a reason,” I said. “Maybe it’ll eventually lead us back to the surface, ideally before it’s too late. How are you feeling now?”
She took a moment to answer. “I’m fine, actually. I feel fine. Calm. At peace, even. There’s nothing here, and I can’t explain it.”
“It’s weird, yeah. It’s a peculiar place, but I think it serves as our starting point just like it did before,” I replied. “We can’t do anything for the outside world, but we can do something here. Do you think Phantom or Morning are with us? Maybe they just can’t hear us.”
“No, I don’t feel them.”
“Then we’re alone. All the more reason for us to go through with this, Valaine.”
Silence settled between us once more. I basked in it. I found peace in it, just as she did. I wondered if death would be like this when my time came. All things had to end at some point. We vampires only had the illusion of immortality, not the true sense of it. I was more than happy to settle for that, but I also had to wonder what lay beyond that last breath. Would it be like this? Empty and quiet? Devoid of absolutely everything?
And how long before I’d lose my mind in it? We all craved a semblance of such shadowed silence, but I doubted we could take much of it. Our whole lives are spent in the midst of sounds—our voices, nature, traffic, the wind and the foaming seas, the people we surrounded ourselves with, gunshots and fireworks, music and laughter… how long before we’d go crazy in the absence of it all?
“Do you see it, Tristan?” Valaine asked. I didn’t answer right away, my mind still stuck on the whole insanity idea. “Tristan?”
“Yes, sorry. See what?” I was having trouble tearing myself away from that odd train of thought. Then again, it didn’t need to be odd. After all my brushes with death, it was only natural that I’d start asking myself such things, especially since I was getting a taste of such intense and unrelenting stillness.
“The golden thread.”
Looking around, I finally noticed it. A slim little thing, barely a silken string, almost invisible but for its golden reflexes. “It’s weak,” I said.
“It’s distant,” Valaine replied. “Let’s follow it…”
Reaching out, I felt the thread’s delicate texture tickling my skin, though I could see no skin to speak of. I held on, moving in its direction, flowing with it across the vast and empty sea. Soon the darkness dissolved into a rich canvas of colors and shapes.
“Tristan, this is from a very long time ago,” she concluded, her breath wavering. “I can feel it. Like a forgotten dream that’s finally coming back.”
I found myself in the middle of a narrow street paved with rounded pieces of stone. It stretched and snaked up a coast, the ocean raging to my left, its waves crashing and pummeling the tall and rocky shore. The salty breeze was strong, and I could taste it on the tip of my tongue. Glancing down, I realized I wasn’t really here. I was merely a viewer in someone else’s memory. Valaine. There she was—walking up the street, her face obscured by a dark green velvet hood, the cape flowing behind her.
This was a different version of the Unending. Young-looking, though given the setting, she was close to ten thousand years, for sure. The fear in her black eyes was all too familiar. She constantly glanced over her shoulder, worried someone might be following her.
“Valaine, is that you?” I asked.
“Yes. You can see me?” Her voice persisted around me.
“It’s strange. I used to witness it all through your past eyes, but now I seem to be on the outside,” I said.
“You’re getting it easy, then. I’m inside her. I have no choice but to go where she leads me. Here’s the funny thing. I know her name. I know it in my heart. I remember it!”
“Who is she?” I asked, staying close to the Aeternae woman in the dark green cape as she made her way up the street. Ahead, a city rose with sturdy rock towers and conical roofs. The clouds gathered overhead like puffs of charcoal dust, and the wind intensified, making the woman’s cape dance around her. The air felt cold. The salty taste lingered in my mouth.
“Eliana,” Valaine said, the woman’s lips moving as she spoke. I doubted Eliana was even aware that we were here watching her. That Valaine was inside her, using her to communicate