Interlude

Cold wind brushed her face and spread her hair, making it fan out behind her. She grumbled under her breath as she ascended the many steps to the top of the mountain. Despite the subzero temperatures, she had not worn heavy clothes. Her pointed ears peeked out of her silvery hair as another gust of wind caused it to come undone and fan out behind her.

And neither had the person she had ascended to look for.

“I had a feeling I would find you here,” she complained with an annoyed sniff. “You like stargazing too much.”

“…It’s not a matter of liking or hating it. I’m simply compelled to look up at the night sky because it remains the same,” he said with a nonchalant shrug. “No matter the era. No matter the world.” He said the last sentence silently, but she still made it out. She closed the remaining distance between them and stood beside him.

Leona breathed in through her mouth.

Her younger brother’s sudden appearance hadn’t been unusual, but the state he had arrived in was. I