Dust and Dawn

Vesper woke up.

The cabin was a wreck, but the sun—the real sun—was rising over the horizon. The violet sky was fading to a soft, morning gold.

She sat up. She touched her shoulder. No wound. She touched her face. The skin was smooth. The blue lines were gone.

Her head was quiet. It was the silence she had wanted for weeks. It felt like a tomb.

"You idiot," she sobbed, curling into a ball in the pilot’s seat. "You stupid, sacrificial idiot. You left me."

She wept for the God she had hated, for the Child she had pitied, and for the Man she had... trusted.

"I didn't leave."

The voice was rough. Dry. Physical.

Vesper froze. She lifted her head.

Sitting in the passenger seat, amidst the broken glass and scrap, was a man.

He was naked, covered in dust, shivering in the morning chill. He looked exactly like the avatar from her dreams—dark hair, sharp features, eyes that held the weight of centuries. But he wasn't glowing. He wasn't translucent.

He was solid.

He looked at his hands, turning them over, watching the dust settle on his skin. He took a breath, his chest rising and falling.

"Breathing is... tedious," he rasped. He looked at Vesper. His eyes were human. Just brown. No blue fire.

"Aion?" Vesper whispered.

He smiled. It was a crooked, unsure smile. "Just Aion. The Sovereign is gone. The Child is at peace. I... spent the rest."

"You spent your godhood," Vesper said, moving toward him, terrified he might disappear if she blinked. "You’re mortal."

"I am," he said. He shivered again. "And I am very cold. Is it always this cold?"

Vesper laughed. It was a jagged, hysterical sound, but it was real. She pulled off her heavy leather coat and wrapped it around his shoulders.

"Yeah," she said, her hands lingering on his arms. He was warm. "But you get used to it."

Aion pulled the coat tight, looking out at the endless desert. "I have no power, Vesper. I cannot stop time. I cannot heal you again. I am... ordinary."

Vesper climbed back into the driver’s seat. She hotwired the ignition, bypassing the smashed console. *The Crawler* roared to life, battered but functional.

"Ordinary is good," Vesper said, glancing at him. "I'm an expert on ordinary."

She put the vehicle in gear.

"Where are we going?" Aion asked, watching her with a look of total, trusting reliance.

Vesper drove them out of the canyon, away from the Temple, toward the rising sun.

"Anywhere we want," she said. "We've got time."