Ning eventually left the region around the pulsar and wandered through Crownus's galaxy without any particular destination. He visited a few empty systems along the way and spent some time looking at worlds that had never developed intelligent life, but he avoided the regions directly involved in the war.
Crownus had said they would deal with that later, and Ning was willing to leave it alone until the System was ready.
Some time later, Ning found himself sitting on a small asteroid drifting through an otherwise unremarkable system.
The asteroid was barely large enough to deserve the name, with an uneven surface covered in loose rock and dust. Ning sat near the edge of a crater and watched a distant star while considering whether there was anything else worth doing before Crownus returned.
That was when he felt Crownus approaching.
The smoky figure appeared nearby, the floating goat's head looking just as unsettling as before despite Ning having already become accustomed to it.
