Cafe Sud was a cafe on a cobble paved side street in V’alura’s downright expansive holographic representation of the city. The cafe really existed, on Earth, too. Solal had originally used the program mostly for the concert hall elsewhere in the city, expertly tuned to sound perfectly real.

Today though, he was there for another reason. Sat in a chair outside Cafe Sud across from V’alura, there was a boutique mug of coffee in front of him, complete with a little design drawn with the froth on the top of the drink. He had not even brought his violin, he wasn’t well enough to play it anyway.

Solal had not been doing well these past few days. His energy was worse than before, his breathing was struggling more than it had been previously, his heart rate resting high. The headaches and brain fog were bad, making it difficult to think, painful to be in the light. The reason the hologram was set to a lovely dusk with a beautiful sunset. It was darker than mid-day.

Solal looked frail and sickly and pale, hunched slightly in the chair in which he sat, though he tried not to. He didn’t want V’alura doing too much worrying. A defect of her more human nature.

He looked up, across the table at her, “So of all the things we could do, Paris makes you feel better?” Though he would deny it, he still clung desperately to his control, the familiarity of the city, the sound of the holographic people around them speaking his native language, the atmosphere they had chosen, all did seem to be putting him at ease.

~ Solal