"Hey, what are you doing?"

"Nothing in particular. Just thinking." Nya was gazing at the sky from a nearby hillside with her head tilted slightly to one side. "It's pretty amazing how stars twinkle like that," she said as she pointed up into the night sky.

Jay followed her gaze and found an almost infinite number of tiny lights floating in space far above them. He'd seen it many times before, but there was something about being out under the open sky that made him feel so much closer to them than when he sat inside on his bed or watched through the sails of the Destiny's Bounty.

"They're beautiful, aren't they? I love looking at them." Nya said this without hesitation, as if she were speaking to herself rather than Jay. She smiled and continued. "I never really got why people would want to go outside at night just to look at stars. They're always saying 'ooh, isn't it wonderful' or whatever. But for me...they're just a bunch of dots. It doesn't change anything. I'm not sure why I'd go out just to see them."

She turned back toward Jay. Her eyes were empty as if she were staring into some great distance, but then her voice suddenly cracked and her face twisted in pain.

"But tonight—this is different, right? Maybe I can see them differently now..."

Her words sent a shiver down Jay's spine. He knew exactly what she meant.

When he looked into the vast darkness of space, all he could think about was his own insignificance. After all, there was only one star in the sky that he'd ever named, and it wasn't even a particularly bright one. And if he expanded his view from there, he saw countless other points of light that were invisible to the naked eye, but which were clearly visible to the eye of a skilled seer such as himself. The sight of them filled him with a sense of profound loneliness.
He wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say.

Instead, he simply nodded and mumbled, "Yeah."

Nya smiled, and somehow her smile made him feel better.

"Maybe I'll try naming more stars."

The night was clear and warm and the stars shone brightly overhead. Jay spent a long time standing next to Nya, watching the stars as she did, wondering whether it might be possible to make new ones. But eventually he decided against trying. There were so many stars already, after all. Even if he tried, he doubted he could come up with enough names to keep track of them all. Perhaps that was the whole point.

And yet...he couldn't help but wonder. He closed his eyes and imagined what it would be like to see the stars as they truly were—as individual lights shining in the darkness of space. A single light, perhaps brighter than all the others, yet still just a light. No longer alone.  He wondered if that would be enough for Nya...if it would bring her peace.