Nova stood before the tube, watching the child whose presence seemed at once innocent and impossibly ancient.
The faint pulse of aether in the room ebbed and flowed around them.
He placed his hand back on the glass and asked calmly,
"Do you want to come with me?"
The child blinked slowly, as if it had to think through the weight of the question. A faint sigh left its lips before it spoke in a flat, lifeless tone.
"There's no way for me to leave. Even if you freed this body… without the ship of life, I won't last. My existence depends on the aether supply this place provides. Outside, I would fade."
Nova was quiet for a moment. Then, with a spark of curiosity, he leaned in.
"Hypothetically… if you could escape, and do anything you wanted—what would you do?"
That made the child pause.
The blankness in its eyes shifted. Faint emotion began to stir. Its eyes narrowed ever so slightly before something fierce—something raw—ignited inside them.
