//Bonus Recollection:
“ENTROPY”
Date: xx/xx/???? — Cycle of the Void Sun
ACT XIV: OUR NAMES AGAINST OBLIVION
(The curtains unravel. The stage is bare and covered in darkness. THE MAIDEN stands center stage, one hand resting on the hilt of THE SWORD. THE SWORD’S crimson eye glows faintly, as if breathing.)
THE SWORD (soft, resonant voice):
This world stands at the threshold of Entropy, friend.
THE MAIDEN:
Quiet, Pax. You swore an oath to me. Act like it.
Are you afraid?
THE SWORD:
Forgive me for speaking out of turn. I speak not as your counsel, but as your friend.
This path will only lead to ruin. That is not prophecy. It is an objective, immutable truth.
(THE MAIDEN smiles, but without warmth.)
THE MAIDEN:
I don’t care about truth.
(THE SWORD exasperatedly sighs, as swords do.)
THE SWORD:
The Knights of Sartoria believed they could defy the fury of the surging sky, and now the scriptures only speak of their demise.
Tell me — what remains of their truth?
Your false bravado will not spell the difference, friend.
(THE SWORD’S crimson eye darkens.)
THE SWORD:
You know that you cannot save her.
The cycle will continue.
THE MAIDEN:
You’re right. Maybe I can’t save her…
(And yet her lip trembles.)
THE MAIDEN:
But I will see her again.
That is enough.
Pax… do you remember your oath?
(THE SWORD’S crimson eye glimmers.)
THE SWORD (distorted, like the wail of a thousand voices speaking at once):
I AM THE PEACEBRINGER, THE SWORD THAT BEARS THE SIN OF PRIDE.
COMMAND ME, MAIDEN SHO, AND I WILL DEVOUR HEAVEN AND EARTH.
THE MAIDEN:
Pretty intimidating, Pax. I just wish you had a different catchphrase — preferably one that doesn’t make me sound like the villainess of this story.
THE SWORD (soft, resonant again):
It suits you, does it not, friend?
A void sword was never meant for a bashful heroine.
(THE MAIDEN raises the sword, pointed skyward into the black, unanswering, uncaring, unfaltering sky.)
THE MAIDEN:
Then let the recollectors remember our names:
Sho and Pax.
The fools that dared defy the Entropy.
(Fade into silence. The curtain falls.)
