The moon hovers around another moon. A giant sea creature sleeps near the beach. A ship with a paddle wheel on both sides swam the seas quietly. The crystal lamp casts a shadow around them. Rosy red cheeks, but yet there was no sign of them getting drunk. The owner of the bar was no surprise it seems.

“You’re not out yet.”

“My tolerance is far stronger than this. Alcohol is poison. I can stand it.”

“Same.”

“Still,” he chewed on a cigar. “I didn’t think that you’d be able to defeat a strong being like that.”

“The elemental light helped.”

“Elemental light. That’s a phrase that I haven’t heard for a while. The world I was in used that term too. We used the elemental light to bring forth the power to bring down our enemies.”

“That reminds me of your story. You fought this overlord of demons and brought back the light. How did that happen? I thought the darkening was done by this world tree.”

“Indeed, it was done by the world tree. The Overlord of the Demons was our enemy. He was supposed to be the source. But when I repeated I realized that he was trying to tunnel to the different side of the world. My memories of this time are vague and I hardly remember anything other than stabbing a person who wanted to keep his people safe.”

“This person that seems to have done things. I am surprised that you were dragged by this woman.”

“You could say that I was just an extra to her feats. She has overturned expectations. She had done things that I would never dream of doing. I don’t know why she fights so hard. I don’t know what drives her to keep on moving forward.”

“The way you speak sounds like you do admire her.”

“I do admire her. She’s the strongest and most proud woman I’ve met. There are times where I have loathed her. Times where I moved on. And instances where I choose to love her. She was my wife.”

“Oh,” her eyes wide open. “No wonder. So you are saying to me that you are the husband of a powerful woman? Golly, how did you do it?”

“Took me thirty-years to defrost her heart. She’s a strong woman who had been through the worst. I don’t know if the power got to her or simply there was something that broke her along the way. I cannot imagine the pain she had been through. The last time I saw her she was taken away. I couldn’t do anything other than watch. I wanted to be gone. Be away from that home. Instead, I got myself messed up like this. We had two wonderful children and I couldn’t save them. I heard the truth that was she manipulating me. That was I only a tool that was used for purposes I don’t even know about. I was under her spell. That all my lives I had been living a lie. A barefaced lie that I had been too stupid to accept. Tell me, can you continue loving a woman who had tortured you because she could not believe that your intentions are true? You’d then remember how many times you have tried to kill her. How many times you did love her back. In the end, we keep finding each other. We keep hurting each other that it makes me wonder why I would go back to her.”

Her face was stone. “You must love her for you to do that. But I don’t think that such love would be healthy.”

“I know. I just wish that it wasn’t like this. That we had met in a better place in a better time.”

“Why confide in me?”

His eyes stared. “You’re still a stranger to me. Besides, it’s not every day that I can tell people that I came from another world. Feels like a load off my chest. Been feeling this since forever and right now I just want to get rid of it. Strange, I’m talking about this with the woman who just stabbed me in the chest. I guess things never do change.”

“I saw your face and I thought how awful it was for someone to barely even care about the stab in his chest. It was a strange experience. You’re so used to this that I wondered what would have truly happened if Lady Dalia didn’t stop us.”

“I would have taken another life. That’s it. To me you were hostile. I’ve live lives killing those who are hostile to me. I would be another day.”

“Do you even ask if there’s something wrong with you when you say that?”

“You’d get used to it. I hope that we won’t have any problems. If possible I don’t want to hurt another human being. It’s rare for me to have peace like this. Like a gift from the heavens itself. It would be a pleasure to enjoy this peace. I assure you once again that I am not someone who’d turned. Because I would have done so. But never, I will do so. It would be a dishonor the fallen. I carry their will and their voices. That is why I must keep walking the light. The view of the above dictates the smallness that I carry.”

She folded her arms. “I believe you. Strange, but I believe that you’d take your word seriously. Besides, I wouldn’t share a drink and a table to a man that I would kill. But if there is a chance of you turning into madness because of that power. Out of duty, I will not hesitate to put you down, Nolan. I wish that you would understand that. This is a world painstakingly cultivated by the hardship of my students. I will not allow anyone to taint it. They walk the light and are basked in it. I am their shadow and I hope you understand this.”

“I do,” he raised a cup. “Let us drink, Ashia. The night is deep and your gold deeper than mine!”

She raised a cup and met it with his cup.