Elektron Kovač Eternity
Kovač
One a.m.
It is surprising just how little there is to pack up. Only a handful of personal items; a wrench, clothes, a sodium lamp that used to sit on a dining table. Xyr bags are light.
…
Elsewhere, graphite scrapes against paper, the fans in Caput whirring quietly. There are only a few personal items here, as well. The most used object is a coffee-stained mug.
Two a.m.
Principality City may have been beautiful, once. Now it is a deserted wreck, and its old grandeur is hollow. Elektron looks up at the stars and sees only clouds.
It's something like a dead light flickering in a corner of Cubile. Forever on the fritz, unfixable. The city destroyed by hands that did not care for its beauty. Or by the simple inevitability of time.
…
There is no new information on the page before him. Avgust stands, pacing the room he has been permitted to use, and looks out onto Caput. There is no one but zir here at this hour.
Zie pauses. And then he steps out from Caput, and onto a train.
Three a.m.
It is possible to walk quite a long distance in a desert without seeing another living soul. There will be many other migrants from the Underground, but fey is among the first. This means he is totally alone as he walks. Alone, with only thoughts for company.
Thoughts of the future. Of the wonders vae will see, and the knowledge vae will acquire, far away.
None of these thoughts last long enough to drown out that keen awareness of finitude.
…
Even after the last stop, there is further to go by foot before Avgust reaches Obscurus. The station is lived-in; perhaps the only place in the Underground with grass growing freely, murals on the walls, light. (Maybe in future there will be more.)
He traces a particular set of words, carved into one of the stone pillars.
THE DIRECTOR IS A LIAR.
Four a.m.
The rationale was perfectly sound. Every step was careful but calculated, its consequences spreading to the entire Underground with frightening efficiency. (Ripples in a small pool.)
Five a.m.
And if he were to go back, he would do the exact same thing again.
Six a.m.
Avgust never leaves the Underground.
Elektron never returns.