Time and Space

Derek and Garry are in town getting more supplies. A.S. is asleep. I'm not going to hide this post from them--how could I?--but...well.

In my dream, I began to understand things. About my powers. And about just how big the Multiverse is. I heard names like Ska, who I know Tamaron lost his first body to, and Tzaa, who did something horrible to A.S.'s alternate self on Earth-Beta, which we Syzygy over. And I saw the eye of Awwb-Zow'Cnaadm, who whispered to me that he is the God of Gaudium. But that's too much for me to talk about for now. I'm not sure we'll live to fulfill our Gaud-quest. In any case I don't think it's right to tease a story as big as his for now. Let it all start small. Even this has already gone beyond all of us.

Ether is a lot of things, and one of them is space. The ancients assumed that Ether composed the space between worlds, and now that in my dream I've stepped outside of Universe-Gamma, I can see that's not true. There is Diesel between the universes, and that means something to me in the future. But digging into Ether's control over space, I was able to reach outward. And I did something very important. But first I want to say what I did with time.

I wouldn't have gotten the Five Spells if it hadn't been for time. Ether let me lunge backwards into my past self and trigger my change to a Gaud early on. I just wasn't aware of it, and I respected that when I made the change from the future to begin with. Now I'm aware, and I am Rostam of Gaudium. I don't know if it was my destiny to have my powers manifest as control over the elements, but the time loop I just created is...sacred, in some way. So maybe it is what I've meant to have all along. I'm not going to reject it.

I tried to unlock the Gaud powers of everyone else, but I couldn't. I'm guessing because it's not meant for me to bypass their quests. In time, though, they'll become like me.

Once I came to these realizations, I decided to do the space-reach I mentioned.

And I loved seeing Tamaron's face--whatever of it there is--as I stole his fuschium pendant. And when I woke up, it was in my hands. That wasn't a dream. None of this was.

I stole it right at the moment that it was finished charging with the Paradise energies. Just at his moment of triumph. I defeated him. And that means he'll be after us now, in a much less game-like fashion. But I don't care because we have his power. I don't know how precisely destiny does work, but we'll stop him. This is where he dies. He'll never return to Earth-Alpha. I swear it on my life.

Everyone's waking up or returning now, so I'll stop talking in melodrama. If anyone's reading this, you know the drill. There's nothing else to say on the matter, and soon it will all be over.