Leon recognized the fluctuation immediately.
Xyra materialized beside him, her silver hair drifting in the absence of any wind, and stood looking at the destruction around them without speaking. Her gaze moved across the crater first — several kilometers wide, the glass field transformed beyond recognition — then to the scattered evidence of every failed attempt he'd made across the past subjective day, and finally to the casing sitting undamaged at the crater's center.
She said nothing.
Leon stood beside her and felt the silence become increasingly uncomfortable with each passing second.
Why is she here, he thought. And why is she just staring.
He lasted approximately thirty seconds before he couldn't stand it anymore.
"Why are you here?" he asked. "And why are you looking at me like that?"
She didn't answer the question. Instead she looked at him directly and said: "Give me your hand."
