The five of us huddle in the darkness, hoping beyond hope that Fractal's centroglyph can stave off the palpable dread of the encroaching deep night. With each passing moment, the darkness gets thicker, until the only person I can see is Fractal. Suddenly, a pale light encircles us. The light, odd in and of itself, reveals something even more strange.
“Frac, there's a chalk circle forming around us.”
“I can see it, sort of,” he replies tentatively. “But I have absolutely no idea what that's about.”
“Okay,” I say, nervously. “Just thought you should know.”
I watch as the chalk circle slowly closes. I try to ignore it, try to clear my mind, but to no avail. The best I can manage is to replace my current worries with thoughts of Arcadia. My mind drifts, as it often does, to Alastor. I want so badly to believe that there's a part of the Alastor I used to know still buried somewhere deep within the King. I want to trust him, to believe that the King still wants the things Alastor wanted. It's been increasingly difficult to hold on to that belief recently, though. Alastor... the King... has felt more and more unyielding, more and more controlling... more and more like Atravitus.
Atravitus. I haven't really thought about him all that much since I woke up. At least, I've tried not to. But, like it or not, my time with him still colors everything I do, and probably always will. If you get right down to it, I owe my existence to him. Had he not taken an interest in me, I may never have been activated in the first place. And, had he not pushed me away when and how he did, I may never have met Alastor. It's such a strange conundrum, to still feel as if I owe him while such a large part of me holds him responsible for the loss of my world.
My mind is pulled back to the present as the ghostly circle closes. The otherworldly light flickers out like a dying candle, leaving me alone in the darkness. The lack of sensory input leaves me with a disconnected feeling, almost as if I'm floating. I feel a tug at the back of my mind. The sensation is almost like a voice, calling me, inviting me... somewhere.
Knowing full well it's probably a bad idea, I accept.
When I open my eyes, I find myself in an open field. Green grass waves in a gentle breeze. Overhead, a silvery white daedalum sheds soft light on the scene. This place feels infinite, and would feel incredibly lonely, I think, if not for the gargantuan tree I see. I can't stop looking at it. A sense of peace emanates from the tree, filling me with a feeling I've only felt once before... in the presence of the Queen.
“Delilah...” The sound of Zeph’s voice startles me, snapping me out of my reverie.”Do you know where we are?”
“I think...” I begin, still half in a daze. “I think I’ve been here. Well, not here, but somewhere like it.”
Zeph cocks her head to one side, eyebrow raised, and waits on me to continue.
“When the others were chosen by the King, I wasn't with them. There was another force calling me... The King is all darkness and dread. The power I met then was light and peace. And we saw her as a tree” I explain, gesturing toward the living wall before us. “A tree very much like that one.”
Zeph smiles softly, and then, as if she senses there is more to the story, poses a question. “Then how did you end up with the others?”
I smile sadly as the memories play again in my head. Finding myself with Elias, Tess, Quovardis, and Dr. Mendoza in front of the shining tree. Meeting Lenore for the first time, and feeling the uncanny connection between us. The helplessness I felt as I watched her turn to dust at the King's hand.
“There was another... version of me, I suppose you'd say. The Queen called me, and the King called her. But... we traded. It felt better that way.”
I don't elaborate. Lenore is safe now, not in torment, not sent into oblivion. Thinking about her doesn't give me the physically painful sadness that it once did, but I still feel a sense of loss that I may never get to know the closest thing to a sister I could possibly have. Zyphania doesn't press, and I'm grateful. We wait for a moment, in silence, before she turns to me again.
“So... what do you think we should do?”
I smile, and walk to sit down near the tree. “This time, I think we just wait and let things come to us.”
Zeph joins me, sitting with her back against the tree and her knees drawn up. She doesn’t speak at first, but her eyes tell me something is weighing on her mind. I give her a questioning glance.
“Maybe...” Zeph begins tentatively, eyes on the ground. “Maybe I'm being too forward, and it's none of my business, but...”
“What is it, Zeph?” I give her my most reassuring smile, hoping to put her at ease.
“I know you're all... unusual,” she continues, meeting my gaze. “But, there's something ... different about you, isn't there?”
I hesitate for a moment before responding. Circumstances haven't let me keep my connections to Arcadia quiet, so she must be talking about the baby, right? Should I open up to her about that? I want to. I barely know her, yet I feel drawn to trust her just like I did the others. She's had so much thrown at her already, though, the thought of involving her any further in my turmoil weighs on my conscience. Something in her tone says she's already hazarded a guess, however. If that's the case, I'd merely be clearing up some confusion. Well, maybe. I don’t feel like I know a whole lot more about the situation than Zeph does, and I’m the one carrying the child. I turn to her, still a little tentative.
“You've seen my scans, haven't you?”
“I've seen all of your scans,” Zeph smiles.
“Yeah, I'm pregnant.”
I pause there, looking at Zeph for some kind of reaction.. She doesn't say anything, merely shooting me a quizzical glance as she waits for me to continue.
“It was... unexpected, to say the least. The doctor noticed it in my scans the first time I got into an Icon. When he told me, I thought he was crazy until he let me hear the baby’s heartbeat. See, I never even thought I could get pregnant, and I certainly didn’t remember doing anything to get that way. But, it’s not a normal pregnancy, so I guess it makes sense it didn’t get there the normal way. It was placed there while I was still asleep. Other than that, I don’t know much more about it.”
Zyphania looks at me, her gaze soft but analytical. “Can I look?” she asks after a moment.
“Sure,” I smile. My response is immediate. This just feels right.
I lie down and stretch out, and Zeph kneels beside me. She closes her eyes, and holds her hands over my abdomen. The sensation is warm, and almost electric. With a deep breath, I close my eyes and try to clear my thoughts. More and more energy flows through me, concentrating on my midsection. I allow my thoughts to drift to things I know about the baby... images from the vision we saw when we touched the tree replay themselves in my mind. Something shifts in Zeph's expression. Maybe my thoughts are reaching her. If they are, I hope it's helping.
I get the sense that Zeph is drawing more and more deeply from the energy around her. I think looking at the baby is proving more difficult than she anticipated, but this place, the tree specifically, is lending her the power she needs.
For a split second, I get a flash of imagery... a swirling mass of light and darkness bound by chains. Zeph's eyes snap open, and she lowers her hands. I give her a questioning look, but wait for her to gather her senses. “I'm afraid I couldn't find out much more than you already knew,” she says after a moment. A hint of disappointment shows in her eyes for just a moment before she smiles again. “But, I can see your child is powerful. I.... I've never seen anything like it.”
I smile. She's right, it isn't really anything more than I already knew, but her words are still comforting.
“You're searching.” the voice is kind, familiar. “What is it you wish to know?”
I instinctively turn my head toward the source of the unexpected sound, and find myself face to face with the shining figure of the Queen. An odd combination of exhilarating joy and calming peace flow over me, followed briefly by a sharp sadness and a twinge of regret that her path is not and cannot be mine. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my mixed emotions echoed in Zeph's expression.
“We were trying to find out more about my child,” I finally respond after finding my voice. Just being in the Queen's presence is enough to draw my mouth into a smile, despite the heaviness of the subject. “There's still so much I don't know about it. And it's such a big responsibility.”
The Queen nods solemnly, understandingly. “Every choice you make affects it.” She pauses for a moment, giving me a look of almost motherly concern. “Do you think you're ready for this task?”
I shake my head, almost laughing. “No. But then again, I don't think anyone really ever is. All I can do is try my best.”
“What do you want for your child, Delilah?”
There are a number of ways I could answer that question, but they all basically boil down to the same thing. “I want it to be happy. And I want it to have a place in this world.”
“And what if it doesn't have a place?” The question is not harsh or even ominous, but the Queen's gaze is intent..
“Then I'll make one for it.” I respond with a confident smile, which the Queen returns.
A silence settles over us briefly, drifting in time with the half thoughtful, half sad look that comes over the Queen's face. When she speaks again, there is a heaviness in her voice. “My time, and perhaps this world's time, is drawing to an end. I want to ask you to do something for me...”
I meet her gaze expectantly, waiting silently for her to finish.
“Show your child my love.”
“I will,” The smile on my face turns to a look of surprise as I hear Zeph's voice echo mine.
The Queen sits quietly, serenely, for a moment. Zeph turns to her, her eyes shining.
“I would follow you if I could, Lady.”
“I know,” the Queen replies with a soft smile.
The silvery daedalum overhead has now moved much closer to setting, and the Queen fades as her daedalum dips below the horizon. As we await whatever it is that's supposed to happen next, Zeph's words keep running through my mind. She's promising to help me with the child, just like Grace did. This brings up a question in my mind that only she can answer, and so I turn to her.
“Zeph, I really appreciate you wanting to help me with the baby and promising to be there for it. I'm going to need all the help I can get. But, there's something I don't understand. Why would you promise that? You barely know me.”
Zeph smiles. Her eyes are kind. “Because I sense that we share a nurturing nature. We both want to make the world a better place. Because I sense that you've got a lot on your shoulders you didn't ask for.” Her smile takes on a slightly mischievous tone. “And because I'm intensely curious as to what this child will become.”
I nod in agreement, but before I can open my mouth to concur that I didn't ask for what has been handed to me, I hear a now familiar voice with its audible smile.
“Oh, but you -did- ask for this, Delilah.” Chess is perched in one of the branches of the Tree, looking down on us as if he's heard the whole conversation.
“Maybe I did, in a way.” My answer comes uneasily, as I find myself unable to put into words that there's a difference between asking and accepting.
Chaos casts a bored look toward the setting daedalum. “Time is running out... for so very many things.”
Zeph moves closer to Chess, a certain dark fascination in her eyes. “You've all spoken of a war, of lines drawn in the sand. Is there no neutral ground?”
“Not anymore,” Chaos answers, his face for once deadly serious.
I see Zeph's face fall, but before she can argue, the Queen's daedalum sets completely, and her Tree disappears. The darkness engulfs us, transporting us to somewhere else... somewhere other. It seems like a hallway, but the light is too dim to gather any details. I only know the floor is there because I can feel myself standing on it.
“The King has you under his thumb,” I hear the uncomfortably silky voice of Chaos coming from the shadows. “He wants to keep you scared. The longer you listen to what he has to say, the fewer choices you'll be able to make on your own. Before too long, he will have taken away your free will entirely. “
“But,” Chess adds, his tone ominously cheerful. The light brightens in the direction of the voice, revealing the unnaturally spindly form of No.One. standing before a large weathered wooden door. “I'm here to show you another way.”
Chaos leans nonchalantly against the wall, eying us with an inscrutable smirk as he basks in our baffled expressions.
“You are free to choose to go through this door or not. However, if you decide not to, it will be the second-to-last real choice you ever make.”
Chaos smiles at the skepticism on our faces. “I'm only here to show you the truth.”
Zyphania and I stand staring at the door in confusion and indecision. Chess stands by silently, patiently awaiting our verdict. Part of me wants to go - what Chess said about losing our free will may not be true, but it struck a nerve. Besides, I need know everything I can. This feels risky, though, and I know I'm not getting the whole story. I look at Zeph, and see the curiosity and apprehension I'm feeling echoed on her face.
“Zeph, what do you think? I'm curious... but I'm not sure if we should go.”
Zeph furrows her brow, and eyes the door thoughtfully for a moment.
“I'm only going if you do,” I add.
Zeph looks at me, a certain decisiveness in her eyes. “Okay...” she exhales. “Let's do it.”
We move forward together, open the door, and walk through.
On the other side of the door, the landscape changes once again. A gray twilight shines coldly on barren, colorless ground. Twisted, rusted metal litters the ground all around us. Ruined buildings rise haphazardly toward the sky, as if trying to return from whence they came. Except, some of this doesn't look like it's from Arcadia. Where are we?
A soft sound, as if someone is clearing their throat, catches our attention. Chess is leaning against a large piece of rubble, watching us patiently. When he notices he has our attention, he gives us one of his trademark grins.
“Well,” Chess' voice is smooth, and there is a hint of approval in the words. “I'm glad to see you've decided to keep your free will, at least this far. There -is- another choice for you to make later, but first...” he turns his gaze on Zyphania, “what is it you want?”
Zeph smiles smugly. “Does that really matter? Whatever I say, you'll simply use it against me.”
“Why, my dear Zyphania,” Chess exclaims, an exaggerated hurt expression on his face. “I've done nothing but help you.”
“And why?” Zeph says, her expression more serious. “Why did you choose me? Was there a reason, or was it random?”
Chaos smiles, his normal smile, with just a hint of genuine care. “It was random. Everything I do is random.”
“That's what I thought,” Zyphania sighs, her eyes downcast.
“There is no purpose, no grand plan behind my actions,” Chess says, his voice smooth as silk.
“And what of Adam?” Zeph asks, her eyes firmly meeting Chess'. “You raised him, and the... things following him from the West. There was no purpose behind that, either? If not, then why bring them forth at all? If I asked you to stop them, would you?”
“Why would I do that, after setting them free?” Chaos smiles. “If you want to stop them, then stop them. I simply cut their strings... released them from the ties with which the King would bind them.”
“But, even that is a plan... a purpose...” I muse aloud. “Aren't you just cutting the King's 'strings' to replace them with your own?”
“Taking an action and having a plan are not the same thing, Delilah. I have no future plans for them. In fact, I don't plan to have any further interactions with them at all.”
“Even if your plan is just to go against Alastor's plan, that's still a plan.” I smirk.
Chaos gives me an inscrutable look. “I have no interest in anything in this world.”
“Nothing?” I say, grinning wryly and resting a hand on my abdomen.
Chess smiles widely. “Your child is no more or less interesting to me than anything else in this world.... Except, perhaps, for you. I just don't want it to fall into his hands.”
“I don't want it to fall into -anyone's- hands.” I say, and then pause for a moment as the other part of what Chess said sinks in. “And why are you so interested in me?”
The smirk on Chess' face persists. “Tell me, Delilah... do you think Alastor... loves you?”
My brow furrows. I've asked myself that question hundreds of times, but something about hearing someone else ask it aloud brings home the answer I have come to.
“Probably not,” I finally manage. “We were acquaintances, nothing more.”
Chess smiles, and starts to turn toward Zyphania.
“But... you didn't answer my question.” I interrupt. “What is it about me that you find so interesting?”
“Why do you think he brought you back, Delilah?”
“I'm not sure,” I admit with a frown.
“The only thing you'll ever be to him is a pawn. Just another cog in the mechanism of his grand scheme.”
Stung by the kernel of truth I'm afraid might be found in Chess' words, I fall silent. I suddenly find myself so lost in my own thoughts I hardly even notice when Chess turns again to Zeph.
“I ask again, Zyphania...” Chess says, his voice almost kind. “What is it you want?”
“You're so insistent,” Zeph sighs. “Very well. I'll give you an answer. I want to save all those people.”
“Done,” Chess snaps his fingers.
Zeph gives him a look of disbelief.
“Don't believe me? Go see for yourself.”
Chaos gestures, in his bizarrely elegant way, toward the apparition of a door shimmering to his left.
“And what, exactly, will we find through that door?” Zeph manages to ask.
“Just what I told you,” Chess says patiently. “The people you just had me save.”
“I didn't ask you to do anything. But, if you have saved them, I'd certainly like to see for myself.”
Zyphania turns to me. “What do you think, Delilah?”
I am silent for a moment, drawn into the battle raging in my mind between curiosity and caution, wondering which will prevail this time.
“I'll admit, I'm curious. I want to go, but, I don't know if we should.” I pause for a moment, and then look to Zeph, a hint of mischief in my eyes. “I'll go if you will.”
Before I can blink, Chess is behind me, whispering in my ear. “Are you really going to let her make this decision for you?”
“This doesn't feel like just my decision,” I explain. “It seems like we should both go, or neither of us should.”
Zeph furrows her brow and looks at Chess, her conflicting emotions visible on her face. “If you really did save those people, I want to know what happened to the little girl... the one we saw when Grace touched the doll.”
“She's fine.” Chess coos with a smile, looking toward the shimmering space that might be a door. “You'll see her soon.”
Zeph turns to me, looking as torn as I feel. “What do -you- want to do, Delilah?”
Chess moves to her side, whispering in her ear as he did in mine. “It's so much easier, isn't it, to let others make your decisions for you.”
“Of course it is...” Zeph says, eyes still on me.
“Oh well...” Chess sighs theatrically. “It appears you're nothing if not consistent. How... disappointing.”
There is a brief silence, as if each of us is waiting for something. It is broken by another exasperated sigh from Chess.
“No matter how many times you save someone, sometimes they still don't trust you.”
“Everyone is so insistent that I must pick a side,” Zeph shakes her head. “Fine. I can walk beside you, but I won't follow you. You aren't my first loyalty.”
“Good enough,” Chess grins. He snaps his fingers, and we once again find ourselves in darkness.
I blink my eyes a couple of times, and am finally able to make out the outline of two doors. Chess, so shadowy he's merely a silhouette at this point, is standing between them..
“As I said before, I'm merely here to give you a choice.” The voice of Chaos seems to emanate from the darkness around us rather than the form standing between the portals.
“This way,” the shadow points to the door to our right, “leads to the people you saved.”
“ And this way,” Chess gestures toward the door to our left, “ leads back to your friends.”
“There's always another choice,” Zeph chimes in. “Isn't there?”
“Of course there is,” Chess says, his trademark smile audible, if not visible. I follow the sweep of his arm, and turn to see a third door appearing behind us. “There's always the option to say no, to close your eyes to all this madness and forget everything. That's what you'll find through that door.”
Zyphania and I look at each other, and at the third door, and then Zeph gives voice to what are my feelings on the subject, as well.
“I won't be going through that door. I can't close my eyes to what I've seen, and just go back to a normal life, or... no life at all.”
She looks at the door to our right longingly. I feel the tug as well, but there's something that worries me. I look at the door on the left. “I can't just abandon the others.”
“You won't be,” Chess says. “You'll see them within three days.”
Maybe I'm crazy, but somehow I feel like I can trust Chess on this one. I turn my gaze to the door at our right, and then look at Zeph.
“Alright,” we say in unison. “Let's do this.”
We walk side by side to the door leading to the people Zeph had saved, and step through it together.
“Frac, there's a chalk circle forming around us.”
“I can see it, sort of,” he replies tentatively. “But I have absolutely no idea what that's about.”
“Okay,” I say, nervously. “Just thought you should know.”
I watch as the chalk circle slowly closes. I try to ignore it, try to clear my mind, but to no avail. The best I can manage is to replace my current worries with thoughts of Arcadia. My mind drifts, as it often does, to Alastor. I want so badly to believe that there's a part of the Alastor I used to know still buried somewhere deep within the King. I want to trust him, to believe that the King still wants the things Alastor wanted. It's been increasingly difficult to hold on to that belief recently, though. Alastor... the King... has felt more and more unyielding, more and more controlling... more and more like Atravitus.
Atravitus. I haven't really thought about him all that much since I woke up. At least, I've tried not to. But, like it or not, my time with him still colors everything I do, and probably always will. If you get right down to it, I owe my existence to him. Had he not taken an interest in me, I may never have been activated in the first place. And, had he not pushed me away when and how he did, I may never have met Alastor. It's such a strange conundrum, to still feel as if I owe him while such a large part of me holds him responsible for the loss of my world.
My mind is pulled back to the present as the ghostly circle closes. The otherworldly light flickers out like a dying candle, leaving me alone in the darkness. The lack of sensory input leaves me with a disconnected feeling, almost as if I'm floating. I feel a tug at the back of my mind. The sensation is almost like a voice, calling me, inviting me... somewhere.
Knowing full well it's probably a bad idea, I accept.
When I open my eyes, I find myself in an open field. Green grass waves in a gentle breeze. Overhead, a silvery white daedalum sheds soft light on the scene. This place feels infinite, and would feel incredibly lonely, I think, if not for the gargantuan tree I see. I can't stop looking at it. A sense of peace emanates from the tree, filling me with a feeling I've only felt once before... in the presence of the Queen.
“Delilah...” The sound of Zeph’s voice startles me, snapping me out of my reverie.”Do you know where we are?”
“I think...” I begin, still half in a daze. “I think I’ve been here. Well, not here, but somewhere like it.”
Zeph cocks her head to one side, eyebrow raised, and waits on me to continue.
“When the others were chosen by the King, I wasn't with them. There was another force calling me... The King is all darkness and dread. The power I met then was light and peace. And we saw her as a tree” I explain, gesturing toward the living wall before us. “A tree very much like that one.”
Zeph smiles softly, and then, as if she senses there is more to the story, poses a question. “Then how did you end up with the others?”
I smile sadly as the memories play again in my head. Finding myself with Elias, Tess, Quovardis, and Dr. Mendoza in front of the shining tree. Meeting Lenore for the first time, and feeling the uncanny connection between us. The helplessness I felt as I watched her turn to dust at the King's hand.
“There was another... version of me, I suppose you'd say. The Queen called me, and the King called her. But... we traded. It felt better that way.”
I don't elaborate. Lenore is safe now, not in torment, not sent into oblivion. Thinking about her doesn't give me the physically painful sadness that it once did, but I still feel a sense of loss that I may never get to know the closest thing to a sister I could possibly have. Zyphania doesn't press, and I'm grateful. We wait for a moment, in silence, before she turns to me again.
“So... what do you think we should do?”
I smile, and walk to sit down near the tree. “This time, I think we just wait and let things come to us.”
Zeph joins me, sitting with her back against the tree and her knees drawn up. She doesn’t speak at first, but her eyes tell me something is weighing on her mind. I give her a questioning glance.
“Maybe...” Zeph begins tentatively, eyes on the ground. “Maybe I'm being too forward, and it's none of my business, but...”
“What is it, Zeph?” I give her my most reassuring smile, hoping to put her at ease.
“I know you're all... unusual,” she continues, meeting my gaze. “But, there's something ... different about you, isn't there?”
I hesitate for a moment before responding. Circumstances haven't let me keep my connections to Arcadia quiet, so she must be talking about the baby, right? Should I open up to her about that? I want to. I barely know her, yet I feel drawn to trust her just like I did the others. She's had so much thrown at her already, though, the thought of involving her any further in my turmoil weighs on my conscience. Something in her tone says she's already hazarded a guess, however. If that's the case, I'd merely be clearing up some confusion. Well, maybe. I don’t feel like I know a whole lot more about the situation than Zeph does, and I’m the one carrying the child. I turn to her, still a little tentative.
“You've seen my scans, haven't you?”
“I've seen all of your scans,” Zeph smiles.
“Yeah, I'm pregnant.”
I pause there, looking at Zeph for some kind of reaction.. She doesn't say anything, merely shooting me a quizzical glance as she waits for me to continue.
“It was... unexpected, to say the least. The doctor noticed it in my scans the first time I got into an Icon. When he told me, I thought he was crazy until he let me hear the baby’s heartbeat. See, I never even thought I could get pregnant, and I certainly didn’t remember doing anything to get that way. But, it’s not a normal pregnancy, so I guess it makes sense it didn’t get there the normal way. It was placed there while I was still asleep. Other than that, I don’t know much more about it.”
Zyphania looks at me, her gaze soft but analytical. “Can I look?” she asks after a moment.
“Sure,” I smile. My response is immediate. This just feels right.
I lie down and stretch out, and Zeph kneels beside me. She closes her eyes, and holds her hands over my abdomen. The sensation is warm, and almost electric. With a deep breath, I close my eyes and try to clear my thoughts. More and more energy flows through me, concentrating on my midsection. I allow my thoughts to drift to things I know about the baby... images from the vision we saw when we touched the tree replay themselves in my mind. Something shifts in Zeph's expression. Maybe my thoughts are reaching her. If they are, I hope it's helping.
I get the sense that Zeph is drawing more and more deeply from the energy around her. I think looking at the baby is proving more difficult than she anticipated, but this place, the tree specifically, is lending her the power she needs.
For a split second, I get a flash of imagery... a swirling mass of light and darkness bound by chains. Zeph's eyes snap open, and she lowers her hands. I give her a questioning look, but wait for her to gather her senses. “I'm afraid I couldn't find out much more than you already knew,” she says after a moment. A hint of disappointment shows in her eyes for just a moment before she smiles again. “But, I can see your child is powerful. I.... I've never seen anything like it.”
I smile. She's right, it isn't really anything more than I already knew, but her words are still comforting.
“You're searching.” the voice is kind, familiar. “What is it you wish to know?”
I instinctively turn my head toward the source of the unexpected sound, and find myself face to face with the shining figure of the Queen. An odd combination of exhilarating joy and calming peace flow over me, followed briefly by a sharp sadness and a twinge of regret that her path is not and cannot be mine. Out of the corner of my eye, I see my mixed emotions echoed in Zeph's expression.
“We were trying to find out more about my child,” I finally respond after finding my voice. Just being in the Queen's presence is enough to draw my mouth into a smile, despite the heaviness of the subject. “There's still so much I don't know about it. And it's such a big responsibility.”
The Queen nods solemnly, understandingly. “Every choice you make affects it.” She pauses for a moment, giving me a look of almost motherly concern. “Do you think you're ready for this task?”
I shake my head, almost laughing. “No. But then again, I don't think anyone really ever is. All I can do is try my best.”
“What do you want for your child, Delilah?”
There are a number of ways I could answer that question, but they all basically boil down to the same thing. “I want it to be happy. And I want it to have a place in this world.”
“And what if it doesn't have a place?” The question is not harsh or even ominous, but the Queen's gaze is intent..
“Then I'll make one for it.” I respond with a confident smile, which the Queen returns.
A silence settles over us briefly, drifting in time with the half thoughtful, half sad look that comes over the Queen's face. When she speaks again, there is a heaviness in her voice. “My time, and perhaps this world's time, is drawing to an end. I want to ask you to do something for me...”
I meet her gaze expectantly, waiting silently for her to finish.
“Show your child my love.”
“I will,” The smile on my face turns to a look of surprise as I hear Zeph's voice echo mine.
The Queen sits quietly, serenely, for a moment. Zeph turns to her, her eyes shining.
“I would follow you if I could, Lady.”
“I know,” the Queen replies with a soft smile.
The silvery daedalum overhead has now moved much closer to setting, and the Queen fades as her daedalum dips below the horizon. As we await whatever it is that's supposed to happen next, Zeph's words keep running through my mind. She's promising to help me with the child, just like Grace did. This brings up a question in my mind that only she can answer, and so I turn to her.
“Zeph, I really appreciate you wanting to help me with the baby and promising to be there for it. I'm going to need all the help I can get. But, there's something I don't understand. Why would you promise that? You barely know me.”
Zeph smiles. Her eyes are kind. “Because I sense that we share a nurturing nature. We both want to make the world a better place. Because I sense that you've got a lot on your shoulders you didn't ask for.” Her smile takes on a slightly mischievous tone. “And because I'm intensely curious as to what this child will become.”
I nod in agreement, but before I can open my mouth to concur that I didn't ask for what has been handed to me, I hear a now familiar voice with its audible smile.
“Oh, but you -did- ask for this, Delilah.” Chess is perched in one of the branches of the Tree, looking down on us as if he's heard the whole conversation.
“Maybe I did, in a way.” My answer comes uneasily, as I find myself unable to put into words that there's a difference between asking and accepting.
Chaos casts a bored look toward the setting daedalum. “Time is running out... for so very many things.”
Zeph moves closer to Chess, a certain dark fascination in her eyes. “You've all spoken of a war, of lines drawn in the sand. Is there no neutral ground?”
“Not anymore,” Chaos answers, his face for once deadly serious.
I see Zeph's face fall, but before she can argue, the Queen's daedalum sets completely, and her Tree disappears. The darkness engulfs us, transporting us to somewhere else... somewhere other. It seems like a hallway, but the light is too dim to gather any details. I only know the floor is there because I can feel myself standing on it.
“The King has you under his thumb,” I hear the uncomfortably silky voice of Chaos coming from the shadows. “He wants to keep you scared. The longer you listen to what he has to say, the fewer choices you'll be able to make on your own. Before too long, he will have taken away your free will entirely. “
“But,” Chess adds, his tone ominously cheerful. The light brightens in the direction of the voice, revealing the unnaturally spindly form of No.One. standing before a large weathered wooden door. “I'm here to show you another way.”
Chaos leans nonchalantly against the wall, eying us with an inscrutable smirk as he basks in our baffled expressions.
“You are free to choose to go through this door or not. However, if you decide not to, it will be the second-to-last real choice you ever make.”
Chaos smiles at the skepticism on our faces. “I'm only here to show you the truth.”
Zyphania and I stand staring at the door in confusion and indecision. Chess stands by silently, patiently awaiting our verdict. Part of me wants to go - what Chess said about losing our free will may not be true, but it struck a nerve. Besides, I need know everything I can. This feels risky, though, and I know I'm not getting the whole story. I look at Zeph, and see the curiosity and apprehension I'm feeling echoed on her face.
“Zeph, what do you think? I'm curious... but I'm not sure if we should go.”
Zeph furrows her brow, and eyes the door thoughtfully for a moment.
“I'm only going if you do,” I add.
Zeph looks at me, a certain decisiveness in her eyes. “Okay...” she exhales. “Let's do it.”
We move forward together, open the door, and walk through.
On the other side of the door, the landscape changes once again. A gray twilight shines coldly on barren, colorless ground. Twisted, rusted metal litters the ground all around us. Ruined buildings rise haphazardly toward the sky, as if trying to return from whence they came. Except, some of this doesn't look like it's from Arcadia. Where are we?
A soft sound, as if someone is clearing their throat, catches our attention. Chess is leaning against a large piece of rubble, watching us patiently. When he notices he has our attention, he gives us one of his trademark grins.
“Well,” Chess' voice is smooth, and there is a hint of approval in the words. “I'm glad to see you've decided to keep your free will, at least this far. There -is- another choice for you to make later, but first...” he turns his gaze on Zyphania, “what is it you want?”
Zeph smiles smugly. “Does that really matter? Whatever I say, you'll simply use it against me.”
“Why, my dear Zyphania,” Chess exclaims, an exaggerated hurt expression on his face. “I've done nothing but help you.”
“And why?” Zeph says, her expression more serious. “Why did you choose me? Was there a reason, or was it random?”
Chaos smiles, his normal smile, with just a hint of genuine care. “It was random. Everything I do is random.”
“That's what I thought,” Zyphania sighs, her eyes downcast.
“There is no purpose, no grand plan behind my actions,” Chess says, his voice smooth as silk.
“And what of Adam?” Zeph asks, her eyes firmly meeting Chess'. “You raised him, and the... things following him from the West. There was no purpose behind that, either? If not, then why bring them forth at all? If I asked you to stop them, would you?”
“Why would I do that, after setting them free?” Chaos smiles. “If you want to stop them, then stop them. I simply cut their strings... released them from the ties with which the King would bind them.”
“But, even that is a plan... a purpose...” I muse aloud. “Aren't you just cutting the King's 'strings' to replace them with your own?”
“Taking an action and having a plan are not the same thing, Delilah. I have no future plans for them. In fact, I don't plan to have any further interactions with them at all.”
“Even if your plan is just to go against Alastor's plan, that's still a plan.” I smirk.
Chaos gives me an inscrutable look. “I have no interest in anything in this world.”
“Nothing?” I say, grinning wryly and resting a hand on my abdomen.
Chess smiles widely. “Your child is no more or less interesting to me than anything else in this world.... Except, perhaps, for you. I just don't want it to fall into his hands.”
“I don't want it to fall into -anyone's- hands.” I say, and then pause for a moment as the other part of what Chess said sinks in. “And why are you so interested in me?”
The smirk on Chess' face persists. “Tell me, Delilah... do you think Alastor... loves you?”
My brow furrows. I've asked myself that question hundreds of times, but something about hearing someone else ask it aloud brings home the answer I have come to.
“Probably not,” I finally manage. “We were acquaintances, nothing more.”
Chess smiles, and starts to turn toward Zyphania.
“But... you didn't answer my question.” I interrupt. “What is it about me that you find so interesting?”
“Why do you think he brought you back, Delilah?”
“I'm not sure,” I admit with a frown.
“The only thing you'll ever be to him is a pawn. Just another cog in the mechanism of his grand scheme.”
Stung by the kernel of truth I'm afraid might be found in Chess' words, I fall silent. I suddenly find myself so lost in my own thoughts I hardly even notice when Chess turns again to Zeph.
“I ask again, Zyphania...” Chess says, his voice almost kind. “What is it you want?”
“You're so insistent,” Zeph sighs. “Very well. I'll give you an answer. I want to save all those people.”
“Done,” Chess snaps his fingers.
Zeph gives him a look of disbelief.
“Don't believe me? Go see for yourself.”
Chaos gestures, in his bizarrely elegant way, toward the apparition of a door shimmering to his left.
“And what, exactly, will we find through that door?” Zeph manages to ask.
“Just what I told you,” Chess says patiently. “The people you just had me save.”
“I didn't ask you to do anything. But, if you have saved them, I'd certainly like to see for myself.”
Zyphania turns to me. “What do you think, Delilah?”
I am silent for a moment, drawn into the battle raging in my mind between curiosity and caution, wondering which will prevail this time.
“I'll admit, I'm curious. I want to go, but, I don't know if we should.” I pause for a moment, and then look to Zeph, a hint of mischief in my eyes. “I'll go if you will.”
Before I can blink, Chess is behind me, whispering in my ear. “Are you really going to let her make this decision for you?”
“This doesn't feel like just my decision,” I explain. “It seems like we should both go, or neither of us should.”
Zeph furrows her brow and looks at Chess, her conflicting emotions visible on her face. “If you really did save those people, I want to know what happened to the little girl... the one we saw when Grace touched the doll.”
“She's fine.” Chess coos with a smile, looking toward the shimmering space that might be a door. “You'll see her soon.”
Zeph turns to me, looking as torn as I feel. “What do -you- want to do, Delilah?”
Chess moves to her side, whispering in her ear as he did in mine. “It's so much easier, isn't it, to let others make your decisions for you.”
“Of course it is...” Zeph says, eyes still on me.
“Oh well...” Chess sighs theatrically. “It appears you're nothing if not consistent. How... disappointing.”
There is a brief silence, as if each of us is waiting for something. It is broken by another exasperated sigh from Chess.
“No matter how many times you save someone, sometimes they still don't trust you.”
“Everyone is so insistent that I must pick a side,” Zeph shakes her head. “Fine. I can walk beside you, but I won't follow you. You aren't my first loyalty.”
“Good enough,” Chess grins. He snaps his fingers, and we once again find ourselves in darkness.
I blink my eyes a couple of times, and am finally able to make out the outline of two doors. Chess, so shadowy he's merely a silhouette at this point, is standing between them..
“As I said before, I'm merely here to give you a choice.” The voice of Chaos seems to emanate from the darkness around us rather than the form standing between the portals.
“This way,” the shadow points to the door to our right, “leads to the people you saved.”
“ And this way,” Chess gestures toward the door to our left, “ leads back to your friends.”
“There's always another choice,” Zeph chimes in. “Isn't there?”
“Of course there is,” Chess says, his trademark smile audible, if not visible. I follow the sweep of his arm, and turn to see a third door appearing behind us. “There's always the option to say no, to close your eyes to all this madness and forget everything. That's what you'll find through that door.”
Zyphania and I look at each other, and at the third door, and then Zeph gives voice to what are my feelings on the subject, as well.
“I won't be going through that door. I can't close my eyes to what I've seen, and just go back to a normal life, or... no life at all.”
She looks at the door to our right longingly. I feel the tug as well, but there's something that worries me. I look at the door on the left. “I can't just abandon the others.”
“You won't be,” Chess says. “You'll see them within three days.”
Maybe I'm crazy, but somehow I feel like I can trust Chess on this one. I turn my gaze to the door at our right, and then look at Zeph.
“Alright,” we say in unison. “Let's do this.”
We walk side by side to the door leading to the people Zeph had saved, and step through it together.
