And she drops them off and drives home.

"Hey there!"

"Bella! Hi! Mission success. Would now be a convenient time to pick us up?"

Miles is looking slightly weathered but intensely happy. He waves when he spots her car approaching.

Mark, standing beside him, is smiling just a little.

"Yo. How was your adventure? Did you have a joint adventure or just the one?"

"Turns out they don't offer bulk pricing on souls. Since Mark is getting by just fine without his, we decided not to bother."

"All right then. If he suddenly sits bolt upright in bed and realizes that he has lost his love of classical music and needs it back I will tell you to take a taxi if it is an inopportune time."

"That's fair," Miles assures her.

"How'd you know about my love of classical music?"

"Didn't, it was a Clockwork Orange reference."

"Ooh, pre-Jump Earth media."

"Jump being?"

"The discovery of wormhole jump technology in the early 2200s pretty sharply separated human history into a Before and an After. Colonizing other planets wasn't a feasible enterprise, and then it was."

"Don't suppose you remember how it works offhand."

"Not in sufficient detail to recreate it, unless you happen to know a half-dozen geniuses we can consult with."

"Fresh out of unoccupied engineers. Try MIT."

"Will do," Miles says cheerfully. "So how've you been while we were away? How's your sister?"

"My what?"

"...I could've sworn I remembered you mentioning one," he says. "This soul thing must've thrown me off a lot worse than I thought."

"Nope, only child. I'm fine though."

"Good, good."

"So are you going to go to MIT or what, what's next for you?"