Xavier looked at the girl for a long moment before speaking again.
"You clearly know more than I do," he said. "So explain everything properly."
She frowned at him, wiping the remaining moisture from her face with the back of her hand. "I already told you everything I know."
"No," he replied. "You told me fragments. I want the whole thing."
"That is the whole thing," she said, sounding irritated. "This is where the Golden Lineage comes when they die. They stay. They face what they must. They let go. They take the river. They pass on. That's it."
Xavier watched her carefully.
"Then why were you crying?" he asked, "And who are you?"
She hesitated before answering.
"My name is Aurethiel," she said. The name carried weight, even from her. "And I was crying because I am alone."
He did not comment on that.
"Xavier," he said instead. "Xavier Eleazar Zenith."
She looked at him more closely when he said his full name.
"Are you not from the Golden Heaven?" she asked.
