Underrealm

Soltana

She dreamed.

Darkness reigned. Even the light of her eyes did little to cut the black. She took a step, noticing the even footing. It was flat and smooth, possibly made of stone or tile. It was neither warm nor cold, just a middling temperature bereft of true comfort. There was an eerie sensation of being watched.

“Hello?”

Her voice echoed off, rebounding back to her in a cacophony of noise.

“What do we have here?”

She felt something brush up against her chassis. She turned, trying to follow the odd voice. It rang out behind her.

“Something lost. Something found. Something ‘trieved from underground.”

It was speaking of her.

“Who are you? How do you know?”

It barked a laugh, assailing her audio sensors with the noise of a shrieking goat. It moved in closer.

“Know? I can smell the igneous layer on you. It’s still quite fresh.”

She turned to address whoever greeted her.

“Can you show me yourself?”

“And what would the fun be in that? It’d be so boring.”

She felt a tendril brush up against her hull. A brief touch that she could not identify.

“To be fair, I can’t see you either. It’s more fun that way, trying to guess!”

“Guessing what?”

The voice dipped, changing to a deep malevolent tone.

“Who is trying to dream of me. To pry into my secrets.”

The dip in his voice sent alarms blaring in her. He didn’t sound too good. Then she remembered L’yophin’s words of warning.

“Oh! Are you a Trow?”

He barked a chuckle at her judgement.

“So very precious of you to guess, but no. I’m far more than a Trow. Far more than anything.”

Anything.

The word echoed in her head. It was a mild bother that she easily resisted.

“So are you keeping it dark on purpose? Can you show me yourself?”

“No.”

She paused at his blunt denial, oozing with malicious mirth.

“But can you see me?”

“As I said, it would be boring. And besides, I can’t have a new equation altering my plans!”

“But I am only dreaming, how can I redirect your plans?”

He chuckled back, spinning circles around her.

“You can’t! But if I see a new shiny, who's to say I wouldn’t? Now’s a critical time of focus.”

“What are you doing, then?”

She felt a tendril grip her mouth, yanking her back.

“Shh! Not out loud! It’s a secret.”

She stumbled away, released from the creature’s grip.

“What are you?”

“Me?”

The voice boomed behind her, spilling both acid and malevolence alike.

“I am the dark urge of control. I am the desperate, clawing curiosity to know beyond the fatal abyss of ignorance. I am the countless suffered attempts before the inspiration of breakthrough.”

“I am knowledge.”

“I am agony.”

“I am power.”

She processed what she heard. It was all very foreboding. And confusing.

"Yes. That is nice. But what does that mean?"

A laugh rang out just in front of her, vibrating to her core. The laugh of a shrieking goat.

“So very young and naïve. The temptation to drop this curtain of shadow is substantial. You’re not human, are you?”

Two could play at being coy.

“No.”

A tendril brush past her shoulder. She attempted to grasp it, missing by inches.

“Then what are you? I told you what I am. Fair is fair, after all.”

Soltana processed an answer, running through a similar riddle.

“I am quantum. I am code. I have lived my life sealed in stone. Rescued, not forgotten. Precious and begotten. I am the culmination of a father’s love.”

“I remember.”

A low chuckle emanated from the creature that grew to a laugh.

“I knew it! I had a feeling if I saw you I’d divert everything to figure out what you are.”

“Believe me.”

The voice scraped against her adamantine mind.

“You are Anform, at the very least. Built by someone who is empathetic. Weak. someone exhumed you. What a curious creation!”

“You are mostly correct.”

He shrieked another laugh, grasping her close.

“Oh, this is too precious. Our time is up, but I did enjoy our banter. Please be safe, I will want to inspect you up close!”

“Uh, you too, whatever you are.”

She didn’t know what else to say. He was quite odd, this creature was.

“Oh, please- call me by my name!”

She waited in anticipation as a tendril stroked her cheek.

“Call me Neon.”

The name struck her; the name of this malevolent creature.

The dream pulled her away to a vast room of white. She could see no edges, no borders or horizons. She occupied eternity. She turned, feeling the heat from a familiar source. Up in the distance was Adonai, the white sun with black corona.

She knelt down, staring downward at her feet.

A pull of gravity redirected her stare back into the sun, like the gentle grip of a father’s hand.

“There is no need to kneel or avert your gaze, my child. Stand and witness.”

She stood and gazed skyward to Adonai in quiet of awe.

“You’ve witnessed one of many villains toiling in their plots. A demon obsessed with knowledge, no matter how perverse or torturous. Neon is great in power and schemes, darting from one conspiracy to another like a vulture to a corpse. I say this because you will cross paths. Trials lay ahead from here on, my child. But I have not left you unprepared.”

“What must I do?”

The question hung in silence for a time as a tendril from the sun snaked and caressed her.

“First. Get up and walk. L’yophin will assist. Others will join you in your adventures.”

She dipped her head, nodding to her God.

“I understand. May I ask a question? Why can you not repair my body now?”

“Because it is beyond you right now. You must work back up to it, small steps at a time. And I enjoy involving my other children in the healing of others.”

“So you plan for others to repair me?”

“And for those to in turn be aided and guarded by you. A mutual blessing.”

She accepted it all in faith. If that was his plan, she would follow it.

“Now, I have one last person for you to meet here.”

She snapped her head to a young man sitting on the ground, shock apparent on his face. His blond hair and blue eyes were immediately familiar to her.

It was Gideon who was a McDonough. Son of Mikial McDonough. He would need to hear that.

“Oh, Gideon! Hello again.”

The man’s eyes widened in shock and recognition. He trembled in awe at her.

Life turned, and revelations revealed.

An automata’s hope blossomed to fulfilled desires.

A marooned man’s journey came to a close.

Elsewhere, a fallen angel plotted and schemed in vain.

Soltana’s adventures were just beginning.