"To be fair," Ava remarks with a polite restrain ti her giggle, "I was busy looking at all those... lights masquerading as stars in the sky. Wondering how far they actually are." Nothing can be lightyears away in a place that will only exist for this week. She imagines it like a map on a computer game, only existing in their presence, folding back into code and files as soon as it's offscreen. Nothing else makes much sense. Magic doesn't make sense. She'll just stubbornly cling to her insistence that this is some virtual reality. And that nothing is truly real.

Yet it's all happening. Ava settles down next to Skulduggery, tucking her legs up against her body. Existence is just perception. She has to cling to some sort of meaning, not get lost in the vastness and hopelessness.

Which brings her back to the thought of... "What do you think the purpose of this exercise is? To see how we self organize? To make us dependent on the Captain to give us direction and meaning? To prove how any of us with a shred of power will abuse it?"