William worked through coordination drills with Thomas, who was tentative at first and then, gradually, less tentative — the specific recovery of someone whose body remembered how to do something even while their mind was still managing the memory of why they'd stopped trusting it.
By the end of the two hours, Thomas had run three full coordination sequences without hesitation.
"Better," Seraphina told him, with the specific quality of someone whose assessments were accurate enough that "better" carried real weight.
"It felt better," Thomas said. "Less like managing something and more like just — doing it."
"That's the actual recovery," Sara said, from nearby. "Not when the bad memory goes away. When it stops being the loudest thing in the room."
Thomas looked at her.
"I've been reading," Sara said, slightly self-conscious. "About this. Since the expedition. I wanted to understand it properly."
"Thank you," Thomas said. Simply.
