In an instant, everything became clear. This was never a game at all. This was the very last wish of a dying man, who never truly believed his dreams would be fulfilled, and only now, only in this final and desperate act…his trust was in me to make every minute to have finally meant something.

I laughed out loud at the absurdity, then quickly caught myself and flushed hot with shame. A tear left his eyes as they locked on my own, begging for an answer.

“This…this isn’t something I was expecting.”

“…”

“Look, if I take your place, you role, your..LIFE, how will I ever be enough to fill you shoes? You’re a legend. You’re the greatest there ever was. You were my freakin’ childhood hero!”

“…”

“Damnit, gimme a second to think.”

“I’ve done all the thinking you’ll ever need to do. This is why I brought you here and what I need you to be. It’s not easy for me to admit it…but you’re more ready at your age than I was years after. I simply won’t take ‘no’ for an answer.”

“…the Sixth.”

“…the best one yet.”

He extended a hand and I met it. Without breaking our gaze, he dropped something metallic and heavy into my palm. It felt like lead or pewter; I knew it was a pendant of some kind. Wordlessly I folded my hand closed and brought it near. At my heart, I looked. Shimmering silver and carved like wind-blown sand, I had seen it upon every flag of Tranquil Haven. It was the Haven’s Arc.

We sat together in silence for what felt like days, and I felt a new sense of calm fill in the edges of my heart. I felt completed and comprised. I was an entity now, a fully real something. I had a role and a reality, a point and a purpose. Never again would time flow through me, but around me, and it was time to be all that you had expected of me, now wasn’t it?

Take care, dear reader… I haven’t forgotten about you.