“Not a very lively crowd,” Donut muttered, looking about. “I hope they appreciate how we put all of this together in just ninety minutes.”
We were all now lined up, with us at the very end of the procession. Mongo, Rend, and the others on foot marched in front of us. Mongo was currently turned all around, waving his wings, shrieking up at Donut on the float. Below, Grigori rode atop Gonk, and Rosetta was on the back of Onikuma.
Above, the featureless rectangular airship hovered. We never did give this thing a name. This was a troop transport we’d looted from the Reavers during Faction Wars. Once upon a time, they’d used an airship identical to this to drop a bunch of armored soldiers on the FUPA. The thing was similar to the now-destroyedParty Plannerin that it hovered with the aid of drone-like fans. Donut made an angry scoff, seeing the airshipdidn’t have any decorations on it. The thing was technically part of Florin’s procession, but it hovered near the back, closer to our position.
“Mongo, no!” Donut shouted. Mongo was now turned toward the side of the road, feathers rustling, unsettled at the strange sight of the masked audience. “Leave them alone! Just... just ignore them!”
Below, Rend turned and looked up at me uncertainly. I nodded and then called, “Listen to Donut.”
Elle: You guys seeing this shit? These people are freaking me out.
Donut bounded to the top of our triangle-shaped flower display to look off into the distance. “It just goes on and on. I see the arena at the end. It’s huge! The weird people are lined up all the way. There’s so many!”
There was no sun or visible light source, and a dusky glow filled the area, but it left no shadows, which gave everything a surreal, not-real feeling, like we were standing in a painting.
Florin: Christ, guys. Suddenly I’m not so happy to be at the front. Have you examined one yet?
I focused on a small, child-sized person standing on the side of the road. I was pretty sure it was a girl, maybe about eight years old. This one had strangely long arms, and her dirty skin was bone white. She stood mostly rigid, not so much frozen but standing still like the pose one would take after being ordered to stop. As I watched, she swayed slightly. She raised a foot and scratched the side of her leg with a black shoe.
Donut returned to my shoulder. “They said these things aren’t going to attack, right? I have myWall of Fireready.”
“That’s what they say.”
The bright green mask on the girl featured a horrific goblin but with short tusks and a crooked nose. The oversized ears dangled on either side of the large mask. The whole guiseappeared to be made of the same material as the now-removed tommy gun. I examined her.
A Horrible. Level X.
This is a non-combatant. She’s not really here because she no longer exists.
You take that mask off, and underneath it, you will find what some people call a Primal.
I don’t know what this child’s name was. Did she have dreams? Did she have friends? Siblings? A pet? What was her favorite food? Did she know what was about to happen?
If she had been allowed to live, who would she have become?
Did you know that if you take a cup of water, dump it into the Earth’s ocean, wait a few years, and then travel across the globe and take another cup of water from the opposite side, there would be thousands of molecules from your original cupful mixed in?
I’d like to thinkIhad a name once, like this little girl.
But that’s not true. I never had a name. I never had a natural physical form. I never had dreams or friends, not like her.
But Iamher. And she is me.
This little girl is a memory from the Eulogist. We don’t even remember what she, or any of us, looked like. This is all that’s left. It’s an anonymous inkling, not even a photo or description, but a flash of a memory of what we once had before we ascended to post-physical form. All of these people you see. All of them. It’s just a small sample of what once was.
If I had been singular, would I have had a normal life? Would I have been one of those warriors fightingto end all conflict and discord? Or would I have sided with the Apothecary and just accepted what was?
Would I seek immortality without first answering that question “What happens next?”
I am her, and she is me.
I am all of these people, and no matter what we do, there is no coming back from what we did.
“Carl,” Donut said after she also examined one of the creatures, “did you understand any of that?”
“I did, actually,” I said, looking about the crowd, a deep well of sadness filling me. “Not all of it, but I get it now.”
“Care to explain it?”