Snippets and Stories: (WtI) Insight

Neiro sat down on the boulder, warmed by the morning sun, and forcibly relaxed his body.

A contented sigh left him as he felt the tension drain, and he but closed his eyes to take in the burbling of the nearby creek as he extended himself into the aether. The world slipped away from him and he was surrounded by the gentle void, the flow of Time once more swirling around him.

Never had he been involved so personally with the corporeal realm until Muspell has so forcibly summoned them.

The Numen chuckled to himself at the memory. Going so far as to tear into the very fabric of existence. Though it was well executed and contained to the Ophidian's credit. He would give the Muspell that much. To tear into the fabric of reality was a particularly dangerous and needless to say, reckless choice. How easily he could've torn himself asunder with that which was lost then.

And how easily he could've given up.

But he didn't.

In there he gazed into himself, not with his eyes, for it was not sight that would lend to him then.

For a long Time he could only hear the burbling of the creek, and could see nothing behind his closed eyes, and then--

"So soon, Neiro, I'm flattered that you miss me so!"

"Muspell." Null-0 looked up at the artificial isle he had conjured up. An anchor in the void that surrounded them. Something for Muspell, who was once of mortal flesh and blood, to be able to grasp onto.

The Yggdrasill waved him over and he lighted down on the drifting isle.

Almost immediately upon entering arm's reach, did he pull the other to him. The Ophidian huffed and smiled, "Am I to take this as a greeting and affirmation that you have indeed missed my presence?"

Null didn't deem him with a response, instead clutching him tighter. All that he wanted to know he could simply obtain by peering into the Seed. Yet he chose to listen to the other's vocalization.

Such primitive methods of communication were both inconvenient and Time-consuming. Yet listen did he, for it was exactly as he desired.

Everything that Muspell was, had become the world to him.

They both knew he could take what information he desired, that Muspell had no aversions to sharing his mind with the other, but such conversations were pleasing in their own way.

Here Muspell, in a way, lived on. Forever to remain trapped within the Numen, but such allowed him a continued existence, gazing upon eternity through Null's countless threads.

They talked, mindless little things, for whatever there was to know, Muspell already knew. The Timelines would not disappear any Time soon.

"I must say it takes some getting used to, being nigh omniscient."

Null said nothing but they had known one another for a long Time.

Was it the way his brow furrowed? He still smiled, yes, but it wasn't truly so.

"Neiro?"

The Numen caught his gaze and held it expectantly.

"Is something amiss?"

He hesitated and Muspell felt himself frowning. This wasn't like him. But he waited patiently for him to speak first.

And he did, at length, "Are you alright with the way things are now? A bystander unable to interact with anyone or anything. Is that truly living? Do you not become jaded seeing the entirety of all that was, is, and will be?"

The Ophidian blinked, and broke out in a smile, "Is that all, dear friend?"

"Is that all, he says..." Null sighed, shaking his head, "Time and Time again I've seen it, the endless cycle. Even those who are living as they are with but the scant few years that those of corporeal form are permitted, become weary of the harshness of reality. Their blasé becomes all consuming and they feel little and less of anything else, growing tired of the world they know."

A hand on his shoulder stopped him, "Neiro."

Muspell waited until he met his eyes, "Have I not been a bystander from the beginning? It was my decision to but chronicle the passing events, and I would've been content doing so had I not become lucid."

"Are you truly content to be? Do you not long for more?"

Muspell brushed his hair out of his face, the wind that had picked up a subtle shift the subconscious manifestation of his friend's conflict.

"What more could I desire? You are well, and I am now truly the observer I have always deigned myself to be. There is nothing more I want."

But Neiro seemed to disagree, "You will find boredom 'ere long. And with it apathy. And then you will understand why my kin were 'complacent with their demise' at the hands of the Ratite."

"Have faith Neiro, I am no stranger to cruelty, be it by fate or by design." Muspell shrugged at him, "In case you've forgotten, and if I may be so bold, I myself am one who suffered to both."

Yet despite his reassurances it seemed that Null felt more was needed to ascertain his content. Words were, after all, simply words.

But for what Time they did have together, he would cherish.