As evening approached its zenith, the golden sun made its last stand over Hell's Paradise Island.
It did not fade quietly. Nothing beautiful on this island ever seemed to understand modesty.
The sun burned low against the horizon with a dying arrogance, pouring molten gold over the far lake, the silver-black river, the endless forest and the glittering bones of Paradise City below. Its light climbed the towers, kissed the glass, spilled across marble terraces and turned the roof of Infinity Chaos Hotel into a place suspended between day and night, warmth and frost, reality and whatever nonsense Phei had decided to commit this time.
Phei inhaled slowly.
And despite all the beauty around him, despite the work, the peace, the evening, the ridiculous dome he had formed with more care than some families gave their children, part of his mind still drifted back to Adriana.
His body remembered...
'...Annoyingly and beautifully well.'
