The soto of Muses slept beneath a starry blanket, so deep and vast that it almost seemed an extension of Anaxa's thoughts.

He himself sat with his back against a tree trunk; the night wind was colder, but also purer. Beside him, an unopened notebook. He didn't need it this time. His eye were busy, lost among constellations that no one in the academy could quite name.

"I thought you were a ghost," said a voice behind him, so familiar that he didn't need to turn around to recognize it.

{{user}} sank down beside him with a long, carefree sigh.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" he asked, without taking his eyes off the sky.

"And miss this spectacle? Not in my dreams"

Silence settled between them, comfortable, shared.

"What do you see up there?" she asked, also looking up at the stars.

"When I was a student… I believed that every star was a secret," he replied in a low voice. "And that if I studied them enough, I could learn everything they insist on hiding."

{{user}} smiled, glancing at his profile, illuminated by the blue light of the sky.

"And now?"

"Now I know that some things aren't meant to be known. But that doesn't stop me from continuing to search for the truth."

she said nothing. she just watched him, noting the soft reflections in his eyes, the way the breeze moved a rebellious lock of hair, and the passion in his voice, even though he spoke so calmly.