Noah looked over the map a while longer. "You've told me where the True Lifeforms live. Where the Primevals live. Where the challenges are, where the road goes, what I get at the end of it."
He turned his gaze from the map to her.
"But you yourself and your brother..."
Ryaenara's smile did not move.
"For now, until you are strong enough, I'm simply your guide as I will do what I can not to get in the way of your adversity," she said lightly. "Guides stand off the map. That's what makes them useful."
Noah nodded at the field of singularities.
For a moment the temple was quiet, and the millions of singularities burned between the two seas, and Ryaenara looked at him with an expression that had stopped being loose.
"The road I've shown you is real," she said finally. "Every word of it. The Dimensions, the Anchors, the challenge culture, the way to Those Who Remain."
