Cast in Sand by Dustin Porta

Author:Dustin Porta [Porta, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: scifi, Cyberpunk, Fantasy, space station, body jumping
Publisher: Dustin Porta
Published: 2017-10-03T04:00:00+00:00

Dreamer

IT WAS THE FIRST TRULY vivid memory she'd had. The memory was old, but clear enough in her mind. There was a bed like the one in the sultan's chamber, but the room was small. In her memory the man was younger, more handsome than he was now but his voice was the same.

"You look more like a princess, the longer you are in my bed." She remembered the words fondly now, though at the time they had angered her.

"Never say that to a woman." She pulled the duvet over herself, hiding her body from those gluttonous eyes. Sebastian moved toward her, the bed frame creaking; he was a large man, even then, but that had always been a part of his appeal.

"It is not to say you weren't beautiful in the first place. Only that it becomes you." Sebastian had a strange way of talking, as the rest of Atlas were resigned to ignorance, and it was up to him to keep using those obscure ancient words that should have been lost with the collapse. It was what she liked most about him. He sat up, on the covers, leaned over for a kiss, but Edwina pulled away.

"So it's wrong if I want to be anywhere else?" She tugged the duvet out from under him and wrapped it around herself as if she might get up, but Sebastian laughed and flopped heavily into the middle of the bed, Edwina fell onto him.

"My heart," he held her tenderly, placing his hand on her chest. "I would rather Hull gave out, and Atlas implode in on itself than live to see the my bed grow cold."

That was the way he had talked. Sebastian had grown up with books and tutors. Most on Atlas had never heard of a book, let alone read one. There was no one else on Atlas who spoke like that. Not even the sultan of Arco-Saudi.

"And is it always going to be your bed?"

"Our bed, my love."

"Any girl could keep your bed warm." Now she was teasing back. She propped herself on his chest, suppressing a smile.

"No others. You alone, are the singular ember in my pot of ash."

"What does that make are you then?"

"I'm the tongs Edwina! I'm the red-hot poker," He ran his fingers along her ribs and Edwina spat laughter.

"Hah, oh, no stop that. You're just hot air." She had batted his hands away, and pinned them against the bed.

"You'd wish for Atlas to explode?" she perched over him, eyes gleaming.

"Implode. And I would. I could not live without you."

"You'd kill me along with it?"

Sebastian stopped laughing, his face gravely serious, seeming to consider for a moment.

"It is the habit, of all self-aware beings to associate their own end with that of existence itself."

"Maybe you're just selfish," Edwina said, not sure whether she was still teasing, or irritated again.

"Who's to say that this all will continue on without me, that Atlas did not come into being when I was born, and will end with my death.

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