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Solanum circled underneath the vortex, taking it in from all angles. The reflection wasn’t quite as spectacular as she expected. Maybe part of her thought when she gazed into it she'd suddenly achieve some sort of hyper aware understanding of everything and her place in the universe. That was a rather silly thought for something that she deemed was supposed to be unfathomable due to the very nature of its own existence.
She straightened out her thoughts and tidied her headspace, this was the Eye she was thinking about - its reflection is a different entity all together.
The Quantum Moon mirrored the planets it orbited but always seemed to add its own sense of vagueness. It copied the rivers of Timber Hearth but they seemed to flow in neither one direction nor the other. The reflection seemed to be a hole punched through the atmosphere but maybe the Eye itself would be more tangible than she thought.
Perhaps after seeing the reflection she might even be able to see the Eye itself? After all, Yarrow was supervising the final phases of the Ash Twin Project. She recalled that all they had left to test was the Sun Station, for a moment she pondered the theoritics of what might happen if the sun exploded while she was still on the moon. The other orbits would be destroyed but not the Sixth Location, would she die?
' No, the supernova technically wouldn't happen'
The thought seems to latch on to the back of her mind.
'Or...?'
It was in the middle of these thoughts that Solanum realised she wasn't alone. She looked down from the reflection to the stranger that had approached her.
Strangely she felt glad to have some company between the eerie rocks, the other traveller seemed just as curious as she was. They even tried to speak to her before quickly learning the two had very different languages. Solanum still happily answered their questions, or at least replied to the pairs of symbols they placed beside her as best as the two would relate. She couldn’t help admiring her fellow traveller, were they here on their own quantum voyage? Had they already known about the fascinating Macroscopic quantum fluctuations found throughout the Star System?
Something seemed out of place.
The traveller replaced the stones and looked at the wall again hovering their hand over each symbol while thinking. There were no more combinations left and she assumed that's what they were figuring out as well.
They took a step back, they seemed disappointed. Solanum considered adding a new set of symbols onto the wall but it was too impractical of a form of communication to have the conversations she felt they desired. They stood in silence, watching each other with a shared curiosity.
The traveller turned their gaze upwards towards the reflection of the Eye. Solanum looked upwards too and tried seeing the reflection through the strangers four eyes. She wondered what they might be thinking, her newfound friend was part of some kind of space faring race, how else would they have come here? - but their suit and equipment were rough and tattered, clearly they were much less developed than her own race. The Eye and the phantom moon could be far more mysterious to them, were they fearful of it? She remembered that feeling from when she was a child - the feeling that the unfortunate circumstances that caused her to be here were the fault of The Eye.
Almost as if they heard her thoughts the traveller turned down and looked at her again. They passed a few glances between her and the reflection.
‘What could they be thinking now?’ Solanum tips her head to the side.
They pull a large device from their shoulder, pointing one end towards the reflection and looking across it as if aiming. They pull a trigger and the device kicks out some kind of drone, she watches as it whistles up into the void above them while the traveller repeatedly clicks one of the rusty buttons on the device.
'How curious! Was it some kind of probe to see inside of the reflection?'
There was a familiar sound as the drone popped back into the device and they slump downwards almost as if disappointed by whatever results the device they fired had produced.
'Perhaps it didn't work?, or perhaps it did and the images were far more mundane than expected?'
Solanum begins typing on the keys atop her staff, readying a message asking about her friend's little experiment. Before she can finish, the traveller grabs the controller jutting out beside them and uses their combustion jetpack to jump up towards the reflection.
Solanum gasps, her calm demeanor breaks and she stumbles forward trying to catch a final glimpse as they disappear up into the vortex.
Clearly they did not share the same fear as her younger self. Her head was suddenly spinning new questions.
' Why did they choose to enter the reflection?'
'What happened to them?'
'Are they okay?'
'Should I follow them?'
She froze. Everyone else in her clan discussed entering the reflection much like they discussed entering the Eye but no one seriously suggested doing it - and no one actually did it. It was a great unknown for all they knew literally anything could happen. She tried to dismiss the question but it held on tightly, burrowing into her mind until it was the only thing she could think about.
She had to know, she had to know what happened to her friend.
Her legs felt weak and her body heavy, she gathered her strength and jumped. The gravity controllers in her boots reversed helping push her off the ground and the impossible winds of the atmosphere helped pull her in.
She passed the event horizon and her vision faded.
Solanum kept calm, she closed her eyes and focused on her thoughts - focusing on her hypothesis of what might happen and what might have happened to the traveller.
She felt hard ground beneath her feet again and reopened her eyes.
She was home. She was back in the ember twin canyons while they were filling with sand.
'Must get back to the city before they seal its entrances' she thought. She looked around trying to find her way back.
'No, ' she realised, ' The sand is being pulled from the surface.'
‘Or was it? ’
She looked down, the sand already on the twin didn't seem to be rising or falling. It was merely slinking across the surface. Puzzled, she looked around again, now aware to the subtle changes that occurred on the horizon as the hybrid of the twins' features shifted around.
‘This is still the Quantum Moon’ she concluded, but why did it take her to the hourglass twins reflection?
‘Did the moon take the traveller here too? Where were they?’
She looked around more frantically trying to find them or their ship or any other sign that could tell her where they went.
‘Maybe they have already left the moon? ’
She could probably do with getting off the moon herself as well.
She spotted her ship and made way towards it. She entered and walked to the controls, sending her and the ship back home. The tracking ball slides smoothly across the interface and for almost a split second, between the black hole forming and her being spat out on the other side, a strange sinking feeling deep in her soul makes her shudder.
'Perhaps a side effect of warping from the Quantum Moon?' Solanum hypotheses while staring out the mouth of the gravity cannon from her shuttle's window.
She would have to enquire with Bells about the moon’s potential side effects later and hopefully that enquiry wouldn't have to include an explanation of her entering the reflection.
Typically a quantum voyage didn't involve such foolish behaviour. but as anyone in her clan could tell you, even in her youth, Solanum was not known for behaving.
She paused at the entrance to the shuttle, weighing up the options and deciding it would most likely be for the best if her mentor did hear everything. Even if it did mean a potential scolding she was too old for. She picked up her recording device, wiped its storage tape and began narrating her thoughts aloud. She keeps focused on the device, recounting her pilgrimage by enunciating her words slowly and carefully so that its old microphone can accurately transcribe her words.
The old recorder was a gift. Given to her as a child by her parents in the hope that if she had somewhere to vent her abundant thoughts she would be less inclined to scrawl them all over her bedroom walls. It only helped a little.
She walked the path around the cannon slowly, reading the words as they appeared on the script. Blissfully engrossed in her verbal essay and completely unaware of the environment around her.
That is until she trips. She stumbles forward, twisting her ankle on some loose stones and stopping with a horrific crunch. The sound is enough to make her cringe but the sight when she lifts her heavy boot twists her stomach into a knot.
Solanum crouches down, setting aside her recorder and staff to better inspect the remains of the shattered skull before her. The skeleton was completely clean, no scraps of cloth dressed the body, no flesh remained on the bones, the only thing was the pristine off-white bones.
'What could have killed someone so brutally efficiently?' Her morbid curiosity asked from the back of her mind. The bones provided no clues, no signs of a struggle, no wounds. There wasn’t even anything left that could identify who it was. Whoever they were, it was like they just dropped down dead instantaneously.
Solanum felt sick. She kneeled on the ground properly and bowed over the remains; paying her respect to them, hoping they were at peace, and apologising for desecrating their corpse.
A moment of silence was hard to achieve on the treacherous planet. The exploding of meteors and the scattering of dust were constant and always interrupting. Anyone who spent long enough on the Hollow could easily filter out the noise, but a new sound inside the cacophony of destruction makes Solanum's ear twitch. It takes a moment to process but the unmistakable sound of rocks breaking and cascading over each other hides between dust scattering and fire hissing. Solanum looks up from the body to see a large section of crust plummeting into the planet's black hole heart.
‘Brittle Hollow was collapsing?’
Sure, the destruction of the planet was inevitable but she was certain it wouldn't happen until a few more generations - at least that's what Conoy said from their study of the planet at its observatory.
'Perhaps the thing that caused the sudden death of the unknown Nomai also severely weakened the planet's integrity?'
Solanum hears someone approaching beside her,
"Bells, wh-" her voice hitched, she was expecting her mentor to be welcoming her back but instead stood the traveller. They ran off before she could try to say something to them. Oh Great foreboding Eye! Was her new friend responsible for the body in front of her? Should she run? They didn't seem to want to cause any harm while they were on the moon together. There wasn't any time to make a choice, the traveller’s footsteps quickly approached again. They ran back holding one of the waystones used to mark the paths on the planet.
They frantically tapped at its face.
[ Crossroads ]
They turned and gestured away with their arm between taps on the sign. They seemed to want her to follow them.
Solanum got back to her feet and followed the traveller. They seemed excited to be leading her somewhere, or perhaps it was malevolent determination leading them. As much as she wanted to, she still had little evidence to rule that out. The path they followed was partially destroyed. A few grav-lifts were missing due to the sections of crust they were suspended from having already fallen away at some point. Solanum watched the volcanic moon through a fissure in the crust, Hollow’s Lantern didn’t seem to be expelling its fiery projectiles at any rate that was different than normal.
That also seemed rather strange.
The traveller stopped her in front of a crevice in the rocks. Holding out their arms briefly to block her from whatever the source of some stringed instruments plucking was. The traveller entered, whoever was playing had stopped and the two unknown voices held a short conversation. They returned a moment later and made the same pointing gestures as before.
She followed them in.
The owner of the other voice lept up from where they were sitting, the instrument on their lap being flung roughly across their camp in the process. The new person began speaking to her in what she assumed sounded like an extremely excited tone from the unreasonable rate the alien syllables cascaded from their bulbous helmet. The fact they barely registered she couldn't understand also helped with that conclusion. She turned her attention to the traveller who was rescuing the other’s banjo from the fire. When her gaze left the other, they seemed to realise the language barrier. Their voice trailed off, the traveller laughed.
She looked between them trying to make out the details of their faces behind the yellow tinted glass. Besides being noticeably different, the two shared many features. Solanum began typing on her staff and pressed its tip to the ground
[ My friend, are there many others of your kind? ]
The traveller shook their head vertically and gestured outwards from a hole in Hollow’s crust. They pointed to the forested planet in the sun's next orbit. Timber Hearth? They must be new into the system, the only other life her clan had found on Timber Hearth were numerous fish and the four-eyed amphibious creatures in the planet's heated waters. At least they had picked a far more sensible planet to dwell on.
Solanum pauses.
‘Four-eyed... Amphibious...? ’
She looks back between the traveller and the Other and at their distinct facial features and blue scales she could almost see under the dark glass of their helmets.
'Could they be? No, don't that’s a preposterous hypothesis to make.'
But then again she thought about the bones and the decaying planet around them, maybe there was another piece of evidence she could see for herself before jumping to that conclusion?
She walked to the edge of the camp, looking across the internal horizon at the Hanging City.
It too was destroyed. She didn't have to get any closer to see the many holes and collapsed masonry of the buildings or the felled towers of the main pathway.
She clutched her helmet and sat down on the rocks at the of the camp trying to process the only logical conclusion she could reach.
The two strangers sat beside her, seemingly able to feel her distress. The traveller takes out a bladed tool from one of their many pockets and picks up a large stone from the ground. They start digging the tip of the blade into the rock, they scrape at the surface while Solanum silently rests with her head in her hands. The traveller gently nudged her arm pulling her out of her own head and passing her the finished carved carving stone.
They had written something for her on it, a single word that was very rough and barely legible.
[ So R y ]
She didn't know why they were apologising, it couldn't possibly be their fault she'd been impossibly launched forward in time. She didn’t even know herself how it could possibly have happened. Still, the word provided some solace. The fact that her new friends could understand how she felt and empathise with her. It was a marvel to be able to see both ends of a species sapient evolution.
She felt the need to do something in return.
She took the two of them either side of her by the hands, hopefully that was a friendly gesture to their kind as well. She looked to the traveller who was baring their sharp teeth and looking at the other side of her at their friend. She followed the traveller’s gaze and caught a hint of a more purple hue across the other’s scales before they immediately turned away.
Interestingly the other seemed to have more digits on their hand than the traveller. She pulled the twos’ limbs closer to compare them. She herself had only three digits so naturally her mind wandered to what dextrous potential a fourth could unlock. She lets go of the traveller and turns to give her full attention to the other, the hue on their scales intensifies but interestingly, unlike last time, they don’t turn away.
The traveller gestured out of the planet's crust again, or the very few segments that remained of it. They pointed at Giant’s Deep as it was coming into view in the sky. They pointed at the Orbital Probe Cannon around its equator. Unsurprisingly it was broken too. Solanum picked up her staff and began typing an explanation of the cannon before being interrupted. The traveller nudges her staff aside and makes another gesture - this time more complex than just pointing.
They balled one hand into a fist and quickly moved a finger of their other hand parallel to the cylinder their fingers made; they also added their own sound effect, a kind of whooshing noise made with their mouth.
‘The cannon had fired.’
‘Did the project work?’
‘Why did no one inform me?’
‘Why didn't Bells collect me from the moon?’
Maybe the Sun Station induced supernova did have an effect on her.
Her mind full again, she tries to make sense of the questions. Forming a hypothesis and a theory that spirals out of control.
Solanum sighs again, this time more frustrated like an annoyed huff.
Nothing ever seemed to have a clear answer. That was the only thing that was annoyingly persistent. Solanum looked around the camp again. Her two new friends had given her some space, they'd returned to the fire and were talking with each other after having removed their helmets.
Perhaps the cannon never fired in her time. Maybe the traveler was the one who launched it. After all, how else would they have known what it was and that it had fired?
‘Did they too seek the mysterious planet far on the edge of their star system?’
She watches the larger of the two hit themself across their nose while opening some kind of canned food.
'Perhaps not'
Solanum crosses the camp, returning to the company of the two travellers. They welcome her back with a warm friendly look, more easily identifiable on their faces without their helmets obstructing the details of their facial features. She looks around at the small trees sheltering the camp and checks the readings of her helmets’ computer.
[ Oxygen Detected | Density - Safe | Purity - Safe ]
Solanum lifts off her heavy helmet and shakes loose the clumps of fur that had gotten themselves tangled on eachother. She hooks the helmet onto a sturdy branch of one of the trees and out of the side of her eye spots some little twinkle of awe or wonder hiding behind the large round eyes of her friends, She gives them a soft smile and joins them around the fire, tip-toeing carefully and perching rather uncomfortably to try not to knock over any of the other’s things.
Most of them seemed to be some sort of primitive tool or at least primitive compared to the Nomain trinkets that lay scattered amongst them. Clearly these other spacefarers held a special interest in her kind. The other was fixated on her, they seemed to be staring at her in some kind of beaming brightness that only grew since she revealed her face. She couldn't help but beam back at them.
Solanum scans the items on the ground, swiftly picking one up and shuffling closer to the other. She presents it to them, a smooth solid cuboid embossed on the edges with a tessellating pattern. She clicks two buttons, almost invisible in the intricate pattern, and the top lifts off, hinging to be flush with the side face. Amazingly the music box still worked, though the chimes were slightly out of tune. The rotating mechanism inside played its lullaby in a steady rhythm while the mirror inside reflected soft shapes onto the walls around them.
The other gasped slightly at the wonderful little device, She handed it over to them and began typing a message on her staff.
The Hourglass Twins were coming into view from the planet's crevice, along with the blistering red sun.
‘Had it really been that long?’
A natural occurrence was the only other way to get a supernova for the ambitious project. But what did that mean for her? For her new friends?
‘Could the project save them?’
‘No, this couldn’t be prevented. This wasn't an induced nova.’
Even if somehow they had managed to pair themselves to one of the memory statues-
'Would they even be compatible across different species?'
-it wasn’t the same as turning off the Sun Station.
The traveller follows her gaze to the sun as well, they check their time keeping device and return a pained look.
‘Was this it?’
That entity that had lured her ancestors so long ago had now flung her into the future to be killed in a superheated plasma explosion. It was hard not to think of malice, of all of everything that led to nothing.
The three of them watched the sun's final moments of struggling against itself before it began to collapse onto itself. The warm light it gave off faded away.
Solanum looked at the others, they looked at her, desperately trying to accept their fate they gave each other some kind of final goodbye.
The dense core exploded violently, Solanum shielded her face as best she could from the approaching wave of destruction, the intense flash burned through her retinas and she could almost feel the tips of her fur burning away. The surge of plasma quickly encroached boiling the air around them and in mere moments her flesh began to melt. She forced her eyes to see and looked at the other, their kind must have felt it worse than her. They clutched their trembling frame with charred rubbery hands, screaming and crying as the heat fused their clothes to their skin while boiled off their scales.
She could almost hear herself shrieking over the overwhelming ringing of her failing hearing. She tried to force her failing eyes to look at the traveller, their vague shape seemed to sit there pained more by the loss of their friends than the liquefaction of their flesh and bones.
The only thing on her mind was pain.
She shuts her eyes tight and curled up as tightly as she could, willing the last living parts of her mind and body to block out the excruciating agony overflowing every part of her existence.
A brilliant white floods her vision as her nerves flood with signals and her eyelids burn away.
Everything fades to black.
Solanum looks down to her hands, they're not there but she can somehow still feel them. She looks down at the ground she can feel below her feet but it's not there.
'The afterlife?'
'Purgatory?'
Pitch black shadows flicker around the corners of her vision
'No, that can't be. I haven't died'
She tries to recall the most recent event in her memory
'Or have I?'
Everything was clear up until leaving the moon, or at least she thinks she left it.
She takes a deep breath and gathers her thoughts. She tries to sort the real memories from the fake but it's too hard to tell the difference.
A voice stirs her out of her trance. She doesn't recognise who it belongs to but somewhere deep inside her it feels familiar.
"Solanum," it says. "Please come to the fire, we’re all waiting for you."
She takes a blind step in the darkness, the shadows shift around her. Their edges sharpen and they merge together forming some kind of unrecognisable fractal. She keeps walking in the nothingness, stepping closer and closer to her own self.
She returns to her body.
Solanum opens her eyes. The traveller is there.
"Lahar? You remembered me."
They nod and reply.
"Of course! How could I forget?"
Solanum looks around at the faces, she doesn't recognise them but a few names whisper from the back of her mind.
"Riebeck!" She calls out, spotting them twisting the pegs of their instrument.
"Solanum, I'm so glad to see you, um... again?" They place aside the banjo and stand up to greet her. "There's so much I want to ask you, but… uh.."
"What's wrong friend?" Solanum tilts her head.
"... I don't know, I don't think it matters anymore…"
Riebeck trailed into an awkward silence.
That seemed to be true, everything had seemed to break down the moment Lahar entered the Eye. Concepts like time didn't seem to matter here, wherever here was.
"We've so much to talk about, Riebeck. It might not matter but that's not important." Solanum says in a mix of settling their nerves and coaxing their curiosity.
Riebeck smiles warmly.
"How about a song first?" They ask, picking up their banjo and presenting it to her.
"Of course." She replies, swiping the side of her staff to change its function. “Lead the way, I will follow.”
Riebeck takes a deep breath, clearing their mind before plucking at the strings of their worn banjo. A simple tune ring outs loud and clear. Calming and oddly familiar. The other travelers join in one by one, following along in perfect time.
Solanums loses herself to the rhythm, letting the music control her movements as she glides her fingertips over the keys and adds her own melody into the song.
The song reaches out into the endless forest like the billowing smoke of the campfire at the centre of their circle. The echoes spread out in every direction, touching every stone and every blade of grass in the Ancient Glade until every last remnant of the universe was singing along to the effortless song.
They lost themselves to the symphony. They closed their eyes imagining things that were and things that weren’t; things that will and things that will not until the music eventually drifted away and the grove seemed darker. The crackling campfire burned down to a smouldering pile of glowing ash and dancing embers.
“That was amazing,” Riebeck says to Solanum, awkwardly fidgeting with their banjo.
“I’m so glad I got to make music with everyone again,” Esker interrupts the moment, “And with a new player too.” They rock back in their chair and turn towards Solanum.
“I didn’t know those staffs you have could play music.” Lahar says stepping closer to take a better look at the small keys.
“What kind of instrument was that?” Chert asks, pushing aside their drum as the rest of the circle make their way over.
“Everyone, thank you.” Solanum waves a hand over the small fascinated crowd to hush them. “It was an honour to be able to play with you all.” She holds out her staff, “Here, take a look at my instrument if you wish. Simply press on the keys to produce the desired note.”
She pushes the device into Gabbro’s hands and breaks away from the Hearthians.
“So my dear friend,” She says, taking a seat next to Riebeck. “What was it that you wished to talk about?”
“I, uh, I don’t know. I never expected to ever meet an actual Nomai. Let alone talk to one. I can’t think of what to say first.”
“What’s the first thing in your mind” Solanum passes a quick glances back to the others, watching them contentedly tapping away at her precious staff
“What happens now?” Riebeck shrugs
“Who knows, in this moment countless possibilities exist simultaneously for what could happen next. The only way to know for certain will be to collapse the possibilities.”
“Something new to be built on the remains of what’s left?”
“Exactly.”
Riebeck shuffles uncomfortably in their suit.
“Of course we can still wait in this moment where every possibility exists.” She extends a hand out to them, “At least for a little longer that is.”
They gladly accept the offer and gingerly plant their hand on top
“What was the Hanging City like? You know, um, before it was destroyed. I’ve always wondered what it might have been.”
“Nomai settlements are always busy.” She summarises, “Everyone always has some little project they’re working on or somewhere to be, thankfully there were a lot more safety rails back then.”
"It's a shame I didn't get to see it's ruins for myself, if I knew what was happening I wouldn't have stayed at my camp for so long."
"Do not belittle yourself Riebeck. Your curiosity is a virtue that guided you to another planet despite your fears. I find that very admirable." She tips her head down to look at them, eyes to eyes. "And besides, if you hadn't stayed at that camp perhaps Lahar wouldn't have been able to lead me to you." She adds with a small squeeze for emphasis.
"I- I suppose..." Riebeck flushes lilac. "I hope in the next one we find can each other sooner."
"Want to find out?"
Riebeck nods.
"Then let's find out together." She stands up and gestures for the attention of the rest of the travellers.
"We’ve all reached the end of our journeys now." She addresses to everyone, "Now it's time to learn what lies ahead of us."
"I hope there are beasties in the next one." Feldspar butts in
“Come now, let us collapse the innumerable possibilities before us.”
An intangible thought manifests in front of them, glowing dimly in the darkness.
They reach out towards it, touching its surface for less than a second before it evaporates back to nothingness.
The Ancient Glade explodes with light.