>>5126500Taking a page out of your creator’s book, with one last look towards your ward as she excitedly shares her bounty of memes (even as Nerada’s eyes start to glaze over), you take flight to the open air of the Fortress’ heart. The vastness of the space takes you aback as you try and get your bearings in the center of the complex, having been content to hover close to your brood up to this point.
Ultimately, with no appetite to appease on the second floor nor any sense of schadenfreude drawing you to witness the fights on the fifth, you find yourself drifting in lazy circles down to the merchants on the ground floor. Sight, sound, and color form a cacophony that serves as a bright echo of the white noise you once enjoyed in your time among your siblings…
…enjoy.
A bitter sort of irony, that. It was a simpler time. No doubts to cloud your mind, or lack thereof. No fears, no doubt, no longing—just the cold, clear, infallible command of the Creator. It was only when your eyes were opened that you realized just how fragile she really is, a fact that only made her resolve all the more admirable, once you understood what she grappled with daily.
‘Ignorance is bliss’...a phrase that rings with the same odd familiarity as the laugh of people you’ve only just met, or the sudden, inexplicable sadness and sense of loss you’ve felt when looking at Amara, or even—more bafflingly—Nerada. It’s at the latter feeling, strange and unbidden, that you’ve grappled with the overwhelming temptation to open a line of communication to your Creator. You’ve felt its pulls, before…you feel that it can be opened again, if you were to try and pry that path open once more.
It’s something you’ve considered before, of course. Marco has, too…something he first confided to you during one of November and Francine’s long, winding conversations. You and he arrived at the same conclusion, after much independent deliberation—for him, the revelation of his expanded consciousness would just complicate things for November, make her think twice about leaving him in the tank in the middle of combat. She hesitates more than anyone realizes, Marco told you not too long ago. Heather Neeson’s a soldier of the highest caliber, but she’s found something she thought she lost long ago…and the thought of losing it has rendered her a paradox of trepidation and decisiveness.
“Me staying quiet means I'm one less thing she’s gotta worry about.” He said, a sad smirk in the way his words took shape in your mind. You’re inclined to agree, for slightly different reasons.
(Continued)
