“Because I’m cold,” Clarke answered. “Despite my illusions, this trenchcoat is real and it’s chilly in here. I’m still human organically.”

Hall hid the disappointed look from her face for a moment. She took a bite out of her sub sandwich, trying to maintain subtlety. She looked over at Clarke as he ate his own sandwich greedily, as if he hadn’t eaten such a good meal in days. He had already finished his salad, and the way he was going would likely go back for another sandwich.

“When was the last time you ate?” Hall asked. “You look like you’re starving.”

“Lunch, yesterday,” he answered simply. “I had to skip dinner last night to save your generator.”

“Oh, right,” Hall said, feeling instant guilt. “I’m very sorry for asking you to do that.”

“It’s fine,” he said. “I once went three days without food while I was wandering in the desert.”

“Three days?!” Hall asked, surprised. “What were you doing in the desert?”

“Exploring Australia,” Clarke said. “It was 1860 and I was traveling with a few gentlemen named Robert Burke and William Wills. At the time, I was learning to accept immortality after the death of my second wife, so I made an effort to learn all that I could. Exploration was an exciting study and many intellectuals involved themselves in it. It was good company and we had many intriguing philosophical discussions. When things became difficult, those talks were what kept us going.”

“So, what went wrong?” Hall asked. “You said you nearly starved to death.”

“We all learned something that trip,” I said. “Burke and Wills learned not to set their expectations too high. I learned to choose better traveling companions.”

“What does that mean?”

“Burke and Wills were inexperienced. I had assumed that my powers could help us whenever we needed, but it wasn’t nearly enough. You see, I can’t create food.”

“But, you can make guns and walls pop out of nowhere, right?”

“Those yes,” Clarke said. He set his hands on the table and conjured an apple between them. “I guess you could say I can make fruits, vegetables, meats, cakes, and whatever I’d like appear. However, they don’t have any nutrients. You could eat this apple, for example, but it would effectively be the same as biting air.”

“But I don’t get it,” Hall said. “Why can’t you create nutrients if you can create all these other things?”

“Because perpetual energy doesn’t work,” Clarke said simply. “I would literally be using my own energy to give myself energy.”

Hall nodded after a moment of though. “I guess that makes sense. So, is that what went wrong with your trip? You ran out of food?”

“Supplies in general, but I could replicate any tools we needed,” Clarke continued. When we got to the northern side of the continent, we realized that we couldn’t complete our mission and had to turn around. The problem was that we had at least ten weeks’ worth of marching to get back to the colony in Melbourne. We had supplies and food for five weeks.”