We’re both exhausted. As soon as Life deems a spot suitable we collapsed on it and used each other as pillows. As soon as I close my eyes I open to see us, my third person POV centered on Life. She crouches relatively close and watches. Her eyes dance across our faces with fascination. She looks at our eyelashes the dried hair matted to our scalps.

Who knows how long it’s been since she’s seen humans this close, trusting her well enough to take a nap around her. If she’s God then she’s made everything on this planet, our ancestors capable to cruelty and kindness from the tallest sapiens to the protons that made them. Will the same atoms that built us be found in her?

Either way it’s not exactly the same. For starters, humans needed to eat. Our provisions were long gone, leaving us with only the tattered clothes on us. Life takes notice and takes off down the tunnel. She keeps her ears perked. Her bare feet punch into the blue rock to propel her forward, scentless air running through her nostrils. She runs until she stops. It looks unassuming but her ears twitch. She crouches low, placing her hand on the ground. She seems to utilize the advice she gave me. Small blue light radiates the ground. Small rumbles and then a burrower leaps out of the stone. She catches it midair, cooking it completely upon contact. She does this several times until she’s satisfied and gathers them up in her arms to run back. She sees us still sleeping and drops the load at her feet. She nudges us with her big toe.

I’m pulled back to my body as Kikito sits up, stretching and audibly wincing at sore muscles. “Where we attacked?” He asks.

“Food,” she says.

“I’m supposed to eat that? I don’t even know that it is I don’t wanna put that in my mouth.” His stomach growls.

“Nothing grows down here. Insect pack a lot of protein.”

Kikito notices I’m up and says, “Good morning Kev we get to eat bugs.”

I furrow my brows at him and look at what she’s provided. My stomach turns. “I take it there’s no edible vegetation,” I say.

Life chuckles.

“That’s promising. Well let’s dig in,” he says. He cracks one open by smashing them together, meat and juices overflowing from it like a cheese bug. With a hard swallow he brings it to his mouth and gags immediately. I reach for a bug but Life shakes her head.

“You won’t need that. If you haven’t already lost the motivation to eat, you will.”

“What about sleep?”

“That’ll fade too. I’d be surprised if you actually slept during your nap.”

“That’s not fair at all,” Kikito says, bug juice all over his face. Apparently it’s not nearly as bad as we first suspected.

“Don’t sell yourself short. Your circumstances are less clear to me but you’re no longer fully human either.”

“What’s happened to us, is the question we have.” I interject. Life makes herself comfortable. She slides down the wall, resting her knees against her chest.

“What do you think happened?” She asks.

“We have facts. I tried to bring Mirana back from the dead and it didn’t work. But there were these lights all around me and I passed out. Luckily, Kikito found me but then she showed back up at my apartment raving about seeing Mirana and we had to go back to the cave. So we did. A creature ate Kikito’s friend, chased us into an underground lake that drowned Kikito, we ended up here, bugs tried to eat me, and then you found us.”

“That comes covers it,” Kikito adds. Life nods and looks out from our nook into the tunnel’s depths, eyes scintillating in shades of green. She sighs.

“I’m not sure where to begin. It isn’t every day we make ourselves known. I created all you’ve known, prior to this—” she gestures to the tunnels — “the earth is my home to protect and by proxy protect and care for all of you. I have been here since the planet’s beginning.

“Long before the planet or I existed, others already did. Cosmic beings, as you might describe them, live amongst the universe. It prefers to be called the celeste though I understand universe is the best term to describe it. One of them died billions of years ago and was buried here. Their remains were in pieces and one became me and now another is inside of you, Kelvin.”

“Shouldn’t we get it out?” I ask, breath hitching when she shakes her head.

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“Can’t be done or else I would have already done it. I’d rather be the one doing the fusing instead of the one being fused to.”

“What—

“Not important right this second. Tell me, Kikito, did you experience anything in your death?”

“I was gonna wait to bring it up but yeah I did. After I drowned I went somewhere. A giant city with red skies and black sparkly dirt. There are all these tall buildings in different states of decay, some were nothing but rebar holding them together. And there was this giant black thing in the sky hanging over the city.

“People were there too. I’m talking just ten not a bustle of them. They were gathered outside a palace, for lack of a better word. This giant mansion someone had to have been taking care of—it looked nicer than anything else in the city. All of them were wearing robes and ridiculous face paint, hands reaching up to the sky.

“I went other places too. I was following an ugly ass monster around. It...it found Mirana.” Realization settles into his face.

Life resumes speaking before we can give that the time of day. “That city was Za’at, capital of an ancient subterranean civilization. It was discovered many years before you current recorded history and developed by any culture who’s managed to discover it since. The Egyptians found it most recently and worked hard on restoring it before they faded away. It was discovered again when humans reopened King Tutankhamun’s tomb. His father had found Za’at and worshipped the entity residing there as Aten until his death. Now they’ve taken to calling it the Repression.”

“This is all too much too soon. What’s an Aten? Who’s King Tuttles?” Kikito says despairingly.

“Everyone knows who King Tut is, Kik,” I quip.

“You think too highly of me.”

“The Repression is what you saw in the sky that they were worshipping,” Life says, “this entity that died, one we call Inbetween in humanity’s language, had a creator. They called her Alnother and she cared for Inbetween very much. When they died, she was inconsolable. She retreated into this planet, his graveyard, and has been asleep since. Another has replaced her, full of directionless anger and bitterness. Her sorrow sucks everything in until she’s eating galaxies. That’s the only time my family returns: to force her back to sleep. This corner of the universe existing inside of the celeste is destroyed and reborn every time.”

“Why not kill it to stop that?” Kikito asks.

She laughs and says, “I’ve asked myself that question more than a few times. However, I must confess we’re at the end of what I know. My family has always been distant since my birth, and knowledge is intuitively shared amongst the pantheon. Only the celeste can be everywhere at once but that’s easy when everything is inside of you.”

“Can’t you find them and ask?” I ask.

“I’m not powerful enough to project myself beyond this planet’s gravitational pull. I prefer to spend my time in the oceans rather than Earth or here, the Willways. There’s no humans to be terrified of me and I get to play with the sea animals. Everyone wins.”

“It feels like you gave a bunch of information with no context,” Kikito says.

“I can’t help but agree,” I say, “are you going to get us home?” She looks into my eyes. I feel her placing the heaviest burden on my shoulders. “You’re not.”

“She’s not? What do you mean she’s not?”

“You’ve set events into motion that can’t be undone. Mirana lives. I believe she may be with the entity that resides in the Tides.” I feel the weight on my shoulders drop into my stomach. Kikito’s face lightens. Finally she looks at him and releases me from her glowing green sea.

“He did it? Really?” Kikito hops up in a burst of adrenaline and punches the air. “Can he bring back Greg too?” She smiles sadly. “If he can we don’t know how. Mirana is a miracle and a curse. It was never supposed to work.”

Kikito’s face hardens and he steps away.

“Why didn’t she come back to us then? Kikito never left,” I ask.

“I’m unsure. Her ashes could have been a factor, but I think she was prevented from leaving. I can feel all of my creatures throughout their lives. She was in the Tides for years but I’m not sure if she’s still there.”

“Years?” I ask. The vague ambiguity is getting to me.

“We exist outside of your time and space. When you threw a human into that dimension it makes them perceive time differently. I hope she’s been found—otherwise she’s been alone for what she thinks is at least a hundred years,” Life says.

Kikito jumps up and says, “Listen you gotta start talking to us like we’re five. He wants his friend back and I wanna fucking kill the thing that ate my boyfriend now how do we do that? Is the Tides that damn ocean?”

“Ocean?” Now it’s her turn to ask questions. Luckily, it disarms his initial anger.

“Yeah I saw an ocean in my sleep. My actual sleep before I was dead. It’s why we went back to Welkin’s. I saw her at the bottom of an ocean.”

“That’s it. The Tides is the place all life travels through, before and after death. The Loomer looks after them. You could call this entity Death. There’s good chance she’s with them.”

“The monster Kikito saw?”

“Depends. What did it look like?”

“Big and furry with antlers. It looks like some deer/moose/demon combination.”

Life’s smile slips away. “No, no that’s not the Loomer. That’s what we call Dark. I didn’t know he was down here,” she says quietly, “first thing: we have to find her.”

“Then let’s go!” Kikito exclaims.

“First we need to get you both in a position to defend yourselves. You won’t put a scratch on anything if neither of you know what you’re doing. Kelvin, I will teach you how to use your abilities and when you shouldn’t. The magic burns. It’ll burn right through you if you’re not careful, and I mean literally. You’ll irradiate yourself to death and it will be very painful.

“Kikito, you have visions but I don’t think that’s it. Can we try something?”

“Whatever you want as long as it’s not eating more bugs,” he jokes. She smiles again.

“Would you let me break your arm?” She asks. His face pales.

“W-Why?”

“Because I want to show you how to heal yourself and we don’t have time to ease you in. You’ll need to do it quickly if you’re going to fight.”

“Am I gonna get powers like him?” Kikito asks. I see fantasies of crushing that creature in his hands on his face.

“Perhaps. Would you like to begin?”

“Definitely!”

“Here I come,” she coos before she advances, grasping his arm in a smooth display of close quarters combat and cracks it toward the sky.