Nolan opened his eyes. He looked beside him and saw Ashia clinging to his arm. The blanket was warm, and on the background, he could hear the rain falling on the stone paving. He pulled the blanket off him and walked to the corner of the room. He dragged the bucket near the bed and pulled on the strings. Water came from these ‘strings’ that were conjured by him. The water fell on the tub and filled it.

The floor was strewn with clothes and wine bottles. Nolan gathered them all in one spot and pulled on Ashia’s cheeks. She grabbed hold of his hand and rubbed her eyes. She sat on the edge of the bed with a blanket barely clinging to her skin. She looked at the tub and back to Nolan. “Can you help me braid my hair back?”

“Sure,” Nolan nodded. She showed her back. Nolan took the cloth from the side of the bed and started wiping her back.

“This isn’t braiding my hair.”

“I know,” Nolan told her. “Besides, it would be best if I wipe you now before I braid your hair. That wine you got us was too heavy, and I know I can take poison well. What is that anyway?”

“Dragon’s Rum,” Ashia said. “I got it from Lovell who felt sorry. She saw me heading back to our room so she handed me the wine.”

“It’s rum, but you call it wine?” he asked.

“Indeed. The Dragons are very fond of this, and this one can even make dragons sleep. It is the drink of people like us who are unable to get drunk with normal wine.”

Nolan wiped her back and traced the cloth on her sides up to her armpits. She turned around without a thought and took the blanket off her bare chest. Nolan wiped her clavicle and rubbed her cheeks with the cloth. She stood up and let Nolan wipe her from the waist down, and sat down. Nolan fiddled with her hair and tied her braid into a bun. With that done she stood up with her hands on her waist.

“Come on, I’ll help you wipe your back,” she said.

Nolan turned around and showed his back to Ashia. She took the cloth from him and started washing his back. “I hope I didn’t scratch your back too much. It would be a shame to add these kinds of scars into your back. Some of them really don’t heal up.”

“It doesn’t. Not like that it bothers me. This kind of reminds me of the time where we had to bandage one another. I think we should stay off this dragon wine until then.”

“I don’t mind,” she told him. “You rub one, and I sometimes itch the ditch. Besides,” she wrapped her arms around him. “It has been years since I had a night with you. The last time we did was when we were on the river of nix where we had to wait for the storm to pass on the crystal desert. Even in the tower worlds, your fragment was so single-minded about saving the twins. Nolan, can you remember the memories?”

“I do,” he told her. “But the memories itself feels so real that it might as well be just another past that I have forgotten.”

“Don’t worry,” she said to him. “It’ll be fine now. The world isn’t as terrible as you think it might. At least this world.”

“What about the other nations? Kingdoms? Empires? They wouldn’t even try to make a move about this situation? Are there people abusing this system?”

She moved away from Nolan’s back and sat beside him. Water was evaporating from the surface of her skin. They were superhuman that could destroy an island or cut an entire hill with a stroke of their hand. Heating their bodies to this degree wasn’t something special to them.

“I gave you my memory of the under-world. No system is perfect and I made sure that hell and heaven exist in this world. I’ve closed the path, and no one could open it unless they want the laws of this very world to kill them. This is a close-off world, Nolan. A world where it is separated from the baubles, and outside this is a universe that expands infinitely. Audrey had made sure that this won’t be touched by any higher being.”

“Nothing is permanent, Ciara. If you and your students could create a law that does like then we need to assume that there will be individuals that could do the same.”

“I know, that’s why I made sure that even after two thousand years none would be able to touch upon this system. Once the spell lost its power then this world will become like what your original home is. A world that has no magic and power, only the natural sciences that embody it. By that time magic and laws of power will nothing more than tales spoken by the elders passed by mouth. I’ve given this world a thousand years, and I think that should be enough for them to forget about us. Forget about the laws that were cast, and it should be a reward for me. I planned to live my life on the island of Concordia, changed my name, and wait for the cycle of reincarnation. But a certain somebody has to change my plans, and here I am. Thankfully, it scars down below, and I don’t have to worry about red-stained sheets every time.”

Nolan squeezed her cheeks. “How about we dress up first before we talk further?”

“Agreed,” she stood and took her clothes from within her luggage. Nolan wore his clothes back on and buttoned his suit. He took a sniff of his suit and raised his shoulder for a second as if wishing that it won’t be that noticeable.

“You really need to pack more clothes than that,” she said. “I’m afraid that you won’t be fighting monsters from now on and please no more clearing of the monsters. I don’t want you destroying a plot of land accidentally.”

“Good idea,” Nolan said. “So, what’s the plan?”

“Stroll around?

Ashia beamed at him. Nolan raised a grin. Deep inside his heart, there was a wish that this would last forever.