The weather was so-so. It was sunny all day, but the evening was slightly foggy and drizzly.

  Luna wandered around the house.

  After her grandmother died, she thanked everyone who had been employed. The garden was wild. The path to the lake was overgrown. It didn’t bother her. Taj was a bit unhappy; well, it didn’t matter. All the rooms except her bedroom, with a simple bed and a few shelves, were closed. The bathroom, the kitchen, and the floor for exercises she maintained. And the library. But nothing more.

  Sporadically, she paid for cleaning; the machines were cheap. And food, she ordered delivery so she wouldn’t have to go alone to shops. Not to mention cooking; she couldn’t cook. Taj snorted many times. Now Luna snorted—when thinking about it, Taj was the perfect house… who? Husband? Wife?

  She laughed.

  In a second, she went back to being serious. She looked around. In general, she lived modestly. Taj didn’t need anything except her energy, and when he had it, he commented on her slacking off at training. Right.

  They didn’t need a lot of money.

  For the past four years, or even longer, they had lived peacefully. Her grandmother being dead, despite how it could sound, made Luna’s life peaceful. No screaming, hitting, or shaming. Just a silent house… no, not really. Taj was talking a lot. Luna smiled.

  They lived well, though deep inside she often felt scared.

  Although, she had progressed. With every year, every month, especially recently—she felt that finally she could get out of her box of fears and breathe.

  The meeting was scheduled, and Luna was awaiting her guests.

  Lukai wrote that he and his partner, her fiancé, had reached an agreement. Lukai had proposed an hour, confirmed the topics for their discussion, and that was it.

  They decided to meet at her house. Lukai was to arrive in a few minutes, her fiancé a bit later.

  Lukai described the topics. The first one was the alliance engagement, and that the three of them must clear it. Second, the technique: Lukai said her fiancé saw something she had done, and it inspired him so much that he needed to talk about it.

  He surely saw. That her fiancé was Silly… Luna snorted. She felt angry at him at that moment. She wasn’t sure what she would say when she saw him today. So soon.

  Just before Lukai was to arrive, Luna went back to the library.

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  She didn’t have many good memories connected to the house; her dad also didn’t like the place; he had told her more than once. But she took a look—to remember.

  That was all.

  Taj was in the library; he was lost in his thoughts. Today she charged him more; he was still blurry, though. But he said, when Luna finished giving energy to his Crystal, he said he started to feel what he didn’t want to feel for a long time.

  She knew what Taj meant. He explained it some time ago.

  They both were quite pitiful.

  “Taj?”

  “O?” He was surprised to hear her voice; he was deeply immersed in his mind.

  “They will soon come to talk. As you said, let’s see if they want to talk things over or if they will act hostile. All things are packed. The route we have also prepared, just in case. Taj?”

  Everything she said they had already discussed. It was more like Luna wanted to say it again, aloud. Taj nodded.

  She wanted to add something, but they heard someone approaching.

  “Luna, leave me projected here and go meet Lukai. If there is any danger, I will protect you. Being here in the library, the energy of the security layer here will cover my presence. Do not worry; I told you, they won’t spot me. And there are not many people with the skills to cross the barrier here, not to mention win with me. Relax, o, and Luna? Fix your hair; you forgot.”

  What Taj had said made her look at her hair. She truly forgot. Red strands were visible.

  “Right, right.” Luna used bits of her energy to change the color from her natural red to gray as she made her way to greet the guest.

  Lukai.

  When she opened the doors, he was there. Looking serious.

  They spent a few minutes walking around. She then proposed to make tea. He nodded.

  The weather—this was the topic for about two minutes. Luna tried to ask about some food-related things, like if there was something new on the OFF kitchens’ menu, but then she remembered he was never a fan.

  Lukai was always slow to warm, as they said. He needed time to start talking, to start sharing something about the reality around. Even more time he needed to talk about his emotions. They spent hours together in this kind of silence before he would open up. In the past, those moments when he said something more about himself were truly rare.

  Luna now thought that although they believed they knew each other, they didn’t really. Not to mention that she didn’t tell him the truth about herself. It was about basic things too—what food he truly liked, what he liked to read, and how he liked to spend his time when not working.

  Not like Silly, completely opposite. About Silly, she thought she knew a lot. Taj said she might be surprised but didn’t say anything more.

  Taj. He sometimes scared her, positively, with things he observed, guessed, or predicted. Luna thought it probably was because she wasn’t that smart. Who knew? Was it dual’s thing? For dual’s own sake, not to grasp their reality? To not feel too sad?

  Luna snorted, which made Lukai look at her.

  She felt she needed to say something.

  “Do you know each other for long?” she asked.

  “For long.” Lukai, as usual, said it concisely.

  “Longer than we know each other?”

  She was curious. Did they know each other when they were, let’s say, together? He never mentioned it then.

  “I knew you before I met Si,” Lukai answered.

  “Si? Really?” Luna asked. But it was her ignorance; she never asked about her alliance fiancé’s name.

  “It is his name,” Lukai said. He looked surprised that she didn’t know.

  Luna could have asked about it for two years, and she didn’t—how rude of her.

  “Right,” she slowly said. She was thinking that the whole situation was hilarious. “Right. And you communicated?”

  “It depends.” Lukai stopped for a moment.

  And then they heard a clatter. Luna ran straight to the library.