26 INT. FIFTH TOWER - STUDY - EVENING

The study is a spacious room: the large bookshelf along its south-facing wall is all there is in the way of decoration. A desk faces away from a large glass wall that overlooks the city from high up. On the desk is a pile of papers, pencils, a photograph of a woman, and a jar with what appears to be a foetus inside. Standing behind it and watching the sunset is SAUL (59), a man clad in a modest habit with an aura like a withering tree - his posture remains tall and proud, but there is a melancholy hollowness to him where something important has been lost.

SAUL

Sorry to call you both here so late.

Sophia, helmet under her arm, is standing in the middle of the room. Besides her is PHOTINE, another woman in heavy white robes evocative of a Howie coat, but her glasses are lopsided and she holds herself with the anxious disposition of a person who has barely escaped NEEThood at 30.

SOPHIA

Think nothing of it, Lord Saul. The Hierophant calls. It is our duty to answer, no matter the time, if there is something to add to the record.

SAUL

I appreciate that, Lord Sophia. Though truthfully, dragging Lord Photine away from her family at this time of day is what I'm most concerned about.

Photine stands up straighter, startled.

PHOTINE

No, Lord Saul, that's fine! My family don't... really talk to me these days anyway.

SAUL

That's surprising. I would've thought they'd be proud of our one and only Magister.

SOPHIA

I expect they're intimidated in the presence of the authority on all mysteries.

PHOTINE

(reticently)

Perhaps, Lord Sophia.

SAUL

I won't waste more of your time than I must. Lord Sophia. The Greater Fifth has escaped?

SOPHIA

Through the heat exhaust. She was accompanied by a presumed nihilist. They struck me with my own blessing.

PHOTINE

Oh, it's the reflection, isn't it? You shouldn't go down there.

SOPHIA

Your Pontiffs have done excellent work on the architecture, Lord Magister. It is a shame that you selected the Fifth to be something so disobedient. Fire burns. Water flows. Only mankind may rebel against nature. Is the concept of suicide not such a thing?

PHOTINE

I... don't really understand your sermons...

SOPHIA

I implore you to learn. Lord Saul interprets the past within the records, whereas you understand the laws and mysteries of the present. It is my duty to produce a dictate for the future, upon which you of all people ought to rely. The sciences must be restrained by moral law.

SAUL

There's no need to worry about that. Lord Photine, The End begins tomorrow. We may be the last Shrine to activate, but is the spare still adequate?

PHOTINE

Less than ideal. He's technically incomplete. Unless his personality has improved, then...

SAUL

Sadly not.

SOPHIA

Then why continue to ponder? We ought set him free at once. I will gather my forces.

Without waiting for a response, Sophia turns and exits the room.

SAUL

Do you think she ever sits down?

PHOTINE

I doubt it. She takes her job as seriously as I probably should.

SAUL

Can you imagine her reaction if I told her he's already gone?

Photine looks to him in shock.

27 EXT. FIFTH CITY - STREETS - NIGHT

If the streets were barren during the day, they are desolate at night. It almost feels like a ghost town, missing everything but the people. Only a few figures walk here and there. A stocky man walks down the street, and is passed by a figure more than head and shoulders taller than even he is.

PHOTINE (V.O.)

He's what?

This monster of a man, SOLOMON (20), dwarfs everyone around him. His lantern jaw and broad shoulders give him the stature of a titan, and he has the same distinctive silver hair/eyes that Aether has.

28 INT. GANG HIDEOUT - NIGHT

The thieves are spaced out in hammocks hung from the ceiling, asleep. Aether is not - she lies in a hammock closest to the couch that Maria lies on. The two stare at the blank ceiling, murmuring to each other.

MARIA

So... The Tower.

AETHER

I can't answer any of your questions.

MARIA

You only know secrets?

AETHER

I barely know anything. Studying was hardly my strong suit. I don't understand the science.

MARIA

You're not calling it "mysteries"?

AETHER

The Faith's special dialect is deeply irritating, so no.

MARIA

Can't argue with that. What made you leave?

BEAT.

AETHER

I don't know anything about this world.

MARIA

Maybe study next time.

(beat)

I'm joking.

AETHER

I know.

(beat)

I don't want to participate in The End without knowing why. I want to see the world that we've decided to erase. I want to decide if it's worth ending. I know why The Faith was created. I know how gravity is too strong for us to leave this planet. How we're doomed to stay stagnant, suffering and dying forever until we go extinct. There's no way forward. This dead end was here from the very beginning. But...

MARIA

But?

AETHER

We've studied the mysteries for ten thousand years. Can living this way be so unbearable if we've waited for so many generations? Or did those generations only survive because they knew that their descendants would one day be here for The End?

Silence. Maria doesn't offer her opinion, but her expression makes it clear that she has one.

AETHER

I have to know. What makes a world worth ending?

MARIA

Maybe a better question is "what makes an end worth having"? Why live at all, knowing you'll die?

AETHER

Well, that's the point of The End, isn't it?

MARIA

The End is one answer. To change everything. Is that different to death?

AETHER

I don't know. Is it?

BEAT.

MARIA

Would you rather change the world or yourself?

AETHER

I don't know. The Faith says "ourselves", and the world will change because of that.

MARIA

Don't like saltwater, so the plan is to change into freshwater fish and swim to a cleaner pond?

AETHER

I don't think we don't have a choice this time either way.

MARIA

Don't we?

AETHER

As far as I can tell, everything they say is true. They're correct.

Maria chuckles.

MARIA

Well, just because you're correct, doesn't mean you're right.

Joseph is still awake, overhearing the conversation. He is facing away from the two, staring at the wall as they talk. The subject is making him uncomfortable, so he does his best to ignore it and force himself to sleep.

29 EXT. GANG HIDEOUT - DAY

It's a new day, and the sky is clear this morning. It's quiet once again, and the sound of cicadas is in the air. Solomon's hand reaches for the door handle, warping it out of shape as he pulls it open from the sheer force of his grip.