15. “Christmas Eve (III)”

Grant bolted awake from a dream of easy conquest, and found himself lying in a bath of rainbows, as always.

Off in the shimmering distance, Moon watched him with a condescending smile. As always.

Yes, reader. He’s back here again.

Did you think he wouldn’t come back? Did you imagine that little talk with his wife had cured him, instantly, forever?

Please. Be serious. Addictions are not broken that easily.

“You’re getting better at defense,” Moon said.

She was right next to him, now. Her face almost touched his. She’d been so far away, only a moment ago.

Had she crossed the intervening distance, or had she simply teleported? Her subcrash permitted both modes of transport.

He really had no idea. His perception stuttered, when he was perceiving things other than The Deadly Embrace of Immortals. Flashbulb sight.

He didn’t care, either. What did it matter, whether Moon had walked from here to there, or only blinked out of existence there and appeared here in the next instant? They had all the same consequences.

Namely, nothing.

It did not matter what occurred.

“That bob-and-weave tactic that you like so much—you’ve perfected it, I think. You are a virtuoso at it. Seen from afar, I find it a curiously affecting spectacle, possessing elements of dance, of orchestral arrangement. It aspires to the condition of music.”

“Easy game,” Grant said. “The other players. C-tier. Not hard. Easy.”

“Oh, but it has come at a cost, now hasn’t it?” Moon tutted.

“Look at you, poor boy, barely able to string a sentence together! My jerboa has his namesake’s deftness, but only in the game. Only in a frivolous, pointless game!”

My jerboa

Fancy footwork, owls circling, my jerboa

We can leave, it will finally be over

Rainbow ripples. Moon’s smirk. An unfamiliar drumbeat, somewhere far off. Flash, flash, flash.

“Look at what naughty, naughty Moon has done to you! Such a mockery of the man you once were~”

It did not matter what she said. It did not matter what occurred.

“A savant, all your will and capacity sapped away except in one, pitiful respect.”

An iridescent bath. A rainbow fluid, like liquid soap.

He looked like a soap bubble

The rainbows of the end

The drumbeat came nearer.

“Naughty Moon has done a thorough job on you, hasn’t she? Look at the ruin she’s made of you. All nice and ready now for your big reunion~

“Oh, to think of it! The look on Azad’s face, when he sees what you’ve become in his absence! The shock, the disgust close on its heels . . .”

“Wait,” Grant said. “Azad?”

“You know Azad?”

Moon’s smirk disappeared. Her eyes grew very wide.

“You know Azad? Where is he? Where is he?”

The drumbeat was deafening. It was heard with the whole body, not only the ears.

The rainbows of the end

The end the end the end THE END

If you see these rainbows, says the scientist, it’s too late, your life is over, it’s the end, it’s GAME OVER

“You recognize his name,” Moon said.

“You’ve never done that before. You remember him! From before!

“You can’t remember, not that manner of thing. Not even at the height of a prebase. You should not be able to, unless—unless—oh.”

Awe played across her face, and a shiver ran over her.

“Thawing,” she said.

“Still crashed,” Grant said.

“Need to find Azad,” he said.

“Still crashed,” he said. “Another crash. Find Azad.”

The words did not come easy. But they were very, very important words, so he pressed on anyway. Face forward, Grant. One foot after the other. Do the work, do it the hard way, punch through to the other side.

“Thawing!” Moon said.

“Advanced containment is thawing! Its shell is thawing, the primary domain, the outer crash . . . it’ll melt away, and when it’s gone, all the spaces will start to thaw too, all the subcrashes, everything . . .

“The end is come at last. The forces of fate converge. No more waiting. Nowhere to hide.

“I must go.

“I must go to him, stand by his side as the moment finds him and lifts him up . . . . Oh, to him, to him . . . my love, my lord, lifted up and made lord over all . . . oh, oh, Hector-kun~!”