time stood still,
and possibilities appeared
as direction ceased

If the conservation of energy
means that all things continue,
this pause, this passage
from one moment to the next,
from one thing to the next,
may be the only real stop –
the ending that isn’t an ending,
the ending that is a continuation,
continuation through ceasing

That nothingness is something,
an emptiness that holds everything,
a passage that bridges and terminates –
something you might never notice,
but it knows itself

‘E looked at me, and I saw ‘er.
I learned the name of Acamar,
I learned what ‘e did directly from ‘er,
and I found something unexpected
within myself, that is itself
important about humanity; and that
is when I was returned to humanity.
It was the moment of deliverance
from my plight

Maybe this is a place of finding,
or a place of knowing,
or not a place at all,
and none of these things,
and almost anything

Spend some time in that place,
breathing and between breaths,
before you open your eyes
when you’re ready.

Soleil opened her own eyes first, after this. When she looked around, what she saw startled her into shushing herself with a hand to her mouth. Even when expectant, she was not entirely ready. Wearing the scaled humanoid form that she’d seen reflected in the giant tooth she had kissed, the color of surreal midnight, Acamar was sitting there with them, eyes closed. ‘E opened one eye to meet Soleil’s gaze, and then the other, remaining still and silent as the rest slowly returned to awareness.

The lights turned a pale shade somewhere between blue and red. Eyes-closed stillness was the request, whichever way a person knew best how to keep it and focus awareness at the same time. Everything turned deeply quiet when the energy dropped. They were situated in their emergency point huddles, plunged into the underwater gloaming. She’d prepared herself to let it out: honesty, clarity, straightforward and direct, into and from the heart, to that place. A smile in the stillness of this moment, Soleil activated her voice receiver and began.

“This is my own account.
You can follow it like a story,
let it direct you to a place
like the place where I was
face-to-face with this Dragon,
who was there in this place,
which may not be a place at all

I was going and going,
where stopping might mean death,
might mean being forever lost

It seemed like I was going forever,
but I couldn’t keep going forever.
Nothing goes forever,
except maybe forever. Not me.
And I knew that,
I knew it was coming,
I kept getting closer and closer to it.

I felt an imminence, nearness,
that I was almost ready to embrace,
though never quite until it overcame me,
and there was a nothingness between everything,
connecting and disconnecting everything

There was a moment where nothing happened,
it was a place,
and in this place