"I've been there for almost half a century, Vanya."

Let that sink in. Whatever, whatever the Nexus was and is, it did not change the fact of Volgin's perspective that decades had passed (he was still realizing how many decades it had only been -- otherwise they had felt like centuries).

He felt those pale hands cling. He could almost feel the nails against his insulative second skin.

(The ex-GRU Colonel coldly steeled himself; his... his heart hurt. That was how he could describe it.

It was a pain he dreaded most of all.)

"There are terms to my continued living, is all."