draftware

burned into the past

burned into the past

I don't even know what to say. There was an afterward underneath the afterward. Just consider what that means from a logistic standpoint: they built a whole new weird world on top of the last one. How would you even go about doing that? Why would you do that? Maybe Richard, Simon, and James could clear it up, I rationalized to myself. But how would I get down to a lower afterward?

"You have two options."

"Oh, Memmi! How convenient!"

"Eh, just showing up like this as needed helps the pacing. It's a bit jarring, but it saves us some words. Words that we then spent doing this whole bit where I explain the—right. You want to know how to access a lower afterward. There are two options. The metatrain, a train you must will into existence, but I do not believe you are capable enough to make it so, or you can follow the train tracks. The trains no longer run to lower afterwards, but you could always make your way down there yourselves."

"That sounds a bit dangerous!"

"There should be narrow walkways along the sides of the tracks. If there's not, then that's poor planning on the author's part and poor visualization skills on the reader's part."

"Well, alright. I hope they have some answers for me. Wait, didn't you take one of the Retconologists out of where they were and bring them here? Couldn't you do the same and send me to them?"

"Straining her powers is how Bit ceased to exist. Without a Nephim the Watchers will surely turn this into their story, you'll be a shadow of a memory. I am willing to sacrifice myself to them if the need arises, but I'd rather keep as much of my facilities as possible."

"Wait... Memmi, are you--"

"--The last Nephim in the afterward? I am now."

"How many of you were there?"

"This time twenty years ago, just three. Fifteen years ago, that number reached ten. Five years ago, it was twenty. It's down to one."

"And how do more appear?"

"The same way Lizi, afters, and even you arrived here: they simply show up."

"...So, the lower afterward--"

"Head to the train station and follow the tracks down. You'll know you're there."

"Well, alright Memmi, thanks for your help."

"Um... Emmi... why are you talking to a wall?"

"Whuh?"

We were at the train station. I'll never understand why we just don't do a regular transition. I spotted the walkway, but my first worry was Craggy. She's big, and I was afraid she'd get clipped by a train as we ventured into the tunnel. We really didn't have much of a plan, but I didn't just want to send her home. We might need a bit of protection down there. Who knows what weird people make their home in an underground abandoned city?

"Ｉ ｃｏｕｌｄ ｊｕｓｔ ｓｔｏｐ ｔｈｅ ｔｒａｉｎ."

"That sounds a bit dangerous, maybe illegal."

"Ｎａｍｅ ｏｕｒ ｏｔｈｅｒ ｃｈｏｉｃｅｓ."

"...Craggy, I... fine. Just be careful, alright?"

She nodded, and we slipped into the tunnel. Hopefully nobody is calling security on us. It was a bit more narrow than I thought it would be, and I was carefully, ever-so-carefully making steady progress down the path, Flux, Scriff, and Craggy behind me. I spotted a fork in the tunnel, one side delving deeper downwards, and knew we were on the right track, but my train of thought was suddenly disrupted by a loud horn.