There was something to be said for people who could look at the dawn cresting over the horizon and have a sense of new beginnings.

Beautiful. As beautiful as it was naive.

That was the problem with humans. They lived and died bound to one place in the cosmos. One fixed point, and everything else was only relative to them. The sun did not rise and fall, nor did the moon wax and wane, not for a being who saw it all from the outside.

From the stars.

Aaravos stood on the highest point of the spire, the northern lights dancing in the air around him. He breathed in fresh, cold air, eyes closed with a smile.

His company was in a much worse mood.

"I won't let you win." Callum grit his teeth, scarf wrapped around his neck and shoulders, hands stuck inside his jacket. He marched up to Aaravos, the platform under their feet, at the top of the world, only several paces long. It would have been scenic, gorgeous even, had his heart not been pounding a panicked tempo. Aaravos was still serene, back to Callum as Callum kept shouting. "I'll find a way! This isn't real! You're still trapped, and I don't care how many visions you send me!"

He had to spoil it, of course, by pointing out that it was a dream. The knowledge that it was all a dream did nothing to wake either of them up, however. It was adorable that Callum kept trying it every time.

Aaravos held his hands behind his back, pondering the sky. "Trapped? I thought you were all about freedom, my little Sky Mage."

Callum seethed. "You made your choices. You wrote your book of destiny already."

"Hm. You think I have no blank pages left? I agree. I know what's coming." Aaravos turned towards Callum, his graceful presence a force of its own. Callum struggled to not step back, to not yield his ground as Aaravos walked by him, leisurely pacing. "You're a clever human, aren't you?" His deep voice was tinged with Claudia's own playful cadence, something sinister and familiar in one. "I'm only pointing out that your perspective has to apply to both of us to be true, does it not? It's like a natural law.

"Either we're both free, or we're both trapped." Aaravos shrugged with a bemused smile. "It makes no difference to me how you think of it."

Callum hated playing these games, but when there was nothing else to do but make a move, he wound up indulging anyway. "Actually, it's really simple. I'm free, and you're trapped."

"You don't feel very free," commented Aaravos.

"I wonder why that is," snapped Callum.

Aaravos chuckled, spreading his arms wide before giving Callum a mocking bow. "Then do something freeing."

It could've just been what Aaravos wanted, but Callum didn't care.

He jumped off of the spire- the Starscraper, he was sure. Callum's words were lost in the wind as he fell, but the spell still worked, feathers and wings sprouting from his arms. Catching the wind under his wings, he soared upwards.

There were only two of them in this world. It wasn't a surprise when the hair on the back of Callum's neck stood up. Sweat cold against the breeze, he frantically looked everywhere for Aaravos only for Aaravos to appear below him, flying upside down so he could face Callum, broad wings speckled with starlight. Aaravos lounged as he flew, his grin a sharp contrast to Callum's panicked shriek. How was he even able to do that? Callum supposed it didn't matter in a dream.

"So, does it make a difference?" asked Aaravos. "You can throw all sorts of fits about it, yet the truth remains. This is a dream, you are with me, and your path is fixed."

Callum narrowed his eyes.

"Why are you so excited about playing along with destiny, huh?" Callum tried to fly higher but Aaravos easily matched him. Whatever. "Didn't destiny get you imprisoned and betrayed and everything else? Shouldn't you want to break out of it?"

"I am in tune with the forces of destiny, but you're right. We are all subjected to it." Aaravos spun upwards, showing off his aerial tricks before he leveled out next to Callum. "I know my place and my path. I am quite eager for the next steps of it."

His blood ran cold, but Callum tore his eyes away from Aaravos, fixed on the vague shapes of clouds below. "Since you like what you see, it's just fine, huh?"

Wind whistled by them, all quiet except for the sky enveloping them.

"It doesn't quite work like that," admitted Aaravos, voice softer and more serious than before.

"Huh?"

"I am in my own constellation, pulled in my own orbits. There are things that I obviously could not change."

That couldn't be right.

Callum tried to reason it out, the idea of either fighting against or going with the tide ultimately being the same path of destiny. "There are things we can't control," he said. "But we can control ourselves."

Aaravos laughed. "You know that isn't true."

Callum's body seized midflight. He screamed as Aaravos, just to prove a point, took over Callum's body, his every muscle and nerve alight with magic, forcing Callum to dive-

Callum bolted out of bed mid shriek, gasping for breath in a tangled mess of bedding. He collapsed back into his pillow, groaning. One of these days, he'd like to wake up without a headache and an adrenaline rush.

Legs shaking, he walked over to the window, taking in the sunrise and golden sky. It soothed his spirit, the fears of frigid dark skies banished for a little while. He could still feel some of Aaravos's presence linger on him and he brushed his coat off while making a face, as if that could help.

He knocked a book off his windowsill as Aaravos's voice mused in his head, not even letting Callum have his waking hours in peace.

How can you look at the sunrise and feel hope?

It sounded like a genuine question.

Callum didn't have to answer him, but the sincerity made him pause in his tracks. Did Aaravos not understand hope anymore? If he they were both trapped, both ancient being and child, star and sky, then how could Aaravos see anything else behind his blindfold?

"Because I am free," repeated Callum. He made his way back to the window, pushing it open, listening to the birds sing outside.

They both had wings, didn't they? "And so are you."

Just when Callum thought he wasn't going to get a reply, it came through.

Convince me.