Leo collapsed onto the bed the moment he reached his room.
The softness swallowed him. His body screamed for sleep, exhaustion pressing down like a physical weight. They'd been awake all night. Three cities. The overlook. The sunrise. THE TALK.
His mind tried to pull him toward it. Toward the challenge, the stakes, the impossible decision waiting for him.
He pushed it away. Too tired to process it properly. He'd deal with it later.
He let his thoughts drift elsewhere instead. To the cities. To what he'd seen, what he'd felt, what he'd experienced since coming to this world.
Wonder.
---
Tidebeak came first.
He remembered stepping onto that moonlit beach. The bioluminescent plankton lighting the water like stars had fallen into the sea. Each wave glowing soft blue-green, alive with light that shouldn't exist but did.
