Issachar returned to his Father's side inside the body of the teenage killer. They still remained inside the rustic house that hung with an air of familiarity...in some other time a body hung from a noose in this very bedroom. "I've completed my task, Father. What do you need next of me?"
"BEGIN THE COLLAPSE."
"A-Are you certain? There's still Ormus'…"
"DO YOU DOUBT ME?"
"I…"
"IF SHE IS IMPORTANT SHE WILL SURVIVE. IF NOT..."
"Yes Father, I understand."
"ISSACHAR."
"Yes, Father?"
"ASK ORMUS TO COME AND SPEAK TO ME. I. . .HAVE QUESTIONS ON THE GIRL."
Issachar nodded Lilly's head, and then bowed. "Of course, Father."
Issachar left the seat of Father and immediately was standing on top of Mount Sinai. It was a beautiful Egyptian mountain that overlooked the vastness of the wild. Issachar stood with Lilly's arms at her side and looked out over the view.
"This world does have some gorgeous sights." Its eyes scanned across the valleys below. "I'd like to remember this view…"
Ormus behind it took a step out. "You always were a sight seer."
Issachar looked back to the group of lights that made up Ormus. His specific string he could recognize anywhere.
"It's a beautiful place."
"And you're going to ask me if I miss it?" Ormus asked.
"No, not that. I want to know how much you remember."
"I thought it would be something like that."
"You always shrug it off."
"Because it's to come with time. I only remember what I'm supposed to remember."
"Right." Issachar nodded, looking back toward the sands below. "Father is looking for you. He wants to talk about Allison Fae, thirteen."
"You don't have to refer to their ages. Some people find it rude."
"Oh...sorry."
"Don't worry about it, I'm not offended. Just keep it in mind." Ormus sighed. "And...I'll go talk to him. What are you doing?"
"Father told me to start the collapse."
"I...see."
"If you want to see her then now would be the perfect time," Issachar said. "She's very smart."
"No, I shouldn't...plus I've got more than enough on my plate from Father. I'm being sent to 423."
"With Sakonna?"
"She's finished up there now. I've got someone I'm scheduled to meet there."
"Okay," Issachar said.
"Thank you...for keeping an eye out."
Issachar nodded, and then turned back toward the world. Ormus left. Issachar sat and dangled Lillian Jones' legs out across the edge, holding her hands against the cliff side. An hour passed and still Issachar held still. That was when its hands began to feel the warmth at the fingertips. Above it the sky was a massively indigo canvas with stars splattered all over.
As its fingertips began to glow a bright white the stars themselves began to move the slightest bit, and then faster, and then faster. It started to look like a whirlpool of glowing white lights that moved in sync with the light on its fingers. Up above the universe sat a collection of several million different-but similar universes; lands of light—Luxmund. Each of them encapsulated their entire growing half of the Manyverse—with Noctem just on the other end of the Darkbright. Luxmund and its many selves on that particular moment began shifting, seizing, vibrating, colliding.
Collapsing.
~…~
The tale of light as it grows to infinite is told by those who live within it.
The tale is said to grow by the youth. The secret lies within the uncouth.
When Night and Day form as one, magical abilities are the sum.
Light and Dark two brothers eternal. One heroic, one infernal.
When both are equal, both will prosper. To bring back those who lost her.
This is the law of the land of Noctem. Father has told us this rhyme since the day of creation. It is ingrained in each of our beings as a part of our makeup. We were brought to Luxmund to collapse it back into one unified universe.
Sakonna gathered the energy for us, thankfully it was enough. It was my job to unite the Night and the Day, and it was a total success.
I pray for those humans that remain in the new world. They have been so used to having multiple universes to rely on—if a human died in one it didn't really impact much since there were a million-million other versions of that very person present and happy in the other selves. I'll admit, I was a bit jealous of it before I came to Earth. Why should they get to live millions of lives while we only have one, Father? That is the most common question Father gets, I think.
"Humans didn't always get millions of chances," was usually his reply. He never expanded on it further…it seemed kind of sad. I never really ever saw him sad except for that moment.
I stopped thinking that whole thing though when I had come to see what humans really were like. Some of them were just so awful to each other…I got to wondering. What if one version of one human was so bad that another version of him or her was good in some other self? Vice versa, of course as well. And that's what led me to my experiment at Nasseu Middle School.
Father wanted me to pick any old human—Sakonna wanted much of the same. She always wants what Father wants, nothing more and nothing less.
I didn't want to take just any old human. I would be no better than the worst of them if I took a savior among a self. I decided I was going to choose someone young—someone who had been broken and unable to do good. It had been good luck that I found just the perfect candidates in the students of Nasseu Middle School. Lillian Jones, thirteen, was the perfect human for what I desired…but also not. At least, the selves I originally saw when I came to Earth in 1990.
I came in the same Luxmund that Sakonna had—Luxmund-423. She always had a fascination for that number—I couldn't tell you why. Anyway, I found her as Lillian Jones, seventeen down in New York. She had similar abilities as she did in Luxmund-66502…but there was something holding her back from her true potential. If I'd taken her then she still would have some good in her. She was a tragic soul who was constantly making amoral decisions, but she typically found a way to make up for her mistakes.
I couldn't take that away.
It was actually Ormus who helped bring it all together. I found the perfect solution in Allison Fae, thirteen. She complemented Lillian Jones, thirteen, wonderfully, and helped bring out the exact scenario I wished for—a Lillian Jones that would be so blinded by her desire for revenge that she loses all sight of hope; all desire to be forgiven. I needed an irredeemable soul. In a land of infinite Lillian Jones, who would miss the worst one of them all?