[ It's a long moment before he releases Chang Geng from the embrace. It's partially from relief, and partially because he's still getting used to the way moonlacing now feels, enhanced by the rings.

Eventually he does draw away, and looks up. Gu Yun's eyes crinkle a bit more when he smiles, but otherwise age doesn't seem to have affected him. If anything, he looks healthier at 38 than he did in his mid-twenties. There's color in his cheeks, and his hands are warm. ]

The scientists at Lunar Scientiae call it a "dimensional rift." Um... a "crack in spacetime," those were the words they used. I was just going to repair one of them, when I woke you up. When I asked you to help me, I —

[ He's interrupted by a sudden rush of clucking. A flock of chickens, clad in all manner of fancy feather patterns, come dashing through the yard. ]