The address on the business card was that of a massive hotel that looked like it charged more per night than a month of rent in his old apartment. The doorman looked at him as he approached.
Andrew swallowed, holding up the business card.
The doorman immediately smiled, "You're Andrew Foster?"
Andrew eventually nodded.
"Great. I'll bring you to Nat." He opened the door and Andrew slowly followed him inside. The doorman smacked a woman in a matching uniform who was sitting in a chair by the door. "Your turn to watch the door."
The woman rolled her eyes, but she stood up and walked outside.
The inside of the hotel looked just as, if not more, fancy than the outside. The doorman led him to an elevator and they stepped inside. The doorman didn't touched any of the buttons. There were none to push, only smooth metal where they should have been, but that didn't stop the elevator from going up.
The man was humming along happily with the elevator music, and Andrew drummed his fingers against his leg nervously, looking at the carpet floor.
The floor dinged as it opened, and they stepped out into a penthouse that looked even more expensive than the rest of the hotel. A tall, slender woman lounged in a chair, smoking from a pipe that seemed to be made of black crystal. Nathaniel was standing beside her. The two were chatting softly, but they looked up when Andrew and the doorman came in.
Nathaniel beamed, "Andrew! Knox!" He walked towards them, leading Andrew further into the room.
The doorman, Knox, waved as he went back to the elevator. "Good luck."
Nathaniel gestured to a chair in front of the woman. "Please, sit."
Andrew sat on the edge of the chair slowly. The woman watched him, blowing up a thin cloud of blue-green smoke. She looked at Nathaniel with a small dip of her head and Nathaniel left the room.
The woman looked at Andrew. Her eyes were like ice in both color and intensity. They were made all the brighter by her skin, which was darker than anything Andrew had seen. She let out another puff of smoke that trailed upwards before fading away. "Andrew Foster."
Andrew swallowed, nodding minimally, "Yes?"
The woman tilted her head, "You've lost everything. Those who should have been there have all but forgotten you. You're completely alone."
"...I mean, that's a harsh way to put it... but, yeah."
The woman stood up, "Do you believe in gods, Andrew?"
"...Not really, no."
The woman smiled, "Good. They don't deserve worship." Her black pipe vanishing like smoke. She walked towards the window, "Come. Look."
Andrew slowly stood back up and walked up to stand next to her, looking out the window to the bustling city below.
"What do you see, Andrew?"
"I... I see people. Going about their normal lives. Why?"
"They are all suffering. Every single person has suffered. It's inevitable. Life is suffering."
"...I guess."
"There's a place where we can change that. A world where it isn't too late to save them."
"...Another world?"
The woman nodded curtly.
"Are you talking about space travel? Going to another planet?"
"No."
"Oh...okay."
"The place I speak of is in another universe entirely. One separate from this one. A younger universe, of my brother's creation."
"...Your brother?"
The woman smiled thinly, "Yes. We were born to create worlds and create the mortals that inhabit them. I believe we are meant to be kind to our creation. To care for it."
"...And your brother doesn't?"
"My brother enjoys watching the people he created suffer. He sits and watches as families are torn apart and innocent people die. He thrives as he crushes their hope for a better future like an ant under his heel."
"...So you want to take his world from him?"
"I can do no such thing. My brother banished me eons ago."
"...Then what are you going to do?"
"I cannot enter, but my proxies can. I need someone to speak through on the other side. Someone to give instructions through."
"...And you want that to be me?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"Because you were forsaken. Forgotten." The woman looked at him, "You understand how it feels to lose everything when you've done nothing wrong."
"...If all of this is true, how would I and your..."
"Proxies."
"How would I and your proxies stop your brother? He's a god, isn't he?"
"Yes."
"And we're mortal."
"You are mortal. All my proxies are immortal. And you can be, too."
"...I'm not sure if I want to live forever."
"Then eternal youth. Nathaniel was given eternal youth when he became a proxy."
"...What's the difference?"
"If you are immortal, you cannot die. With eternal youth, death is still a possibility."
"And what would I need to do for you?"
"Allow me to use you as a vessel to give direction to my proxies."
"And that's it?"
The woman nodded, "I will see to it that you live comfortably while you are in Eden. After we are done I will even bring you back here if you so wish."
"Eden, your brother's world?"
"The very one."
Andrew was quiet for a long moment, "How do I know you aren't just pulling my leg?"
The woman smiled, "What do you want me to show you? Anything you'd like."
Andrew was quiet for a moment, looking around. He eventually shrugged, "I don't know, make it snow or something."
"Snow? In the middle of the summer?"
"...Yeah." Andrew leaned against the window crossing his arms. "I want it to snow."
"Then snow you shall have." The glass suddenly grew cold and clouds swarmed in the sky. Andrew took a step away from the window, staring at the sky as white flakes began to drift towards the ground.
When he looked at the woman she was smiling. She gazed out the window, head tilted up towards the sky. Without moving her head, she looked at him. "Do you still believe I'm pulling your leg?"
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