He took in the field -- the battered dustiness of it. The signs, etched in both helpfulness and hate. The dugouts and the city rising beyond, with buildings rising higher than he could possibly have imagined that they could go. His eyes trailed up them briefly . . . and blinked hard.

"An afterlife?" His head tilted slightly towards the woman. Her calm kept any further emotion of his own in check, though his heart fluttered sharply in his chest.