Chapter 56: Return to Your Panels

When the Author says stop... even the gods listen.

The morning bathed the blue tower in a warm, dreamlike light. Saphira chased a small, soft galaxy that bounced between the lightning pillars super potato, perched on an arch of cushions, assembled a trampoline made of sound effects: "BOING," "PAF," "FLOMP." In the suspended kitchen, Hope hummed while flipping dimensional pancakes that floated a little too high above the pan everything was calm, joyful, strangely perfect until the sky itself seemed to hold its breath.

—"STOP."

The voice fell not a voice in the air, but a voice in the structure of the narrative the sky froze, bubbles burst silently, even the text... slowed down an immense, calm, authoritative, undeniable voice."I, the Author... am intervening."

The voice resonated in all realms. It passed through the tower, Morpheus's corridors, the comic book pages, the dreamed kingdoms, and even the heart of balancen everywhere, everywhere. Super Potato, back straight and eyebrows furrowed into drawn commas, waited. —"Super Potato, you are a cartoon character, a being of gag, speed, nonsense you are not meant to remain in a dreamlike, emotional, and divine saga." He lowered his eyes, a cookie crumbling in his hand: "But I liked... this story." —"You enriched it," the voice said. "It's true, but you must return."

The voice turned to her, to Saphira Noctielle, little queen of lightning, protector of the forgotten:"And you, Saphira... you have become too powerful too free tou walk in worlds that were not made for you the danger is not what you create; it is what you could destroy... without meaning to." She remained frozen her doll trembled gently against her. Élya, present, silently reached out and squeezed her hand without a word. Saphira looked up she spoke not to a character, nor to a god, but to the Author himself. "I understand." —"But... can I at least say goodbye to him?" A silence suspended the sky, the beat of a page that hadn't yet turned. Then, the voice answered:"Yes."

A white room, without walls, without a ceiling, just two presences. Saphira & Super Potato he laughed softly, but his eyes, even drawn, seemed full of salty ink: "You were my favorite sidekick." Saphira nodded. "You were my favorite hero, even if you were made of starch." They embraced a tear slid from the edge of a bubble and fell to the ground with the sound of a crumpled page. "Do you want... one last panel together?" she asked he smiled still a white, floating panel, a soft frame. Saphira in her lightning dress. Super Potato in his gag cape they hold hands a final bubble appears. "End of episode. But not of friendship." And Super Potato jumps into a panel, he disappears in a "POOF!" scribbled with a final stroke.

The blue tower is silent the stars watch, peaceful. Saphira has returned sitting on the edge of her bed, she caresses her doll. "I'll see him again someday, in a footnote or between two forgotten bubbles." And somewhere, in a sketched world, between two laughs... Super Potato looks towards her, his eyes shining: "You'll remain... my best panel."

End of Chapter 56 — "Return to Your Panels"