked.
"Sorry?"
"If you see it, run. Better yet, hide before it sees you." Melody leaned forward slightly, ignoring the protest from her injured leg. "I'm serious, Gabriel. Don't shoot at it, don't try to distract it, and definitely don't send anyone to fight it. If somebody spots that thing flying over the city, they need to get somewhere it can't see them."
Gabriel's expression grew more serious. He glanced down at the map, then back at her.
"That bad?"
Melody almost laughed. The question wasn't unreasonable, but after what she'd experienced, it felt almost absurd trying to explain just how completely outmatched they'd been.
"My sword could cut through stone," she said, gesturing toward the empty space beside her mattress. "Not regular stone, either. I used it against a golem, and it went straight through. That dragon's scales? Nothing. I hit it as hard as I could, and I couldn't even leave a scratch."
Gabriel's eyes moved toward Leo.
"And you?"
Leo shifted uncomfortably.
"I got really big. Then it fried me."
"How big?"
Leo glanced toward Melody, apparently unsure how to describe it. She could see him considering the question before he finally answered.
"We call them artifacts. Mine lets me grow. I can get pretty big, like a hundred feet or so. I broke through the roof when I grew."
Gabriel stared at him.
"Seriously?"
Leo nodded.
"Didn't help, though."
The admission was quiet enough that Melody almost missed it. She reached over and rested her hand against his shoulder while Gabriel considered what he'd just heard.
"You're telling me you grew taller than a building, and it still beat you?"
"It didn't have to fight me," Leo said. "It just shot lightning."
Melody remembered that moment far too clearly. One moment, Leo had been towering above the destroyed pawn shop, and the next, the dragon's lightning had struck him with enough force to bring him down. There hadn't been any opportunity for him to fight back.
"He was unconscious after that," Melody explained. "I had to carry him out of there."
Gabriel looked down at the map again, rubbing his thumb along the paper's worn edge.
"How close were you when it first attacked?"
"We weren't close at all. That's the problem."
She paused, remembering the distant silhouette moving between the storm clouds, the enormous wings that had looked almost unreal against the Manhattan skyline. They'd been able to see it long before it came toward them, and she'd made the mistake of assuming that distance meant they were safe.
"We spotted it from pretty far away. It wasn't coming toward us at first, and we weren't doing anything to bother it. Then it noticed us."
Melody could still remember the way the dragon had turned in the sky. Its enormous head had shifted toward them, almost casually, before the wings changed direction.
"The moment it saw us, it came straight at us. We didn't attack it first. We didn't even get close enough to do anything. It just decided we needed to die."
Gabriel stopped rubbing the map.
"It attacked without warning?"
"Pretty much. Blew the front of the shop apart before we could get out. Leo got big to shield me, and we tried fighting it because we didn't have much choice. When that didn't work, we ran."
She glanced toward the covered windows, remembering the rain streaming down the rooftops as she carried Leo from one building to the next.
"I thought if we could get between the taller buildings, maybe we'd lose it. But that thing is fast, Gabriel. Really fast. It kept circling above us, and whenever it got another angle, it fired lightning at the buildings we were crossing."
Gabriel reached for a pencil tucked into the fold of his map.
"Could it aim those attacks? Or was it just throwing lightning everywhere?"
"It was aiming. I saw it gathering between its teeth before it fired, and it kept hitting the buildings right behind us."
"How far can it shoot?"
"I don't know. Farther than you'd want to be."
Gabriel made a small mark near one of the intersections before looking toward the guards near the entrance. One of them was cleaning a shotgun, carefully arranging the ammunition beside him on a folded cloth.
"Could somebody with a rifle hurt it?"
Melody shook her head.
"I wouldn't try finding out."
"Not even its eyes? Something like that?"
"Maybe, but somebody would have to get close enough to hit them." She glanced toward the shotgun. "Look, I know people here have guns. That's great for keeping ordinary monsters away, but this thing was destroying entire sections of buildings just trying to hit us. My strongest weapon couldn't scratch it. Even if a bullet managed to hurt it, I wouldn't want to be the person who made it angry."
Gabriel set his pencil down.
For a while, he didn't say anything. Melody could see him studying the streets on the map, occasionally looking toward the entrance as though trying to picture what would happen if one of his scouting groups encountered the dragon.
"How did you finally lose it?" he asked.
Melody looked toward Leo.
He was sitting quietly beside her, his hands folded in his lap. The question had caught his attention, and she could tell he was trying to remember what had happened after the lightning struck him.
"We didn't," she said.
Gabriel looked up.
"The last blast hit us while we were jumping between buildings. It threw us into a wall, and we fell into an alley. Then the building came down on top of us."
She glanced toward her bandaged leg.
"That's how I ended up like this."
Gabriel frowned.
"But it left you there?"
"Eventually. I think it believed the collapse had killed us."
Melody shifted against the mattress, suddenly uncomfortable. She hadn't spent much time thinking about what the dragon had done after they were buried. At the time, she'd been too busy trying to breathe beneath several tons of concrete. Now that she was somewhere safe enough to consider it, the memory bothered her considerably more.
"There was this little gap in the rubble," she continued. "I could see part of the sky through it. Not much, just enough to see the rain and some of the buildings around us."
She paused, remembering the enormous shadow passing across that narrow opening.
"It flew over us three times."
Gabriel stared at her.
"Three?"
"Yeah. First time, I thought it was just passing over and we'd finally lost it. Then it came around again, lower this time. After the third pass, it finally left."
She could still remember lying against Leo, listening to the thunder and waiting for another bolt to tear through the rubble. She'd been completely helpless. If the dragon had decided to attack the alley again, there wasn't a single thing she could have done to stop it.
"I think it was checking to make sure we were dead."
Gabriel leaned back in his chair.
"Why would it do that?"
"I have no idea."
Melody rubbed her forehead, frustrated by how little she could actually tell him. She could describe its size, its scales, and the lightning it fired, but none of that explained why it had gone out of its way to attack two people who hadn't done anything to it.
"It didn't try to eat us," she continued. "It didn't land to finish us off, either. It just kept attacking until we stopped moving. Maybe it really thought the building collapse killed us. Maybe it got bored. I honestly don't know."
Leo shifted beside her.
"Maybe it was just angry."
They both looked at him.
Leo frowned, apparently struggling to find the right words.
"When it looked at us, I mean. Before it attacked. It looked angry."
Melody considered that. She remembered the dragon's eyes, the way it had turned toward them, and the sudden violence of its attack. She couldn't say whether it had actually been angry, but she understood what Leo meant.
Whatever that creature had been thinking, it certainly hadn't seemed interested in leaving them alone.
Gabriel was quiet for several seconds. He looked down at the map again, then at the people moving around the platform. A woman was helping her little girl put on a sweater that had clearly belonged to someone much older, while two of the volleyball players were carrying water bottles toward the infirmary.
Melody watched him take it all in. There were more than eighty people down here, most of them ordinary civilians who could barely defend themselves against the smaller monsters roaming the streets. Gabriel had already lost people trying to find food and medicine, and now she was telling him about something that could destroy the entire station without ever setting foot inside it.
"What would you do?" he asked eventually.
Melody looked back at him.
"If you were one of my scouts, and you saw that thing flying over the city. What would you do?"
"Hide."
"Where?"
"Anywhere it can't see you. Inside a building, underground, behind something solid. I don't know if there's anywhere completely safe from its lightning, but I'd rather take my chances hiding than let it notice me."
Gabriel looked toward the stairs.
"And if it already saw you?"
Melody hesitated.
She thought about the rooftops, the desperate jumps between buildings, and how quickly the dragon had closed the distance despite everything she did to escape. Her dagger had given her more mobility than any ordinary person could hope for, and it still hadn't been enough.
"Run," she said. "But don't expect to outrun it in the open. Get somewhere it can't follow you directly, and don't come back out until you're sure it's gone."
Gabriel nodded slowly, though he didn't seem particularly reassured.
"I've got people who barely know how to use the weapons they're carrying. Most of them have never been in a fight before, and the ones who have are still learning what these monsters can do."
He glanced toward the injured scout resting a few mattresses away. Alvarez was changing the bandages around his leg, carefully cleaning the wound while the man gripped the edge of the mattress hard enough to turn his knuckles white.
"Daniel was one of the better ones," Gabriel continued quietly. "He wasn't particularly strong, but he kept his head. Knew when to run and when to help someone else. Yesterday, that still wasn't enough."
Melody didn't know what to say to that.
Gabriel rubbed his face with both hands before looking back at the map.
"I can't stop sending people outside. We're running out of food, and every day we wait, the stores get picked over by more survivors. Some of the stuff we need is already impossible to find."
He turned his pencil between his fingers, studying the streets as though there might be an answer hidden somewhere among the markings.
"I need to give them something useful. Something that'll keep them from making a stupid decision if they see it."
"Then tell them not to be heroes," Melody said. "If somebody spots that dragon, they need to get out of sight. Don't fire at it, don't try to distract it so everyone else can escape, and don't stand around watching to see what happens. Just hide."
Gabriel looked up at her.
"And if it comes after them anyway?"
Melody glanced toward Leo, whose golden fleece continued glowing beneath the dim lights. She remembered how certain she'd been that they could survive the encounter, right up until the moment the dragon had proved otherwise.
"Then I hope they've made their peace."
For several seconds, neither of them spoke.
The sounds of the station continued around them, a child laughing somewhere near the food table, the scrape of a chair against concrete, and the distant rumble of something moving through the ruined city above. Melody watched Gabriel fold the map along its worn creases, though he stopped halfway and opened it again.
He found a section near Broadway and carefully crossed out one of the routes marked in pencil.
"We were planning to check some stores farther west tomorrow," he said. "One of the boys thought he saw a pharmacy that hadn't been completely wrecked."
Melody leaned forward enough to see the mark. The route passed through several broad intersections, with stretches of exposed street between the larger buildings.
"There's not much cover along there," Gabriel continued. "If that thing flies over while we're crossing..."
He didn't finish the thought.
Melody didn't need him to.
Gabriel examined another route, this one following narrower streets and passing several buildings the scouts hadn't searched yet. It was longer, but at least there were more places to duck inside if something appeared overhead.
"Maybe we can work our way through here instead."
Melody studied the map.
"That looks better. Just make sure everyone knows what to do if they see it."
Gabriel folded the map properly this time and tucked it beneath his arm.
"I'll talk to the others before anyone goes out again."
He stood, wincing slightly as he straightened his back. Up close, Melody could see how much the last few days had worn him down. He was trying to keep a small community alive with limited food, almost no medical supplies, and a handful of volunteers who were just as frightened as everyone else.
She wondered how long he could keep doing it.
"Gabriel?"
He stopped.
"Is there any way I can help?"
Gabriel glanced toward her injured leg, then at Leo resting beside her. For a moment, she thought he might actually consider the offer, but then he shook his head.
"Get some rest and let that leg heal. You've done enough fighting for a while."
He gave her a tired smile and headed toward the open train doors, raising a hand in farewell as he stepped onto the platform.
Melody wasn't entirely satisfied with that answer, but looking down at her splint, she couldn't exactly argue.
For a while after Gabriel left, neither Melody nor Leo said much.
The station continued its morning routine, though Melody noticed Gabriel speaking with the guards near the barricade before gathering two of the surviving scouts around his map. They listened while he explained something, occasionally looking toward the stairs. One of them shook his head, and Gabriel pointed to another section of the map before continuing.
Whatever they were discussing, it wasn't particularly encouraging.
Leo shifted closer to Melody, carefully adjusting his fleece so the warm fabric rested against her injured leg. He'd been doing that more often since waking up, apparently convinced that keeping her injury close to the golden material would help her recover faster.
She wasn't about to complain.
"Do you think it'll come back?" he asked.
Melody glanced down at him.
"The dragon?"
He nodded.
"I don't know."
Leo watched the people moving around the platform. His attention settled on a little girl sitting beside her mother, trying to balance three plastic cups on top of one another. Each time she managed to stack them, the smallest cup slipped sideways and sent the whole arrangement tumbling into her lap. She seemed to find this hilarious.
"There's a lot of people here," Leo said.
"Yeah."
"What happens if it finds us?"
Melody looked toward the stairs, where the two guards were struggling to shift one of the metal cabinets into a more secure position. The barricade was probably enough to slow down a person or one of the smaller monsters, but against something that could tear buildings apart with lightning, it might as well have been made of cardboard.
She thought about the answer for a moment, then looked back at Leo.
"That's why I need to find my weapons. Especially the dagger." She glanced toward the stairs again. "And we need to get stronger. Not so we can go fight that thing tomorrow, but so we have a chance to get away if it ever sees us again."
Leo seemed to consider that. He picked at the edge of his blanket before looking toward the injured scout resting in the next section of the train. Alvarez had finished wrapping the man's leg and was now trying to convince him to drink some water.
"Do you think my fleece could help him?"
Melody followed his gaze.
She'd been wondering the same thing.
The fleece had healed Leo after injuries that should have killed him, and it had helped her recover while they were trapped beneath the rubble. She didn't know how far its effects extended, or whether it would work as well on someone if Leo wasn't wearing it.
But Leo was looking at the injured man with an expression she recognized. It was the same look he'd had before growing enormous to protect her from the dragon, that mixture of concern and determination that usually meant he was about to do something without thinking through all the consequences.
"Maybe," she said. "But let's ask Doc first. You're not becoming the station's portable healing blanket without at least talking about it."
Leo gave her an amused look, apparently finding the idea less objectionable than she did. He watched Alvarez for another moment before settling back against her side, carefully keeping the glowing fleece in contact with her leg.
Melody rested her head against the wall of the subway car and listened to the voices drifting through the open doors. Somewhere outside, the city was still filled with monsters, and the dragon that had nearly killed them was probably flying over Manhattan as though it owned the place.
She wondered whether it even remembered them.
The thought bothered her more than she'd expected. It had pursued them relentlessly, attacked until they were buried, and then circled overhead as though making certain the job was finished. If the creature ever realized they were still alive, she had no idea whether it would care enough to come looking.
Her attention returned to Gabriel, who was now standing beside the barricade with his folded map tucked beneath one arm. He was speaking with Daniel's mother. She listened quietly, occasionally nodding as he explained something, before reaching out and resting a hand against his sleeve. Gabriel lowered his head, and for a moment, neither of them moved.
Melody looked away, giving them what little privacy the crowded station allowed.
A few seconds later, a deep rumble passed through the concrete overhead.
It wasn't particularly loud, just a distant vibration that could have been thunder or another building settling somewhere aboveground. Before the Mana Fall, Melody probably wouldn't have thought anything of it.
Now her entire body went rigid.
Leo's hand closed around her wrist, and somewhere near the barricade, one of the guards stopped speaking and looked toward the ceiling.
The rumble faded without another sound following it. After several seconds, the station gradually returned to its usual activity. Someone resumed dragging a crate across the platform, and the little girl near the food table started laughing again when her stack of cups collapsed for the fourth time.
Melody slowly released the breath she'd been holding and glanced toward Leo. He was still watching the ceiling, his fingers wrapped tightly around her wrist. She didn't make any effort to pull away.
It had only been thunder.
She knew that, and still she found herself watching the ceiling long after everyone else had looked away.