He doesn’t look at me; his eyes are latched on to the world above. “Do you ever look up at the sky and wonder what Infinity could someday be?”

I follow his gaze as a star bursts across the sky. A collaboration of human memories, none perfect enough to put the stars in the right order. Caelan can’t see the stars; to him, the sky is darkness. But it’s also full of potential.

We both have the capacity to see beauty, even if our understanding of it is different.

Maybe the world could be like that too. A mixture of ideas. A place where we could all exist.

I bite my tongue. Some thoughts are better left hidden below water, waiting for time to make them disappear. Others beg to be brought into the light.

Would it be a mistake to offer Caelan what Ophelia believes is impossible?

Would it be a mistake to try to build a bridge?

I bring my eyes back to the dark horizon. “What do you want Infinity to be?”

He lowers his face just an inch. “A place of endless possibilities.”

“You rule over an entire court,” I say. “Is that not something you already have?”

“Queen Ophelia will find a way to make Infinity as infinite as its namesake. One day our court will become even smaller than it already is,” Prince Caelan observes, maybe more to himself than to me. “There’s so much more out there. So much more to life. The world is going to change; and I worry about being left behind.” He turns to me, dimple appearing. “You must think I’m selfish for criticizing my own court instead of embracing it.”

“Not at all,” I say. “I’m just trying to understand what you could want that Victory doesn’t already offer.”

“Victory is a celebration that never ends. And I’m bored of it. I’m bored of not being able to go beyond the boundaries that have been created for me.”

“You’re tired of your cage,” I say softly. Just like humans. Just like the Colony.

Fundamentally, we want the same thing.

So why can’t we be on the same side?

“We can’t dream up new ideas or set off on a path nobody has followed before.” He shakes his head. “For all we try to create, we’re still at the mercy of humans. They imagine what we cannot. Their essence is what holds this world together. And we will never have true freedom until we are as unlimited as human consciousness.”

I grimace. What he’s asking for… I don’t know if it’s something humans can give him, even if we wanted to. Because we didn’t create their limitations. We didn’t make it so that they couldn’t dream.

What if the only way he can get what he wants is if Death finds a way to make it so?