Thira and Riven landed at 6 a.m. on Wednesday at John F. Kennedy International Airport. They had departed from New Zealand at 2 p.m. on Tuesday after resolving the office issue on Monday evening.

The journey had lasted for about 16 hours, but to Riven it felt so much shorter than it really was. He had spent all his time watching Thira and meditating, or rather, they had both spent the journey watching each other from the corners of their eyes, their expressions full of so much hidden meaning ...