BREADCRUMBS: /home/zuihitsu/angularity/release/umirec14
A Painter Of Colour
"Things," I admitted to my cat over lunch, "appear to be getting more than a little strained."
"If by 'strained'," said my cat, "you mean reality is getting completely bent out of shape, then I would have to agree with you."
"Then you've noticed," I asked.
"Of course I have," replied my cat. "But it seemed best to wait for you to mention it than try to get you to recognize something you weren't ready to accept. Tell me, what do you write in that little black book of yours."
"It's a dark mirror" I admitted after pausing to consider the matter. "a thing allows me to capture the reflections of the vampires which pass through my mind." I paused to consider the matter some more. "State data," I added, "if you'd rather a more informatics metaphor."
"On the whole," said my cat, "I prefer the first metaphor. But I can see how in this world of yours the language of the second is more acceptable." For a moment she sat next to me an purred quietly to herself. "So what sort of things," she asked eventually, "do these vampires say."
"There's one that's been jumping in and out for a while now," I admitted. "As with most of them it takes time to resolve the meaning behind the meaning but the words it speaks are 'you switched sides and in the process learned more than was intended.'"
"What do you think," said my cat, "it means."
"I'm uncertain," I grinned, "I get the impression there's a truth I need to expose before the speaker will say more."
"I can sense the mind," said my cat, "behind the words, and the minds bound in the words. I think it's probably best if I tell you."
"There's more," I sighed, "isn't there."
"Certainly," said my cat. "But for now let us be silent."
"I'll not run away," I said to my cat, "not from this."
"What you plan to say next," replied my cat, "is causing a lot of very important people to have nightmares."
"Immaterial," said my other cat. "They had their chance. The wall, and the manner of his hitting it are his to choose. If they wanted a different outcome they should have put their minds to that. Silence was never an option."