Gasp!
Agwyn fell down, clasping her chest.
“E-Ellie!”
Elrhain collapsed next to her with a thud. Agwyn paled, then ignored her own nausea and supported his body with her petite shoulder.
His face was flushed red and his eyes were wide open as he stared at her. Shock, horror, anguish… loathing. But for whom? Why did he look so… guilty?
‘N-No way, did he see-‘
Elrhain kissed her. Deeply. Violently.
He embraced her with brawn Agwyn did not think he had as they rolled on the lunar rock. But He didn’t let go. He turned her atop of his waist, letting her straddle him while he supported his back on the tholus wall, cushioning the impact of their fall.
“E-Ellie?!”
“It’s fake.” Elrhain retreated his lips. His hot breath tickled her nape. It was so wonderful that Agwyn almost missed the uncertainty in his voice. “That cheater wasn’t me.”
“Ellie?” Agwyn repeated for the third time, confused and giddy.
“I have been over Jarim since the day Miramarja graduated middle school. I’d push her away if she was still with us. In fact, cheating is impossible. You and I are connected telepathically. We can read each other's minds with little effort while feelings and emotions flow free. How the hell am I even supposed to cheat? Not that I would even if we weren’t like that.” Elrhain spoke in the gaps their lips parted, but he did not give her too much time to breathe. His tongue coiled hers, and his hands crawled up from her bottom to grasp the shapelier parts of her body.
“I know! I so know.” Agwyn followed his lead with a radiant smile. Probable futures be damned! Jarim, Shirvan, Naomi, or any other ghosts from her past would not even get her dead body. Same for the vixens and incubi of the present. And of every false ending the terminal probe had shown her and her Ellie.
“I’m sorry for not saying it clearly. I… I love you, and anything less is unacceptable. Anything that makes me do otherwise is evil! I won’t. I can’t. I’m no longer an asexual…This body is new. I-I am no fucking a cuck who can’t get hard! Fucking stupid arse-”
“It’s okay. I know. Those visions were nothing but cheap tricks! I, no, that made up me in those visions did horrible things, but that isn’t me. And that wasn’t you.” Agwyn parted Elrhain’s hair from his forehead.
What a wonderful man, so handsome and strong. Her man. It’s been too long. She could’ve had this treat three decades before she died if not for her foolish past self and pride.
“That’s all mind-control, like the puppeteering from fairy tales. It’s not us. Our future is for me to decide, period. Ellie, I, we… ah fuck. I love you so damn much I can’t take it.” Agwyn cried. She felt hot and tingly all over. She needed to hug Elrhain’s neck and fall deeper into his lips.
So she did.
‘What a… wonderful smell.’ Agwyn pushed down her anxiety, ready to take their relationship to her desired, long-overdue level. The mood was right, and so was… Elrhain. Agwyn felt it in her heart and where she straddled him on his lap.
This was it. Now was the time.
“Mind control. Yes… It’s-“ Elrhain’s head snapped towards the terminal, then towards Yip. He breathed in deep as Agwyn rose higher, pushing down on his chest. She kissed his cheek, then neck, unbuttoning his lab coat to show her more of that unclaimed dreamland.
But Elrhain’s forearms which cradled Agwyn, suddenly released. He lifted them up above his head, then moved his face away.
“W-Why?” Agwyn looked at him as though a piece of her had shattered. She grabbed his hand and put it on her breast, unwilling to accept any rejection. “A-Am I not good enough?”
“Of course you are. But- “
“No buts!” Painful desperation rose in her heart. She pushed him harder into the wall and grabbed his pants. She knew Ellie was ready. He has been poking her place for a while, and the intense carnal fever radiating from his entire body was no lie.
So why?!
“No! It’s—we can’t!” Elrhain took his hand away again, this time resolute. From where their hearts touched, she could feel his beat calm down.
It hurt.
“This is the same as mind control.” Elrhain continued, cruel in his denial, growling with suppressed emotions. “We won’t base our decisions on false hypnotic visions!”
Agwyn saw it. The temptations in his eyes. The insane desire to make her his. To break their decades-long sexual abstention with the wildest debauchery she oh so wanted.
But he didn’t.
“You coward!“ Agwyn screamed. “That wasn’t me! That—Shirvan and Jarim! We aren’t any—”
He interrupted her words with another kiss. Gentler. His hands caressed her with less lust and more childhood love. It was not the forceful clutch from before but filled with carefully placed passion.
He pulled her again into a hug. Not his entanglement of desires, but the cuddle of yesterday. When they were in their crib, playfully snuggling to sleep with fluffy pillows and woolly blankets.
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It was… not so bad.
Agwyn sniffled. All strength left her like the remnant snow. She let Elrhain support her as the dam broke.
“Why??? Why can’t they just let us be? Why did it have to show me our exes!! Wahhh!”
“We are here, they aren’t. They don’t matter anymore.”
“I miss mommy. I miss Eluned. I want to see Ysbail and Cati and Ruba!”
“We’ll get out! This whole thing isn’t our fault!”
“I… I want to go on a date. I don’t wanna stay stuck here. I want to make your dreams come true, but I can’t do that here!”
“That’s not true! You’ve already given me more than I can ever hope to repay.”
“…. *sniff*… I… I thought we could finally do what you wanted. Mommy and daddy accepted our story. We made the fishing pole. We were about to reinvent cement, steel, and ceramic, and… and I would never cheat. I, why did that stupid thing show me my asshole exes?! That fake me in the vision was doing so many terrible things to you, mother, Miramarja… Wuuu…”
“There, there. We’ll brainstorm ideas like we always do.”
“Ellie.”
“Annie.”
“….here.” She pointed at her forehead.
Her boyfriend complied, pecking her slightly violet yet pale white temples. He then gently wiped away her tears and looked into her eyes.
Agwyn’s mouth twitched.
“Ellie.”
“Tell me.”
“I want a candle-light dinner atop a terrace overlooking loch Sagathan. I want to work out for at least four months before our night. I want my ideal hourglass body. I want to cuddle in a bubble bath and kiss you on a warm rose bed. I need to prepare a sexy black nighty and victory lingeries…” Agwyn giggled, a ticklish feeling sprouting uncontrollably in her chest. “…And you need some boxer briefs. And abs, and pecs, and a V-taper….and…”
“And?”
“….I don’t want to lose this life’s virginity in an strange space dimension. It has to be perfect.”
“Oh, thank the discs.” Elrhain breathed out. “Me neither!” He boomed with the manliest grin Agwyn had ever seen (she might have been biased), then swatted Yip. The usual culprit behind all things wrong in the mental world had bounced in for hugs, but it obviously had no skills reading the mood. For once, Agwyn didn’t mind.
******
Elrhain crossed his arms as he glared at the terminal. He and Annie fiddled with it for a few hours, but it repeatedly showed the same message with the cryptic poem.
“There isn’t even a settings button.”
“… Why would you need a settings button?” Agwyn asked, observing one anchor-shaped glyph with interest. It had similarities with the mundane Uorys script, which she noted on the ground.
“This font is making my eyes bleed. It’s as if the terminal scanned my brain to find out the exact font and page layout I hate the most.” Elrhain clicked his tongue. “Look at this horrendous use of negative space!”
“You recognise this font?”
“Yeah. Teenage Dream 16.”
“How do you even know that?” Agwyn laughed. “It looks like we don’t have any other choice but to set up this
Agwyn came over and pointed at one section of the message. “That’s the only part that’s interactive.”
“… A linear RPG.”
“Fufu.” Agwyn puffed her chest. Because of her position, they pressed against Elrhain’s arms and back from behind.
Elrhain wondered if she was intentionally doing this but had no complaints. He exchanged a glance with her, nodding, then brought a finger up to tap the interactive part of the message.
[Materialise Administration Point
|Yes|No|]
He clicked yes.
“Get back.” Elrhain grabbed Agwyn’s waist as he retreated, expecting another mental probe or similar phenomenon.
They waited a few minutes.
“Uh… recheck it?”
Elrhain obliged. He neared the terminal like a cautious cat.
“Wow... Okay. There’s a map now.”
Agwyn scuttled in. “There is! Oh, here’s where we are.”
Her fingers touched the displayed vector-like image. The terminal screen was still darkish black, with neon lines glowing over it, revealing a synth-wave esque line map, all different hues of purple, blue, red, and green.
“An… infra-teal map?”
“I don’t think that colour exists.”
The map showed the tholus to the south, the fissure to the north, and the various other landforms they had previously noticed. Right north of the tholus-like shape were three blinking dots. Presumably him, Agwyn, and Yip?
“There’s the gangway! And… a marker?” Agwyn flicked her finger to another location. A small snake-like group of neon lines had exited the south of the tholus. They glowed as though attracting the user’s attention, looking strangely like… a button?
But Elrhain was more interested in the aforementioned marker.
“It looks like a spire.” He muttered, tapping it.
[Select Materialization Point]
The map dimmed, and the spire-shaped marker became interactive. Elrhain could now move it around like a mouse cursor.
“Heh, Megacities Skyline,” Agwyn smirked before turning serious. “Hey, about the gangway….”
“I know. Let me set this up first.” Elrhain reassured her. He moved the marker to a place right by the three blinking dots. It was now about ten feet north of Elrhain and the terminal. It was surprisingly accurate despite not being a 3D image on a small screen.
Elrhain let go of the marker. Seeing nothing happen, Elrhain tapped it.
[Finalise Materialisation Point of
|Yes|No|]
Yes again.
“Whoa!”
This time, the change was immediate.
The glyphs and runic chains in the area hummed as one. As if affected by the vibration, the many crystal growths dotting the ground released light particles like azure fireflies.
They gathered in a hurricane above the selected spot without the harsh rustling wind. Only a gentle breeze accompanied the process, yet somehow, Agwyn could imagine the leaves floating with the currents. That would have been much more romantic.
The hurricane disappeared as it had come. Remaining in its place was a crystal spire. It floated there, rotating like a display piece. About half of Agwyn’s height, it had materialised just above Elrhain’s head line.
“It looks like the spire above Loch Sagathan Temple,” Agwyn muttered.
“Without the size. And blueish. All this is connected somehow.” Elrhain stroked his chin, then went back to the terminal.
“There’s… Well, there’s nothing new. No more cut scenes, I guess.” He played with it, hoping to get something out, but no luck.
Meanwhile, Yip had returned from hiding behind a rock. The thwack from Elrhain had scared the pup quite a bit, but it was as if it had forgotten all its grievance at the sight of the crystal spire.
“Yip!” It bit Elrhain’s lab coat, then paddled forward.
“You want us to touch it?” Elrhain guessed. “So, there was a cut scene left?”
“Yu… Yiyu.”
“Is that a yes?”
“It is.” Agwyn gave her expert opinion. “Do you want to wait again?”
“Well, it is a linear RPG. And I don’t think… I don’t know, but what the hell, let’s humour the evil gremlin. Though it’s probably not a good idea to get into a habit.”
Saying that, he walked in front of the Gladys Spire with Yip still hanging from his lab coat.
“Beautiful. It’s like a piece of the sky.” He heard Agwyn’s mesmerising voice from behind.
Indeed, the spire levitated there as if it were a reminder of the real sky outside this realm of night and moon. Its blue wasn’t the blue of water or the crystals that dotted the ground. It was like a spire of mirrors, set upon the sky reflecting the white clouds and azure firmament.
Elrhain, for once not caring for fortune or woe, gave himself up to the linear story as he placed his hand on one trapezoidal facet of the spire.