That evening, Shu sat on the front steps outside his building with both forearms resting over his knees, looking like he could fall asleep sitting up if the world gave him five quiet minutes.
Raniel sat beside him and looked ahead for a bit, though her attention kept drifting to the invisible boundary around the block. She had already touched it earlier, got registered and walked through, yet the more she thought about it, the less normal any of this felt.
"By the way," she said at last, glancing at him from the side, "since humans can't just come into your Domain whenever they want, does that mean monsters can't either?"
He turned his head a little, clearly more tired than surprised by the question. "Yeah, same idea," he said, then dragged one hand down his face before adding the part she actually wanted. "The Domain blocks them first, and if they keep forcing it, they get shocked. For monsters, that usually means they die."
