“I don’t know in calendar count. Very far.” He looked past them both, seeing red light over black water. “The Earth was still there. The sea, some life, almost no motion. No structures. No people. No towers. No system. Just a dying shore under a sun that was nearly done.”

The room held that image and did not know what to do with it.

Jonas was the one who broke first. “So that’s your consolation? That none of it lasts?”

Amara said, “No.” Elias’s mouth had gone dry. “That was the point. It doesn’t get forgiven by time. It only ends.”

Amara leaned forward, forearms on her knees. “And then you returned. Explain the return window. Exactly. Do not skip the machine failure because you are ashamed of it.”

He almost laughed. There was no ease in it. “I’m ashamed of several things. You’ll need to narrow it.”

Amara said, “Niall for a start.”

The name struck clean. Jonas looked away at once. Amara did not.

“You want precision,” Elias said. “Fine. The brake lagged under occupied transit. Reentry authority slipped after delay. Larger mass failed. One rider only in the clean window. Mara stayed behind because if she didn’t, neither of us came back.”

Amara held his gaze. “And you left her there.”

His fingers closed on empty air where the flowers had been. “She made the choice.”

“That has never stopped you from being responsible for the field around it.” Amara’s voice stayed even, which made it land harder. “Niall trusted your timing. He is dead. If this account is true, a woman named Mara may now be trapped in a breach because you needed one more answer.”