"Not for us," Vesperin whispered.
And the Earth rocked and trembled as the Stars fell screaming from the sky. She grew so hot she thought she mightburn alive. But far before that could happen, far before she felt the pain of Earth’s end, it all went dark.
Earth turned to ashes.
Darkness.
Then shapes began to take form.
Slow at first,like a shimmering mirage, everything came into focus around her.
First, the smell. It was like bottled Stardust, something effervescent, indescribable. It made her nose tickle... She had a nose? She must if she could smell such things.
Next was not a sense, but a state of being. She felt her limbs, down to her fingers and the tips of each toe. It was as though her body were filling out, her Soul being poured into flesh, shimmering liquid of herself tipped from a glass decanter into a spiral of bone and blood.
Then she felt. The air around her—pleasantly warm. Something tickled the bottom of her bare feet, growing around her like roots. When her ears—if she had them—granted her sound, peace unlike any she had ever felt before threatened to make her unseeing eyes fill with tears. Water rippled faintly, a soft gurgle that made her homesick. So too was the sound of long leaves brushing against each other in a phantom’s wind.
At long last, came sight. After she had existed for so long, time was meaningless to her.
What was time? The word was nothing. Words themselves held no meaning, only the meaning prescribed to them. And here, wherever here was, the meaning behind the wordtimewas inconsequential. Nothing.
When she opened her eyes, she was greeted by a serene body of water. Flowers grew thick on the verdant bed of grass. Theirpetals were blue. She knew what they were called, but the word escaped her. Tree branches hung low over the water and all around her. It was a grand winding river, she realized, staring at it. It was wide, and she had a sense it was vast in depth. But the most shocking thing of all:
The water was not blue. It was pure black.
And the surface rippled like the very galaxy itself.
Glowing specks of light filled the air, soft and warm in her palm as she reached for them curiously.
Vesperin did not realize how long, how much, she had hurt, until the pain left her entirely.
So this was death.
It was quieter than she had imagined.
And just as dark.
She felt nothing.
There was no blood in her throat, no heat, no fear, or exhaustion.
Just peaceful understanding.
She looked down at herself, as if slowly coming into her thoughts once more. She wore a dress spun from pure Starlight. It stopped high on her thighs, the straps thin and inconsequential. It molded to her shape, clinging to every soft curve of her gentle, slight breasts. It moved like water around her as she shifted, flattening her palms on the sides in wonderment.
The soft fronds of grass tickled her feet as she took a small step forward. Her legs wobbled as if unused to walking.
She remembered everything, but could not quite bring herself to feel grief here. This place was too extraordinary. Too magnificent to bear the weight of sadness.
Dying felt different from what she thought it would. It felt like stepping from one room into the next. One moment, she had been huddled on the ground, sweat-slicked and grief-stricken.And now she was here. Where everything felt slightly muted and hazy, as if she were dreaming. If this were a dream, she never wanted to wake up.
Beyond the trees, she saw shadows. She stared into them, trying to make out shapes, but nothing came into focus. It was as though what she saw before her was all she was being granted—a taste of beauty, where most did not belong.
Finally, a body took form out of the shadows. A familiar warmth filled her Soul, along with the sense of being watched lovingly, familiarly.
Then she saw him.
Atlas stepped out from behind a tree, low-hanging leaves brushing his dark coat. He was so beautiful. She made a choked sound.
