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"I'm a fifty-four-year-old man," said Ender.
"You may have been born fifty-four years ago," said Valentine, "but you're only sixteen, and no matter how old you are, I'm two years older."
"When the colony ship arrives, I'm getting on it," said Ender.
"I think I knew that," said Valentine.
"I can't stay here. I have to take a long journey. To get away from every living human."
"The ships only go from world to world, with people on all of them."
"But they take time doing it," said Ender. "If I take voyage after voyage, eventually I'll leave behind the human race as it now is."
"That's a long, lonely journey."
"Only if I go alone."
"Is that an invitation?"
"To come with me as long as you find it interesting," said Ender.
"Fair enough," said Valentine. "My guess is that you'll be better company now that you aren't in a perpetual funk."
"I don't think so," said Ender. "I intend to remain in stasis through every voyage."
"And miss the play readings on the way?"
"Can you finish your book before it's time to leave?" asked Ender.
"Probably," she said. "Certainly this volume."
"I thought this was the last one."
"Last but one," said Valentine.
"You've covered every aspect of the Formic Wars and you're writing the last battle now."
"There are two great knots to unravel."
Ender closed his eyes. "I think my book unravels one of them," he said.
"Yes," said Valentine. "I'd like to include it at the end of my last volume."
"It's not copyrighted," said Ender. "You can do what you want."
"Do you want to know what the other knot is?" asked Valentine.
"I assume it's Peter bringing the whole world together after the war was over," said Ender.
"What does that have to do with a history of the Formic Wars?" she said. "The last knot is you."
"I'm a Gordian knot. Don't unravel, just slice."
"I'm going to write about you."
"I won't read it."
"Fine," said Valentine. "I won't show it to you."
