Christes floated miserably through the barren void. The emptiness was mind crushing. There was nothing to do. No one to talk to. Nothing to look at or touch or taste or smell. It had been this way for a couple years possibly....she had no understanding of the passage of time here. Every moment was the same as the next.
She had not seen anything but whiteness since Tradan had faded into a dot in the distance so small, that it eventually became consumed by the whiteness as well.
She was astonished when she came upon the sight of something in the distance. She was headed straight for it...
Closer and closer she flew...or fell? She was almost being pulled in by the gravity of this single point in the void. She made out several stones, a simple bed, and the figure of a strange being that belonged to a race Christes had never seen before.
When she was very close, her feet landed on an invisible 'floor', and she walked again for the first time in years.
She was happy to see another sentient being, and began shouting immediately. "Oh my god! Another person! Who are you? What is this place?"
There was silence for a moment.
"Can you understand me?" she asked. Again there was silence...except...there was almost a whisper in her mind. As she focused on it, the voice grew louder. She could hear the strange being speaking to her, though his lips did not move, and his body made no real sound. He was shouting in her mind now.
"HELLO???"
"Oh...hey!" she said out loud, startled.
"I haven't seen another being in....in....in I don't know how long," said the voice in her head.
"How long have you been here?" asked Christes.
"I don't know. I have been here so long, that I do not even remember a time when I was
not here."
Wow...that's fucked up, thought Christes to herself.
The being's face contorted into a grimace. The voice in her head spat back at her angrily, "Well you get to enjoy it too!"
"Sorry....I'm not used to someone who can read minds."
"Read minds?" asked the voice. "The last two guys that I saw said that same thing about me. I didn't understand what they meant....they were mad. Mad, mad, mad. The whiteness will do that to ya."
"Uhhhh...." Christes tried not to think the words 'mad like you?' and instead kept the conversation going. "What is this place? Who put these stones here? How come we can walk?"
"These stones have always been here! I have always walked!" the telpath's voice shouted.
"But...everything else is empty...did Armok give you this cell?"
"Armok?"
"Big demon guy....horns, gnarled teeth? Fire and brimstone? Any of that ring a bell?"
"I can't say I recall anyone by that name....I only ever remember receiving two visitors. I don't remember their names. They ran off into the whiteness. You can go look for them if you like. Maybe one of them is the Armok you're looking for?"
"Uhhh...no thanks." mumbled Christes. "I just....I mean....well....how many people are trapped in here in the whiteness? I thought it was just me and my boyfriend?"
"Well there could be an infinite number of people here in an infinite void, and you would still have no chance of meeting anyone else ever. The fact that I have met three people now is breathtakingly unlikely. It was literally an infinitesimal chance of me even meeting
one!"
The telepath walked to the left. "Please, sit for a while and drink tea with me!"
Christes looked down, and there was a table! There was a fine pewter tea set, and steaming tea already poured. It was as if she was in a dream. Was she hallucinating? Oh well...even if she was, she wasn't about to fight it. At least hallucinations were
interesting. Much better than bleak whiteness.
"I'd love some tea," Christes said at last. She sat at the table with the telepath. "You've gotta teach me how to make stuff out of nothing."
"What are you talking about?"
"The table. It wasn't here before."
"What? It's always been here!"
Christes settled in for several months of interesting conversation with her mad telepathic friend...