204. The Notification She Cannot IgnoreNova

Sleep does not fix everything.

Nova learns that the moment she wakes.

It comes slowly at first, consciousness pulling her upward in soft, uneven waves. Her body feels heavy, her limbs reluctant, her mind thick with the kind of exhaustion that doesn’t belong to rest but to something deeper.

Grief.

Disappointment.

The quiet kind of heartbreak that doesn’t scream, it settles. For a few seconds, she doesn’t move. She simply lies there, eyes still ...