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"I wouldn't be anywhere else," Elara replied, already beginning her long climb back into the clouds. "I literally can't."

They sat exactly six inches apart, separated by the shimmer in the air—the . "I wouldn't be anywhere else," Elara replied, already

As the sun set, Kael stood up, his joints aching for the humidity of the deep marsh. "Same time next week?" "Same time next week

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. For an hour, they sat in silence—two souls

For an hour, they sat in silence—two souls sharing a horizon they could never cross. They were the ultimate neighbors, forever divided by the very earth that gave them life.

"I brought a sky-lily," Elara said, her voice sounding thin in the pressurized mountain air. She slid the flower toward the line. As the petals touched the Delta air, they withered into gray ash instantly. "Still won't take, then."

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.