Book 1 Epilogue (1/2)

It was a dark room. Except it wasn't dark. Nor was it really a room. I had no words for what it was though, so for now, it was a dark room.

In the dark room, there were four presences. They were familiar. The Boy, the Man, the Woman, and the Girl.

”It was an unexpected ending,” The Boy spoke, his reserved voice soft and melodious.

”I didn't see it coming either,” The Man agreed reluctantly, as if holding the same opinion was somehow distasteful for him.

”Isn't that why this is so much fun?” The Girl chimed in with a voice reminiscent of birdsong. ”Since they are free to act, you can never predict what they will do for sure!”

”True,” The Boy agreed. ”What was the original plan again? The demon girl was supposed to die, wasn't she?”

”That was the first draft,” The Man grunted. ”And she is not a demon, she is an Abyssal.”

”Insistent on terminology as always,” came the playful rebuke from the soft voice of The Woman. ”Nice work ladies and gentlemen.”

I stared at the Woman. She was... was it even a ‘she'? I presumed she was female because of the voice, but when I looked at her, I saw nothing. Well, no. It wasn't nothing. It was vast oceans of ruby under olive skies. She was immeasurable and inscrutable... but at the same time, she felt small and feminine and... familiar? Did I know her? Did I ever make acquaintances with ruby oceans?

”I have to say,” she spoke again, her voice full of mirth after a job well done, ”I have to say that it never occurred to me to have more than one free actors at the same time. Whose idea was that anyway? It was brilliant.”

The other three exchanged confused glances, or what equaled as glances between timeless black barren moons and deserts stirred by glowing sulfuric winds under eternally dark skies.

”Wasn't that your doing?” The Boy asked a touch uncertainly.

”No, I thought it was one of you. Specifically, I thought it was you, ********”

There were words spoken, except they weren't words. They were images, dreams of endless clouds raining molten silicon while majestic orbital rings turned and turned without end above them. Trying to ‘listen' too closely made my... something hurt. I wanted to say ‘head', but I wasn't sure where that was.

In the meantime, The Girl shook her head. Strange. She had one. Shouldn't I have one too?

”So it really wasn't any of you?”

”No! I tell you, we didn't add another free actor!” The Man exclaimed.

After his voice died down there was a brief moment of deafeningly loud silence before the dark room exploded into activity.