A Minute To Talk About Our Lord And Savior?

ALDRIC PARKER

"I seriously never thought we would meet like this—"

The voice was his own, the cadence, the weight. Yet it did not belong to him.

"As a matter of fact, I never thought we would meet again."

Aldric's future self stood before him, arms loose at his sides, watching him with something close to amusement.

"So," the future version mused, tilting his head ever so slightly, "how's life?"

Aldric's eyes narrowed.

"Go ahead and kill yourself for me," he said flatly. "That'll save both of us some time."

His future self chuckled.

"I would," he admitted, voice light, easy, "but you see—I am a man who did not fail his peers. A man who did not lead them down into this fake husk of a world."

He smiled, but there was nothing kind about it.