Neo stayed quiet longer than he should have, his shirt still off, the last trace of cold from the sensors clinging to his skin while Cedric and Elara waited across from him. He had gone into the room expecting pressure from the start, some polite version of a trap, the kind where adults smiled while deciding how much they could take from him before he noticed. That feeling had not vanished, but it had changed shape. Cedric had asked what he needed to ask. Elara had measured what mattered. Neither had pushed once he drew a line. That alone had already moved them away from the ugly picture he had built in his head.
He let out a breath through his nose and spoke at last. "I don't know what the other survivors told you, but I'll give you my version from the beginning."
