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from the Dark Woods, and there are all kinds of things there . . .”
    “The Dark Woods?”
    “Yes. You probably know them as the Western Woods. You might have passed them on the way here. It’s not a good place to be.”
    At that moment, the women came out of the tent, and Blaise decided against pursuing the subject further, in order to avoid scaring Maya and Esther.
    Maya waved in their direction. “Hey Kostya,” she yelled. “Do you want us to cook? We can make something for you.”
    Kostya’s face brightened at the prospect. “Yes,” he yelled back, and walked over to Maya to help her set up.
    Leaving Maya and Esther to cook, Gala approached Blaise. When she was next to him, she sat down on the grass, hugging her knees, and looked up at the sky. Blaise sat down next to her, wanting her company.
    For a moment they just sat there in silence, but then Blaise reached out and took Gala’s hand. Her pale skin seemed to glow in the moonlight, her hair like a silvery veil streaming down her back. With the main camp some distance away, it was as though they were alone, with just the starry sky above their heads.
    Gala’s thoughts seemed to be along the same lines. “I remember reading in your books about the stars,” she said, her gaze locked on the sky. “They’re beautiful.”
    “Yes,” Blaise said. “They are like our sun, only far away.”
    “That’s what the books said.” Gala glanced at him. “How the stars are giant furnaces of unimaginable power, and how they are part of bigger arrangements called galaxies, which are part of an even bigger collection that is the universe.”
    “I was never into astronomy,” Blaise admitted, “but you make it sound rather poetic.”
    “Do you think the universe is infinite, the way Lenard the Great believed?”
    “It’s hard to grasp something like that—the concept of true infinity,” Blaise said honestly, “but I can’t imagine an end to the universe, a true nothing.”
    “I can,” Gala said, turning her attention back to the night sky. “‘Nothing’ is the best way I can describe how my mind felt in the Spell Realm, before I had that first glimpse of awareness.”
    Blaise caught his breath. Sometimes he almost forgot that Gala had experienced unimaginable things. For a few moments, he tried to picture this nothingness, but then his thoughts turned back to their original discussion. “I would rather think that the universe out there is limitless,” he said. “It seems . . . more pleasant that way.”
    “If it is limitless, then it would mean that, statistically, there are other worlds just like this one out there, even an infinite amount of them, with a Blaise and Gala like us,” she said thoughtfully. “Perhaps even with a Blaise and Gala who are having this conversation.”
    That was an idea Blaise had never considered. His mind boggled at the thought. “In that case, I hope the universe is finite,” he said after pondering that radical concept for a minute. “I don’t like the idea of having other versions of me out there . . . because then there might be a version that had not made you .”
    Gala smiled at him. “Well, as long as this version made me, I’m content,” she said softly. “Either way, even if the universe is finite, it’s probably unimaginably immense.” And falling silent, she looked up at the stars again.
    “I am not surprised you enjoy thinking about these questions,” Blaise said after a while. Putting his arm around her shoulders, he pulled her closer. “If anyone’s mind can grasp this immensity, it would be yours.”
    She leaned into his embrace. “Do you think the Spell Realm is part of this universe?”
    “I don’t know,” Blaise said slowly. “The sorcerers of the Enlightenment theorized that the Spell Realm is truly different, not connected to our world in any way. That it exists independently, and that if it ceased to exist, our universe would remain untouched. We would just lose our ability