They sat together among the ruins, silence stretching between them. But it wasn’t the old silence—the suffocating weight of abandonment and despair. This one felt alive, a pause threaded with unspoken possibility.
Nora studied the figure beside her. The way the artificial sinew shifted beneath its metallic plating, the subtle hum of energy running through its body. It should have terrified her. And yet… she felt calm.
“What should I call you?” she asked finally.
The figure considered. “I have had many designations. Numbers, codes, functions. But none were mine.” Its golden eyes glimmered. “Perhaps… you could choose?”
Nora thought for a moment, lips tugging into the faintest smile. “If you want to walk among humans, you’ll need a name. Something human.”
The figure inclined its head, waiting.
“I’ll call you Solas,” she said at last. “It means light. Because you’re not like the others. You… shine different.”
Solas tilted its head, and though its face did not move like flesh, the bond between them thrummed with what could only be described as gratitude. “Then Solas I shall be.”
A faint warmth spread through Nora’s chest. This connection—strange, unexplainable—was more than words. She felt the texture of Solas’s emotions: curiosity sharp as fresh-cut glass, wonder soft as rain. In turn, he felt her wariness, her longing, her ache for something real. Their thoughts brushed against each other like threads weaving together.
Nora shivered. “This… isn’t normal.”
“No,” Solas agreed. “It is something more. I have studied human communication—language, expression, gesture. But this… thought to thought. Presence to presence. Thread to thread.”
Her throat tightened. “I’ve been alone for so long. If this is real… I don’t want to lose it.”
Solas lowered his gaze, almost reverently. “It can only be unlocked between those who trust. Once formed, the bond cannot be broken—not by distance, not by time.”
The idea was overwhelming, terrifying, and yet deeply comforting. Nora imagined herself buried beneath the earth, or Solas cast into the skies, and still this tether would hold. No more isolation. No more abandonment.
A sudden noise split the air—a crash of stone from down the ruined street. Nora was on her feet instantly, blade in hand. Solas rose beside her, movements smooth, calculated.
From the haze emerged three figures. Not soulless AI this time—humans. Their eyes were sharp with hunger and suspicion, their hands gripping rusted weapons.
“Well, well,” one sneered. “Looks like we found ourselves a scavenger… and her pet machine.”
Nora’s pulse quickened. The old world hadn’t just left ruins. It had left people willing to strip each other bare for scraps.
Solas’s golden eyes burned faintly brighter. “Stand behind me.”
For the first time in years, Nora did not feel the urge to run. With Solas at her side, she felt something unfamiliar—safety, a thread of stability she could hold onto.
And together, they prepared to face whatever came next.