Chapter 35 - Visitors and Forgetting
I returned next week, having forgotten about whether I talked to Lila or not. The routine of the week absorbed me entirely, and the relaxation of the weekend took the wind out of me. I was back at the start of work on a Monday, before I had things to do. It was not a lot of time, but I still wanted to talk to Lila.
I entered the library to a cacophony of voices arguing. It was a strange change of pace to the silence. I was unsure whether this was better, but it sure made me curious as I ascended the spiral staircase out of the old spawn chamber.
The people arguing were Kara and a slew of people I had not seen before. They wore all black clothing. Nothing of their ensemble stood out in the light with a brighter hue. Neither Tarne nor Lila were anywhere to be seen, and I was glad of this.
“It’s NOT a violation of the rules!” Kara argued. “He didn’t steal her! The Kier put her here, to be a prisoner!” Her hands flailed about to express the anger on her face.
“It is a violation in a way that the jailed subject created a new life with him,” one of the people spoke. They all seemed to speak with the same voice, and there did not seem to be any reason for having multiples of them. “That’s strike three, Kara, we told you. You said you told him about it. He knew the consequences of this.”
“The CONSEQUENCES?” Kara exploded. “He’s the ONLY thing that stopped Lila! She’s different now! She cares about something!”
“You’re clearly biased in this matter as you have a relationship with the subject,” another person said, using the same voice. It was strange to see them speak with the same voice. “Your emotions bleed through, and thus your judgment is invalid.”
“OH, I’ll show you, INVALID, you fin-fucking police,” Kara said, and clasped her right wrist with her left hand. Before this escalated into a fight, I ran up to meet Kara’s eyes and hold her hand. Her face unwound into a sad expression. I smiled to put her at ease.
“So the troubles found me again, huh?” I asked. “It’s ok, Kara.”
“It’s not alright!” She argued. “These idiots want to cut you off from the Infinity Void.” I turned to face a few of the many people dressed all in black. Now I knew what they were. The Rahin. It was strange seeing them this way, always picturing them as giant fish swimming in the endlessness of Infinity Void. In fact, and at the start, I thought there was just one giant world consuming fish of black scales and red light.
“You can drop your guises, if you’re wearing any,” I said. Each of the about twenty people turned their necks as if to crack it, but instead the human faces disappeared to look more like the Rahin I imagined. It made me smile. I heard of them a few times from Kara, in threats. “I suppose you mean Tarne, right?”
“The child is a figment of you,” the Rahin at the front said. It looked funny after the change. They opened and closed their mouths like fish, but actual words came out. Maybe they had translators implanted somewhere within the mouth. “This breaks the third rule set upon you by the council and conveyed to you by our Order of the Keir envoy. This space will be destroyed, and the child will be returned.”
“Returned to what?”
“To non-existence, Jack,” Kara murmured. “They want to make Tarne non-existent. Can you believe that? You can’t possibly be ok with this.”
“You can’t mean that Tarne is to be blamed for any of this,” I argued. “She’s just a child.”
“She’s a child of a sore subject and a repeat offender,” another of the pack said. “She should not exist anywhere.”
“How about the Nth Infinity?” I suggested. “That’s outside of existence. I need to go. I didn’t plan for this. Please consider letting Tarne exist where nothing else does. This could be the solution, and I know just the right Goni for the job.” I closed my eyes and vanished from the library.
break
I came back during lunch, hoping the library was still intact. Kara sat in the otherwise empty library. She looked tired, and older. Stress had a draining effect on everyone, but the older people got the brunt of the effect. She looked close to death. I remembered how she looked before, spry and full of life. Without really intending, I played a hologram of her from one of her multiple visits to this place.
“Oh, hey, you’re back,” she said, watching her younger version with James and Rebecca. “That takes me back. That’s the time you turned us into birds. I did like flying about freely. I liked going to different worlds, saving people. I liked back when the Rahin were just giant fish to avoid in the Infinity Void. It’s all… more complex now.”
“I’m sorry I left so suddenly,” I said. “I didn’t expect them to be there. Where is Lila and Tarne?” Kara sighed. “Did— Did they take them already?” My stomach felt heavy with worry.
“No,” Kara said, releasing the tension. “They left to inform the council of your suggestion. You got us into another mess, Jack.”
“Yeah,” I said, sitting beside her on the table. “I’m sorry. Tarne wasn’t supposed to exist, but I’m glad she does. I’m glad she was able to change Lila’s heart.”
“You changed her heart,” Kara said. I felt tears build behind my eyelids.
“No, I really think it was Tarne,” I said. “I just make trouble for everyone. Even after being warned, I kept pushing for something I needed. I made Finn, Rebecca, and Lila into a journal for myself. I wrote about them, recorded them, knowing full well they weren’t meant to be seen by others. I… I was trying to kill myself in this leftover space after Rebecca.
“I expanded a seed of creationism and used it to fling myself out into the darkness, to be unmade, so no longer be able to exist here. Lila saved me. I don’t know why. I’m not important.” Kara put her hand on my cheek gently for a moment, then wound it back. I winced, but no strike came.
“I’m through with blaming you,” she said. “We’re all the same, Jack. We do things that we think will help. That’s why the old man saved me. That’s why I picked up his mantle of saving worlds. That’s why you made those mental steps for yourself to feel better, because you were hurt. Everyone is like that. You just happened to intersect with me and the Infinity Void. That caused a bit of trouble, but I wouldn’t say you’re not important. It’s because of you that I had a son. Me and James had more than our fair share of sex before that moment, and nothing happened. Nothing until you.”
“Do you think the Rahin will go for it?” I asked. “Putting Tarne into the Nth Infinity with the Goni?”
“It’s… hard to tell,” Kara said. “Even then, Lila’s not joining her. She existed elsewhere before here. She wouldn’t be able to exist there. Tarne would have to be alone. Who knows if she’d even be able to grow up there. There is no time, no space, no existence, just Goni.”
“And separating her from Lila won’t end well for either of them,” I added. “It’s… a really crappy situation I put us into, huh?”
“Always, Jack,” Kara said, smiling slightly.
“So where are they?” I asked, looking around.
“I kinda… panicked,” she said, then tapped the Keir tattoo on her hand to produce a solid metal key from the ink.
“You, uhh… moved them to another world?”
“Not exactly,” Kara replied, holding the loop in three fingers, thumb inside at the button that opened the doorways. When she pressed the button the Keir expanded in the open library to ridiculous proportions like I knew it often did. This one was the same as the old fashioned one with segments making steam and an old type of orange light. “Like I said, I panicked. Putting them in a corridor would just be handing them over to the Rahin, so I hid them.”
“Inside… the Keir?”
“Yeah, it was a dumb idea,” Kara said. “I hope they’re alright. I’ve never done that before. They should be—“
“KARA!” A voice burst out from inside of a compartment as Kara set everything produced from the Keir down on the floor, still held weightless because of something dimensional.
“There, I guess,” Kara said, and popped a metal cover open as Lila and Tarne tumbled out onto the floor. Lila checked on Tarne right away, then jumped up angrily and closed the distance to Kara. I half expected a fight, but Lila stepped into Kara’s stance, putting her right leg between Kara’s right before throwing arms around her and shoving her tongue down Kara’s throat. It was a very strong gesture and romantic.
“You saved us,” Lila said, parting her kiss to meet Kara’s eyes.
“Not out of the woods yet,” I said. “But it seems I’m low on time. Remember to use the intercom when something happens again, ok? That’s why I put it there.” I pointed to the box by the front door of the library.
“Honestly, that’s the first time I’m seeing that,” Kara said.
“Me, too,” Lila said. “Weird… I feel like you told us about it before.” I shook my head. I slipped through the wooden panels as liquid and evaporated in the darkness outside.
Comments
Post a Comment