With the bonfire rekindled the air around Rhiannon underwent subtle changes.
"It's warm," she put her finger on one change. "What is this..."
A strange feeling tickled her skin. It was... safety?
Rhia found it ridiculous. Yet it was so comforting, so... right. The fire was beckoning to her, promising a safe haven. It bared immense fatigue she was suffering through. Even Rhiannon with her willpower and mastery of self-control could only last so much before breaking. Her manikin body might work indefinitely, but her mind was begging for rest.
"It won't hurt... at most I will just die and repeat."
Somewhat begrudgingly, as if arguing 'I could last for a while longer, ya know?', Rhi sat down with a tomb for a backrest, keeping the dark passage in her sight. After a sigh, she allowed the fire heat to penetrate her body and started to relax her overworked muscles one at a time... well, she was a manikin so it could be her brain muscles instead.
...
...
.....
Rhiannon jerked and laid fingers on the mace as her heart rate galloped.
"What?"
The crypt hadn't changed. The bonfire was crackling joyfully. It wasn't the coffin.
It was not.
"How much time has passed? It feels like ages."
"Ah, it is so."
An old, rasping voice talked right above her ear and Rhiannon almost rolled away in stroke-inducing surprise.
"Who?!" she hissed, the faithful mace in her hand.
"Me," the voice readily answered. "Caw! Caw!"
Rhiannon threw her head back. Right on the tomb there was sitting a raven. This raven was one big bird, its black feathers almost consuming the light around. It looked picture-like and was watching her with the left eye.
"Greetings, young lady," the raven opened and closed its beak, letting out a smooth string of words.
"...Of course. Talking ravens. Are you my enemy?"
"Am I now?" the raven tilted its head. Its beak moved with surreal smoothness, telegraphing information no worse than human lips. "No, certainly not. You may stay your hand."
"Oh, if you say so," Rhiannon nodded, not relaxing her fingers for a second. "Then wha-, who are you?"
"You can think of me as a guide."
"This place has a guide? It's more and more like a game."
Rhiannon had tried out a few video games in the past. It never became her cup of tea, but every single one of those games had disappearing dead bodies and an NPC explaining things. Would it be really too late to clean the dust off the virtual reality hypothesis?
"Life is a dream for the wise, a game for the fool." The raven spoke heavily. It turned its head and an empty eyesocket gazed at her. "Not of this place."
"Ha-ha-ha..." Rhiannon laughed from surreal, pointed at the raven with her mace for a moment, and then suddenly dropped it powerlessly. "Not an enemy? A guide? Fine with me."
There was nothing from the other side. The raven seemed to be taken aback. The woman demonstrated him a beautiful manikin smile and clarified,
"Do you know what I want the most now? I want my laptop back. I have a backlog of TV shows I need to catch up and I never will. I have a meeting tomorrow – if there is tomorrow – and Harward waits for my part of Neurolo... fuck.
I have friends. I had a life! I'd finally won it back! I still had those two years! That fucktard had to pick my building and my place and ruin it all! I really, REALLY hope hell is worse than what I've got!"
A minute of silence reigned, disturbed only by Rhia's heavy breathes. She and the raven were staring at each other unblinkingly until the woman smirked and squinted her eyes at the holes on the crypt ceiling.
"This bonfire is really a safe zone," she concluded calmly as if the outburst hadn't occurred. "So yeah, it's fine with me to have a talking raven as a guide. A couple of days more and I would want to talk with Twitter, and I swore to burn my hair if it ever happened. Not that I have any hair to..."
Rhiannon slapped her mouth and inhaled through closed fingers.
"Ǎn má ní bā mī hōng," the ancient Buddhist mantra escaped with her breathe. With a string of Chinese, she continued, "Kòngzhì hūxī, tǒngzhì sīxiǎng, yāzhì yěshòu.1Control the breathing, reign the mind, suppress the beast. Kòngzhì hūxī, tǒngzhì sīxiǎng, yāzhì yěshòu. Yāzhì yěshòu!"
Another minute passed.
"Alright, my guide. I am focused now. Is this afterlife?"
"Admirable," the raven dodged the question via useless commentary. "Young lady, do you know the meaning of your name?"
I am not young anymore, Rhiannon squinted, taking it as a hint. Somehow she doubted it, or better he would mistake a 38-years old woman for a teenage girl.
"Yes and no. Yes, if you ask if I ever googled it. No, if you want to know what my mother was thinking," the fact that she could talk about her mother without a tingling on her nerves spoke volumes about how strong her self-control was right now. "Also no, if you speak in riddles."
"A narrator is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer."
"Also no, if you speak in quotes."
That got to him. The raven waved its wings and glided over to the fire.
"I don't know," he spoke measuredly. "That's the problem of perception. Avoiding riddles, are you alive? Right now, named Rhiannon, are you living?"
That got to her. Rhia turned away and placed her arms on a tomb. There was a deep carving on it. Someone's history caught in one picture. She ran her fingers, gathering stone dust. It fell off her smooth, rubber-like skin after one puff. She didn't know the answer, and so she walked away, leaving her mace on the tomb.
Not hurrying, the woman unbuttoned her burial shirt and loosened the pants. Lightly, she stepped out of soft boots and allowed all clothes to fall.
There was nothing to be ashamed of. Her grey-skinned figure had barely any female features. A slight swelling instead of ample breasts, a smoothness in place of belly button and crotch. The body was as hairless as it was disturbing to an eye. It didn't have knuckle joints but otherwise, it was a manikin.
"I can walk. I am free from paralysis. I met death. I didn't have sex in years anyway so yeah, not much has changed here. My guide, I think, therefore I exist."
"Then it's not the afterlife," the raven grinned with its super-animated beak. "Rather simple, isn't it."
"It is," nodded Rhiannon, while unhurriedly putting her clothing on. "I asked wrong."
With her back turned to the raven, she asked the true question on her mind,
"Is Robert here?"
For a few moments, all she could hear were talons grating against the floor.
"No."
It might be a lie. It's not certain still, Rhia tried to remind herself, yet an enormous weight weakened grip over her shoulders and all she could do was to stare blankly in the void.
"Now I shall explain my rules.
First, I never lie. Second, don't expect all answers, it is not simple to remain here. Third, I guide and guide alone."
"Sounds good," the woman breathed out absentmindedly.
"Now you have a choice. It's so happened you have two paths to choose right now."
The raven looked at her with his eye warningly. Rhiannon nodded slowly.
"There is a hard path. You go back and finish what you've started." the raven talked slowly, the fire behind it still dancing. Suddenly, he turned his head and the empty eye-socked seemed to engulf her in the darkness of the passage. "The simple path, you go down."
"What's the difference?" Rhiannon cast a glance at the tunnel.
"The simple path's only merit is its simplicity. Yet the hard path is its own reward."
"You do know I want to return to Earth, right?"
"I allowed myself to presume as much."
"And I have so, so many questions."
"Not enough."
"What?"
"You're focused, but not enough."
"You said no riddles."
"That was then and this is now."
The raven grinned.
That's how this strange conversation went.
