Rings

My eyes flashed open to a dark cell.

“Where…” Everything felt hazy inside my head, scrambled. I remembered Dallas having me dragged away as he looked upon me with somber eyes. Nothing after that floated to the surface.

Had they locked me away? That was the obvious answer considering my situation. My dark cell stretched beyond what my eyes could comprehend. Above nothing resembling a ceiling could be seen, despite the walls stretching up for eternity.

Only a row of meager windows lit up the tower like cell. Moonlight shone through, bouncing off the walls and allowing my eyes to see.

“Enjoying the scenery?” I jumped as a voice echoed around the cell.

Just on the edge of my sight, a figure legend against the wall; tall and skinny yet still rather well defined.

Charcoal robes lined with words unrecognizable to me flowed in the shallow breeze permitted by the windows above. But that wasn't the most interesting part of him.

A sword floated by his side, mystical in appearance. Thousands of colorful threads floated lazily in the sword's frame, periodically combining to form rings the same shade as midnight before breaking up again. It was more a collection of threads in the shape of a sword than anything else.

“Who are you?” Despite everything, that one question came to the forefront of my mind.

“An observer of sorts; No, more like a part time recruiter in this particular case.” His smooth voice ran over me like a waterfall. “You’re at an interesting impasse Makoto, the perfect time to start the chain of events.”
“Impasse?”

“A crossroads, if you will. A magnitude of worldlines wait in the shadows for you to choose. Every choice from now on could create a brand new future to display. I'm here for when those choices are made.”

“So why appear now? And where am I? Clearly this isn't a Fides prison.”

“Observant, aren't you? I can at least answer that much. This is a pocket dimension of mine, formed from your psyche. Speaking of, couldn't you have chosen something a bit brighter? It’s a bit hard to communicate when I can barely see half your face.”

“Not like it was my choice!” Despite the weirdness of it all, nothing in the same ballpark as fear came to mind. Rather this was the normalist I’d felt in a long, long time.

He smirked. “You are the luckiest man alive to end up with me here.”
“Compared too?”
“You see, I’m here on a favor of sorts. The womanizer that normally recruits happened to get sent on an errand, and considering how little time my job takes I was the first he called.”

“I’m a guy!” Come on! Apparently even cosmic entities, or whatever the heck this dude was, couldn't tell I wasn't a girl. Was it really that hard?

He just snorted. “Like that hotshot cares. If anything, that'd just make you more of a target.”

“What are you? What are these jobs you speak of?”

“Have you ever thought about the end?” His question caught me off guard. From every angle I looked, the randomness of it all was too much to overcome.

“The end of what?”
“Everything. When the stars no longer shine in the sky, the last heartbeat slows to a stop. When reality takes its last breath, what happens after?”

“Never really came to mind. Not like I'll be alive when it happens.”

“Allas, the majority holds the same view no matter the world. As one of the Children of God, my role is to watch for the end of everything. No more and no less.” He clapped his hands together. “But enough about me. That can be saved for another page in this tale. I want to see what you’re feeling about the world you know.”

“I guess… scared? Confused? Everything feels as if it's been turned on its head, and I’m just along for the ride.”

“What an apt description. Change is in the air, as Rei said so long ago. Good and evil are set to meet head on, and it’s up to you to decide who's who.”

He snapped his fingers, and candles floated in through the open windows. Light slowly flickered on the cell walls. “Enough with this prison charade. Hope you don't mind a bit of redecorating.”

The walls burst forth, revealing an endless abyss of green and black below. I was floating, flying in midair, as the world around me disintegrated. Everything except for those candles.

A ring like the ones in his sword appeared, larger than any cell I’d ever seen. “Technically I may be breaking a few rules here, but anything beats that cell. Besides, no one can say shit if they don’t find out.”

We flew through the ring into an explosion of colors. Everything felt wrong, gravity pulling me left and right. Up became down and down became up. Reality pulsed as it pleased; I was just along for the ride.

My captor however looked calm as could be. With arms spread wide, he flew around the endless rainbow, twirling around on a whim. “The universe has many secrets Makoto, this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

With a snap of his fingers, colors shattered like glass.

I found myself within a library unlike any Tokyo had to offer. There was a homey feeling within the small room, with bookshelves lining almost every inch of the wall. My feet glided over the light wooden floor without a second thought, almost like marble. A single desk connected to a bookstand sat in the middle of the room.

Smoke slowly rose from the book placed on the stand, a thin tome called Infallibility. The desk itself was rather well organized, if a bit cluttered. Books stacked taller than I covered the ends. No two were exactly alike, yet every single one had a similar look, with the title printed on the spine in gold.

“Sorry for the mess, the fucker who normally recruits yall targets wanted me to use his station. Something about record keeping.” He picked up one of the figures at random, a girl with long blue pigtails. “Anyway, just a few more questions.”

“Where the heck…” I couldn't put it into words. That rainbow… and the rings! Nothing made sense! So why was I still so calm?

“Technically you’re in a prison truck at the moment, riding to wherever fate destins you to be. All I needed to snatch up was your soul.”
“My soul?!”

“Let's not focus on that. Our time is ticking to a close Makoto, honestly bringing you here wasted a bit more time than I was expecting. Don’t think I’ll make a visit till this tale comes to an end. Anything else on your mind?”

“Just, what happened to everyone else. Nari and Kono… they were both dragged alongside me. And who knows where they ended up because of my loose tongue. Not to mention the fact there's no chance of Lex Credendi accepting them.”

“You never know.” He snapped his fingers and looked up towards the ceiling, as if a whole world awaited him. “Alas, it's clear we're out of time. One more question.”

“What's your name?”

“My name? Can’t say I saw that one coming. Of the seven, I’m the only one still deciding the answer to that question.” He looked wistfully out in the distance. “As I have since the day I was born.

Now farewell! May we meet again soon.” Before I could respond, he snapped his fingers and the world went black.