Act V, The Black HoleChapter 40
Chapter 40: Can You Hear Me?
Inside the black hole.
In the dark beyond the sky, two friends finally say what they never said aloud.
There was no up in the dark, and no down. There was no sound.
Vexana looked at her hands. The edges of her fingers were coming away in pale flecks, like ash off a page. The burned arm was going first.
Chang’e’s paper had named this place. A black hole, it said, led through the void. It took the body first.
She looked for the Core, as she had planned. She saw none. Nothing at all.
The star at her right wrist was the only light. It was going out.
“In this freezing darkness, I keep waiting for the light of dawn.”
Nothing answered.
“Guinevere. Can you no longer hear my voice?” She waited. “Of course not.”
Nobody could hear her. That was why she could say it.
“We once became twin streams of light, intertwined as we soared toward the heavens. Now, as everything fades away, perhaps I can finally speak the words I’ve kept locked in my heart.”
Her left hand was gone.
“It was you who brought color to my world. As empty and dark as this void... no, before I met you, my world was even darker still.”
“My ignorance and foolishness led to my father’s sacrifice. A soldier until his final breath, dying to save me. How I wish it had been me instead!”
In the corridor she had shouted Stay back! at Guinevere. Her father had said it to her once. The same words.
“Back then, I chose solitude as my companion. I dreaded the thought of losing someone again. But you saw me hiding in the shadows and reached out your hand without hesitation.”
The fading climbed her arm. The star flickered.
“The Emblem of Hope you gave me is my most treasured possession.”
“I keep everything you ever gave me in a box. The ticket stubs. The paper fan. The napkin from the doughnut.”
She almost laughed. It came out as breath.
“The Will of the Planet showed me something. A ‘future’ you must never know. I can’t bear the thought of a world without you... I won’t let you face danger, won’t let you suffer again.”
The dark pressed in. She was nearly all gone.
“Forgive me, Guinevere. If I could go back, I would still choose the same path. To betray you, to protect you...”
She stopped. The star was a spark.
No light came. The dark stayed dark.
Guinevere had heard every word.
She hung in the same cold, with her feet gone to light and her knees going. She had not noticed until she stopped crying.
“What’s with all this doom and gloom?” she shouted. “I can hear everything, you know!”
Silence. Then, thin and far off: “Guinevere?”
She had seen the Mother Matrix stagger back a step before the dark took them. She was sure it meant they had won.
“We stopped the Matrix’s invasion and saved the world! Nothing could make me prouder than that!”
Her voice broke.
“You should have told me these things earlier, silly. My determination to protect you burns just as bright as my will to protect the world! And you kept the napkin?!”
“I never knew the darkness you experienced was so deep and hopeless... but that’s okay! Our memories together still shine so bright!”
Her own secret had waited just as long. She said it all at once, teeth chattering: the whole day on a bench outside her father’s door, a paper on her knee, a sleeve that never moved.
“Don’t you dare laugh! Before I met you, all I had for company was my security detail!”
No one laughed.
“The first thing you ever said to me was ‘You are strong, Guinevere.’ It felt like the very first time someone saw me for me.”
Her father had sent word: come home, or lose her place in the House. She had not gone.
Her hands were going. She kept talking.
“Once, twice, three times... I don’t care how many times, I would never give up on you! The Will of the Planet? Ha! There’s nothing to be scared of! I’ll snatch you right back without a second thought!”
“Even if I have to give up being a lady of status, even if I have to start all over again... I’ll never back down!”
The gold star at her collar flickered once, and lit.
Far off in the dark, a second star answered.
Warmth came up through her feet, her knees, her hands. The fraying stopped. It ran the other way.
“Huh? Why do I suddenly feel like I’m being born again?”
“This warm light... my body... I can feel it slowly recovering...” Vexana’s voice was close now.
“I remember you saying that when the Aspirant’s power pierces through the black hole, we can return to the human world...”
“I’ve read about this.” A shaking breath. “So it was all true after all.”
“It really was true! We saved each other again!”
The two stars flared together. Their light went out through the dark in every direction and did not stop. It pierced the void.
A hand found hers. It was warm.
“Come back with me, Vexana.”
“Beneath the shooting star, we have met again, Guinevere.”