Project: Ashes 004

 Chapter 4 Engine

    “So,” Glorious Idiot said, “where do we go now?”

She just looked at him and blinked. “What do you mean where do we go now?”

    “Where is my… engine?”, he said fishing for the right word for his device. She just held up her Eternal pointed at it.
“Somewhere out there.”, she said. Seeing how Glorious Idiot’s face sank she quickly added, “It’s still out there. The things dissolve at the edges.”, ‘Mostly’, she added in her mind. “But here close to the centre, as you can see”, ‘and don’t look too closely’, “everything is very stable. So we don’t go anywhere, the engine will come to us.”

“OK. But we need a room for it. I know it is really large.”, he said.

“Look around you. Space isn’t the problem.”

“But should we put it here in the middle of your… what kind of room is this anyway?”, he looked around. “I mean, its really large, I can’t see the walls.”

“I’m pretty sure that for now there aren’t any. The room here appeared in reaction to me, hence the floor.” They both looked up to the high ceiling and its beautiful lights which were all clustered above them, providing them with an island of light.
“I think the ceiling just appeared so that light would make sense?”, she said.

“What about those?”, he said pointing at one of the many firefly’s flitting around them, most of them now exploring the dim twilight where the lights were slowly overwhelmed by the outer darkness.

“No idea.” Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that a number on her Eternal had blinked. “But that’s something we can wonder about later. We need your spiral-ator...?“

“Spiralator? That what not its name, but I like it.”, he grinned. “But that doesn’t change the fact that it needs a room.”

“Looking at you it seems that you don’t need my help for that. When I pulled you back I didn’t know how you looked, but there you are and you look… right… also I would never have chosen those clothes.”

“What? Why, I think they look really cool.”, he said looking at himself.

“You wear a cape!”

“Capes are awesome.”

She sighed. “And there we go. You made that. Not I. The ‘room’ here, reacts at least in part to what we think there needs to be. Not what we wish for,” she said casting him a dubious look, “but what we know should exist. So go ahead make your room.”

“You say that as if that was so easy, making this,” he held up his glass, “was hard enough. You are the weaver, I just make things flow.”, he said stretching out his hands making his constipated face.

“What does that even mean?”, she asked.

“What?”, he asked through gritted teeth.

“You make things flow.”

“I have no idea. It was just something that came to my mind and felt right.”, he exhaled and relaxed. “There are a lot of things that feel natural and right, but I don’t know why. I don’t know your name, but I know you.”, he paused, “I don’t even know my own name.”

“I can’t remember anything either. But my feeling tells me that, that is a problem for later.”, she held up her Eternal and waved it in front of his face. “What ever is left of the universe is evaporating. That we know. And we need you machine for that. Everything else, can come later. For example, what is the Ring?”, she choked, “And why can’t I hardly breath when I mention it?”

“I… don’t know. But I know that the Ring being broken is horrible, it fills me with utter despair…”

“Yeah, I know.”, she said, “I also know for some reason that you really love despair, so much so that you tend to take long and extensive baths in it. But this is not the time. Make, the room.”

“I tried! But look,” he waved his hand around, “nothing. You are the one who can bring things back, not me.”

She looked at him, at his waving hands, the waving cape, which most of her found horrible but an annoying minority really enjoyed. Her Observer and Investigators had started a wild discussion with the Boss keeping all other shards away.

“You are trying to force something into existence.” She shushed him with a raised finger, “Not now. I’m thinking. That doesn’t work and if it did work it would take exceptional amounts of power, no I don’t know what that means exactly either. But that’s also not the point right now.” She looked around trying to find something, anything that would help her find an answer. Not easy in a room that was mostly floor, ceiling and infinite space in-between them. ‘I wonder what it feels like to walk down an infinite space?’ Dreamer asked herself. ‘Not. Now.’ Boss hissed. Only darkness and the lights. The lights, she cocked her head again.
“Look up.”, she said.

“OK and now what?”

“Those lines of light that come form the big lights. They show us the way.”

“Kind of. I feel that that’s what they’re there fore. But this hardly helps us in a place filled with nothing.”

“You are such and idiot, Idiot.”, she said. “This place is full of everything, but without form.”

“Oh yes, silly me…”

“Which light would normally lead to your engine?”, she asked.

“One of the blue lines.”

“Well go on then, chose the right blue line and follow it to your room.”

He laughed. “Really, that easy. I just choose a random blue line, like that over there,” he said pointing at one line above him leading towards the circle of fireflies, he moved into the direction where the line vanished into infinity while looking back at her. “I follow the light a bit and then out of thin air…”

“Watch out!” she said.

“Wh…”, he walked into the massive portal in front of him before he got to finish asking his question.