Dinner and death

After getting to know each other, Mira and Ace are looking for Resa.
She just called them.

They find her standing around in the dining room.

Oh, here you are.
I'm done with my work for today.
Shall we eat now?

Sure. Do you want some help?

No, I have a machine for that.

A machine for making food?
Someone should have told me earlier that there is such a thing.
It probably would have saved me a lot of time.

Of course there is such a thing.
We've made good technological progress in the last few centuries.

I didn't even know about that.

I'm not surprised.
You probably need to spend more time with other people.
Then you would also know more about the world.
You've been spending most of your time with Elena and Kaya only, right?

Yeah, but occassionally I also met other people.

I couldn't live like this for so long.

But I loved to spend time with my friends.
What's your problem with them?

I didn't mean it like that.
Come on, I'll show you our machine.

Yes, I'm curious.

Resa turns around and shows her a small machine standing on a cupboard.

It's pretty small. How does it work?

Why don't you try it out for yourself?
This is where the fruit comes in.

Resa points to a large opening.

Mira looks around briefly and then discovers a bowl full of fruits.

Mira takes one right away.

Just put it in, you don't even have to peel it.

Mira puts the fruit into the opening.

The fruit is slowly pulled into the opening and the pulp comes out of another opening, from where it runs into a bowl.

Luckily you already put a bowl there.

Just take the bowl. This is your food.
It's ready. You can already eat it.

Mira takes the bowl and sits down at the table.

Wow, it's even warm.

She doesn't start eating yet.

The machine is brilliant.
It removes the peel and uses that energy to soften the pulp and then heat it.
And then there's still enough energy left that will be used to remove the peel from the next fruit.
Life is so much easier since I have it.

Sounds cool.

Quickly, two more servings are ready. Resa puts both on the table and sits down with them, too.

Then all of them start eating.

Would you tell me about your trip with Linda and what happened to her?

Sure, if you really want to know?

Is it bad?

Not really.

Alright, I'm ready.

Mira is a little scared now. On the one hand she wants to know what will happen to Elena, on the other hand she is just afraid that Elena will have to suffer.

We set out together. The journey was very exhausting.
Even though you can see the mountain from here, it's farther away than it looks.

It looks far already. It's at least three times as far as the huge tree.

It's dozens of times as far away.
Rather hundreds of times.
The huge tree isn't that far away.

Oh...

So in order to reach only the foot of the mountain, where the area starts to become rocky, we had to walk for days.

I actually just want to know about her... death.

Oh well, that's the most harmless thing.
We had to suffer more on our path up the mountain than Linda had to suffer inside the mountain.
So even if the way back was a bit easier, I had to suffer a lot more than Linda.

Resa laughs.

That's... good I guess. So what happened at the top of the mountain of death?

On the top, there was a cave. But it looked artificial, rather like some kind of temple. So we entered it.
We were in a pretty round room and in the middle there was just darkness.
And there was someone in front of us, who also was visiting the mountain.
That person then was brought into the darkness by a person in a dark cloak, some kind of guardian.

How should I imagine this darkness?

It was so dark that you couldn't see anything in it.
Really unnaturally dark, as if there was a lamp somewhere emitting darkness instead of light.

So even worse than poorly lit.

Exactly. Only one or two steps in and you could see almost nothing inside already.
Anyway, the guardian came back out of the darkness without the other person.
Linda already was really enthusiastic about entering the darkness next.
She rushed right up to the guardian.
The guardian was confused why Linda was in such a hurry.
It only happens rarely that someone with so much life energy like her wants to go.
Linda had her reasons, though.
And she was really looking forward to experience something new.
The guardian warned her she wouldn't get a real experience there, but Linda couldn't be discouraged to go.
She thanked the guardian, she even hugged her tightly.
They had quite an awkward conversation.

What kind of conversation did they have?

Probably not too interesting to you.

I'd still like to know.

Fine.
The guardian said that she liked the hug.
And then Linda called her a real sweetie.
Then the guardian was confused about what she's doing with her hands. I didn't see, what exactly she was doing.
Linda just told the guardian, how she was happy about that smooth body. She was sure, the guardian would have very smooth skin.
So the guardian even offered Linda to reach below her coat.

And Linda did that?

Of course she did. You know her, right?

I don't know Linda that well.

Oh, I forgot.
But that was so typical of Linda.
She still had to flirt with the guardian for a while.
But when she had had enough fun with her, they both went into the darkness together and didn't come back at all.

They just left you standing there?

Yeah. I was listening to them for a while, until they went silent.

And that's when...

I think so.
I'm sure, that's when Linda died.
After waiting a little longer, nothing happened. Not even the guardian came back.
I even thought about entering the darkness myself, but I was too scared. I didn't know if I would have been able to survive that.

And do you think it's possible to survive this?
Linda could still be alive.

I can't imagine it.
But I also can't prove it. Maybe they're still flirting to this day.

Resa laughs.

It's okay. No need to cheer me up.
I know that Elena will die there.
But that's what Elena wants, after all.
And in any case, that experience of Linda sounds very pleasant.
I'm happy you told me about the details.

No problem.

I hope it runs as smoothly for Elena as well.

Don't worry about it. These people know what they're doing.

Yeah, I think you're right.

Mira looks at Resa.

Sorry, you almost didn't get to eat from all that talking. Your food must be cold already.

It's fine. Sometimes cold food tastes good, too.

But I even have it worse. I almost finished eating, so the rest must be even colder already.

At least I got to finish my food. To me that's already an old story.

Everyone starts laughing.
Mira really feels like she's able to finish with her old life.
This will likely be her life now.