Having just confessed to Zethar about her engagement to Aurelian through a tear in the fabric of time and space, Isolde felt herself go nearly faint from shame.


    “I see,” Zethar said after a long silence. “You are promised to him. Does that mean you love him?”


    “No,” Isolde said, shaking her head. “It’s our families. We have to be married to make their alliance official. We have been promised to one another since birth.”


    “Duty to one’s family is commendable,” Zethar said.


    “I used to think so too.”


    “And now?”


    “Now I wonder if it’s worth it. Sacrificing everything else. Adventure. Romance. Agency over one''s own destiny.”


    “What changed to make you feel this way?”


    “The portal,” Isolde said. “And meeting you.”


    “There must be some other way,” Zethar said. “Tell your family you refuse.”


    “I assure you, they won’t hear it,” Isolde said. “I’ve only ever been a collateral as far as they’re concerned. My father sold me off to pay a debt before I was even born. And of course, we can’t exactly afford to cross The Lunaris family.”


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    “Why is that?”


    “If you don’t know the Lunaris family, we must really be from different dimensions,” Isolde said with a dry laugh. She retrieved a cigarette from her sweater pocket and lit it before continuing.


    “They’re one of the most powerful families on Veth and their bloodline extends across multiple galaxies. No one dares to defy them. Those who have tried have all disappeared under mysterious circumstances.”


    She took a long drag of the cigarette and exhaled. “I hope you don’t mind if I smoke?”


    “Don’t mind at all,” Zethar said, fiddling with one of the energy meters to keep his hands busy. Watching the ember flare and fade with her inhale seemed to stir something unbidden within him, a feeling he hadn’t dared to name in years.


    “I quit before I came to X3,” he said. “Not enough room on my ship for a five-year supply of non-necessities and not a shop to be found around these parts. The smell of it does make me miss it though.”


    He paused, their eyes locking as the portal’s flickering steadied. Together, they watched a ribbon of smoke drift from Isolde’s world, cross the divide, and unfurl into Zethar’s.