None Against (conclusion)

When Yumi came to ask for help, it was the first Ehud had seen her in weeks and the last time he would interact with his wife as a human being.

"I want to watch us have sex," she said.

Was he capable of surprise anymore?

"Ongame," she clarified.

He was capable of answering, even if it went against all his natural instincts. Yumi had that effect on him.

"I'm not against it."

The final phase preceding her transfer into a new body required Yumi to observe her old one from the outside. She explained the reasons. He half-listened, something about exterior reflex reification and other such nonsense of the same, predictable variety the elves had been filling her with from the beginning, and relaxed his neck so his head would make a motion that resembled a nod.

"You agreed to it?"

Ehud nodded again. "She had to integrate her conjugal self. How could I deprive Yumi of that?"

"Charming."

Kole Swenson stood with him at the top of a white slope. Ganymede had some of the best skiing in the system, a popular year-round venue for tourists and residents alike. They had gone to celebrate.

It was a day since he had joined select ongame club of first-timers, those who so to speak were no longer halo virgins. Such a special honor that Ehud expected never to repeat it, not so long as he retained a sound mind.

"How was it?"

"That's a loaded question."

Kole set himself to take the slope. "I warned you, didn't I?"

A cool and refreshing though ersatz wind blew off the peak, throwing icy dust against the green domesky.

"That you did," Ehud said.

They raced down. It was exhilarating, this experience of the actual.

The lodge was a warm retreat at the end of the day. The milling crowd, unlike his recent ongame experiences, was composed purely of bipeds without a single armadillo in sight. That had been Yumi's scene. He wouldn't miss it.

When Kole nudged him, he didn't immediately pick her out of the passing flow of faces. Then hers emerged from the background like a fish breaking the surface of water. It was hard to recognize Yumi. There was nothing special about her. She looked any other woman. The six weeks their marriage lasted had a lasting quality only as a half-recalled dream.

"Till death do us part, huh, pal?"

Ehud watched her go, wondering how long it would take for him to forget her altogether. The way things were going, it wouldn't be long at all.

"That's not my wife," he said.