Droplet

I am in the darkness near the center of the planet, in the black water thick as lead, knowing Shar was all I ever needed.

  Then the blackness is gone, and everything is white light.

  The outside edges of me burn. I pull into a dense, hard ball, opaque to everything.

  Above me, Droplet boils.

  * * *

  16.

  It takes a thousand years for all the debris in orbit around Droplet to fall into the sea.

  I shun the Nereids and eventually they leave me alone.

  At last I find the sphere, the size of a billiard ball, sinking through the dark water.

  My body was made to be just one body: protean and polymorphic, but unified. It doesn't want to split in two. I have to rewire everything.

  Slowly, working by trial and error, I connect the new body to Shar's brain.

  Finally, I am finished but for the awakening kiss. I pause, holding the silent body made from my flesh. Two bodies floating in the empty, shoreless sea.

  Maka, I think, you are gone, but help me anyway. Let her be alive and sane in there. Give me Shar again.

  I touch my lips to hers.

  —THE END—

  * * *

  Visit www.Fictionwise.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.