The Aspiring Archivist

"I'm sorry. You don't deserve this."

Tayen began to speak. "I'm..." He went silent again.

He ignored her with intentionality.

He just kept chipping away.

"We... shall see. But I would like to hope. Nothing is ever certain. Perhaps even if our wider structures collapse, lives will generally improve on the smaller scale. I don't think any of that is meaningless, as temporary as it is."

"Whatever I was, I'm nothing now." He began chipping at the ice again, somewhat angrily.

"Why did you even care about me in the first place?"

For a moment, Tayen began to slip on the icy roof.

"Well... now I think it is."

"That, I suppose, depends on whether you choose to believe most people are fundamentally good or bad. I worry that someone such as you, who has seen and experienced much of the bad and who doubts the true presence of love and meaning in our world, may be biased to believe that that is all there is. Perhaps instead, people will realize that they haven't been living in a positive way, or creating a good impact on their surroundings, and they will want to change that while they can. Perhaps people will spend more time with those they love, and focus less on the things that never truly mattered in the first place."

@InvisibIe?

"Well, I don't think I do either. We can go ask some other people, maybe?"

"Well, I don't know any more about it than you do. Can you find some sort of energy it could use?"

"Or perhaps people will choose to make the best they can of the limited time left."

"An opportunity for change. Positive change."

"Can you tell me?"

"That's good... Do you know what happened in my life before I met you?"

"How I take it isn't very relevant. I do agree, though, that the world will be changed, if only for the brief moment it remains."

"You were being controlled?" @Lightweaver2

"Ah. Well you might appreciate this, seeing as most people haven't heard. It seems that the scope of the Star's influence has expanded. People outside of London are beginning to be affected by its magic." He paused. "Perhaps it'll reach Luxembourg."

"What curse?"

"What then?"

"I... saved you?"

"So we are." Mae saw the glint of a smile in his eyes. "Have you hear the news about the Star?"