I'm towering above a sea of diamonds. The sky is like vanilla ice cream with swirls of candy pink and berry purple, encasing a beautiful full moon even though it's not nighttime.
I'm feeling like the mere concept of day and night doesn't apply here.
Pink crystals sprout out of the ground, as big as trees, and statues of a woman's face, torso, and hands pepper the landscape.
A gleaming tower calls out to me in the distance.
"Hell!" I perch myself against the cliff and look out in awe and wonder. "I know rocks and I've never seen anything like this shit." I grab a purple-inflected stone from the ground, growing like a buddha's hand. "What is this place?"
"A world just beyond the veil of your own." Mitsuki appears to me, this time clad in a beautiful, silken silver outfit that matches her hair. Wondering where I sign up for these wardrobe changes. "Welcome to the land of the eternal sunset. Or midnight sun, as I like to call it." I know what she means. Why she calls it that. Its rays are in my eyes and the stars are blazing. She hands me a silver robe, one that matches her outfit. "Now, let's get you out of that Tempest garbage." This entire time, I've been wearing a yellow shirt we found in the back of the sportscar we stole in the pink sector, advertising Tempest soda with a girl holding a can above her open mouth. The shirt says, "You want to put it in your mouth." "I have so much to show you," she promises, and I'm all about the wardrobe change. I start to change in front of her, why wouldn't I, she can have and see it all, and it feels like I've been liberated. Like I'm illuminated, fucking diamond-plated. Those blazing stars over our heads can't touch us. I look out again and give the memories, the entire camera roll, the whole feed, back to Priest. He can have his spot. This is ours.
Also, I've had blood running down my leg this entire time. I was way past needing a wind machine.
"This way," Mitsuki beckons, while I struggle to shed my old skin. She must think wardrobe changes are an innate skill.
"Wait up! Kinda shook here."
We take the steps of a staircase chiseled out of the mountain itself down and I marvel at the ornate etchings carved into the rock. "Wow, look at these. What are they?"
"Ancient history." I reach up to brush my fingers on the one of a man genuflecting, an ornate diamond in the middle of his head that almost looks like a seashell. Maybe he's waiting to receive a blessing.
Maybe he's begging for forgiveness and mercy.
"Carved in centuries ago by the first here." We walk past an absolutely gorgeous etching of a tower, with more of those diamond seashells set in an intricate, inlaid pattern, smaller diamonds filling in the gaps between tiers, which layer on top of each other until they culminate with an arc at the top.
I realize now who the man was praying to. Him and the others like him. I only saw him before.
"A lasting reminder of their servitude," Tsu continues.
"Servitude to who?"
"To whomever stands atop that tower, one would presume by these images, yes."
"Sarcasm! It looks good on you." Also, get me a dictionary. "Must be the same tower I saw out on the horizon." We descend the last steps of the staircase and the sight takes my breath away. The forest at the bottom is so lush and green, vibrant and verdant, and it feels like it's all ours. "Oh my god! Look at this place!"
"Lovely, isn't it?"
"I've only ever seen this kind of beauty in my dreams!"
Tsu stops at a tree and reaches up, picking off a fruit that looks like an apple. "This should convince you of its reality." She hands it to me. It's softer than I thought, with a very thin skin. "And hold you over until the ferryman arrives."
"I get to meet a local?" I take a bite out of the fruit and am completely taken aback. "Wait, is this…" I hold it up to her as we keep walking towards the river. "Is this fucking borscht fruit?"
"You haven't seen anything yet."
I wipe the juice from my mouth just as a beautifully ornate ferry pulls up to greet us. It's intricately-carved and detailed, just like the carvings on the side of the mountain, except that, instead of diamonds and seashells, the patterns look more like waves of tentacles and scales, moving in a silent symphony. "And is that our ride?"
"That's our ride."
We get in our personal midnight gondola, sitting in the cushions right across from the ferryman, who is silent and wears a carved hat that is so large it might as well be a shield. Even the masts are detailed, I see more of the seashells as I run my fingers in-between the little crevices in the patterns, with glowing amber lanterns slung atop them. "These details…"
"The local creatures like to keep themselves busy."
"Shh, it's right there! It might be really offended underneath that big hat."
"Nah, they don't talk much."
I lean against the ferry and grip the carved scales that seem to sprout up from the edge. "God, I haven't been on a boat since mom took me on a boat ride in the city center for my eighth birthday." I miss her. I miss her so much. "This is like total deja-vu. Except replace these trees with massive oil and chemical plants." I lean down, reaching out for a pink lotus flower floating in the water, buoyed by the boat passing through the current. "It was the last summer before they banned boating on the black river because the toxic levels got too high. Mom's health was getting worse and she always promised me we would get to go on a boat." I lean back against the cushioned seats again, and Tsu rests her head on my shoulder. "She looked happy, but I knew there was this deep sadness. That was the day she told me she was dying. So there we sat, cruising the shores of a poisoned city, talking about the day we'll die in, rollin in stylin'. She never wanted me to be afraid of death."
"En," she pleads, the amber glow of the paper lanterns overhead illuminating her beautiful face and perfect skin, "That is a lovely story and all but let's not talk about death. Positive thoughts only. Paradise, remember?"
My mom was my best friend. My partner in crime. We would go out in public and cause a ruckus. We were gonna paint the town. That was the deal. The day I lost her, I lost that, and it's been me, soldiering on through the Wasteland, half a person carrying twice the pain. But now, with Mitsuki, I feel it again. I want her to take me down, to save me now. I wanna be playing outside at four in the AM, lying in graveyards, fresh and flyin', midnight ridin'. I wanna come alive in the moonshine and sleep through the noon. When I look at Tsu, I wanna go all in. I wanna follow her in. I'm gonna cannonball in, because I'm gonna let the night come crawling. I hear the darkside calling and it feels amazing.
Finally, after a lifetime of pain and suffering, of being so small and invisible and carrying a burden so heavy that it made everything harder, I feel like this is my time.
I lean back and rest my head in my hands. "I don't know that paradise can exist without a little darkness, though." I close my eyes. Things are finally going to change. "Where are we headed, anyway?"
She lies next to me in the boat, lanterns illuminating what the midnight sun does not, and I think about how one of us could be an amazon queen, and the other an undercover pilot. "Home."
"Wait, really? I get to see your joint?" Gotta be full of closets. "The woman of mystery is finally revealed? How long 'til we get there?"
My elbow bumps against hers and it settles on her bicep. "That's hard to say. Time only matters in places where it runs out." We come upon the largest statue I've seen, a gigantic one of a woman sitting up in the forest, her forehead lost to time but her gaze entrenched firmly on us as we float by. "Here, we are forever."
I turn to her as we pass big trees and bigger crystals. "Uh, are you saying you are forever years old? You look good!" Like, really fucking good.
"Both a blessing and a curse," she laments, when all I can think about is where I can sign up.
"The secrets keep coming!" I turn to the creature. "Hey! Ferry-sir. How old are you? If you don't mind me asking."
"Don't attempt communication with them, En."
I could have sworn he was going to say something behind that hat, which is carved out in a similar style to the boat and side of the mountain. Two seashell etchings cover his eyes.
Maybe they are his eyes.
"Why not?"
"I would hate to see any of their words foul the mood."
I respond before I think about the sheer weight of that statement. "Please, nothing at this point could…"
I look up and eat my words.
"...Foul the mood."