"The chemistry is too different," Kael sighed, leaning as close as he dared. He could feel the cold "wrongness" of her region radiating off the rocks. "My father says back in the Old Days, people could walk until their feet gave out. They called it 'traveling.'"
"Sounds exhausting," Elara joked, though her eyes were sad. "I just want to know what the water feels like. Up there, it’s all ice and mist." "The chemistry is too different," Kael sighed, leaning
They sat exactly six inches apart, separated by the shimmer in the air—the . They called it 'traveling
Kael was a , built for the humid, oxygen-rich marshes of the River Delta. He spent his days harvesting glowing peat, staring at the jagged violet peaks of the Aether Highlands just five miles away. To him, they were as distant as the moon. Kael was a , built for the humid,
He had a "Border Friend," Elara. She was a High-Stepper from the peaks. Every Tuesday, they met at , the invisible line where the spongy moss of the Delta met the dry, obsidian shale of the Highlands.