His face had crossed more worlds than he had.

It had passed between strangers who shared no language, carried laughter into places he would never see, and become a way for people to find one another. Doge had encountered countless versions of himself along the way. Some were magnificent. A few had been deeply unfair to his ears.

He had never minded.

The face beneath the water was different.

At first, he thought he was looking at his own reflection. He leaned closer, and it approached him. But when he drew back, it stayed, studying him with an interest entirely its own. Then a hand rose toward the surface while both of his remained at his sides.

Doge went still. Beneath the reflected sky, someone was waiting.

He stepped into the water and reached for her.

Gold streamed between their hands.

What he had mistaken for an image had warmth, weight, and a will already tugging impatiently at his arm. He drew her up, and the reflected sky broke around her shoulders. A moment later, she stood beside him.

She looked past him and held on a moment longer. Above the trees, a vast pale world lit the water around them. Doge waited until her grip relaxed.

“I’m Shiba,” she said.

“Doge.”

“I know.”

Of course she did.

A little gold remained in her palm. She looked down at the two reflections in the water. When she tilted her head, the face beneath her tilted too.

She glanced at Doge.

“I’ll try not to let the resemblance hold me back.”

His laughter rolled across the water. She looked pleased with herself, then lifted her eyes toward the distance again.

“I’m going to reach worlds you haven’t,” she said.

Doge followed her gaze. He had no idea what waited beyond that horizon, or what she might become there. Already, she had surprised him.

“I’d like to see that.”

When she turned toward the shore, he went with her.

In time, others would raise their names against each other, count their followers, and argue over who had risen higher. Their images would reach places neither could imagine.

But here, where one familiar face had become two, the first thing they had done was reach for each other.