The laughter kept coming.
Jesse had heard soldiers laugh louder over split rations and graves dug in frozen ground, because sometimes the body found the wrong way to release what it could no longer hold. Hers came in broken breaths, each one catching against the next while Lucavion's explanation repeated inside her.
'Safer.'
Jesse lowered her gaze to the pale stone under their boots. Lattice-shadows moved across it with the wind, breaking over the darker edge of Lucavion's silhouette.
"What is funny?"
There was no irritation in his voice yet. Only uncertainty.
That nearly set her laughing again.
Her laughter thinned instead, losing strength one breath at a time until only a strained smile remained. Jesse dragged the back of her hand under one eye, furious to find moisture there, then stared at the faint wetness across her knuckles as memories began pressing through the absurdity.
A command tent before sunrise.
Three officers asking the same questions in different orders.
