By me, with art by Sam Messerly.
Click here to read from the beginning.
When Warbell said it, through the panic and chaos of the situation, I realized that he was telling the truth. The felt presence of the portal in the chamber was very strong, but there was another pressure in my mind that I hadn’t felt before. As I focused more on it, it was like a browser window opened in my mind’s eye, like I was logging on to a computer system. When I glanced over at Colander, I could see she had made the same connection to the system.
Ed had stopped her advance and was looking at us in confusion. She glanced from us to Warbell several times, her pixilated expression slowly replaced by rage.
“What are you jabbering on about?” she asked in dinosaur speech. Then, in English, Ed spoke brokenly, “What he say you? What he tell you do?”
After making a sort of mental assent to the pressure in our minds, an image appeared like a computer screen before us. What Colander and I saw was something like a long legal document, with a number of areas where we could either assent or decline. It was full of questions like, “Are you certain you wish to cut off all contact between your world and the Kingdom of all Eternity and Perfection of our People and the Future?” “Do you realize that you cannot easily reopen the portal once closed, and the disconnect may possibly be permanent forever?” “Are you a representative of the human race with the authority to make decisions for your people in relation to the Kingdom of all Eternity and Perfection of our People and the Future?”
And many more.
And I just started saying yes. Agreeing to the conditions. Indicating again and again that, yes, I did want to close the portal. Forever. Regardless of the consequences. Regardless of the irreparable damage the decision might cause to relations between the Kingdom of all Eternity and Perfection of our People and the Future and my people. Regardless of anything and everything that might happen. Faster and faster I just agreed.
And I must have been speaking out loud as I agreed, because Ed was yelling at me.
“What you saying yes?” she bellowed. “Why? What you doing?”
Warbell roared, all the fury of a king present in his voice. All the authority was back in the old lizard, all the royalty and charisma and power.
“The frozen kingdom has done enough damage to this world,” Warbell said. “And now it is over.”
The sudden majesty in Warbell’s demeanor was enough even to silence Ed, if perhaps only for a moment. That moment was long enough. Another question was before me in my mind now.
“This is the last question, and your last chance to change your mind. Are you certain you wish to close the portal?”
I said yes, and something moved into action like a wind the width of the sky gushing in all around, as if the world was taking one last, big, deep breath before taking the plunge.
And Ed, still rising in a paroxysm of rage, used the tendrils under her control to snap Warbell’s neck.