Chapter 10D: The Beast of Bones City

“Have you heard the theory of relativity?” I asked as we walked past people caught in her captivity.

When Aeliana shook her head as an invitation, I said, “Relativity is defined by tensor equations. It defines the way in which gravity bends time and space; it suggests that a strong enough weight can lock you in place. Time stretches to forever at the edge of a black hole. It is there at the event horizon that time loses all control. It is an infinity in which all eternity can pass. It is the place where we could share our endless dance. But just as some infinities can come in different sizes, you are the source point from which a small infinity arises. You are an event horizon that pervades all this space. How long have you known that you can freeze the world in place?”

“I love the way you see something so spectacular even when the truth is so inane. No matter how you dress it up, the power I possess has no effect on the world around us. When this passes, it’ll be nothing more than a blink to the rest of the world. It does not freeze them in time; it only freezes us. I have the power to summon a tiny infinity inside an instant, but it is not a weapon. It is just for you and me.”

“If you hadn’t used it, Hayatama would enslave us. How did you know about it if you’ve only used it once? I still barely understand the power I possess,” I asked as I gave her hand a gentle caress.

Aeliana smiled at this gentle kiss, but she continued our onward run. She steadied her breaths as we passed streets which were once scattered with crowded stands and markets. We crossed into a less upscale section of the city where abandoned buildings rotted in plain sight. Cracks and potholes scattered the street. A thin cloud covered the starry sky in this shadowed city sector, fueled by an expulsion of steam from a crack in a distant street. Broken glass scattered the roadway, but Aeliana stepped intrepidly over it with her calloused feet. When we walked within blocks of my home, we saw tiny drops of water suspended in midair. Rain had fallen from the wispy cloud overhead, but it became locked in place by her power. The streetlight shimmered on the suspended spheres of descending rain. For the first few steps we took in the frozen drizzle, Aeliana extended her tongue and excitedly caught droplets in her mouth with a wide smile.

She said when she reached the door to our quiet home, “I learned the truth of my power when I was the most alone. I can safely say it was on my darkest day, but I deceived myself into believing that it was just a distant daydream – a dreary fantasy, a desperate deception. Like most people who wander the sands outside the city, my sister had her body killed and her soul devoured by an Astrodeus. She had practically raised me. Everything I had I had because of her. I was so heartbroken when I lost her that I convinced myself that it was just a hopeless dream. The Astrodeus who killed her explained that he would let me live because my power would never pose a threat to him. He had not killed her just for fuel; he killed her because he had delusions of grandeur that she could’ve derailed if given enough time. When I asked, he never explained how he could see our unfueled powers, but he said that I am cursed to experience an ephemeral eternity in an instant. I am cursed to see every inch of this world without the ability to ever nudge it in any direction. When I came to this city, I realized that I had not deceived myself in the past. These powers are real. It was then that I put it all together and realized exactly what he meant.”

I nodded slowly, but I did not say a word. Sadness stained her smile as it often had before. She lost her sister long ago but never lost the pain. And like the scars that stained her skin, that sadness would remain. She was tortured by a tragedy she knew she could not tame, and tears surfaced in her eyes as she stood in the frozen rain. I wrapped my arms around her in a powerless embrace, hoping I could somehow strike her sadness from her face. But like a song or all along she forced another smile; she feigned that she had slain her past if only for a while. It was then the rain resumed and fell upon the street, but I felt beat and incomplete as if I botched my trial. Misery clung to her skin in the form of a fake smile.

“I wish I could force reality to give back all you lost,” I said to the woman for whom I knew I would pay any cost.

But Aeliana shook her head slowly and said, “You aren’t in this alone; put that out of your head. I’ve come to terms with the past and that it’s irreversible. What I lost, I know is lost, and that’s incontrovertible. But together we will build a future that shall be traversable. We will build a world where we are not haunted by the ephemerality of our past or the mortality that once bound us.”

“We will build our perfect future like a house atop their bones. We will commit countless crimes which nothing ever could atone. I will become the greatest monster that this world will ever know, and steal so much power that God Himself shall hide below.”

“You know he’ll come after us, don’t you?” she asked as she hid her hazel eyes from view.

“Let Hayatama and his cronies come, let them scream and toil and fight and run. I’ll take his brave soldiers and send them all to Hell. If it would serve us, I would poison the city well. There exists no limit that for you I would not cross, because your heart deserves so much more than to just wallow in loss. I want to save you from your pain and save you with my hand. I want to hold you one last time in the place our love began.”

Aeliana said as she smiled with a little laugh, “I always dreamed I’d fall in love with a psychopath.”

Aeliana pressed her lips on mine and ran her hands through my hair. She wrapped her legs around me when she jumped into the air. We continued to kiss deeply as we slammed open the door; she loves just like an angel but she fucks just like a whore. Having lost my balance, I fell down onto my back. She tore off my clothes with her dagger as if she had gone on the attack. She then cut off her own clothes beneath the gentle rain, and she quickly climbed aboard me with both pleasure and some pain; she sank herself upon me and then twice whispered my name. She stabbed her daggers through my sleeves and pinned me to the ground, and I set my hand over her mouth so that she would not make a sound. We made love upon our doorstep, half-exposed to the stars. We made love without worry because all this world is ours.