Forum Thread

In a far off corner of the world, many years in the future...

Elucian Anaheim, now known as Elle K. Compass, was sitting in the middle of a forest clearing. Trees. They were new to her, as the City of God had only a jungle of concrete. She closed her eyes, feeling every bit of glorious iron in the earth around her. A warm wind was at her back, the soft grass was beneath her feet. She was as calm as she could be.

In the aftermath of The Incident, as she had taken to calling it, she had left the city, and not looked back. Elle trusted Athena, Violet, Foxglove, and the others to guide their world back to something worthy of pride and respect.

The first few years had been hard, really hard. Multiple times, she had taken the gun out of her pocket, still carrying a final bullet, and held it to her head. She had cried, she had raged, she had felt empty. But as the distance between her and the city increased, Elle had been able to broker a tenuous peace with the events of her past.

The lead weight of guilt took up a permanent place in the bottom of her stomach, and she drowned her sorrows daily, alternating between expeditions and charity. Elle rarely stayed in any one place longer than a year, continuing her perpetual journey away from the city. She had crossed oceans and prairies, mountains and deserts, tundras and forests like the one she was in now.

As she had tried to come to terms with The Incident, she had found that she had been rendered incapable of love. There had been many men and women across the earth that had flirted with and propositioned her, but she found no connection to any of them.

At first she wondered, impossibility upon impossibility, if she had been in love with Kendo. But she quickly dismissed that thought, understanding that the love she felt for him was that of a sister. In time, she realized that something had broken in her the moment Kendo had opened his mouth that night and asked for her to do what she refused to let him do. Something that could never truly be fixed.

Her adventures. They could fill an entire book. Pirates and elves, portals and treasure, magic and science. Through all of it, Elle had tried to help as many people as she could with her intelligence and powers. She had become the antihero she had loved in all of her books, the person who did all the wrong things for the right reasons. She had fought monsters and armies alike, working to spread justice throughout the land.

Sometimes she was treated like a god for her powers. There were very few people like her, abominations with scientific wizardry crafted in a lab. And while she met psychics, and warriors, and witches alike, there was no one on the earth as strong as Elle.

Other times, she was chased out of small, medieval towns, after stopping a plague or bringing a harvest. She never took it personally. Because in the back of her mind, Elle knew that she was a monster.

She had mastered her emotions, and could completely turn them off like Kendo had taught her to. And this was how she spent most of her waking hours, walking along in an objective haze. Her existence was painful, but Elle knew that she was making a difference. So she persisted.

Her mind often returned to the City of God... how was Athena? Had she taken her rightful place as chancellor of the skies? Were the people happy and safe? But she had left that world behind for a reason: it was better off without her.

She collected totems, a physical history of where she had been and what she had done. A beautiful sketch, a statue of wood, a shard of crystal, a gold doubloon. A magic amulet, a phoenix feather, a desert bone, a piece of the moon. And of course the gun that started it all, the cursed weapon that made her friend fall.

Each night, Elle would look up at the stars, and imagine she could see the faces of her old friends. Violet and Foxglove smiled down at her next to the sailors who had taken her across the Neriad Sea. Time gazed into the distance, watching the people of the Underlands. Athena stood next to the elves of Crystian, the internal goodness from all of them radiating out like the starlight.

And above them all was Kendo. Kendo whose face would never fade from her mind, whose laugh would never leave her ears. Many times she had seen or heard something, and did a double-take, hoping her friend had come back for her. But he was gone. The final words she had repeated to Violet and Athena haunted her dreams.

But she was beyond all of them now. No one could reach her. Her journey was one of discovery, but it was also about leaving. Leaving all she met behind for the next thing, leaving all her worries behind for eternity, leaving her emotions the night of The Incident.

Elle was free, because she didn't fear death. She knew that when she died, she would be reunited with all the people she had met. She knew that when she died, Kendo would smile at her and talk to her.

"I thought at first you would join me that very day, but you didn't. You kept going, and changed so many more things. I'm proud of you. It was worth the wait."

---

It was time. For the celebrations to begin. Fireworks sparkled and cheers filled the air, banners waved and people danced and sang and laughed. Athena smiled. Independence Day. The day she'd lost her two closest friends. She couldn't help thinking. What were they doing now? Was Elucian well? What about Kendo? A sense of loneliness tugged at her. But she ignored it. She belonged here, like Elucian and Kendo belonged wherever they were. She had a whole kingdom which relied on her. And she would do her best. To serve it until the end of her days.

And her friends would help. Help until their last breaths. Together, they would insure that the City of Hope, as they'd renamed it, continued flourishing. And maybe, just maybe... She would meet Elucian again. In this world. Who knew what the future holds? The only way to find out, was to keep going. And keep going they did.

---

There is no way to know what happens after death.

This is a fact. No scientist, physicist, geneticist, or psychic could ever figure out what happens after death.

I'll tell you what happens right now, though.

We go to a world known simply as "After."

It is a more fantastical, wondrous version of our world, with stunningly tall mountains, huge plains of grass, and large kingdoms, where science and magic are indistinguishable.

Decades and decades ago, a calamity was set upon this world. An otherworldly being who had died in the living realm crossed over.

He did not do anything but was captured and chained up deep below the castle.

At least that's how the story goes, that is. Legend states that he's there to this day.

One day... a group of children found a cave. In that cave was a system of tunnels. after wandering for hours, they arrived in a large chamber held by black marble columns. at the center of the room sat, chained to the floor by chains made of black metal, bound by the hands and feet, kneeling, was a man. His golden-brown hair was long. He wore nothing but his blue shorts, revealing nasty burns and scars across his body and neck.

two large scars, like the edges of a sharp flower, spread over two spots on his body, made by a flaming bullet. One straight in the center of his forehead, piercing through his mind, the other right over his heart, which had never stopped believing in his form of justice. The man raised his head slightly, looking at the children. His scarlet eyes glinted in amusement.

"Children... what are you doing here?'

His voice was warm, his tone a kind one.

One of the older kids, who had heard stories of a person like this, recognized who this man was.

"you're... him, aren't you? You're the one they call 'the void'!"

The man's laughter was loud and booming.

"I suppose."

His grin was thin and wry, amusement in his red eyes.

"Can we... hear your story, sir?"

The man smiled. He was past the age of 80 at this point, but his handsome features had not aged a day. His long, shaggy golden-brown hair shimmered in the artificial light of the chamber. He beckoned them over with his head.

"Hm... My story... where to start? Does it start when I was orphaned? Does it start when I met my closest friend, Violet? Does it start when I met my closest confidant, Elucian? Or... does it start with... the cassette tape? No, I suppose it starts there. Gather around, and I'll tell you my tale."

Hours passed by like seconds as the old man recounted his tale. It was a story of tragedy, happiness, joy, and sadness. The man's grin widened and faded, tears dripping from his face as he happily recounted his time in the living realm. At one point, he had even managed to pull out a few photos, the chains being loose enough for him to reach into his pockets.

"Children... I hope that one day... you meet people as good as my friends had been. And if you ever meet Athena... Elucian... Violet... point them towards here, will you? I'd love to see them again."

His smile was sad, but he laughed either way. The children visited every day for a long time until they grew up. They never forgot what the old man had once said to them though. They would prepare themselves, and their children for a minor, insignificant decision that may change the history of After forever.





And with that, my friends, so ends "Shades of Gray." I hope you had fun. The sequel's already up! And with that, I say...

F I N.

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