Reading: Reading: "Aesthetics of the Pandemonium" from the novel The Graft of Shadows (A.Glass 2019)

“Sitri, it’s been awhile,” a man says, dressed in formal attire stepping out of the shadows under the neon lights, he walks towards Sitri within an underground concrete encased area, akin to a car park, yet appears deserted and unfinished. Both men shake hands.

“Yes, it has,” Sitri replies

“Come, this is my office...They…” He looks around the concrete walls, pointing at the ceiling, with its exposed reinforced concrete cladding. “...didn't finish it. So it lays discarded, a reminder...” he then points to a stylized black desk with two contemporary style chairs on either side. Sitri sits as does the other man, younger, blond hair, complexion darker. Unusual features. He sits opposite Sitri.

“...of their failings.

Sitri looks around the space, leaning back into the styled chair he then looks at the man in front of him known as Gomory.”

Smiling, the Wraith known as Gomory nods as a being, to the right of the two Wraiths, wearing a hooded cloak, moves toward where Sitri and Gomory are sitting. It places down a silver tray with a decanter bottle and two glasses. It then moves slowly away into the shadows of the stark space.

“Business has been good...We've traded their fears and at the moment...they...” He inhales, pouring the amber fluid into both their glasses, handing one to Sitri. “...Are oblivious to it all.” He sips from the glass.

“We're not gods Gomory,” Sitri replies, also lifting the glass sipping.

“Yet, you feel sorry for these entities?”

Sitri looks away into the darkness, he briefly thinks of Monica. Returning his gaze to the man in front of him.

“No, I don't. There is no pity...But, sometimes a compassion.”

“That they deserved better?” Gomory asks, as he places the glass down looking across at the Sitri, both are replicated holograms from a parallel aperture between worlds. Able to move through the multiple realms. Savoring the benefits. Before, the world visited ceases to exist within Time and Space.

“The thought process, this mind...” He points with his left hand to his forehand. “...Resets within the planes of existence. It may also end...What I deem deserves better is not a general observation.”

“That is true, then why morally feel any obligation here at all.”

“Morally? You've misread me...” Sitri sips from the whiskey. “...There is something I want to fix or rather...” He places the glass down. “...realign before I return to the underground.”

“I understand. My presence here is beginning to fade already, it has been an interesting experience while I transverse into the void. I can feel it.”

“As I,” Sitri lifts his right hand, seeing if the residual fade of matter has taken place. For now, it remains in its solid shape.

“Nothing will stop this,” Gomory says, as Sitri looks up at the artificial illumination from the lights, attached to the concrete ceiling above.

“I know, yet, in all of this fatalism. I can rework something here, now, for someone that has never tasted the bliss of reality.”

“Their predicament...I understand. A cruel irony beneath the inevitable.”

“My defiance against...” Sitri points to the ceiling as both men look above, what was once an encased concrete slab, is now revealed as mass of stars and planets. “...the cosmos.”

“Always the rebel Sitri, that I admire in you. Defied the Order of Tumult, taught, that the nature of the human condition despite its flaws, is to live and die fully within the moment.”

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Reading: Reading:  "Aesthetics of the Pandemonium" from the novel The Graft of Shadows (A.Glass 2019)