“The world ended and he had the opportunity to make it make sense again. There was always a gap between him and us. He knew you as Jack, and we remember you as Jacob. To him, you were a distant piece of his past and a variable in how he viewed the world. To us, you, Jacob, feel like you were our friend just a short while ago. We asked why he did what he did, setting up the economy, helping. He described it as satisfying, like pressure washing a deck or finishing a puzzle. The outcome is inevitable, it’s steady improvement of the world around you. He got to do it with someone he loved, someone amazing, beautiful, smart, and ambitious. Who made him a more effective person.”

The man raised his face skyward, staring up at the sky, where the near-midday sun was just peeking over the edge of the rooftop, past the overcast sky that had never quite healed from Scion’s attack.

“He died. Deck unfinished, puzzle still missing its pieces and waiting for someone to pick up where he left off. His story incomplete. My brothers are intent on following after him. I’m not, and I don’t know why.”

The man continued to stare at the sun, to the point he would be damaging his eyes if that was even possible.

“Do I have to keep doing this?” he asked, raising his voice.

“You seem to be getting a lot off your chest,” Sveta told him.

“I’m talking to you more than to him,” he said. He turned two hundred and sixty degrees, and looked up at the girl in her long coat that was dyed with what looked like watercolor blots, the arms that stuck out of the voluminous coat sleeves were formed of braided bands of flesh. Her hair had grown long, because it wasn’t a wig anymore, with a colorful thread braided into it.

“Do you really want to head back?” she asked him.

“Yes,” he said, with some emphasis. “I apologize for making you come this far.”

“Don’t be so formal, Five,” she told him. She gripped one part of the brickwork hand and extended her arm to lower herself to the ground. “Try to find your own voice.”

“I’m sorry. You must be annoyed I dragged you halfway across the continent to stay for less than fifteen minutes.”

“A little bit,” she said, “but I do like traveling. And I’m glad you gave it a try. I think you’d regret it if you’d missed the opportunity to say something or see him.”

“I’m not sure I would.”

“You said you regretted a lot of things. In those moments, I don’t think you thought you would.”

He nodded at that, considering it.