I_L: Epilogue

 

Zelga laid back against the cold ground, the entire fortress around her in tatters. The salamander was gripping her staff tightly, barely able to catch her breath after the entity attacked.

The prodigy Cirulet gasped in shock, a sick feeling in her chest she didn't understand. All this time she had thought she knew what was going on, she didn't know anything for sure. Her place among the stars, her treasured Circuless, the empire of pirates she'd help built. What did it all mean? Why was she here? A shadow crept over her, and she saw on this planet a smile of joy at her defeat. No, she'd won didn't she? The Zolarian gazed over the attacker. The fuchsia armored warrior, she'd never had to exert herself so much just to see an opponent sat down in rubble in her life.

The woman staring over the sentry's lifeless shell, who was it? She'd never seen this person before, with her facepaint and blue suspenders, jumpsuit and oversized white gloves. The woman had spirals in her eyes, as if she'd seen to the ends of the world and back and come out having survived the throes of madness.

"Who are you?" Zelga pulled herself up, taking her cloak back.

 

"I know you're afraid of me..." the woman replied as if it was her turn to stare down at the ground, "I know you fear me. But.." She booped Zelga's nose. "Nothing to be 'fraid of, silly. I'm just here to collect on some old cobwebs, nothing more."

The Zolarian shook her head, there was no point to this conversation. She would never understand a life so alien, her whole world was destroyed thanks to this woman.

"Why are you here then? You're not a bounty hunter." Zelga's brows furrowed as she searched the woman's expression, "What do you want from me?"

Ellie pulled up the Sentry's body and smiled. It was merely an empty shell now, a magical construct of someone whose conscience wouldn't rest until they were free. Even in captivity, it seemed impressive to Ellie that Sandra was able to pull off something like this. Zelga coughed spurts of blood, she had heard stories of a woman with a strange power in the far-off stars.

"You already brought me everything I wanted here. You, your Circuless, your race. This is me, for me this was the prize. Hunting for this one took awhile but.. It's over." She threw confetti over Zelga. "Mission accomplished! Hooray!"

Was this woman mocking her? She'd made jest of everything the Circulet stood for. "What do you do? You... you're a sorceress? A mystic?"

Ellie chuckled. "Not exactly. I've seen to the ends of the world, as a person of the stars should." Ellie turned to stare towards the sky. "The world itself is a jenga stack, countless marbles like cosmic orbs tossed around, so many planets, so many stars, all different, but all with a name, and a history, and a purpose. I've watched these stars for so long, I finally knew it." She started to turn around, briefly looking around the majestic Zelga.

"No mere lifeform, no mere being could last so long as I have. I have seen, so I know." She reached from behind and threw a pie at Zelga, all of her bruises and aches already fading into a quiet calm.

"The stars are not alone, not with me! The people are not alone, not with me. For your Circuless, I'm sure there is a reward waiting for you in this world." The cosmos

She smiled as Zelga coughed, her voice growing steadier. The woman turned around and began to walk towards the Zolarian, offering her gentle hand to help her up. Zelga's claws grasped the toony gloves and recovered on two feet. The two of them stood in the wreckage

"What about you?" Zelga asked.

 

"Me? What about me?" Her beaming smile seemed to turn an angle. "Are you alone?" The Circulet shuffled about, pulling her cloak back up.

As she gazed over the skyline, Ellie could not believe what she was seeing. The clouds were bright, the stars were blinding, even in the midst of a ruined city. She knew that this world had to be beautiful. They always were.

"Am I... alone?"

 

⍟

 

 

 

 

Ellie stood on her knees. There was nothing in the blank white void but a covered-up well, filled with damp soil and dirt. She didn't know how long she'd been traveling, it felt like ages, enough to lose track of time. How long since she'd entered this place, Days? Weeks? She couldn't even remember the last time she'd eaten. Her search hadn't taken her anywhere but here, within the cascade. Weeks? She couldn't even remember the last time she'd eaten. But she felt no sign of tiring or fatigue. The void seemed to continue for infinity. There were sparkling, multi-

colored gleams of light in the sky, and she could only guess what they were or meant. The girl who'd been an inspector, a doctor, a carrier, a lover, a merchant. The goddess who once lived as a noble, a street rat, an artist, a terrorist, a rebel and a patriot. Everyone of her lives and their memories were flashing in her head now, and she felt her sense of sanity fleeting around the edges abit. But a part of her was content to let it all flee. She was so dizzy, Ellie couldn't help but sneeze. Her nose bled, droplets falling into the soil and landing on a small seedling.

She rested the Star of Sandra by her side, face still visibly frozen in desperation.

 

Then she sat. Closing her eyes and laying back, Ellie seemed to scoop some white from the void itself, smearing and wiping it across her cheeks. The girl let herself rest. Her imagination started to drift, going back to that castle the old man had said she'd made as a kid. She recalled playing in it, its kingdoms and dungeons, everything her innocent self had conjured up in her youth.

After a long time in this empty void, Ellie opened her eyes. As she saw the glimmer of light on her cheeks, she thought of how life goes on and on without any real purpose, or even meaning. She wondered if she would ever figure it out, and the question was echoed in her thoughts. Why keep playing God, and why put their own life on the line?

Ellie could feel a warm, wet substance falling on her face, down her neck and into her clothes. It was wet, like dew or sap. She squinted her eyes. Something dripped from above, and it seemed to be a branch. A tree branch smelling of mint.

She pulled herself up. The seedling had sprouted up- no, not only that, the well was higher. Wider too, it was about her height now. She looked at it in awe, its branches growing in all different direction. Ellie walked up to it. She rested her hand in its moist trunk, and rubbed its

surface with all its bristles. It was an evergreen tree, cone shaped, pointing towards the heavens. The branch was soft, and as she looked closer, she saw thousands of little seeds in its folds. Ellie took a large handful and started to shake the large, full seeds out. They were a glassy green color, almost translucent, like emeralds. Each one seemed to contain something swirling inside, nebulas and galaxies inside. She deposited them all back into the same soil, and laid back again.

Once she had drifted to sleep, Ellie felt herself sinking down, down, down. Down, down, down... Into her mind, into the distant past, getting to know all her old lives and selves, as if they were dear friends. She awoke once again in the void. It could've been days or weeks, or centuries. When she woke again, she took off and soon, the city came into sight above her. Like a painting, it appeared as though it had always been there, like a mirage. Cities, deserts, palaces and theaters, the soil having grown out so far that massive labyrinths ran through them. From the lone small well, something else had emerged.

The only direction she could travel was up. To the surface. To the sky. To the endless structure she would call her own. The stars and lights inside the well.. the Tower, they were more than she could've ever imagined, they seemed to have been waiting for her to find them. Once she reached the top, a dollhouse was waiting for her. It seemed vaguely familiar, like she'd spotted it many lifetimes ago. The girl went inside a cozy fireplace, giggling all the while. She cracked her knuckles and went over to the back pavement, a tall wall into infinity with massive branches. There were countless worlds and many souls living in this magnificent sight now around the well's rings, but in the centermost space, the hollow core that lead to an unbroken tunnel from the bottom to the top ascent, was her domain exclusively. Ellie stood at the very top. With a bit of for the pride for the feng shui, she rubbed her hands together and started to sing a Carol. The branches receded into the trunk and well, as twelve lights shone, forming ornamented

orbs which contained pieces of her soul, and the power of the Tower itself. White spirals started to flurry out over the sky, storming around the abyss and falling across infinity. On every floor and world, this weather could be seen coating everything in sight with a creamy silken blanket of gentle frost. The well seemed to glow, and as she stood there, at the summit of the Tower, she felt her sense of belonging, a deep-down-down-down-feeling of contentment. She could feel the winds howling around her, but it was the warm, silky breeze that felt more home to her than it did any other time.

⍟

 

The goddess headed into the center of the well, at the highest point. At the summit, above her dollhouse she entered a point where something could be seen hanging, dangling over the top of the entire tower, its once evergreen origins long since ceded to soil and stone.

It was Sandra. Still sealed and encased since that very day.

 

Ellie's sleepy eyes opened and she saw Grace sitting before her, turning the page of a book. She smiled and stretched her arms to embrace her. The two sipped a cup of hot chocolate and looked back at the Tower's centerpiece, the Star shaped prison that existed as its apex.

"Fascinating! So when the twelve Glubbles are gathered back in your possession they, create arctic weather patterns? Everywhere, across and inside the entire Tower?" The librarian asked, adjusting her glasses. "Even when you've given them adrift?"

"I can call them back anytime I want, Gracie silly. Consider me just borrowing them.. from the people I let borrow them."

"I see.. but, why snow?" In a thick coat, she felt the falling flakes fall over her fingertips.

"You know, in my world, in this reality, there was this story once, about a girl who woke up in a world where nothing had purpose or meaning. It was endless, so endless. And she found a way to make her own purpose, out of nothing, by seeing that everything around her was but one big illusion. She decided to use her imagination to bring life into everything, everything that she saw. With nothing but a broken past to lose.. why not wrap it all blank, in white? Snow is just the heaven's way of forgetting. And sometimes, gift giving. Not a bad combination, no? To forget and forgive, it's almost like the weather of forgiveness, or redemption. Something dumb like that." She shrugged.

"Very astute mistress." Grace replied, seeing her attention wrapped into the Star and the girl still trapped inside.

"Please excuse my forwardness, but.. may I ask, who is she, Mistress?"

 

"Just an untold story. Someday, she'll tell it for herself.." She sipped her cup.

 

Grace sat back, reading some of the notes on the back cover of the book, while Ellie leaned against the wall, propped up by one arm.

"Of course she's going to be fine. She's like an immortal. Plus, the void is her home and sanctuary. She's in no immediate danger. Why?"

"I'm not worried, Ellie, I'm... concerned? Curiosity for knowledge isn't a faux pass. Again I apologize for prodding. You come here quite often and look up at her. I have no books on her in my library, and I have books on everybody. It seems you've been having some thoughts about her." Grace set the book down, a bit awkwardly.

Ellie giggled abit, fixing her lipstick and walking forward, looking up at Sandra sealed inside still. Her sister, she didn't fear her. She missed her. It'd been so long, she wondered when she could finally let it all go.

"I'm just waiting, Grace. Waiting to be able to let her out. To have my sister back. I promised myself I wouldn't release her until Mother returns." Grace smiled and placed her hand on Ellie's, who smiled in return, pulling her into an embrace. Grace hugged her back tightly.

"What do you plan on doing until then, mistress?"

 

Ellie smiled, watching the snow fall. She walked around the snow, taking up some balls into her hands and tossing them at Grace. "That." She smiled. It took abit of confusion, but slowly Grace joined in, scooped up a snowball and pelted her back.

The stars twinkled softly and the snow kept falling, twinkling in the backdrop of the fading star. They turned around and walked down the stairway, letting the sky fall where it may, never once looking back where the footprints in the snow faded into merry bliss.