Chapter Eight - EmaG

  That… Hah. Actually? That is a pretty reasonable request, all things considered.

  I drop my karate stance, putting my hands in my pockets instead. My head takes a cartoonish tilt at her while I process… Because… What other choice do I have? My reality is gone, somewhere I can’t return to under my own power… I stepped out onto this branch willingly, so, why not see it through? Lastly I look at Keats, who is loudly crunching on his bone, his tail wagging furiously, not caring at all about the impossible scene around him.

  One thought stops me though, so I narrow my eyes and say, “Alright, I came this far, I’ll hear you out.” Then I raise my finger, “But I have one condition.”

  Syn laughs again, nodding along as if this was always part of the game she played, shifting her weight so she was now sitting up straight and peering at me like she was really looking this time. She gives me a tired grin, “Oh yeah?”

  I nod back and gesture around at the dying universe above us, “I have spent too much of my life playing games, reading books, and wishing something exactly like this would happen to say no now but…” I point my thumb over my shoulder at the world I left behind, “Things are not great where I come from, so, in exchange for me doing whatever you want me to do? I want you to fix it, you know, for everybody.”

  She blinks, frozen, her head tilts hard enough that I can hear her bones pop, she starts tapping her chin furiously with her fingers while staring at me through her messy hair.

  I giggle while imagining her playing a mad piano solo on her face.

  Syn suddenly stops and stands up, the movement sending ripples through the space around us, causing reality itself to break, bend and reduce to fractals all around us, leaving only the Goddess, Keats and me, floating in space.

  Keats doggy paddles in the null-space over to me, his tail swishing like an otter in water, meat bone clutched firmly in his mouth, the colorful particles of matter, all that is left of the stone maze and grass throne, dance out of his way as he reaches my side.

  I smile at the good boy, reaching down to pet his ears, keeping him close as I watch the Goddess now pace around on the nothingness like it was solid ground. I definitely didn’t predict this response… But… Seems like she needs a minute so I take a moment to play with the pieces of reality, waving my hands through the… what? Atoms? Particles? Polygons? Partogons? As they slowly float up towards the black hole, just like the stars.

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  The star-woman-syn finally stops, points an accusing finger at me, “Of course you would ask for the one thing I cannot give!” She laughs, but it sounds closer to crying to my ears, and she lets her arm fall and shakes her head. “I can’t do that…”

  Syn looks up at the singularity for a moment, watching as the swirling string of partogons makes its way towards the center of the void, then turns back to me, “But if you play the game I have in mind, and win?” She swirls her hands until the remaining partogons form into a little replica earth in front of me, she blows on the planet, causing it to float over to and turn to mist as it hits my chest, “You might be able to.”

  I kick my feet in the air for a bit, the feeling of floating in the void causing my lizard brain to freak out, and blurt out, “Can we have the floor back please? Floating here is… weird.”

  She giggles at that, deep, the sound brushing against something broken, but she nods “I guess I went a bit too far, neh?” She waves her hand, reforming the space around us into a mountain peak, so high that we are looking down on a storm in the valley below.

  The black hole is still in the sky, but the sun of this place has yet to feel its pull, and is shining down in deep reds and oranges in the clouds around us.

  The Goddess walks over to a picnic laid out on top of a very comfy looking blanket, “This better?” She says as she settles down into some pillows and grabs a few grapes from the overfull basket sitting in the middle of the setup.

  I smile as Keats sets off to smell and claim everything for his kingdom and take a moment to shout after him to stay close by… Which gets me wondering just how big this… uh… pocket-dimension? actually is.

  The food on display looks mouth-wateringly perfect, so as I somewhat shyly walk over to the blanket, sitting down across from the star-woman, I ask, “Is any of this real?” I chuckle at my own question and decide to rephrase it while pointing at the food, “I mean, if I eat some of the food here, will it sustain me? Will it become a part of me?” A whisper falls out of me without me considering it first, “Could you snap your fingers and make me disappear too?”

  She plops another grape in her mouth, looking at me thoughtfully while munching, then gives me a nod-shrug, “It’s as real as Run’s thai.”

  That answer sends a shockwave of shivers over my skin, though I am not sure why. I file that away for later, trying to focus on the literal god in front of me, and try a white slice of cheese covered in striations of orange and red.

  The moment the cheese touches my tongue its spicy-smoky taste floods my senses! Heat travels down my throat and up through my nasal cavity, causing every nerve in my face to scream bloody murder! But even through the overwhelming and sweat-inducing spice? I still nearly let out a moan as the perfect sharp and smooth flavors dance together over my burning taste buds.

  Syn laughs while handing me a handkerchief to wipe away the heavy sweat at my brow, nodding her approval, “Drakon cheese? Of course that’s the one you would choose.”

  She waits for me to stop panting, handing me a bottle of the best sparkling cranberry juice I have ever desperately chugged in my life. Only continuing after both the juice and spice mingled into a perfect elixir of nowness and I let out a satisfied “Ahhh!”

  She looks at me fondly through her messy bangs, takes a swig of her own bottle, nods appreciatively, and starts into her pitch with a line that forces me to accept that my old life is well and truly over, “Help me Ero J. Emrys, you're my only hope.”