An energy so strong that it was palpable-sharp and metallic, resembling blood on the tongue-filled the air. The obscure figure hovered in front of us, a void manifested, oozing evil that caused my skin to twitch. I automatically drew back a step, which caused me to hit Zoe, who was petrified.
“Welcome, Harbinger,” The Architect’s sound punctuated the silence, momentous and anxious. “You are here to signal the successful outcome of our great labors.”
The Harbinger responded with nothing, but I perceived a change in its attention, its unseeing stare drilling into me. In that instance, I realized the essence of true terror. This wasn’t nervousness about dying or experiencing pain; this was the archaic dread of truly vanishing, of being disassembled at the core.
The faint whisper of ‘Brianne’ from Chase broke through my freeze. “Brianne, I’m so sorry. This level of occurrence wasn’t something I ever planned for. I just wanted-”
“Silence!” The command from the Raven snapped loudly. “Your role is finished, boy. The genuine architect of our framework is confronting us.
I looked at Chase, with my thoughts still spinning from his act of betrayal. The depth of his pain was without question, but how could I believe anything about him now? Every second, every confession, every united hardship-had it all been some kind of falsehood?
“Why?” I managed to choke out. “Why did you do this to me? To Lucy?”
The look on Chase’s face fused guilt with defiance. “I told you, I had no choice! My parents-”
Detective Morris growled, “There’s always a choice,” while keeping his gun pointed at Chase. “You chose revenge instead of everything else. “For the sake of friendship, for the cause of morality, and for the sake of reality’s future.”
“For goodness’ sake, avoid the moralizing, Detective,” The Architect said. “Chase, who is young, has just been carrying out his role in a narrative far greater than everyone here can grasp.” His eyes sparkled with an uncomfortable radiance as he looked at me. “With that said, my lovely Brianne, it’s time for you to play yours.”
The Harbinger shifted then, performing a movement that rejected the laws of physics. At one instant, it hovered at the edge of our circle, then it seemed to linger over me. On closer examination, I recognized that the shape wasn’t a solid shadow, but a shifting darkness highlighted by points of light resembling far-away stars.
My mind echoed, *”The Conduit awakens,”* a voice that wasn’t a voice. *”The strands of reality are now coming together.”*
“What are you talking about?” I asked, startled by how powerful my own tone sounded. “What am I intended to function as a bridge for?”
The Raven’s laughter shivered through me. “Oh, you naive child. Don’t you still have trouble understanding how massive you truly are? The joining of your soul with Lucy’s wasn’t an accident that happened in the cosmos. It marked the beginning of the process to develop a relationship between realities.
“A bridge?” Zoe, with her voice unsteady but firm, spoke. “What kind of bridge?”
The smile on the Architect was uplifting, nearly appearing like a paternal smile. “A bridge that will enable us to journey through the multiverse at liberty. In order to change reality to fit our design. Our dear Brianne is the foundation of that connection.
The import of his words struck me as though it were a blow to the body. I felt the burden of many universes on my shoulders, ready to overwhelm me. I thought back to Lucy, remembering the remaining bits of her memories still in my thoughts. Had she known? Did she purposefully give herself up for this folly?
No,” I said, shaking my head. “I won’t be your keystone. “I won’t permit you to use me to smash everything.”
*”Choice is an illusion,”* resounded in me from the Harbinger’s lack of voice. *”You are what you are. Destiny cannot be denied.”*
It felt like the concluding point of its statement, as a searing pain tore through my skull. I wept, squeezing my head as a torrent of images flowed through my thoughts-numerous realities, numerous possibilities, merging into a single point. On me.
“Brianne!” I heard a cry from Zoe, and experienced the embrace of her arms as I stumbled.
“What are you doing to her?” Detective Morris commanded, his gun now focusing on the Harbinger, for all the use it might serve.
There was a sense of excitement in the way The Raven spoke. Detective, ‘We’re doing nothing.’ She’s just turning into what she was meant to be all along.
Through the cloud of suffering and sightings, I noticed Chase approaching. He said, in a voice that was shaking, “‘This isn’t right.'” “This isn’t what I wanted. You assured me justice for my parents, not… not this.
The Architect’s answer was chill. “You were an oath to vengeance, young man.” And vengeance awaits you, at a magnitude that you could never have expected. What beings took out your parents? “Every variant of them around the multiverse will be deleted from existence.”
“No!” I punched the air, attempting to resist the storm in my thoughts. “I won’t let you do that. I won’t be your weapon!”
With considerable effort, I opposed the visions, against the stress that threatened to fragment my mental health. I concentrated on the current moment, on the chilly floor beneath me, on the embrace of Zoe, on the faces of those nearby, and even Chase’s expression.
Thanks to the pain subsiding, I could catch my breath and become alert once more. With a shaking confidence, I confronted the Harbinger. “I disregard what you think I represent or what I am likely to become. I make my own choices.”
A moment found silence reigning. Then The Raven chuckled, issuing a sound that lacked comfort or laughter. “Oh, you poor, deluded girl. Do you feel you actually have any input on this? Your mere existence is a surprise, a cosmic disturbance that we have carefully tended to for our own motives.
Chase remarked, “She’s right,” as he came nearer to me. “This has gone too far. Justice is what I sought, not genocide. We need to stop this now.”
The mask of benevolence wore off, uncovering something chilly and foreign underneath. “I’m worried it’s too late for a change of heart, my son. The beginning of the process has already taken place.
Like a coordinated effort, the world around us started to change and twist. One felt the walls pulsing, as if alive, with a rhythm from another realm. I physically felt it, in the core of my being-an urge, a tension, as if a thousand pulls were acting on me at the same time.
“What’s happening?” While clinging to me, Zoe cried as the floor undulated like water beneath us.
‘*The convergence starts,”* the Harbinger said. *”The Conduit leads the transition.”*
All I wanted was to scream aloud and battle against whatever was going on, but I felt as though I couldn’t move. There was an impression that my body was no longer my own, reacting instead to some cosmic impulse that was beyond my comprehension.
“No,” I managed to gasp. “I won’t… I can’t…”
The Raven purred, and her eyes sparkled with triumphant joy, saying, “You have no choice.” In essence, you are everything: key, lock, and door. You will connect all realities as one.”
Isolated edges of other worlds started bleeding through, fracturing the surrounding air. I noticed extraordinary vistas, outsider landscapes, depictions of myself outside living experiences I could not imagine. And throughout that experience, I felt an irresistible attraction to… something. An immense and terrorizing beauty is what it signifies all at the same moment.
“Fight it, Brianne!” Chase called out while reaching to grab me. Still, as his hand lightly touched my arm, a powerful surge caused him to fly away.
The sound of Detective Morris firing his gun appeared strangely muted in the confusion that surrounded us. The bullets looked like they slowed down and paused in the air, before simply going out of sight.
“We’re past the point of no return,” The Architect answered, with an echoing noise. “The merging has begun. Soon enough, all realities will converge, and we will be the supreme force in the new era.
I noted that I was rising, with my feet detaching from the ground as energy ran through me. Now, visions have arrived at a quicker pace, with a lot of options overwhelming my senses. I existed everywhere while simultaneously existing nowhere, at all time and at no time.
“Brianne!” Although far away, Zoe’s voice sounded desperate. “Brianne, please! Come back to us!”
I aimed to concentrate on her voice and the current moment, but it was as if I was trying to grab a smoke. At that moment, I was melting into the overall design of the cosmos, matching the ambition of the Architect and the Raven to uncover whatever they had in plan.
And right then, just as I noticed I was fading out entirely, a new sound separated itself from the tumult. A voice I identified, but wasn’t familiar with. A voice that felt mine, but was ultimately not genuinely mine.
“Pause, Brianne,” I heard in my mind, echoing Lucy’s tone. “This isn’t the end. It’s just the beginning.”
Those words sent the world into a bright explosion, and I recognized myself as I fell, fell, fell…
… Into the unknown.