Nate looked at the pound coin on the bench, then back up at Saffie.

“Why do you want me to pick it up?”

Saffie took a deep breath.

“Please, Nate. Just pick up the coin.”

As she waited for Nate to reach out for it, she tried to ration with herself in her own mind. Nate had to be real. He had interacted with people, real people, she was sure of it. Or was she?

She nearly sighed with relief when she remembered he had spoken to her parents, then felt a wave of nausea when she realised he hadn’t. On the evening she had introduced them to Nate, they had simply glared at him. Could the reason have been that there had been nobody there? Saffie might have been introducing them to what they could only have assumed was another imaginary friend, like the ones she used to introduce them to when she was a child. Was that why her parents had been so disgusted by the idea of Nate being her friend? Was that why they had insisted she needed a ‘proper’ friend? Not meaning someone respectable, but someone who wasn’t imaginary?

Saffie’s mind was racing. She desperately tried to think of other situations she and Nate had been in together. When she had been at the Warrior’s Guild with him? Everyone there had been in Overworld. The multiple times they had been inside the Alchemist’s Guild? Everyone there had been in Overworld. Jade’s restaurant? At least all of the staff had been in Overworld, and there had been no reason for Nate to interact with customers.

As much as Saffie tried, she couldn’t think of a situation where Nate had interacted with anyone who wasn’t in the game, even during their entire confrontation with Jade and her followers on the roof of the Trellis. Was this why Nate had been able to break free of Jade’s control? Because he wasn’t technically a real player?

“Nate,” she said, more firmly. “I’m not messing around. I need you to pick up that coin.”

But Nate just gave her an incredulous look.

“Saff, what’s gotten into you?”

She needed to try something else.

“Tell me about your parents,” she said.

Nate laughed, looking even more confused.

“My parents? What do they have to do with anything?”

“Just tell me about them, Nate,” Saffie said, trying to hold back the tears that were threatening to form in the corners of her eyes. “Tell me their names.”

“Saff, you’re starting to scare me. What’s going on?”

“Where do you live?” Saffie tried. “What’s your address?”

Nate’s expression suddenly turned serious.

“What is this? Some kind of interrogation?”

“I want your exact address, Nate,” Saffie urged. “I’m begging you.”

Nate just stared at her, his expression getting darker.

Saffie wanted to scream at him, but she knew it wasn’t his fault. If what she feared was true, his programming was preventing him from discussing anything about his home life because it didn’t exist.

“Nate,” she said, forcing herself to remain calm, “I’m going to ask you one more time. What is your address?”

“I can’t tell you!” Nate suddenly snapped.

“Why?” Saffie said desperately, hoping with every fibre of her being that he was going to say it was because he was in some witness protection program or something.

“I can’t tell you,” Nate said, “because… I don’t know.”

Saffie felt the blood drain from her face.

“I… don’t know where I live,” Nate said again, softer this time, as if hearing it for the first time properly. “And… I can’t picture my parents.” He looked from side to side, worry and panic rising in his voice. “Saff, there’s something wrong with me. Something really wrong with me. Why can’t I picture my parents? Why don’t I know who they are?”

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“There’s nothing wrong with you,” said Saffie, her voice wavering. “There’s nothing wrong with you at all.” She tried to keep her voice steady as she said, “Nate, where did you come across your Overworld key?”

Nate just shook his head slowly.

“You can’t remember?” said Saffie. “That day when you arrived in the clearing in Kensington Gardens. The day we first met. How did you get there? Where had you been before that moment?”

“I don’t know. It’s all a blur before that point. Why don’t I know? Why don’t I know?”

Saffie closed her eyes, barely daring to say what she was about to say, but she knew she needed to say it.

“It’s because… you had just spawned. You are my ephemeral.”

Nate was shaking his head before Saffie had even finished saying it.

“No, there’s no way. There’s no way. I’m not an ephemeral. I’m real, Saff, I swear it.”

“I want to believe that more than anything else in this world right now,” Saffie said softly. “If you can tell me where you go at night, I’ll believe you.”

Nate opened his mouth a few times to speak but nothing would come out until he buried his head in his hands.

All Saffie wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and never let go, but she needed to know how much time he had left.

“Timer reveal,” she said, remembering what Jeremy had done in the tavern, and a digital clock appeared to the left of Nate’s face, its numbers counting down.

01 : 15 : 02

Saffie wiped away a single tear that had run down her cheek. They had just one hour and fifteen minutes before Nate was gone for good.

After they had sat there in silence for longer than they could afford, trying to accept what was happening, Saffie said:

“We need to go back into the guild and tell Cora and Ruben. So you can…” she felt like she couldn’t even get the words out. “So you can say… goodbye.”

Nate took a hold of one of Saffie’s hands.

“There’s no time,” he said. “Come on.”

He stood up and led Saffie away from the bench.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere we were happy,” he said. “Just the two of us.”

Before long they were heading up to the top of Greenwich Hill, where they had watched the fireworks display together on the night of the game’s anniversary. When they reached the top, the sun was almost touching the rooftops of the London skyline.

“The last time we were here, you were trembling,” said Nate, turning to Saffie. He held out his hand, which was shaking slightly. “It’s me who’s trembling now.”

“We both are,” Saffie said truthfully. Her whole body was shaking.

“Why am I so scared when I’m not even real?” Nate said.

“Don’t say that.” Saffie grabbed both of his hands and squeezed them tight. “You are real, Nate. You were real to every player you ever met in Overworld, and you’re real to me. You would have been real to Dax too.”

Saffie felt a churn in her stomach and she shook her head, not wanting to accept any of this.

“You were supposed to come with us,” she said. “With me and Dax when we take the Onyx to Tusker Rock. It’s just hit me that Dax is never going to get to meet you.”

“Do you think he would have liked me?” Nate said.

“He would have loved you.”

Saffie knew it was true. Dax would have been so thankful for everything Nate had done for her. He would have been so happy for Saffie to have found someone her own age who cared about her. Someone who would always look out for her and be there for her.

There was silence for a moment until Saffie couldn’t hold in her anguish any longer.

“I’m not ready for you to die,” she said, allowing the tears that had been so desperately trying to break through flow freely.

“Hey, hey,” Nate said softly, wrapping his arms around her and holding her tight. “Don’t think of it like that. I’ll always exist in your memories.”

“But I want you to exist in more than just my memories,” Saffie said, sobbing into his jacket.

“Maybe I will,” said Nate.

Saffie caught her breath and followed Nate’s line of sight as he looked up at the sky. The sun was now almost beyond the horizon, and the first glimmer of stars were starting to appear.

“You see the stars up there?” Nate said. “Even though they’re very far away, and we’ll never be able to visit them, we know they’re out there somewhere, watching over us.” He turned back to Saffie and gently pressed his forehead against hers. “I don’t know how, or in what form, but maybe whatever I’m made of will still exist out there in Overworld somewhere. Just as distant, but just as constant as those stars.”

“If you do still exist after this,” Saffie said, her voice cracking. “Will you give me a sign?”

“I promise,” said Nate.

Saffie didn’t dare look at the timer, which she knew was still floating next to Nate. She didn’t need to. She knew they had just minutes left, and she didn’t want to waste another one without reclaiming the moment Jade had robbed from them the first time they had been stood in this very same spot.

Without breaking the contact between their foreheads, Saffie lifted her chin and pressed her lips to Nate’s. She knew in reality she was kissing thin air. She knew how strange it would look to anyone that happened to be in the area. But she didn’t care. Nothing else mattered to her than Nate. In that moment, she lost herself. It was a moment in which time didn’t exist. It was just her and Nate, existing forever.

But eventually the moment had to come to an end. When their lips finally parted, Saffie knew how special that kiss would always be to her, as it wasn’t just her first kiss with Nate, it would also be her last.

Saffie gripped the back of Nate’s jacket as if she were holding onto him for dear life, and they stood there locked in that tight embrace as the final segment of sun sank below the cityscape.

“I’ll never forget you, Nate,” Saffie said softly, and as the timer finally reached zero, Talia bowed her head and dispersed into the grass, and Saffie’s arms began to sink into Nate’s shoulders as his physical form dissipated.

Eventually, Saffie’s arms could only wrap around her own chest, and she slowly sank to her knees, where Acorn buried his head in her side.