[Entering in…

10

9

8

7

6—]

Will you stop counting?!

Time didn’t exist in the workshop. But the symbiote, which she had named Kepler, was excited by the idea of it.

She had named him Kepler after Johannes Kepler, the scientist who discovered that celestial bodies orbit in ellipses, partially in the hopes that he would guide their own ‘orbit’ perfectly, but mostly because she named all her dogs after scientists.

[But we’re about to enter the rift!]

I know!

He pouted (sort of). She felt a bit bad, he had only been warning her---

[LETSSSGOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!]

It hurt. Worse than dying. Worse than getting yanked from her path to the afterlife. As bad as watching Emma die, but longer.

Time reasserted itself now that they were out of those soul-manacles. Time and space and thou!(#*&%@(&$[Please keep your adventurous thoughts to a minimum, Miss Hatt, we need to reduce the strain on your soul.]

She drew her gaze inwards. Her very self was being torn at the seams, held coherent only by Kepler’s utmost efforts. Grabbing the corners of herself, she pulled in, compacting everything to keep it from being whipped away by the rift’s power.

He moved his own focus outwards, as she took over some of his job. Reached out and---

Something clicked.

They swung into a web of something. Something alive and fascinated.

Kepler raised his hackles, eyeing the thing cautiously. They were sheltered in it, for now—no, they had become part of it, tied in like a computer in a network. It wormed further into the new bond before Kepler snarled at it.

[Mine.]

The web hemmed and hawed to itself for a moment, sipping from the rift thoughtfully. Different parts of it weighed in, but she couldn’t quite catch what they were saying. More chatter, but all internal.

Then, darkness.

Sleep.