The people that Paul has met here in this world who have been the kindest, the ones who have gotten closest to him, have all shared in an honesty he tells himself is rare in his own world. But when he thinks about it - when he lets himself think about it - that isn't entirely true. There were people who understood him, who knew how to reach across the gap between him and the rest of the world.

He sweeps the thought away like sand from a stone. Ezra is right about spirals.

"So at least they'll know where you are," he says, returning to the present, away from the shadows of a past yet unresolved, "Until you make your way back, in the flesh." A beat. "Which you will. I'm certain of it. When all this is over."