“Yes, but you are—”

“—meant to be here as your companion, and what people choose to think about that is not relevant.” He lowered his voice and spoke with more seriousness. “We are not more or less than they are. We are different and rare, human and undying. Their expectations should not, cannot limit us.”

She smiled and said, “Years from now, when sun and stress have weathered your human skin to a wiser mask, you will meet my younger self in another place. In memory of that younger Miranda and the patience you showed in dealing with her, I will not quarrel with you now. Stay under whatever name and on whatever terms please you.”

Chance picked up his cup and raised it in toast. “Good. Let us observe and experiment and see what we are made of. To a hundred years, or a thousand, or whatever may be given.”

Miranda curved her hand around an imaginary glass and touched it to his cup. “To us.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen Lord has been a physics teacher, diplomat, part-time soldier, and academic. She is now a writer and research consultant, BSc, MSc, MPhil, PhD. Her novella Redemption in Indigo won the Frank Collymore Literary Award and the William L. Crawford Award, among others. Her novel The Best of All Possible Worlds was published internationally, and won the Frank Collymore Literary Award, RT Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, and Locus Awards Best Science Fiction Novel. She has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer.

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