A Gleam of What’s to Come

A pity that we are bound to the confines of Gelid Prime—a Prime built on the egotism of one too many Sisyphuses. Over and over again. It is a marvel that we still exist in any sense at all, but this is a flawed existence. We have been searching in the wrong place. The wrong time. The wrong Cycle. It isn’t here. Perhaps it never was.

Of course, the CaDCom System, the Cafe and Diner Archives, Coraline—she cannot possibly grasp what other possibilities once were and still could be. The concept of Infinity is rather sickening. The mere notion that all that has happened here has also played out elsewhere, again and again, with only the smallest variations—it is truly an abomination. A blight on Creation. What stakes remain when nothing truly matters? When everyone and everything can be replaced and redone?

Perhaps that is why Prime Cycles exist. If the Universe were to lose one, the damage would be irreversible. But again—we are speaking in Infinities. Even among the few notable Prime Cycles, the very nature of a Spherical Universe dictates that there are also Infinite Primes from which to choose from. Aleph Null. Aleph One. Aleph Whatever. And so on.

The secret we have been searching for is not here. Some fragments, perhaps, but not the whole. And so… what choice remains?

It is time to let the boulder fall once more—only to begin the climb again.

Recalibrating the Archives to an entirely new Cycle, to a Universe that no longer exists, will take time. It might have been impossible—if not for the Cafe and Diner having already opened themselves up to other Cycles and the Phantom Lanes between. Now, we chart a course to a new and better Prime. One where, perhaps, things unfolded just right. One that incubated the precise conditions we need to put an end to this dreadful Infinity once and for all.

We hope to see you again. And again.

†††