I didn't make it to the garden.
I had barely left the dining room when a voice stopped me.
"Just a moment."
She didn't need to raise it.
I stopped immediately.
I turned the chair with controlled clumsiness and saw her at the end of the hallway.
Ramonu.
She wasn't there by chance.
Her presence didn't fill the space loudly like Palmer, nor firmly like Ryan, nor warmly like Bright. It was different. More... defined. As if everything around her arranged itself according to her.
"I need to speak with you," she said.
She didn't ask.
I nodded.
I moved forward until I was facing her. This time I was more aware of the distance. Ramonu didn't step back or forward. She simply waited.
"Am I interrupting something?" she asked, though her tone suggested she already knew the answer.
"I think... I was going to the garden."
"I know."
Silence.
Her eyes studied me unhurriedly, as if every small gesture held value.
"Then it will be brief," she added.
She didn't seem like someone who did "brief" things.
"You recovered a memory yesterday," she said directly.
My back tensed.
"It was just a fragment."
"Fragments are enough."
There was no doubt in her voice.
"Did it happen again?"
I shook my head.
"No."
Ramonu held my gaze a second longer.
"You lie poorly."
I didn't know how to respond to that.
"It is not a criticism," she clarified. "It is an observation."
I looked away.
"It was just an image," I admitted. "I don't know if it means anything."
"Everything means something," she replied. "The difference lies in when."
The hallway was silent. Too silent.
"Why now?" I asked. "Why did I remember that right there?"
Ramonu didn't answer immediately.
She walked slowly around me.
Not in an intimidating way.
In a calculated way.
"Stimulus," she finally said. "Rhythm. Movement."
She stopped beside me.
"Yesterday you ran."
"In a chair."
"It doesn't matter."
Her words were immediate.
"The body does not distinguish between intention and result as easily as you think."
I frowned.
"Then...?"
"Then your memory responded."
I turned my head toward her.
"Are you saying that if I do it again...?"
"You might remember more."
The idea left me in silence.
"Or not," she added. "It is not an exact science."
Right.
"And you want me to try it?" I asked.
Ramonu considered it for a second.
"I want to observe what happens."
Honest.
Too honest.
"That sounds like I'm an experiment."
"You are."
There was no malice.
That made it worse.
"But you are also a variable," she continued. "And variables can alter the outcome."
I wasn't sure I understood... but I felt she did.
"The others see you as someone who needs to adapt," she said. "I do not."
"Then how do you see me?"
Ramonu took a step forward.
The distance between us barely narrowed.
Enough.
"As something that doesn't fit yet."
The comment wasn't cruel.
It was precise.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"It depends."
Her eyes didn't leave mine.
"Pieces that do not fit can break a structure... or redefine it."
A slight shiver ran down my spine.
"I'm not sure I want to do either of those things."
"You do not need to want it."
Another pause.
"You only need to exist long enough."
I didn't know if that was comforting.
"The others," she continued, "will begin to influence you."
"Influence?"
"They already are."
I thought of McQueen. Of Ryan.
At the table.
In the garden.
"It is not a bad thing," she added. "But it alters the outcome."
"You speak as if you already know where all this is going."
"I do not know."
For the first time...
An incomplete answer.
"But I know how to recognize patterns."
She turned slightly, looking toward the hallway that led to the garden.
"Today will be interesting."
"Because of the training?"
"Because of the decisions."
Her tone was barely lower.
"And because of what they reveal."
She looked back at me.
"When the time comes... do not try to choose correctly."
I blinked.
"Then...?"
"Choose honestly."
The silence that followed was different.
Heavier.
Closer.
Ramonu took a step back.
The distance returned to its original place.
"That is all."
"That's all?" I repeated.
"For now."
She turned around.
"Ramonu," I called her.
She stopped, but didn't turn completely.
"What do you want out of all this?"
The question came out before I could stop it.
A second of silence.
Two.
"The same as always," she replied.
She turned her head just slightly.
Enough for her profile to be visible.
"A race worth running."
And she left.
The sound of her footsteps disappeared quickly.
I was left alone in the hallway.
Looking toward where she had been.
Not knowing exactly why... but with the clear feeling that, out of all of them... Ramonu was the only one who wasn't reacting to my presence in the same way.
It seemed as if she had been waiting for it.