The courtyard fountain rattled whenever the wind caught its wooden wheel. Ning sat beside it with her calendar open on her knee. The follow-up scan was marked in two days, and the worker office had penciled in an afternoon meeting. She had not written a return date to Ashfall.
Yan stood on the other side of the fountain, pretending to study the carved fish at its center. He had been quiet since breakfast. When Ning looked up, he stopped tracing the fish’s chipped fin.
“Are you planning to return to Ashfall after the treatment?” he asked.
“I don’t know yet.”
The answer landed between them. Yan lowered himself onto the bench but left space between their shoulders.
“I hoped you’d come with me,” he said. “I don’t want to turn that into an order.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“I could still make it feel like one if I kept asking.”
