Nolan Salvatore spreads his arms to fall on to the dunes. He landed with both feet planted firmly on the sand. He looked up and caught Aria. He settled her on the sand. She patted her robes, and drove her white lance on the sand, forming a web that catches all the traces of energy.

“Looks like we have to go there,” she pointed at the horizon.

Nolan frowned. “That’s far.”

“It is,” she shrugged. “But that’s short compared to the distance before. Not that it would bother a Walker.”

“I’ll carry you if you get tired,” Nolan said.

“Sure,” she smiled. “Not like you’d be able to do that. I do like seeing you walk with firmness.”

“A sand world,” he commented. “Never thought I’d want to walk a desert this big again. These floors are rather disturbing.”

“We are lost,” she said. “I do wish that the others were with us.”

“I do as well.”

Aria glanced sideways. “Sure you do, wouldn’t that be lovely? Beautiful girls, that would accompany you?”

Nolan sat on one knee. “I won’t lie. That would be rather sweet. Being surrounded by flowers.”

A frown escaped her. “Do you remember those noblewomen of the Salt Passing?”

“I do,” Nolan said.

“I was the one who told them to go away.”

Nolan almost fell. “That was ten years before you even recognize my existence.”

“Well, I didn’t want them to have you. Really,” she dipped her finger on the sand. “Besides, not like you wanted their attention. You do know that most of the Salt Passing women cuckolds their husbands more than anyone?”

“Is that fact?”

“It is,” said Aria. “I dully remember how most of them there were too busy fighting that they do not realize that their wives have a harem of pretty boys and young men. Though I believe that a hardened young man like you would have been smothered by those beauties. What joy would have been.”

“But I did not.”

“Yes, you didn’t. I was actually surprised by that. Hmm, though I just thought you preferred men.”

“Yeah, no.”

They journeyed the desert until they saw a transparent gateway leading down. This gateway was on top of an oasis with a pond and a few trees that created shade. Nolan sat on the shade alongside Aria. The two stared at this might desert of irregular peaks and hills of sands.

“I have always wanted to ask.”

“What?”

“Did you really not have a fetish regarding scarred women?”

“Can I evade this?”

“No, I am curious, that’s all. Please, why are you blushing like a maiden? It’s not like we have not done it.”

“Not in this body.”

“True, we didn’t have time after we had a truce.”

“We don’t have time, as always.”

“I do agree on that,” she said, carefully looking at her white lance. “But aren’t you lucky?”

“We both are.”

She stared at him. “Hmm, Indeed I do. Ah, I do prefer you when you are older.”

“That’s just cruel.”

“What can I do?” she said with a gentle smile. “You aged like fine wine.”

“So what do you think will be the world next?”

“I do hope that we have solid footing,” she commented. “I do not like swimming in an ocean filled with creatures. This is a blessing itself that none of our allies had to do this.”

“Do you miss them?”

“I do.”

“She,” her voice was caught. “Do you remember her?”

Nolan fixed his eyes on her. “You do know her then?”

“I saw you fight with her. She has been with you longer than we could. Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” he said, rubbing the back of his head. “The last time I saw her was before the conjunction of the worlds. She…I wouldn’t have to be here if it wasn’t for her. Tania, I might have forced her into an eternity of suffering.”

Aria twisted. “I would help you save her.”

“No,” he refused. “I brought nothing but suffering for her. But if there is a chance I would do anything for her.”

“I envy her.”

“No, you shouldn’t.”

Nolan became silent. His eyes staring at the bouncing heat of the desert. His ears picked up the voices of the infants. The smell of hot air, and the taste of sand on the tip of his tongue. Aria worked studied her lance quietly while speaking a language that melted runes into it.

“Fifty-years,” he said. “Ever since we entered the tower of nimrod. It has been that long already.”

He continued, “We have not aged a single year and I doubt we will with the thickness of this energy. You did teach me to cultivate my body for longevity and that I am not exactly even human anymore with this body. Hah, I never thought a building loving idiot like me would become someone like this. I do wonder what would have happened if I enrolled in that place without being transported here?”

“Was that world peaceful?”

“Too peaceful,” said Nolan. “I don’t know if a world like that would suit me. But I missed it.”

She knows what he was talking about. Nolan was sure that this Ciara had learned where he came from. How he was a foreigner that came to this bauble. As there are many planets in the vacuum of space there are many universes as well. Outside this universe should be the universe where he came from. He didn’t know how the main fragment did it, but can he even go back to the place where he belonged? No, he was far too weak, and he was fake of an inferior fragment.

He was a copy. He was a fake who had been reborn in a world that had been tangled and broken into many pieces. It was a chaotic world where the virtues and beliefs of the main fragment had given him strength. He would have broken if it wasn’t for the thoughts of Nolan Salvatore.

Inferior. A copy. He was all of that, and there was no mistaking it. He was someone who has no home even if he did find a way back. A cry of loneliness shook inside his chest.