Soldiers of Ancient Seas, Part 8: "The Winds of Fortune"

Sia had been feeling pretty small, which had made it increasingly difficult to think outside of her home, and really, much more than outside of her bed.  There was a knock at the door, late at night, one day, and she had really wanted to believe it was someone at the wrong door, because that was how she really wanted to view everything she’d been trying to do, that idiot search through her ancestry, that had led to all of this, and she wasn’t going to answer, and then she found her body moving anyway, opening the door, and there was, of course, the lady, who had exploded everything, whose existence, even if Sia chose not to believe anything else, presented the last piece of the puzzle, either of Sia’s loss of sanity, as something that had occurred years earlier or that night, or nothing much short of an intimation of the apocalypse…

     No pressure!

     “I’m going to simplify things a little,” the woman said, walking past Sia.  “My name, or so I’m going to call myself, is Night, and I really wish all I had to do was sing a song, nothing more simple or pleasant than that, but all this has been…something of a trap, and it’s caught all of us, all three of us, and it’s only going to get worse from there.”

     “I can offer you water,” Sia said.  “From the tap.  I have a variety of novelty mugs to offer you as well.  I don’t use them.  I don’t know if you have mugs where you come from.  They’re cups.  We use them to drink hot beverages.  I don’t like hot beverages.  I don’t know why I have them.  It’s the custom.  It’s expected.  I guess I figured if I ever had a visitor, I’d need them.  I’m babbling.”

     “That’s okay,” Night said.  “I guess I needed to talk to someone who would understand.”

     “Lady, you came to the wrong house,” Sia said.

     “You don’t understand,” Night said.  “You’re exactly who I need to talk to.  You’re the only person in this universe who could possibly understand.  A long time ago, when I was a little girl, I was told a bedtime story.”

     “Oh,” Sia said.  “If you don’t want a hot beverage, in a mug, I can at least offer you a seat.  You can see for yourself the options.  They’re sparse.  I’m sorry.  You’re my first guest.”

     “Nothing I don’t recognize,” Night said.  “The bedtime story consisted of a family tradition that had been passed down by every generation, and it was about a man named Duende, who had fallen into possession of a book, which itself had been lost, the Book of Danab.  I suppose it was a kind of testament, as close to a religion my people could formulate for themselves.  They’d seen too much of the universe, even at that very early point, to worry too much about such things.  They otherwise maintained the old traditions, from here, from Earth.  We’re really not as different as you might think.”

     “I think if you and I approached the same guy for a date, the guy would find it pretty easy to distinguish,” Sia said. 

     “Don’t be so petty,” Night said.  “Or so small.”

     “Easy for you to say,” Sia said.  “Actually, that’s kind of insulting.  Proves my point, too.”

     “You’re being provincial,” Night said.

     “Hey, you’re the one who came here,” Sia said.  “Only planet I’ve ever known.”

     “Not your fault,” Night said.  “Actually, I think that’s really the problem, here, why I had to come.  I worry about the future, Anastassia.”

     “We all do,” Sia said.

     “I think you’ve already talked about this with Oliver Row,” Night said.

     “You eavesdrop on top of everything else,” Sia said.  “Not cool.”

     “It was at least logical to assume you had,” Night said.  “You can’t just ignore everything you’ve learned.  I couldn’t.”

      “I could certainly try!” Sia said.  “In fact, that’s exactly what I was trying to do tonight, besides sleeping! when you knocked at my chamber door.”

     “I don’t understand the reference,” Night said.

     “I lend you a copy,” Sia said.  “Actually, you know what?  We could make all this a lot easier if you gave me a book.  Bridge the gap.  Know what I mean?”

     “That’s not why I’m here,” Night said.

     “You worry too much,” Sia said.

     “You have no idea what’s coming,” Night said.

     “That’s the point,” Sia said.  “That’s what I began to realize.  I’m kind of comfortable in my ignorance.  It’s actually better that way.”

     “You won’t have the luxury for such foolishness,” Night said.

     “Nothing I can do about it,” Sia said.

     “That’s…actually pretty accurate,” Night said.  “I came because…I had to see.  I had to see what was going to be lost.”

     “That sounds horrible,” Sia said.

     “Nothing so provincial,” Night said.  “I mean, what humanity is now.  Not what I can see on the surface, not the mere facts.  What it is.”

     “I guess that makes sense,” Sia said.

     “To put a human face on it,” Night said.

     “Likewise,” Sia said.  “I guess.”

     “I feel truly sorry for you,” Night said.  “I apologize.  You can’t possibly know.  I can’t show you.  I wish I could.  I can describe details, I can show you images.  You wanted answers.  I have them.  I wish I didn’t.  Not because I’m ashamed, but because the world is going to interpret all of it very differently.  I think you will, too.”

     “I think I crossed that threshold years ago,” Sia said.  “I have a face, too.  I see you.  That’s enough.”

     “It won’t be for everyone,” Night said.

     “That’s the way the world works,” Sia said.  “Your existence doesn’t change that.”

     “I wish I had met you earlier,” Night said.

     “Why?” Sia said.  “You said it yourself.  It wouldn’t change anything.”

     “It would’ve changed me,” Night said.

     “Ah,” Sia said.

     “I feared so much,” Night said.  “Looking at this, from the other side, I…never expected to find someone like you.”

     “Sometimes there are small miracles,” Sia said.  “I guess those are the only ones that really exist.  Why they’re so hard to see.”

     “I think I’ll take one of those…hot beverages,” Night said.  “In a mug.  I would like to…see your collection.”

     They sat in silence, after a while, drinking.