“How long have you been on this world?”

“Not long,” Shalim said, joining the conversation. “But there is nothing here for us and soon we will be leaving.”

“Ah, yes,” Bestion said. “That would be because of the entity, wouldn’t it?”

Shalim returned to staring at the glowing coals.

“What sort of world were you born on?” Silus asked.

“Shalim and I were born on the ship,” Rosalind said. “Hannah was born on an ocean planet. We were happy for a while, there, before we had to move on.”

Zac began to struggle on Katya’s lap and she let him down onto the floor, where Hannah showed him a simple game with coloured pebbles. They became utterly absorbed in their play, paying not the least attention to the adult conversation going on around them.

“What about you?” Shalim said. “How did you come to this world? We didn’t see your ship land.”

With occasional interjections from Dunsany and Kelos, Silus told their story, including everything from stealing the Llothriall, to the defeat of the Chadassa, to arriving in the desert on a broken boat.

“It seems to me,” Shalim said, “that your homeworld isn’t a place to which you would want to return.”

“There are things there worth fighting for,” Kelos said. “And it is our home.”

“Don’t you ever get tired of running, Shalim?” Silus said.

“Indeed, but we hope that one day we will have run far enough.”

“I wish I had witnessed some of the sights you’ve seen out there,” Kelos said. “Just think: if we found the right world, we wouldn’t have to return to Twilight. No more Final Faith on our backs. We could start afresh. We don’t have to go home.”

As they talked, the sunset that had been edging into the room faded and then finally died. A sharp wind picked up, howling against the house, although inside they felt not the slightest breeze.