Snow fell outside the window. Not heavily—small flakes, like someone tearing cotton apart in the sky.
The glow of the charcoal brazier shone on Saina's face, filling her wrinkles with pale golden shadows, one after another. She had grown terribly thin; the joints on the backs of her hands protruded like old tree roots.
Su Li sat on the edge of the bed, cupping her hand in his palms.
Saina's eyes were half-open, her gaze drifting toward the window. She was unusually lucid tonight, and the dark-blue sky beyond the glass reflected in her pupils.
"Those..."
Her voice was like scraps of paper fluttering in the wind, so soft it was about to scatter away.
"What exactly is beyond those stars?"
Su Li followed her gaze outside. Snowflakes clung to the windowpane and slid down, melting into fleeting trails of water between starlight and firelight.
He considered it.
"Many worlds."
Saina's fingers moved in his palm. "Like this one?"
"Different." Su Li lowered his head to look at her. "Every one of them is different. Some are hot, some are cold. In some places, people can fly. In some places, the seawater is sweet."
The corner of Saina's mouth curved upward. The arc was slight, but Su Li saw it.
"You're lying."
"I'm not."
"How could seawater possibly be sweet?" A faint laugh escaped Saina's throat, like a bubble bursting. "You made that up."
Su Li did not answer. His eyes remained lowered as he looked at her face, at the marks of wrinkles layered upon wrinkles. He still remembered what she had looked like at eighteen, one hundred and thirty years ago: a round face, eyes not large but bright, and when she smiled, her entire face glowed.
Now all that light had been tucked beneath her wrinkles, hidden