A Smile in a Fanfare Fermata
I closed my mouth and the sound died out. It was just a simple note of bluish green that tapered off into yellow as my throat closed around it, it was hardly a song, but it was enough. I knew that I still had my true colors.
I looked up at Darc the Green, registered the look of astonishment as the note passed through his senses. He stepped forward into the light streaming through the open doors. For a moment, the dust from the elevator sliced through the golden light, making it tangible, corporeal color. Slowly, Darc touched his ears. The tips of his eyelashes. The golden light. I smiled, secretly hoping that a hint of Path’s hue had come through into the grin.
I knew that color was different in this world. But was music?
“I knew you would be interesting,” Darc said, abandoning his confusion for the sly smirk of the slinking fox. He slipped past me, out onto the roof of the building. He glanced over his shoulder. A smile in a fanfare fermata, for effect. “Demon.”
“Thank god. For a moment I’d thought…” I closed my eyes, and listened for the motions of the city around me. I love color. I love the color of this world, but had I the choice, I would never trade it for my music.
“You’ll have to teach me that trick,” Darc said as he walked out onto the roof. “I don’t know what exactly you did—were you hiding your chi this whole time? I’ve never met anyone that good at it.”
“I show you my tricks, you show me yours.” I looked up. The sky was an infinitely dark blue above us, with flecks of stars. Splatters of rippling clouds shattered the sky, their underbellies framed with bright orange and fiery yellow, their tops shadowed with dull purple. Smoke smeared the sky, highlighting the skyline with pink. The horizon was barely visible through all of the towering buildings, bridges and domes, like the ones I had seen on my way up. And against the color of the sky, the city was black as coal.
This was no cheap hologram.
“The fuck––” In every direction I looked, the city expanded, crisp in detail and vividly real.
“You okay?” I heard Darc say over the static panic pumping my heart faster, faster.
I ran to the edge of the roof and looked down. My mind swayed, dizzied by the height and depth, vertigo seizing upon me. Wind rushed up. Up, up, we had come so far up.
“Hey, hey!” Darc grabed my sleeve, tugging me from the edge. “What are you doing?!”
“We… we came up so high.” The impossibility of this place made me sick. “This Era is huge! How, how… I thought everything out of the elevator was just an illusion. How?”
“Hey!” Darc knelt before me and grabbed the scruff of my neck. “Will you stop freaking out on me all the time? I told you we were going up to the top of the city, yeah it’s big but… for fuck’s sake, I’ll just wait.”
He must have seen the panic that plagued me, because he let go of my neck and just sat there. I’m not sure how long he waited. For the first time, the great distance that we flew on his bike earlier finally registered with me. There went my plan of finding the weak points, through holograms, or doorways out of the Era. If they did exist, it would be impossible to find them in an Era this large. And there was no way that a city of this size could be hidden within the City of All Cities so well that no one knew about it. But someone did know about it. Path knew about it.
“Are you okay now?” Darc asked impatiently once I stopped cowering.
The sun had lifted itself higher, filling the air with more colors.
“I don’t know.”
I closed my mouth and the sound died out. It was just a simple note of bluish green that tapered off into yellow as my throat closed around it, it was hardly a song, but it was enough. I knew that I still had my true colors.
I looked up at Darc the Green, registered the look of astonishment as the note passed through his senses. He stepped forward into the light streaming through the open doors. For a moment, the dust from the elevator sliced through the golden light, making it tangible, corporeal color. Slowly, Darc touched his ears. The tips of his eyelashes. The golden light. I smiled, secretly hoping that a hint of Path’s hue had come through into the grin.
I knew that color was different in this world. But was music?
“I knew you would be interesting,” Darc said, abandoning his confusion for the sly smirk of the slinking fox. He slipped past me, out onto the roof of the building. He glanced over his shoulder. A smile in a fanfare fermata, for effect. “Demon.”
“Thank god. For a moment I’d thought…” I closed my eyes, and listened for the motions of the city around me. I love color. I love the color of this world, but had I the choice, I would never trade it for my music.
“You’ll have to teach me that trick,” Darc said as he walked out onto the roof. “I don’t know what exactly you did—were you hiding your chi this whole time? I’ve never met anyone that good at it.”
“I show you my tricks, you show me yours.” I looked up. The sky was an infinitely dark blue above us, with flecks of stars. Splatters of rippling clouds shattered the sky, their underbellies framed with bright orange and fiery yellow, their tops shadowed with dull purple. Smoke smeared the sky, highlighting the skyline with pink. The horizon was barely visible through all of the towering buildings, bridges and domes, like the ones I had seen on my way up. And against the color of the sky, the city was black as coal.
This was no cheap hologram.
“The fuck––” In every direction I looked, the city expanded, crisp in detail and vividly real.
“You okay?” I heard Darc say over the static panic pumping my heart faster, faster.
I ran to the edge of the roof and looked down. My mind swayed, dizzied by the height and depth, vertigo seizing upon me. Wind rushed up. Up, up, we had come so far up.
“Hey, hey!” Darc grabed my sleeve, tugging me from the edge. “What are you doing?!”
“We… we came up so high.” The impossibility of this place made me sick. “This Era is huge! How, how… I thought everything out of the elevator was just an illusion. How?”
“Hey!” Darc knelt before me and grabbed the scruff of my neck. “Will you stop freaking out on me all the time? I told you we were going up to the top of the city, yeah it’s big but… for fuck’s sake, I’ll just wait.”
He must have seen the panic that plagued me, because he let go of my neck and just sat there. I’m not sure how long he waited. For the first time, the great distance that we flew on his bike earlier finally registered with me. There went my plan of finding the weak points, through holograms, or doorways out of the Era. If they did exist, it would be impossible to find them in an Era this large. And there was no way that a city of this size could be hidden within the City of All Cities so well that no one knew about it. But someone did know about it. Path knew about it.
“Are you okay now?” Darc asked impatiently once I stopped cowering.
The sun had lifted itself higher, filling the air with more colors.
“I don’t know.”