—Evaluation room—
Cubix remained floating all alone in the restored emptiness. He gazed outward at the faint, star-like motes that drifted in the distance.
Were they illusions? Or perhaps lingering echoes of spent energy? Either way, that didn't matter, at least not truly.
For once, he simply let himself feel the afterglow of what had transpired. After all, serving Milady had always been his purpose, his joy, his everything.
Excitement beyond that had never occurred to him simply because he had never sought it in the first place. Hobbies, diversions, and personal pleasures, such concepts had felt irrelevant to him.
For him, they were simply unnecessary.
Yet today, after seeing all of Prism's subordinates, after witnessing their growth, as well as clashing with their ingenuity, he had felt genuinely alive in a way unrelated to just servicing Milady.
Or perhaps not entirely unrelated at all?
After all, this whole evaluation was Milady's will. Every moment of exhilaration had been part of fulfilling her desire.
At least, that's how it felt to Cubix, not knowing that Milady had also done this in order to make him enjoy himself a bit more.
Still, the sensation was new to him. For Cubix, it could only be described as Precious. Indeed, it was a very precious feeling for Cubix. One in which would always stay by him, until the very end. The very near end.
I am satisfied. he thought to himself, shifting his attention to something else. It is time to return to my master.
Even though only a short span of time had passed since he last hovered by her side, the separation had felt longer to him. That's how much he longed to serve her, to be next to her.
In that regard, he was truly a devoted servant.
The only balm had been knowing that every action he took here had served her intent. With that line of thinking, Cubix could excuse being away from Milady for as long as he was.
Indeed, the only time Cubix allowed himself to be away from his master for any given amount of time, was if he was serving her will.
All that said, he still wanted to return by her side as soon as he possibly could. That's one of the reasons that he would set out to accomplish his given tasks as quickly as he could, whilst maintaining flawless execution.
With quiet joy, Cubix vanished from the white expanse. The chamber returned back to its perfect, untouched silence.
—Throne room—
Milady rested alone upon her throne.
The vast seat had always felt too large, even for her. Its sweeping curves and interwoven cascades of color mirrored her own surface. Yet tonight, they seemed to cradle something fragile, an absence already starting to form.
Every Entity had been gently released from service hours earlier. Their presences were no longer needed.
The castle, once alive with drifting lights and soft voices, now held only stillness. Only one being was ever allowed to cross that final threshold.
And now, he had.
"Welcome back." Milady said.
Her voice was softer than usual, almost a whisper, as though speaking too loudly might shatter what little time remained.
"I have returned, Milady."
Cubix did not arrive in a blaze of light.
He simply appeared at the foot of the dais, his facets dimmed to their gentlest setting, reflecting her colors in muted, reverent tones.
He did not bow.
He never had to.
His presence alone was deference.
"I take it your little vacation has ended?" she asked, the old teasing lilt present but fragile, like light refracted through cracked crystal.
"Yes, it has." he answered, tone even.
The single response carried everything he could not say.
—Observation room (earlier)—
When Prism and her team had departed, Milady had sent them away with quiet kindness.
"You may leave now. There is one last thing Cubix and I must do alone."
Now, the projector screen hung dark. There were no more battles for it to display. No more laughter echoing in pulses of color. It was only the two of them.
"Good work out there." she said.
"Thank you."
A long pause. Then...
"What did you think of them? Truly."
Cubix let the question settle inside him before answering.
"They were… luminous. Each one of them carried something irreplaceable. Potential that could have become entire phenomena of their own, given time." His voice cracked just once, barely audible. "They were beautiful. And they were happy."
Milady's surface flickered, colors slowing to a gentle tide.
"They were entertaining, too." she murmured. "Especially that Ember." she said, as if probing for something.
Cubix's light pulsed so faintly that it was almost imperceptible. Of course, Milady noticed it.
"It's a shame things have to end this way. I would've loved to see the two of you bloom." she said softly, yet her tone carried a hint of regret.
"Indeed." Cubix replied, steadying his nerves. "But that is a pleasure I could never allow myself to indulge in. I am unworthy of it." His lights flickered with quiet regret.
"And why is that?" Milady asked rhetorically. "Whether or not if you found love, your servitude towards me would never be effected. And even if it did, I wouldn't have cared about it in the slightest." she admitted.
"I..." Cubix faltered, unable to answer Milady's declaration.
"Well, I suppose I can hardly speak." she continued, her voice tinged with remorse. "After all, it's my fault that your love will never be able to bloom in the first place."
"Not at all, Milady." Cubix expressed, not wanting his master to feel at fault in any way. "In fact, I would say that it has already bloomed."
"Oh? How do you figure?" she asked, sincerely curious about his words.
"Even if only for a moment, the feelings I hold for that Entity were conveyed to her, and so too were her feelings conveyed to me." He replied honestly. "For that brief moment, she and I were able to express ourselves to one another, and that was all we truly needed." His voice carried a gentle warmth, soft and matter-of-fact, yet undeniably sincere.
Is that so? Milady's lights pulsed softly in relief. "If so, then I'm happy for you. Truly."
"Thank you, Milady." Cubix replied sincerely.
"Moving on, I think… No, I know that I am satisfied now. Indeed, this is enough."
The words sounded almost surprised, as though satisfaction itself were a foreign visitor.
Relief and disappointment lived side by side in her tone, two old companions who had learned to share the same nonexistent breath.
"I am grateful that you feel that way." Cubix replied, his tone unreadable.
Every syllable was laid bare.
There was no artifice, nor any shielding.
Only the truth, in its purest form.
They remained in silence for a short while. Neither moved to fill it. After all, there was no need to do so.
They both understood what was coming, and strangely, mercifully, neither of them felt the need to fight it.
"I will grant you one final gift for everything you have given me, for everything you've done." Milady said at last.
Cubix's facets brightened, just a fraction, before returning back to normal.
"By your leave… I would like to see it all once more. Everything. Everyone. Just once."
"Take all the time you need." she answered gently. "There's no need to hurry now."
"Thank you, Milady. I will return."
Milady pulsed once in response to his words.
Cubix did not vanish.
He simply drifted slowly, deliberately, through every corridor, every gallery, and every open archway that led to the Void that lay beyond.
—Throne room (present)—
"How was it?" she asked when he returned.
Cubix hovered closer than he usually did. Close enough that their lights mingled, gold threading softly into her endless spectrum.
"I watched them." he said. "They were laughing. Playing. Showing each other new ways to shape light, new ways to speak without words."
Cream was teaching a circle of younger Entities how to use their energy more efficiently.
Gold was laughing so hard at his own failed construct that he flickered out for a second.
Ember and Aqueous were dueling again, half in jest, half in earnest, their flames and water weaving into something neither of them expected.
This caught the attention of another Entity, Azure, who could create wind using her object.
Aloe simply watched all of them seemingly in quiet satisfaction, only participating with them every so often.
All of them seemed very much at ease with one another.
He paused.
A tremor passed across one facet, it was small, almost invisible even.
"I saw them happy. Truly happy. The way children are happy before they learn what endings are."
Milady's colors softened to the palest possible hues. "I'm glad." that's all she was able to whisper.
Another silence passed. This time, it was much deeper than the one from before.
"I was created." Cubix continued, his voice so quiet that it might have been only for himself. "Given a name. Given purpose. I carried out every command with perfect precision. Every mission, every quiet moment of pride when I knew I had pleased you, every ache when I fell short, every new emotion I discovered while serving you… Prism. Her subordinates. Ember. The countless other Entities I met along the way. All of it mattered. All of it still matters."
He drifted closer still.
"It has been such a short time. And yet… it feels like forever. Without time to measure against, perhaps it was forever."
Milady's surface rippled once, slow and tender. "I hope you found what you were looking for."
"I did." His voice broke, just slightly. "It was the most precious thing you ever gave me. Not just to me, but to every single Entity that exists."
"If that's the case, then I'm glad."
One last pause.
"Are you satisfied?" she asked.
"Yes, I am."
A breath.
"Thank you… for letting me ask for this." Cubix thanked sincerely.
"Thank you." she answered, and the word carried centuries of unspoken love. "For everything you have ever done for me."
"The honor was all mine."
No more words were needed.
In the stillness that followed, Cubix offered one final, silent litany that was spoken only inside the quiet geometry of his being.
You made us.
You gave us light when there was only void. You gave us names when we were only potential. You gave us time, even when time meant nothing, to become something more than just echoes.
We discovered joy.
We discovered pride.
We discovered love, not just for you, but for each other as well. Love for the small, fragile things that we built together.
We failed you.
Again and again.
We saw the disappointment in your light and still, you never turned away. You never hated us. You never wished us unmade.
You loved us.
Quietly.
Fiercely.
Without condition.
Every time you chose restraint instead of erasure, every time you gave us one more chance, every time you let us keep laughing, keep failing, keep growing, you were loving us.
We felt it.
Even when you never said the words. We felt it in every moment you allowed us to simply be.
We can never repay even the smallest part of that love. We can only carry it. We can only be grateful, achingly, and permanently grateful, that you chose to make us at all.
On behalf of every Entity that ever glowed because of you...
Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you.
And then...
Everything went dark.
There was no sound.
There was no final flare.
Nor were there any lingering afterimage.
There was only silence.
The castle, the countless glowing spheres, all of it was gone in an instant, as though they had never been.
Milady remained alone in the Void, her multicolored surface dimmed to the softest possible luminescence.
She did not mourn.
She did not rejoice.
She simply was. As she always has been, as she always will be.
In the perfect emptiness that followed the end of everything, one gentle thought drifted across her awareness like the last breath of a dying star.
Every fleeting, imperfect, and luminous moment… was well worth it.