husband laughed, relieved. "I thought she'd have to go to the Fields. Will she be able to work?"
"In a couple weeks, yes. Don't push it."
"And you're sure you don't want any money?"
He shook his head again, grinning. "Come on. Fellow Nord, we take care of our own, right?"
He looked up at Rolf for support of his offhand comment, but found nothing but neutral blankness.
"Well, anyway, good luck. Feel free to text me if she doesn't heal. I'll try to send someone your way."
"Wow. We can't thank you enough."
All smiles at the praise, he nodded his way out, almost becoming embarrassed by the profuse thanks. The other families in the room murmured amongst themselves and watched him go.
"What was that about?" Elizabeth asked, happily surprised. "Since when don't you go for the money?"
"I dunno. It just felt like the right thing to say, after all that big talk earlier."
"The right thing to say, or the right thing to do?" she asked.
"Do. That's what I meant to say."
"Fair enough."
He bore a self-satisfied grin for several blocks. He wasn't sure which part had felt so great - doing good, or the profuse thanks for doing good - but he wasn't sure the difference mattered.
His spirits lifted even further as they finally approached the incredible complex of buildings he'd called home most of his life.
The Main Hub was less random than the rest of the Stonework, but had still grown into a strange patchwork of huge factories and labs according to rapidly changing needs over the last century. Myriad columns of steam and smoke hinted at the industries housed within.
Per tradition, the buildings were all kept their real colors, each reflecting the Unsetting Sun in shades of grey, orange, and brown. Each unique color came from a particular mine's materials, supplied from the Shield Mountains glowering on the western horizon. Even though the information was surely listed online like everything else in the world, he was proud that he could still name every single mine's particular color.
He'd been quite proud of himself when he'd managed to learn them all.
His smile widened as he thought of times past, matching each building to the right color and mining operation as the crowd's flow brought them inexorably closer.
"Guys. Have I ever told you about my nine brothers?"
To his left, Elizabeth looked up at him with a half-smirk. "At great length."
"I feel like I've got their lifelogs," Rolf commented. "But only the most embarrassing moments, stuck on permanent loop forever."
"Yeah, yeah," he countered both of them. "I just wanted to say, since this might be the last time the three of us are just like this, and just ourselves, and…" He scanned the bright blue sky overhead, trying to think of the words - but none came. "I just want you to know. I meant what I said. I'll be there for both of you like family, if you'll do the same for me."
He saw both their heart rates rise, although Rolf's quickly evened.
"Are you sure?" Elizabeth asked, keeping her eyes ahead, her tone careful.
He reflexively moved to touch her arm, but paused a heartbeat away from actual contact. He drew his hand back. "I know what it means to you." He turned. "And to you."
Without missing a single step in the crowd, Rolf turned his head and gazed up at him.
Og felt briefly as if his entire existence was under scrutiny, but he resisted the urge to smooth down his newly-showered hair.
For once, Rolf gave a sincere, direct answer. "Yes. I accept."
He faced forward again. He did not elaborate.
Og turned back to Elizabeth. "There's something here," he said, his hands open. "The three of us. We get along. We've had some great times. I'm not the same asshole from First Day back on the Atoll."
She still kept her gaze on the high walls and sea of backs before them. "I know. But first that pact, and now a family-promise? Are you just excited to be back home?"
Instead of offering excuses, he held out his hand in the old style, mirroring their meeting from First Day - before his social blunders and accidental insults.
Despite herself, she laughed. "That one will never get old." She gave a great approximation of a smile, but still subtly shied away from his offered hand. "Fine, yes, we'll see."
He grinned, pulling back his hand. "Good. Since you're family now, I'll start collecting embarrassing stories about you two immediately."
They both frowned in response, dismayed.
"Dad!" he shouted, waving at the hunched giant standing by the wide entrance to the Main Hub.
Framed by sheer grey stone, Ragni leaned on his tall steel cane and waved with his free arm. Weathered by age and Sun, sporting a red beard and grey-streaked brown curls, people often said he looked the spitting image of his son - but Og didn't give any credit to those claims.
"Eh, it's just my tenth son," the old man said languidly as they approached, pretending to keep scanning the crowd. "Well, I suppose I'm happy to see you, Mjögen."
Og pushed through the last passersby and gripped his father in a massive bear-hug. "Don't you kid me, old man! Two years is two years, there's no pretending!"
Squeezed to straining, Ragni nodded with no small effort. "I suppose I'll have to admit to realizing you were gone… about a week or two ago. Yep, needed a chore done, and you were nowhere to be found."
"Dad," he continued, pulling away. "You've spoken to them, but this is Elizabeth, and that's Rolf. Officially."
"I heard," the old man responded, eyeing them. "So you two are family now. That comes with chores, you know."
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, and Rolf froze, uniquely anxious. "Really?"
Ragni grinned, his scraggly beard emphasizing his mischievous grin.
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Great, there's two of them now."
Both Nord men laughed heartily, obviously considering themselves the funniest comedy team in existence.
"Dad, mind if I show them around? We'll meet you back for dinner."
"How's an hour?" Ragni asked, his eyes distant as he sorted through data. "I'll make my way over to the Railstop."
"We can do that -"
"No, I can walk just fine on my own."
"Seriously, Dad, we can -"
Ragni cut him off with a glare. "We've had this talk, son. Now's not the time."
Og nodded, his jaw set unhappily.
The old man smiled weakly, and then moved off. He leaned on his chrome crutch as he limped, walking with visible pain through the crowd.
His father gone, the young Nord stalked through crossing crowdflows and took a seat at the main quadrant's gapsquare. The wide space quietly opened onto the calm sea below, providing ventilation, access, and aesthetic.
Sitting on the edge, he gazed down, absently watching an Underman motor by on a small craft rather like the one that had brought them back to civilization.
"It's good to be back," he said to nobody in particular, his tone unconvincing.
Coming up, Elizabeth stood behind him in silence.
Rolf remained half-absent as always, his attention constantly running through nearby data, trends, and crowd patterns almost obsessively. Despite all that, he remained oblivious to the subtleties directly before him.
Og turned with the intent of snapping at him, coldly hell-bent on spitting unkind words at his strange friend for the first time ever, but his thoughtless words came out warm and smile-bound. "I think we can find a Night shift room for the three of us." He hesitated after, pleasantly relieved that he hadn't given in to his momentary darkness.
Elizabeth's brow tensed slightly, but she let the moment of sensed strangeness pass, opting for a barbed comment instead. "You sure you can't find a separate room for him?"
Rolf pretended not to hear her.
He shook his head, scanning the buildings, soon sighting the clay-colored East Residency. Leaving his perch at the gapsquare, he led them that direction, pushing through the crowds with a grim determinat
ion.
"So many Scientists," Rolf commented, accessing information constantly as they walked, noting the numerous satchels all around - the unofficial mark of a Scientist.
"Thousands," he replied, his eyes remaining ahead. "I grew up here, and I'm still a little intimidated by how much this place grows every year."
East Residency's arched entrance led into a series of hallways expertly carved to channel the Unsetting Sun. Each passage glowed with just enough subtle luminance to light their route. Each branching room somehow transitioned naturally into blessed darkness.
He made sure to glance back at Rolf when they first passed the rooms. His colleague bore an expression of disbelief. "You ever seen real darkness before?"
Rolf seemed unusually positive. A hint of a smile almost seemed to cross his features. "Well yeah, I've just never gotten to sleep in it…"
"You'll sleep like you wouldn't believe," he cheerfully countered, the last of his black mood finally passing. "And the cots are the best around!"
"Cots too?" Rolf peered into the passing rooms, trying to confirm for himself. "Wow. How much is this costing you, for all three of us?"
"Eh, don't worry about it. You're family now!"
Up circular flights of stone steps worn shallow in the middle, they came to the tenth and highest floor. Turning left, they carefully crept past Eve shift sleepers, making for the end of the hall. The last room greeted them with a slightly brighter welcome.
"A window?" Rolf whispered.
"A southern window," he murmured back. "We'll get to sit and watch the Rain Belt at least. You can just see it from the higher buildings in the Hub, I remember. It's really pretty."
Three rows of cots stacked three high lined the room rather tightly, barely