“Buddie, let the actors know that I would like to have a chat with them. If they have the time for it.” Getting out of his chair, Ed walks through the door into a small meeting room. This should be big enough to hold everyone. Sitting down at one of the seats, he waits for them to arrive.

One by one, the actors enter the room, and Ed greets each of them as they do.

“It’s good to see you again Ed, how’ve you been?” The person who played Mr Wallace shook his hand, casually sitting down across from him.

Do I know this... Wait. I’ve got it. Memories of his past few times talking with the actors plays through his mind. It’s that guy. It’s definitely him. “I’ve been alright, just saving up a little, haven’t really found anything I’ve wanted to spend my credits on though. How have things been for you? Have you saved up enough for that holiday you wanted?”

“Life’s been pretty good, I’m almost there with the vacation. Just a few more jobs and I’ll be good.”

As their conversation is happening, everyone else sits around the table, relaxing and just enjoying the time between jobs.

“That’s good. I won’t hold you here for too long. Don’t want to keep you away from that holiday after all. I just called you all in here to check in on you and see how you all are holding up.” Ed says, keeping a warm but professional smile on his face.

Most of them are a little confused, but the guy he was just talking with already knew what to expect when he saw Ed, so he just continues on with the conversation, allowing the others to follow his lead.

“I’m holding up just fine, thank you for asking. This one was pretty relaxing compared to the rest of my workload if I’m being honest. All I had to do was say a few words, it's not like I had to chop off any of my limbs. I think most people here will agree with me on that.” Looking around, the rest of the people nod, agreeing with what he said.

“Glad to hear it.” Ed says, before turning his attention to the person playing Brigid’s double. “And how are you feeling? I know Brigid was in a crazed state before she was captured, so I just want to make sure you’re feeling fine after having to play that type of character.”

She thinks for a moment, genuinely taking his question into consideration. “I guess I’m doing okay. It hasn’t affected me at all.”

That’s good, I don’t want to know what could happen if it caused her to be unstable...

“And I had a lot of fun shooting her, so I think it was a pretty good day.” She continues, topping it all off with a sweet smile.

... Yeah, I should’ve expected that. Ed manages to Keep the professional smile on his face. “I’m glad you had fun. You all can take this time to unwind a little if you want, you’re also free to leave whenever you want. Don’t feel like you need to stay behind, if you have places to be then just go and do whatever you need to.”

A couple of them get up, saying goodbye to everyone before leaving. The rest of the group stays in there for a while, chatting with each other, leaving one by one until Ed is on his own again.

As if he was following them out, Ed steps through the door, immediately finding himself back in the library. It’s time to get some information. Making his way to the front desk, he calls out to Urdhuri, then waits.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

“Hello, my new friend, did you forget to ask something? What brings you back here a mere moment after leaving?” The entire room starts to warp, pulling into a single point behind the desk.

Although he’s experienced this before, Ed is still mesmerised and terrified in equal measure. His vision goes blank as even light is sucked in.

Everything goes back to normal as Urdhuri appears behind the desk. But this time, Ed’s chair is already in place by the time his vision has returned.

That’s nice of him. Sitting down in the chair, Ed relaxes a little. The stress leaving his shoulders. “Thanks for the seat. I’ve been holding back my curiosity over the last couple days; I didn’t want to risk Buddie questioning anything if I disappear too frequently.”

“A couple days...” Urdhuri mutters to himself.

“Hmm, what’s that?” not quite catching what he said, Ed asks.

“My apologies. It’s been too long since I've had a visitor. It felt like you’d only just left. My perception of time is tentative at best.” He replies, kindly answering Ed’s question.

Two days felt like an instant to him? How long has he been here alone? “If you don’t mind me asking, how long has it been since you last had a visitor?”

“It should have been about twenty billion years ago. If I’m remembering correctly that is.” Urdhuri says, roughly estimating the time.

Ed’s heart bugs out as his brain starts to spin. Twenty Billion! How... That’s older than the universe.

“You seem shocked by that number, how old do you think your universe is?” Urdhuri says, sensing Ed’s confusion.

“I think our best estimate puts it at around fourteen billion years old. H-how old are you?” Slowly, Ed’s heartrate starts to go back to normal. Either our guess is way off, or the other realities didn’t start existing at the same time.

“I can see why you would be shocked by that answer then. As for myself, I was around when the first reality was created, and witnessed the creation of the origin planet.” Seeing that Ed’s shock has lessened, instead replaced by excitement and curiosity. “Good to see that you already know about the existence of other realities, that will make this easier.

Hundreds of billions of years ago, there existed entities without shape or form. The only thing that existed at the time was the pool of fate, from which we were all created. Eventually, some of us grew bored by the monotonous nature of our existence and decided to create bodies for ourselves. And with that, the first reality was born as a byproduct of our actions. That was around one hundred and fifty billion years ago.

With their new forms, their ambitions expanded, and after having experimented with their new forms, they decided to create life that was separate from us. It took them a while, but eventually the origin planet was formed, life was created. This was one hundred billion years ago.

Seeing this, others went on to create living beings in their own image, creating countless realities and planets to contain them.” Having finished his monologue, there was a long stretch of silence.

Ed felt like his entire worldview had been shattered. The world was far older and more magical than he knew. This is all too much. If the world is that old, at which point was the company created?

As if sensing his question, Urdhuri continues to speak. “It was twenty billion years ago that those mortals gained access to a portion of fate. Having succeeded in his actions, that man decided that he would no longer visit me. And I have been alone ever since.”

“That’s a lot to take in.” Ed just sits there, trying to digest the massive load of information that was just dumped on him. At least now I have a rough estimate of how old my opponent is.

“Take all the time you need. Few mortals are privy to such information.”

The two sit there for a while in comfortable silence. “I think it is time for me to leave. I have learnt a lot today, and I think I may need a lot of time to really digest it.” as he says this, Ed gets up from the chair.

“Of course. And until we meet again, this book may have the answers to some of the questions you have.” A large and thick book flies over from one of the shelves, landing on the desk in front of Ed. “It’s an encyclopedia of all intelligent life that exists in the world. There should be some useful information in there for you.”

“Thank you.” picking up the book, Ed finds it to be surprisingly light, weighing not much more than a feather. Saying goodbye, Ed walks to the door, feeling Urdhuri disappear from behind him. I’ll look at this tomorrow. Setting the book aside, he jumps into bed and immediately falls asleep.