Daylight - First Draft

Act III - Scene 62: An Eventful Evening

SC62 - An Eventful Evening

TIME UNKNOWN.

Eleanor opens her eyes. The light burns and she holds her hand above her face for shade. She is lying down on a flat surface looking up at what appears to be space. Looking around, she can see no walls, no ceiling, not even a floor for her to be lying on. Just the darkness of space stretching on endlessly and a bright star burning nearby.

VOICE: Ah you're still with us I see.

Eleanor sits up sharply at the unexpected voice and looks around for the source. Behind her, there is an elderly man leaning on a cane. The man has a gentle face with a long grey beard and he is wearing a simple brown robe. Eleanor gives him a puzzled look.

ELEANOR: Where am I?

OLD MAN: A good question, but one that's very difficult to answer.

ELEANOR: Am I... dead?

OLD MAN: Oh no no, you're still alive. You're just a little out of sync with reality.

ELEANOR: What does that mean? Who are you?

The old man chuckles and shakes his head.

OLD MAN: Where do I even start? Well my name is Charles Nero.

ELEANOR: Nero? You mean like, Calscarn Nero?

CHARLES: That's right, he was my grandfather. How do you know him?

ELEANOR: He and Surie Haven are my ancestors too. I'm Eleanor.

CHARLES: Well Eleanor, that makes us family.

ELEANOR: But I don't understand. How are you alive? How are you here?

CHARLES: I'm alive because death cannot reach this place, I've lost track of how many years I've been here but by all rights I should have been dead a long time ago. As for how I came to be here, I encountered a force that was strong enough to tear me out of our reality. Which is the same reason you're here of course. In fact I'm quite interested to how it happened for you.

ELEANOR: The last thing I remember is going into the vortex... I tried to fight it but everything just went blank.

CHARLES: A vortex eh? Sounds nasty. What were you doing near one of those?

ELEANOR: I was trying to stop it, but it looks like I failed. All those people... gone...

CHARLES: More people you say? Well that's odd.

ELEANOR: How so?

CHARLES: Look around girl, nobody here but you and me. Whatever you did seems to have been the catalyst to bringing you here. It's no indication that you failed, in fact it proves that at the very least you did something.

ELEANOR: So... you're saying there's still a chance that it worked?

CHARLES: It certainly seems possible.

Eleanor leaps to her feet in excitement but then her expression turns into a frown and she looks around frantically.

ELEANOR: Where's the sceptre?

CHARLES: Ah that's right! I'm sorry, it was lying right next to you and I noticed it had taken some damage...

Charles brushes his robe aside and takes the sceptre from his belt, handing it back to her. Eleanor examines it. There are cracks in it's surface and it's color seems to have faded away.

ELEANOR: There's no power left in it. It's broken.

CHARLES: What was it for?

ELEANOR: It was a device to transfer energy between sources. It's how I tried to contain the vortex.