All the while, I was composing those very thoughts I had set aside for you, and the more I wrote, meshing the speech of my day with that of yours - I do apologize for failing to swiftly master your own dialect -, the more eager I found myself to send you this message. So eager, in fact, that I rushed into a decision. You see, everything is energy. No matter what its state, no matter what type it is, it's all connected. And I knew that, given time, I'd figure a way to succesfully combine chronal energy with the information energy behind the electronic message. It would take some weeks, maybe months, of calculations, of coming up with a number of different algorithms, not leaving an iota to chance. But I could not - would not - wait any further. And so, having written my electronic missive to you. I gambled on a jump even further back in time, to a time I knew you were still around, and once there, it was child's play to log on to something called a laptop, create an account on a dedicated server, and type, actually type, with my fingers, my message. After a few moments, and feeling grateful and elated, I clicked the send button. Not knowing whether or not you would ever read the message, I still hoped that somehow you did, and that somehow it would be enough for things to work out for the best for you. I could, maybe, guide you towards something you never had, so that maybe, you too, could have something resembling a happy ending.
I missed Sofia and Forever terribly, then. I truly did. I decided to jump back to my time, and once there, to hold them close and tight against me. I needed their presence about me, needed their warmth and laughter. Moreso than I ever needed before, I found myself needing them then. I primed the controls, and in the time it takes for a snowflake to melt when it lands on your hand, I was home again.
I wasn't home again. Where I was, I could not imagine. But I had come back to a world that was somehow different to my own, a world darker, greyer, bleaker. It seemed to me to be colder, even, devoid of humanity and its warmth. This I gathered but seconds after my arrival. No sooner had I scanned the skies - no skies of mine were ever this slate-grey - than I was apprehended by two sinister, hulking figures. They told me they were the police, and that I had been charged with time-crime.
To this much I will attest : I scarcely remember what happened between that moment, that of my arrest, and the moment where I was summarily accused, judged, and condemned. It all happened so fast. So fast. I remember sitting in a chair, a wooden, simple chair, behind a wooden desk no less ordinary, with no counsel there to take my case, and hearing the words come out from the judge's mouth. I had been condemned for a Chronal disturbance of the second order, and having no pressing and prior records, I would be very lucky to get away with a very compassionate punishment, that of familial retcon. These words meant nothing to me. I felt that somehow all the effort I had made to learn the words of your times had somehow clouded my own ability to comprehend those of mine, but these were not words I had ever heard of, or even read of. The judge told me they were being lenient on me, after all I was the one who had successfully discovered the art of time-travelling. As such, I would be allowed to live out the days of my life I had still left, periodically checking in with an assigned representative of the Chronal Courts. In a state of disbelief, still I found a mild relief at these news. I supposed that travelling through time could have some unforeseen consequences, so that's why I was always especially careful. I understood a period of time would be needed in order to adapt myself to this new world, but at least I still had Sofia and Forever.
And then they made them never.
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