Caitlyn. [He squeezes her hand folded into his, his tongue pacing a moment behind his mind—]

—I thought I was alone, [amid a sea of white gowns,] I thought I lost my mind. [But the nightmare that played prelude had been nebulous. And the bite of the cold, the burn of chill in his lungs, the saltine slick that stuck to his skin after punching his way into that geodic cave — all of that renders crisply in his brain.

This was no mere nightmare.]

Wherever this is, we have to keep moving forward. [His fingers keep clasped around hers, unwilling to let go.]