As the sun set, Kael stood up, his joints aching for the humidity of the deep marsh. "Same time next week?"
Kael was a , built for the humid, oxygen-rich marshes of the River Delta. He spent his days harvesting glowing peat, staring at the jagged violet peaks of the Aether Highlands just five miles away. To him, they were as distant as the moon. As the sun set, Kael stood up, his
He had a "Border Friend," Elara. She was a High-Stepper from the peaks. Every Tuesday, they met at , the invisible line where the spongy moss of the Delta met the dry, obsidian shale of the Highlands. To him, they were as distant as the moon
For an hour, they sat in silence—two souls sharing a horizon they could never cross. They were the ultimate neighbors, forever divided by the very earth that gave them life. Every Tuesday, they met at , the invisible
They sat exactly six inches apart, separated by the shimmer in the air—the .
"I wouldn't be anywhere else," Elara replied, already beginning her long climb back into the clouds. "I literally can't."