At last, the void ended. I emerged on the other side of my story. I knew who I was and where I came from. Now I needed to understand how I got here.

I was surrounded by nocturnal darkness. There was no ground beneath my feet. No ground in any direction for millions of miles. It was peaceful, though: kind of like returning to the womb.

I slowly drifted through the unknown space with my sword held aloft, its flaming blade like the bow of a ship. My mind also drifted. I considered the possibilities of where I was. Outer space? Purgatory? A new narrative?

I took focus on the glittering lights in the distance.  Instinct told me that was where the answers were. I pointed my sword in their direction and began to drift toward them with speed.

My drift ended when I reached their periphery. A closer look revealed they weren't stars. They were tiny, two-dimensional portals of rectangular shape that circled each other in orbit.

Their orbit suddenly shifted, morphing until I was in its center. The portals quickly began growing in size as their revolutions sped up.

Did I just sign my own death warrant?

Please enjoy the next post #5 below in the Hekonai Journal:

Post Soundtrack:

In the author’s mind: Like a lot of '80s babies, I grew up loving the film Flash Gordon and this grandfathered me into loving the music of Queen. This cue scored the journey of the rocket containing the heroes into the kingdom of Ming The Merciless and it's got a mix of electronic dreaminess and martial percussion plus a fantastic orchestral tag. Thus, it has the right pomp and circumstance for Hekonai venturing into the unknown and taking a risk to find his future.

The Hekonai's Journal is an ongoing meta-narrative. If you want to learn how it came to be, check out the introduction post by clicking here. If you want to read the journal entries from the very beginning, click here.

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