Ani Ildani

After the sabotage, night fell across the planet.

While waiting for rescue, Ani and Ethan sat by a campfire, where Ethan persuaded Ani to tell him the story of herself and Iona.

She did not look at him as she spoke. Her gaze stayed on the fire.

"We lived in Abkhazia. With our parents when the war started. Iona and I were practicing after school. I was training archery. Iona was training mixed martial arts."

A brief pause.

"I remember the first sound of a bomb. Everyone was running in panic. I found Iona. When we got outside, we saw our parents running toward us, trying to take us away. We went to the port. We wanted to escape by ship, but what we found there was a slaughterhouse. Bodies were floating in the water."

Ani stopped speaking. The fire continued. The sorrow in her eyes was very old. Not fresh grief but the kind that has been carried so long it has become part of the architecture.

Ethan watched her. Something moved through his face—the discomfort of someone who has asked for something and is beginning to understand what it costs. He could have redirected. He did not.

Ani continued.

"We met someone we knew. He told us soldiers were already at the border and that the best option was the Svaneti mountain pass. So we went. We took nothing with us. We only dressed warmly, but the cold was stronger than we expected. Father said we should wait for sunrise. He broke branches and lit a fire. He and our mother gave us their coats. We fell asleep from the warmth."

She paused. Longer this time.

"The next thing I remember is our mother waking us up. The fire was out. She told me and Iona that we had to keep walking, that we had to find a settlement and ask for help. I listened. We said goodbye."

Her hands pressed slightly together.

"Only later did I understand why our father didn't say goodbye. Mother told us he was sleeping, that he would hug us in the morning."

Ani's eyes filled. She became aware of it and her hand moved quickly to her face. The motion was fast. Matter-of-fact. She returned her gaze to the fire.

Across the fire, Ethan sat very still. The expression on his face had changed completely. His eyes were bright. He stared into the fire and did not trust himself to look at her.

He wanted to reach across the fire. He wanted to say something proportionate to what he had just heard. He understood that nothing proportionate existed.

"That's horrible."

He looked into the fire and let it be insufficient and said nothing more.

Ani continued.

"Hired soldiers were roaming around. We had to hide. Iona was little. He doesn't remember much. Eventually, we found shelter in a Svan tower. Our parents never came."

A brief pause. Something softened in her face.

"But Arthur did."

The faint smile was involuntary.

"As it turned out, the tower we were hiding in was a portal."

Ethan sat with this for a long time without speaking.

The fire moved between them. The two moons tracked their slow paths. The landscape remained exactly as it had been.

He turned to look at her.

"I'm so sorry, Ani. I had no idea something like this happened to you. I wouldn't have asked if I knew. Forgive me."

Ani turned to face him. She shook her head slightly—a small, clear negation.

"It's okay. A lot of time has passed. Arthur and Elizabeth raised me and Iona. Now that place is my home and my family. We have no one left on Earth."

Ethan's head tilted slightly.

"You never went back?"

"Yes. Arthur took us back. We buried our parents." A brief pause. "Iona and I go there often. Only to see them."

Ethan nodded slowly and looked back at the fire.

The flames moved. The moons moved. The dust on the plain drifted.

Then Ani's head turned toward him. Something had shifted in her expression—almost teasing.

"What about you? Do you have any horror stories from childhood?"

Ethan looked at her. A short breath left him—half laugh, half consideration. His eyes went briefly to the fire before returning.

"Well. Actually, I had quite a peaceful childhood. Apart from losing my only parent." He paused. "I had a quiet and chill life." His eyes found hers. "But you know what was the most stressful thing that happened to me?"

Ani's eyebrows rose slightly. Patient. Willing to play.

"What?"

"A video. Of a public execution. There was a girl, and—" He stopped. His jaw worked once. "Whatever. My friend showed it to me in school for whatever god-damned reason. I watched to the end."

His hands moved in his lap.

"I didn't sleep days after that. I couldn't digest it—couldn't accept the fact that this was happening to people. Feeling helpless. I played scenarios in my head of how I would help her. But there's nothing any of us could have done."

He was quiet for a moment.

"I still can't digest human-to-human cruelty.

I loved the color of the sun bouncing on the road toward my home. But days after I saw that video, even that color stopped being pleasant."

His voice dropped.

"It was grey."

Ani's eyes had been on his face throughout. Now, a shift moved through her expression.

"You killed that mutant today, Ethan."

Ethan's body registered the words before his face did—a brief, slight stiffening. He held her gaze for a moment.

He looked back at the fire.

"Yes." A pause. "To be honest, watching that video was harder than doing this today. That's probably because they aren't my kind. Tribalism at its best." His jaw moved. "I'm still ashamed of that. I don't like how animalistic I can be despite my efforts."

He turned to look at Ani. His expression had arrived somewhere unguarded. His eyes moved across her face—bracing for judgment.

What he found was not judgment.

Ani's eyes held him with an expression that was open and steady.

"You are a good man, Ethan. I am glad I am with you now."

She held his gaze.

"Trust me, I know that feeling. Never lose that. Just learn to hide that trauma in a corner somewhere in your head so it won't interfere in everyday life." She paused. "But hold on to that humanity. With all the force you have."

Ethan opened his mouth.

The sound reached them before anything else—the deep, building vibration of an engine descending. Both of them looked up.

The jet came down through the double moonlight. Before it had fully settled, a figure dropped from the open door, landed hard, and ran.

Iona covered the distance between them and Ani in seconds. His arms went around her with complete force. Ani's hands found his back and held on.

When he pulled back, his eyes moved to Ethan. He held out his arm.

The hug was brief and solid.

Iona stepped back.

"The portal was on the other side of the planet. I came as fast as I could."

On the way back, the jet's hum filled the silence around them.