Click.
I put my phone away.
The flight attendant took my tray. She smiled. I didn't return it.
The window felt cold against my forehead.
Below, the clouds had thinned. Broken. Like cotton being pulled apart.
Through the gaps, I saw it.
Blue.
A blue so deep. So vast. It shimmered occasionally when the sun hit it. The ocean.
I had seen it inside Felius Castle. On Mars. The view from the Fifth Floor. But that was different. That was artificial. A living painting.
This… was real.
I pressed my face closer to the window. The cold seeped through the glass. I could see the tiny ripples on the water's surface far below, like wrinkles on a dark blue silk cloth.
No land. No ships. Nothing.
Just blue. And the sky.
I took something out of my jacket pocket. A tangled white object. Its cord was thin. Earphones. The ones I had left in the pocket of my old clothes before I changed.
I untangled the cord. It was a mess. I pulled it gently. One knot came loose. Then another.
