“None of this makes any sense…”
Iatre sighed to himself as he watched the lilac waters of Kinigi run by. This particular river was apparently where a lot of human souls went when they died. Whether that was true or not, Iatre had no idea, but being near what he used to be made him feel better.
“No sense at all…”
“That’s the fifth time you’ve muttered that…”
The voice confused Iatre, if only for a moment. He’d forgotten that Arkay was sitting next to him, drawing shapes in the pink and silver sand.
“Well, it doesn’t. I can’t work this place out at all.”
Arkay shrugged, then laid down, bored with playing with the sand. He glanced upwards at the sunless sky. Iatre noticed this and decided to comment on it.
“Like right now, for example. We’re not really staring into the sky, but into space. Because Kinigi is more like a shell around the universe than a ball in the middle of it.”
“Yeah, so?”
“So why is there solid ground? Why is the sky a weird blue-purple colour? What is in that water? Why are there souls floating around? How does any of this work?”
Again, Arkay shrugged. “Dunno.”
“You don’t know…” Iatre sighed. “As a man of science, this bothers me. Questions I can never answer.”
“But…” Arkay paused. Something about Iatre’s statement made no sense. “Surely there is an infinite number of questions you can’t answer anyway? Why is the existence of Kinigi such a problem then?”
“Because it challenges all the scientific models I know! It makes no sense, compared to the rest of this universe!” Iatre exclaimed, sitting bolt upright and staring at Arkay. “There is no feasible way that this universe could have a physical barrier around it!”
“But it’s not physical…”
“Oh fuck off!” Iatre crossed his arms angrily, then picked up a handful of sand and threw it into the water. “This isn’t physical?”
Yet again, Arkay shrugged. “I dunno.”
“Like I said, dummkopf, none of this makes sense.”
Iatre leaned back, once again looking up at the sky. The clouds weren’t clouds at all, but in fact nebulae and galaxy clusters. Occasionally, there would be a bright flash, the sign of a large star exploding into a supernova.
Arkay wasn’t sure how to respond to Iatre’s anger. Maybe he was just stressed. He had been working incredibly hard on those new Vethic prototypes Kinisis wanted. Or maybe he had been thinking about these things ever since he became a Veth.
“I wish Death would explain this crap to me…” Iatre muttered under his breath. “Would make my life so much easier.”
“She IS incredibly disorganized and crazy,” Arkay smiled in agreement. “So her own home is going to be just as insane…”
With a tut, Iatre rolled over and looked Arkay up and down. “Does any of this bother you?”
“Uh…” Arkay wasn’t sure. “Not really?”
“Why not?”
“I dunno… It’s just… I always thought that we all basically existed inside Kinisis’s own, imagined universe. She controls it all, none of it exists without her, and because Kinisis IS existence, she can imagine it to be however she wants.”
Iatre’s eyes went blank. His mouth moved but at first, no words came out. “Are… are you implying we all exist inside a dream?”
“What? No!” Arkay panicked as he sat up. “No! That’s not what I meant… Oh fuck, this is going to start bothering me now!”
“But… it makes sense…” Iatre admitted. “The rules don’t make sense because Kinisis makes no sense because she imagines all the rules and we’re all figments of her imagination…”
“But that would be… like, a giant cliché…” Arkay whimpered. “I don’t want to be inside a cliché…”
“Me neither…” Iatre wrapped his arms around Arkay, pulling him close. “It would be so disappointing too… You know what? Let’s just remain ignorant and forget this whole thing…”
“Good idea,” Arkay sighed, before changing the subject. “So… shall we go get something to eat?”
Iatre smiled as he and Arkay climbed to their feet. “Sure, why not?”