The words settled heavily between them. If this place really was the dimension where Noctis had imprisoned Elarin, then this was not some passing dream created by the strain of ascending to Manacode. It was something real, or close enough to real that the distinction stopped mattering. That alone would have been enough to unsettle him. The fact that Noctis was sitting beside him, speaking as if this meeting were somehow possible, only made the silence feel stranger.
For a moment Noel simply looked at him. The shock of seeing him again had not fully faded. He had accepted long ago that their last conversation would remain exactly that. Noctis had said he could not return to the world, and Noel had believed him. He still did. Which meant the obvious answer was the only one left. Noctis had not come back. Noel had come here.
His gaze lifted briefly toward the endless black sky before returning to the man beside him. "How does this work, Noctis?"
