"Peeble."
"Shh, I'm talking to Gerald." Another pause, more animated. "Listen, Gerald, baby, sweetness, light of my six lives, I know he's awful. I do. But he's the only awful I've got right now, and we need to get to our Elle before the entire universe collapses.Not this Elle—" they gesture at Iteration Fifteen Elle, who raises an eyebrow—"although this Elle is lovely and terrifying and I respect her deeply. Our Elle. The one scattered across time. The one you've helped before in other versions."
Silence. Peeble's antennae twitch.
"Really?" Their eyes go wide. "Oh, Gerald, you absolute ANGEL!" They clap their claws together. "Kaelren! Gerald is going to give us a lift!"
"A lift," I repeat.
"A lift!"
"To where?"
"To wherever we need to go! Gerald's roots connect to the crossing network. The same root system that links the iteration gates. All the big, old trees are part of it. Gerald can send us through!"
Before I can respond, the roots shift again. Not upward this time, downward. At the base of Gerald's trunk, the bark splits with a low groan, revealing a hollow. Not just a hollow, but a maw. Wide, dark, descending into the root network below. I can feel the magic emanating from it. Old. Powerful. The same energy I felt in the Elm Gate back in Jo's garden, but rawer. Less refined. A highway instead of a doorway.
The roots holding me swing with casual force and hurl me into the opening.
I don't have time to brace. Don't have time to shout. The darkness swallows me whole, and the last thing I hear before the world disappears is Peeble's voice, distant and delighted:
"Thanks, buddy! I'll come by for tea soon!"
Then there's nothing but the fall.
The first thing I hear is shrieking.
My eyes fly open, terrified. Peeble is fatally injured. My body is pressed against cold stone, and I can smell mineral dust and wet rock and something faintly sulfuric. We're not floating in the Void anymore. We landed somewhere hard, and the shrieking hasn't stopped.
"Shit—Peeble, are you okay?" I scramble off the ground, palms scraping against rough stone. I don't even pause to take stock of the injuries on my body, knowing my left leg is definitely bleeding.
We've landed on some kind of massive rock outcropping, jagged slabs stacked and scattered like a giant kicked over a pile of building blocks. And it's cold. I rub my arms trying to generate some warmth and start frantically scanning the surrounding rocks.
"Peeble, please tell me you're okay. Where are you?"
A louder wail. High-pitched, agonized, the kind of sound that makes your stomach drop.
What the hell am I going to do? I don't know how to heal a bug. Can you even make a splint for something that small? Do beetles have bones? I don't think they have bones. They have exoskeletons, which means if something cracked—oh God, I can't think about this.
I clamber over another pile of rocks and spot Peeble lying on their back, all six legs flailing in the air. I skid to my knees beside them, gravel biting into my skin.
"Tell me what hurts. What's wrong? What can I do?"
Peeble's voice comes out in a whisper. "Elle… is that you? You sound so far away."
"I'm right here, Peeble. I want to help you. Please tell me how I can make the pain stop."
Peeble wheezes, a rattling sound that makes my chest clench. "I need you… to flip me over. I want one last look at the world… before the end."
Oh, goddess. Peeble is going to leave me.
I gently try to lift the beetle, not knowing where injuries might be. My hands are shaking. I've never been one to handle sickness well in others. One time, my cousin Jenny puked in my car and I gagged so hard she ended up cleaning it up herself while calling me pathetic. She wasn't wrong.
I set Peeble down on the ground right-side up and immediately start searching for some kind of visible injury. Iscan their shell, their legs, their wings. Nothing. No cracks, no dents, no oozing fluids. Do beetles ooze? It must be internal.
"Peeble, help me out here. What am I looking for? I don't see anything wrong."
Peeble blinks their beady little eyes up at me. "Elle… oh, sweet Elle… the light is fading… it's all going da—"
