Illicit Invader Mark

"She was a snake." —A Dark Age drifter

**

The first time he met her, the starkest thing about her was her tattoo. A snake, coiled on her arm. He would remember that snake when he realized he needed a symbol to motivate the masses in another lifetime. For a game he called Gambit.

It was before the rise of the place humanity would come to call the Last Safe City. He was a true drifter floating from place to place like smoke. Some people had taken to calling him Drifter. He had many names, and he went by none of them.

She knew him then as Eli. And the second time he met her, he asked, "Would you like to dance before you go?"

"Not now," she had said.

"Wait, what did you think I said?" he asked.

"Would you like to dance?" she repeated.

"I would love to," he said, and stepped forward with his arms in the air.

She chuckled.

He paused.

"This has never worked before," he said.

He joined her in the Pilgrim Guard. They fought alongside each other. He saved her life. She saved his.

He was convinced she was his best friend.

He was wrong. One day, he never saw her again.

Not as she was.