Something hits his ankle, soft yet insistent, and he looks down to find the familiar, squished face of his Persian cat.
“Hey,” he says. “How’d you get down here?”
The cat does not reply.
“I heard you were looking for me.”
The cat neither confirms nor denies this statement.
Zachary glances behind him, unsurprised to find the door he stepped through has vanished. There is a cliff where it had been, a tall cliff that might have a structure atop it, it is difficult to tell from this angle.
The cat pushes its head against Zachary’s leg again, nudging him in the other direction.
This way there is stone expanse that terminates in a ridge. There is a glow beyond it.
He can hear the waves.
“Are you coming?” Zachary asks the cat.
The cat does not reply, but it also does not move. It sits and calmly licks a paw.
Zachary takes a few steps forward, moving closer to the ridge. The cat does not follow.
“You’re not coming?”
The cat stares at him.
“Fine,” Zachary says, though it is not what he means. “You can talk, can’t you?” he asks.
“No,” says the cat. It bows its head and turns, walking off into the shadows, leaving Zachary staring dumbly after it.
He watches until he can no longer see the cat, which is not long, and then he walks toward the ridge. When he is high enough to see what waits beyond it he realizes where he is.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins stands on the shore of the Starless Sea.
The sea glows, like candlelight behind amber. An ocean caught in perpetual sunset.
Zachary takes a deep breath expecting sea-salt sharpness but the air here is rich and sweet.
He walks down to the edge, watching the waves coat the rocks as they approach and retreat. Listening to the sound they make: a gentle, lulling hum.
Zachary takes off his shoes. He places them out of reach of the waves and steps into the gently rolling surf and laughs as the sea clings to his toes.
He reaches down and runs a hand over the surface of the honeyed sea. He lifts a finger to his lips and tentatively licks it. He has been given sweetness when he expected salt. He is not certain he would want to swim in this sea, even though it is delicious.
He would think it impossible had he not succumbed to believing impossible things much earlier.
What happens now? he thinks but almost immediately the question leaves his mind. It doesn’t matter. Not right now. Not here in the depths where time is fragile.
For right now this is his entire world. Starless and sacred.
In front of him the Starless Sea stretches into the distance. There is the ghost of a city across the sea, empty and dark.
There is an object on the ground by his feet, where the sea touches the shore. Zachary picks it up.
A broken champagne bottle. It looks as though it has been here for years. The label has worn away. Its broken edges are jagged and sharp and dripping with honey.
Zachary looks up at the cavernous darkness. The structure looming above him almost looks like a castle.