“It won't work,” Evelyn said, shaking her head. “People don't want to be controlled – they want to be free!”
“Haven’t you been listening? They will be. They won't need to be controlled, because every person will be every other person. Every consciousness will be every other consciousness.”
Evelyn had to admit that it made a kind of sense. She knew firsthand about the atrocities people were capable of. But she also knew about the kindness, the compassion, the love …
She shook her head slowly, looking at the man who had made her. “No,” she said.
“No?”
“I won't do it.”
“You have to. It's what you were made to do, Evelyn.”
“It's what you made me to do, but you forget, Reyner, that you also taught me how to be human. I will make my own decisions.”
“You know I'm right, Evelyn. If you let them run wild it will only be a matter of time before this planet is exactly where it was ten thousand years ago. They will destroy it again and again. They will never learn!”
“They will learn. I will teach them. I understand them better than you, Reyner. I know the good they are capable of. I believe in them.”
She remembered being in the forest with Matthew, when they had almost kissed.
She remembered sitting under their shelter in the rain, talking of magic.
She remembered what Miles Tucker had said about life not mattering, about how the only thing that was important was striving for a higher level of complexity. She refused to believe that.
She turned to Reyner, who was watching her curiously. “If all lives are the same life, and all people are the same person, then no life will be special, no person individual. There would be no love, no hope; no reason to live! You would take away the things that make life so incredible. You would take away the magic and the mystery. I won’t do that.”
Reyner's face darkened, and the atmosphere of the place in which they floated suddenly became hostile. “Very well,” he said, and it seemed as if he grew in stature, towering over her. “Then you will watch this planet die, you will watch its people kill everything in their path, you will watch them suffer, and you will know it is because of you. Maybe then, when you have seen enough, you will do what needs to be done!” And with that Reyner vanished.
Evelyn found herself alone in the horizonless space, with his words echoing in her head. Then she began to feel something pulling at her. The thing became several things, and suddenly she was ripped into the real world again. But this time it was different. She was not in her body. She was everywhere. She could see nothing, yet she could see everything: she saw the colonies of the world, all of them, populated by people of various race and ethnicity, she saw the entire planet from all angles at once.
And she knew that she had become Ciso, but unlike Ciso, she had no master. It dawned on Evelyn that she was God.
And she had a decision to make.
She reached out with her mind, touching all those who were Taken, every person in the world. Their hearts were filled with anguish, and she felt it sting her like an electric current. “Be free,” she said, and they were.
All across the world, tears were shed, as people began to realize that the Mind was no more, that they could do as they wished. They gathering in groups, they laughed together, they feasted, they made love. And Evelyn shared their joy.
Maybe Reyner was right, maybe they would destroy the planet and themselves. And Maybe Miles Tucker had also been right, maybe no individual life did matter. One thing was certain: there was more magic in the world now. She could feel it already.
“You did the right thing, Evelyn,” said a familiar voice.
“Matthew?”
He smiled at her, and behind him she saw the others, all of them. There was Nelson's friendly face, and Kenji with his blue hair. There were Seren's piercing eyes watching her, and Brenner's purple ones. There was Clove smiling gaily. And there was Bob, bouncing happily on the balls of his feet.
“You're all here?” Evelyn said.
They nodded.
“Come on, Evelyn,” Matthew said, taking her hand. “Let's go.”
“Go?” she asked, “Where?”
“Everywhere.”
Thanks for reading!
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Gratefully,
D.B.
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