Collette found herself laughing, imagining herself the only human in the world. What a frightening, lonely thought! So improbable too, but telling of what sort of world Simmaeri was from. Humanity was important to humanity. In the grand scheme of things, they were just another part of an endlessly expanding universe.

"I'm a human being, and I'm not the only one. There's millions, billions of us in the world. I'm not sure how many there are here now, but we've got a half million or so in total in the city of Exsilium. A city," she explained, "Is where human beings live together, and work together, and eat and sleep and create together. Can you see those weird looking rocks way off in the distance?"

She pointed back the way she'd come, toward the far off, perhaps impossible to see hints of civilization. She forgets from what heights one must stand to see the hint of anything that once was habitable.

"I'm not sure if you can see them from here."