Epilogue: Present

Sorry for the late reply, it’s so easy to become lost in this maze of tangled wires and fractured walls. Unlike you, I’ve always liked big cities, but even I think I miss the Cradle already. I patrolled the east side. Sewer rats scurried from the bins in the alley to the archway. The barriers were holding up fine, as far as I could tell, anyway. The purple shimmer caused the moths to brew a storm. If the Scourge could exterminate them, then maybe destroying the world was worth it.

I appreciate the thought, but if I were to let go, it would only be after achieving one thing. Do you know what that is? Freedom, in the golden city. The Summit. I know you were lying to us. Besides, if you’re going to aim high, you might as well aim for the top. Isn’t that the type of thing you’d say? Since when did I take your place? Even if I did find Cecilia, I wouldn’t settle for this, letting her live in this sh*t hole.

I’ll never stop searching for answers. The Mass disappearances, the person who summoned me and Cecilia here and for what reason. I’ll get to the bottom of it all.
I won’t stop till I do. There are even some mysteries I can’t even tell you.

Secrets I can’t tell you. You’re just going to have to trust me when I say that if you ever found out, I’d have to kill you. But I’m only joking. Kinda. People think that trusting someone is linear. But that’s not true at all. While there are some secrets I wouldn’t dare tell you, I wouldn’t hesitate to trust you with my life on the battlefield.

I still can’t believe you took over that thing so easily. By hacking it, not only have you made us targets, you’ve destroyed people’s trust in the machine.

To think that hacking Akranos shattered the union holding the Nexus Legion together. Things really don’t get easier, do they? Well, it is kind our fault. Plunging the Nexus Quarter back into the Lawless City. And now we’re at the heart of this ruthless power struggle between gangs, organisations and secret societies.

Lately, I’ve been thinking that we need allies if we want to survive. Now we’re on our own, we’ll be consumed by larger organisations. The two of us can only hole up in this building for so long. In fact, I’ve already got someone in mind—a mage who wants to leave everything behind. I know you might have some bad blood, but I’m sure it’s something you can work through if you guys sit and talk it out. Besides I think you guys have some good chemistry, even though you keep denying it.

This is the Lawless City now, if we don’t stand up for ourselves now and gain allies while we can I’m afraid we’ll only be crushed in the near future.

Now that the union has collapsed, and the city has fallen into disarray I fear that Hellia will use it as a chance to make the her next move. I have no doubt that Shell and Snow have a target on your head now, and they’ll fill the Spearhead with new members. Not to mention the Cult of Worship is still somewhere out there too. I wonder if they’ll find a replacement for Moon Priest. Maybe a priest will come from another sect? I hope not.

But for now, I brought a new fridge. The Bocari Sweets no longer have to be warm!!!

And I wanted to thank you, too. You made me realise that maybe even someone like me can find my place in this world.

I’ll speak to you soon.

Signed Gulugulu Johnson