Chapter 254: The End of the Abysslon

The gold was warm.

It was the first thing Logan felt. After the cold of the empty floor and the grey stone of the gate, the light closed round him like water in a summer river. It was warm on his face and his hands and through his coat, all the way to the bone.

He could not see anything at first. There was only gold, everywhere, and Alice’s hand in his.

Then his eyes cleared.

They were standing on nothing.

There was no floor that he could see, and no walls and no sky. There was only the warm gold light going away on every side, soft and steady, with no source that he could find. Yet his boots stood firm on it as if it were stone.

The others were all there.

Billy was a few paces ahead, rolling in a slow circle with his blades tucked in. Halden and Terry stood beside him, and behind them the rest of the units were coming out of the light one by one and stopping, staring around them.

Vina stood with Link in front of her and her parents on either side. Garen and Isolde were together, and Bram and Edda close behind them.

Nobody was missing except the one they had left.

The panel opened in front of all of them at once.

[ You have reached the end of the Abysslon. ] [ Abysslon cleared. ]

Logan read it.

He read it again, and then again. The words did not change.

Beside him, Alice made a sound that was half a laugh and half a sob. She pressed the back of her free hand to her mouth.

"We did it," she said through her fingers. "Logan. We did it."

He could not answer her. His eyes were on the second line, and he was thinking of a pale light far below with a small cairn beside it.

’He did it,’ he thought. ’We only walked.’

The panel went on.

[ The Abyss will not overflow into the worlds of those who reached its end. ] [ Earth: released. ]

Garen sat down.

He did not decide to. His legs folded under him, and he sat down hard on the warm gold with his pistols still in his belt and his face in his hands. Isolde knelt beside him with her arms round his shoulders.

"Released," Garen said into his hands. "It says released, dear."

"I can read," said Isolde. Her voice cracked in half. "I can read it."

Behind them, Edda was staring at the panel with her mouth open.

"Our world," she said. "Papa. It says the worlds of those who reached its end. That means ours. That means home."

Bram did not answer straight away. He was reading the line again, slowly, his lips moving under his beard the way they did over a hard word.

Then he picked his daughter up off her feet and held her.

He did not say anything. He held her and rocked her from side to side, the way he must have done when she was small, and his shoulders shook.

Helen was crying without making a sound.

She stood with one arm round Vina and the other round Daniel, and the tears ran down her face and dripped off her chin. Daniel had his eyes shut.

Vina looked up at her mother. Her eyes went to the panel, and to all the grown-ups crying.

"Does it mean the Abyss will not come to our house?" she asked.

"Yes," said Daniel. He opened his eyes. "It means it will not come to anyone’s house. Not ever."

Vina thought about that.

"Grandpa did that," she said.

"Yes," said Daniel. "He did."

The units had gathered behind the family.

They stood in a loose crowd on the gold, and none of them spoke. Pebble had his hand on the white streak in his hair. Martha was holding her ladle in both hands against her chest. Sonic sat on Halden’s shoulder with his feathers puffed up.

Billy rolled over to Logan and stopped against his boots.

"Boss," he said. "Is it over?"

Logan looked down at him.

"The Abyss is," he said. "I think."

"Good." Billy’s rim hummed low. "I did not like the Abyss, Boss. I liked some of the bridges. But I did not like the Abyss."

Logan laughed. It came up out of him without warning, rough and wet, and he crouched down and put his hand on the wheel’s cold rim and kept it there.

Another panel opened.

This one was different. It had a border round it, thin and gold, and the letters in it were larger. Logan had seen a panel like it once before, on the day the Tower told Earth that Floor 10 had opened.

[ World Announcement ] [ This announcement is heard by every person on Earth. ]

[ Players of your world have reached the end of the Abysslon. ] [ The Abyss will not come to Earth. ] [ Those who reached the end may ascend. ]

Isolde lifted her head.

"Everyone heard that," she said. "Garen. Every single person at home heard that."

Garen wiped his face with the heel of his hand. Then he laughed, shakily.

"Then half the planet is crying in the street," he said. "And the other half is asking who."

Logan thought of the streets of his city. He thought of the people who had cheered at the first announcement and the people who had gone quiet.

He thought of Instructor Hale at Ashfield, and of everyone who had looked up at the hole in the sky since that announcement and wondered when the Abyss would come for them.

’It will not,’ he thought. ’Not ever. Because an old man knelt on a floor and said yes.’

Alice was looking at the last line of the announcement.

"May ascend," she said. "That is what he did. The first time."

"Yes," said Isolde. "He told us that much. He reached the end and ascended, and then he came to us."

"And now it is offering it to us."

They all looked at the line. Nobody touched it.

Logan found that he did not want to. Not yet. Not while the old man’s sword was still warm against his hip and the gold light was so quiet.

"Not yet," he said aloud.

Alice looked at him. Then she nodded and leaned her head against his shoulder.

"Not yet," she agreed.

’He is thinking about the hut,’ Alice thought, watching his face. ’The pond, and the stone bowls. He wants to go back there before he goes anywhere else.’

She did not say it. She knew him well enough to be sure she was right.

They sat down on the gold, all of them together.

There was nothing else to do. There was no path and no gate and no warden. They had the warm light and the panels hanging in it, and the people they loved sitting close around them.

Martha set down her pot out of habit. She studied it, and the gold, and for the first time since Logan had known her she did not light a fire under it.

Vina sat between her parents. Link alone did not sit. He stood before her with his staff upright, and his flame burned red against all that gold, the only red thing in it.

At last her hand went to the front of her shirt, where her bark strip used to be. Then she remembered where she had left it, under a stone on a dark floor far below.

She let her hand fall. She leaned against her mother’s side, and she closed her eyes.