semblance

now," Ik pointed

he gave no hint that it would return us to Atrium City, if you wish to go there—" Ik glanced at Bandicut and Antares "—but we do not know how to return there, anyway. Unless the magellan-fish returns, but that seems unlikely."
Bandicut frowned, considering Ik's words. He shivered with a sudden, fresh feeling of loneliness. Whatever semblance of an anchor he might have had in Atrium City was certainly gone. He wondered, wistfully, how far away his own spaceship was now, silent in a dock. Even that empty ship seemed like a long-lost world, not just in space but in time. He had passed through so many transitions. . . It was hard to feel connected to anything, or r