05-13-2020, 09:31 AM
It was quiet but for the sounds of the child’s frantic attempts to escape from the maze. Nim’s hands gently probed her path ahead, dozens of other Nimedas making the same attempt in her periphery.
An answer did not come immediately, and when it did it was but a whisper sent to tickle her ear with a shiver.
“I’m fond of games,” she said. “Of the surf that chases toes. Of shouting out over the cliffs in search of echoes. I raced a man to shore once, through waters like ice, and the rocks skinned my feet to shreds. Sometimes games can be unpleasant, I suppose. Maybe this one is such a kind.” The memories were fleeting things, darting like fish escaping the shallows, but she did not try to capture them for she was focused on the path ahead. Nim was not a methodical creature, but she was persistent. How many times must the tide kiss the cliff before he gave way to her touch?
"I felt you. Across the time and space and distance of the in between. Pain is like that, you see -- it is never quiet. But you are not alone in that; I could roam the rest of my days and never find you all.” The thought sparked an image of Noctua, and the garden, and her despair. Of the question of Need. The ironic thing, he had told her, is that everyone does need something, but it’s not what they think; nor is it for me to deliver. Only Nimeda had never been able to stay away. “I came because you are familiar. You are Two, like me. Why do you hide your Other face from me? Will you plan to hurt me, too?”
They were not quite the same though. She and her Other were like two sides of the same coin, harmonious in their existence and never attempting nor needing to betray the opposite side. Perhaps ignorance was the secret; she knew so little of the eyes she opened when the dreaming was done. These two were jammed on the same side of the coin; one she imagined to be spinning frantically.
An answer did not come immediately, and when it did it was but a whisper sent to tickle her ear with a shiver.
“I’m fond of games,” she said. “Of the surf that chases toes. Of shouting out over the cliffs in search of echoes. I raced a man to shore once, through waters like ice, and the rocks skinned my feet to shreds. Sometimes games can be unpleasant, I suppose. Maybe this one is such a kind.” The memories were fleeting things, darting like fish escaping the shallows, but she did not try to capture them for she was focused on the path ahead. Nim was not a methodical creature, but she was persistent. How many times must the tide kiss the cliff before he gave way to her touch?
"I felt you. Across the time and space and distance of the in between. Pain is like that, you see -- it is never quiet. But you are not alone in that; I could roam the rest of my days and never find you all.” The thought sparked an image of Noctua, and the garden, and her despair. Of the question of Need. The ironic thing, he had told her, is that everyone does need something, but it’s not what they think; nor is it for me to deliver. Only Nimeda had never been able to stay away. “I came because you are familiar. You are Two, like me. Why do you hide your Other face from me? Will you plan to hurt me, too?”
They were not quite the same though. She and her Other were like two sides of the same coin, harmonious in their existence and never attempting nor needing to betray the opposite side. Perhaps ignorance was the secret; she knew so little of the eyes she opened when the dreaming was done. These two were jammed on the same side of the coin; one she imagined to be spinning frantically.