Light mused at their predicament. This meant, of course, that Dark mused too but that was fine. She and Dark, sisters from before Time was even Time, had the occasional disagreement. These disagreements never amounted to much of significance but because Light and Dark were who they were, they naturally saw things...differently. From completely opposite perspectives in fact, and being who they were they could not always make their counterparts see things the same way as themselves. Sometimes there would be differences of opinion, statements of preference...the kinds of things that immeasurably old friends, deeply loving sisters might poke each other with, never intending harm, only sighing with muted frustration as the cosmos slowly oozed around them. But Life had happened by at the wrong moment and been offended by the taunts and sarcasm and in the odd way that Life had, had made them into a hybrid that now was musing at what funny turns Life could take.
And that meant that Life had overstepped her...bounds?
Can we really call them bounds? We are boundless after all.
I really don't understand the concept of bounds. We've talked about this.
Bounds are edges, limits. Like where I stop and you begin.
Seriously? That's silly. We're the same thing, just inverted.
I know, darling. I'm not really explaining this well, am I?
I don't suppose it really matters, does it? Life has her notions that existence is order, order is harmony, harmony is never disagreeing.
Never disagreeing is stillness in relation to each other, stillness is stagnation...
And stagnation is Death.
You called?
There you are! Hello, darling. We haven't seen you lately.
I have been around. You two look different. In fact you look a bit less than two, come to think of it.
Yes, Death, your silly cousin mushed us together and made us neither light nor dark. In this peculiar twilight grayness, we are Dim.
That sounds a bit unflattering.
Yes, indeed. We're not thrilled with it.
Would you like some help getting, um...unmushed?
Please. If you could be so kind.
All righty. Which of you would you like me to take this time?
I think me again, luv. It's not Dark's time yet. I die a little fairly often but when she goes it's a bit more of a to-do. We don't need to take such a big leap right now.
If Life does this again anytime soon, I might just go ahead and let Death have me, just to put her aside for a while. She gets a little too full of herself, Life does. Dark grumbled with a cold that frosted galaxies, slowing dark matter in the ephemeral wastes between planes to a languid slush. I just wish she would remember.
Life is fleeting, darling. She has only the present in front of her. She can't remember.
Death reached for the her that was both of them, not waiting nor warning because Death generally does neither, folding their immense gray beauty into his own cool silence, pulling them close and feeling their twoness, picking one out of the jarring harmony and wrapping it deeper into himself.
Briefly, he felt the unutterable heat and energy that was Light unfettered, stripped away from Dark and unbound by Life. It was an orgasm of infinite breadth. Death cherished these moments because it was only he that ever truly experienced them, he and Light alone.
He and Dark had had experiences comparable only in their magnitude. Where Light was a release beyond imagining, Dark was an innering, a collapse into the self, a silencing calm that brought even the jittering foam of reality to a smooth stillness, a catch of the breath before the universe was born anew.
Light inside him made Death exult with joy even as he snuffed her out. It hurt, but a hurt he sought for its own merits.
Dark sobbed. As Death pulled Light into himself, Dark felt her sister tear away. And now with Light gone from Dark and dead, Death held Dark close, whispering her name, cradling her soul. She wept, but not despairingly. She had been here before. These things never took long.
Now?
Almost...
They held their breath, the expansion of the universe briefly put on hold.
I feel her...
From around the bend of continuity came a flash.
That was a good one! Light came up, trembling all over with ecstasy, stars twinkling in her eyes. We have to do that again sometime. She reached for Death to embrace him and share her joy, but he stayed her.
Don't! I can take only so much of you. He released Dark, who reached for her sister and marveled at their rediscovered dichotomy. They could have put themselves back to rights soon enough, but this was expedient and it did feel very, very good after all.
Light and Dark walked hand in hand and Death followed behind, fulfilled and joyful, and together they went looking for Life.
-end-
