50. Joshua : Conclusion

Unscrewing the cap on my canteen to sooth my throat after the long tale the eight year old girl possessing eyes that glowed with the pure white of nothingness spoke with absolute wonder in her voice for the first time after clomping up the stairs asking for a story.

“Wow.... and the most important bit happened here?”

She looked inquisitively past the door through her long white hair that carried down her back swept to the sides around her face but still slightly obscuring her eyes.

“Can we go in? Please please please!”

“No Astraea, it’s very dangerous in there. We’re just stopping here for the night.”

“But I’m really strong! You said I was training really really well and that I’d be really strong one day. I’m strong now!”

She then began vocalising a variation of vwoohhsshh noises excitedly as she attempted to form a ball of diluted purplish energy until it harmlessly popped in her hands as she attempted to control the concentration of background psionic energy. With a startled yelp she fell to the ground earning a chuckle from the rest of the men while she remained sat down with a highly dissatisfied look on her face.

“I trained really hard… that's not fair I did it before…” Wiping away misty eyes earned from the frustration I smiled and took a knee next to her.

“It’ll take time. At your age you shouldn’t even be able get close to doing that. Don’t worry one day you’ll be able to do even more. Even be stronger than your own Joshua. You’ll be the greatest hero in history.”

Astraea took an excited gasp, the wonder returning to her past frustration.

“Even strongerer than you? The besterest hero of all the places going on amazing quests like they did in the tunnel?”

“Even stronger than me, and far greater quests of even greater importance than what was done here.”

She beamed with joy then finally took a look of concern as she thought my replies to be false. Turning everything I said over in her head she locked eyes with mine.

“You're not just trying to make me feel better? You really mean I’ll be the strongerest, besterest hero?”

Her eyes were pleading for a truthful answer and it hurt so much to tell her the truth. The answer would be yes. In her words she would indeed be the strongerest, besterest hero ever to be, but at such a cost. At her age she could not understand the sheer gravity of our objectives. Should false gods come to be and pass into the new cycle of the universe hope would be forever lost stretching beyond the infinite plane of time.

The hardships she would have to endure would be relentless over the endless flow of time into the next cycle, and the next and the next and the next assuring that false gods never came to be once she was ready to take the fight to them. Even with a companion it was sure to be a lonely existence at best.

She would be given the decision even though it would feel like refusing wasn’t an option at all and that would have to be enough to validate our actions in molding her into what was required to save the souls of sentience. Fighting back the regret that I wouldn’t be able to give her a normal life where she’d only ever have to chase her dreams and happiness I forced the best smile I could manage before giving her an answer.

“Yes. The strongerest, besterest hero. Stronger than me even.” With that she lit up with joy and she ran over to the other men taking one by the shoulders and jumping with the elation only a child can express.

“I’m going to be a hero one day! Yaaay! Maybe even a space wizard… I’ve always wanted to be a space wizard!”

With that her companion drone began to chase Astraea around the men in it’s palm sized helicopter drone following her excited giggling breaking the silent misery the world was so renowned for now outside the bastions of civilisation that remained.

The cognizant computer had a maturity of roughly the same age but seemed to be maturing with her now it had someone to relate with and learn from. Eventually she fell over catching her breath as the drone playfully darted around above her as the sun's glow was barely visible.

“Alright, time to move again. Let's make the most of the day.”

“And find some monsters to get rid of to help people!”

“One day Astraea, one day at a time.”

With disgruntled disapproval from her I lifted her to my shoulders at the door and began hiking through the ruined land with the rest of the group with rifle in my hands. Our destination would be a facility established in the area by our organisation to continue her training, it would become our home for the next ten or twenty years probably. Marching for a while Astraea broke the silence.

“So that’s how it ended? The story with the adventure tunnel back there?” The quizzical question was followed by my own weak laugh.

“Little girl… that’s how it all began…”

“There was more adventure? Whatelsehappened?!” She threw her body over my head so her face was upside down to mine startling me. Her glowing white eyes burning with interest and curiosity centimeters from my own face.

“GAhhughuumm it's a story for when you're older. It's much more important.” The poor choice of words towards the end of the sentence peaked her interest further.

“More important? I’m old enough to know!” The relentless ball of energy wouldn’t cease her excitement until her imagination was quenched. How did parents keep their children's curiosity satisfied in their spare time… then again thinking of the modern age preserved in the bastions they probably just let technology quench their curiosity rather than tell them epic stories, fictitious or real, poor kids didn’t know what they were missing out on.

It wasn’t time to continue the tragic story of how it all continued up to this point, however, I had plenty of other experiences in my life fighting this hellscape I could put a heroic spin on to appease her. To be honest it helped me cope with the madness of horrors I had accumulated over the years by trivialising them into children's tales. Thinking of an appropriate story I happily proceeded to provide another to entertain her over the long trip.

“Well how about this instead. Have I told you the story of how your own Joshua managed to take out an atrocity alone with only his wits available to him to save a town?” One of the men behind me groaned at the thought of having to endure overhearing another one of my censored and possibly slightly altered and exaggerated version of my experiences that made the basis of the stories I told her. Astraea however giggled waiting for me to start.

“Nope, not yet!”

“Good, because it's a tale that's absolute heroic in nature involving saving people from horrible beasts and that learning sometimes your best weapon is your head.”

Entranced by the new story we walked through the long untame grass that swished past our waists as we kept a vigil for any horrors. The ambient rustling lessened the tension and the morning wasn't so fearful as her eyes stood out in the dark as the sun tried to claw it’s way over the corrupt horizon. With her we had hope and that hope would see us through what the children of the singularity had revealed.