When his next planned trip out to the Arsinoean asteroid finally came he packed a back for himself and a small one for Sumi. He decided that this time it would be good to bring the kitten rather than leaving him at home to get in trouble. While he was exploring the Watchtower Sumi would be able to go through his notes and explore a bit on his own. Sumi had mentioned one evening when he’d been talking to the kitten that he had vague memories of the asteroid so if Sumi had been out there before he wanted to let the cat see it again.

The two bags and kitten in hand he headed back to the asteroid, landing in his camp and setting Sumi down. He explained carefully where it was safe to explore and where it wasn’t and asked Sumi to come get him if he wasn’t back in a day. There was a little battery operated clock so Sumi would be able to tell the time and hopefully would remember.

The kitten had been doing better and for once he was going to trust him to go explore and do things on his own and not worry.

He had his own things to worry about anyway.

He tucked their bags away and instead of taking one of his usual lanterns decided to rely on his own this time. He knew the way to the hallway he’d been exploring and didn’t figure he’d get lost since it had been a mostly straight hall.

When he entered the door it was exactly like he’d left it. The whole library mostly rubble with the hall past the guarded door mostly in tact. Once he felt it thud shut behind him he took a deep breath to calm himself a bit.

Lantern in hand he opened his eyes slowly and started down the hall. As he moved he noticed something else slightly odd. There seemed to be a ghostly form of something, or someone, else overlayed on his body. He looked down toward his feet for a moment and realized that whatever it was lined up with him perfectly.

It’s me

Whatever it was he was seeing had to be his self from the past talking the same walk down the hall. He had done this before. Knowing that his past self had decided that this was what he wanted helped him relax a bit. This wasn’t really something new. This was something he did, part of who he was. He closed his eyes for another second and tried to feel something of how he had in the past. It didn’t work, unless he was feeling the same thing he’d felt then, and he let out a sigh as he paused in front of the second decorated door.

Behind the door was the way up to the Watchtower and whatever that held.

Putting his hand on the door he pushed gently and the door, surprisingly, swung open easily. The vision of himself flickered for a moment as he stared up at the stairs that disappeared up and around the tower. He hadn’t seen the tower from outside which probably meant it wasn’t all that tall but it wasn’t really the distance that had him pausing.

“You know this is what you need to do Lucien. Once step closer to the past.” His voice echoed slightly in the empty hall and he almost expected to hear the old Masters voice again as he spoke.

When no one else answered he shook his head and made himself start up the stairs.

His lantern did a good job of lighting the way as the stairs wound their way up and eventually opened up into a small observatory. He’d been expecting some sort of chamber. He hadn’t expected to be surrounded by half broken glass. The observatory was beautiful and looking around he could almost see the entire city stretched out under him. The glass dome that encased the platform also meant he had a completely unobstructed view of the sky and with Arsinoe perpetual twilight/night cycle he could see the stars twinkling above him.

He set down his lantern on a small bench and carefully picked up the glass shards, setting them aside so he wouldn’t hurt himself. Once he had the space cleared off he sat down on the smooth stone in front of the bench. He was probably supposed to sit on it but that wasn’t how he usually mediated. After a moment he picked up the lantern and tucked it under the bench not wanting the light from the small fire to bother him.

Closing his eyes he took a few deep breaths before he started to time his inhales and exhales to make them both even. Opening his eyes again he looked up toward the stars and let his mind go. From up in the tower, above all the buildings, and sitting on the stone all the could see were the stars no matter where he looked. It was like being lost in a abyss, the sort he always wanted to be in when he was meditating.

Smiling softly he reached out with his power, letting it go as it wished and mingling with the soft ‘hum’ of power he always felt from the asteroid. It was the same power he found when he wanted to come back to the asteroid and like this it was almost like he could feel it actually feeding back at him. There was an ebb and flow, his own power pumping into the asteroid along with his heart beat and the asteroid giving it back between beats. He lost himself in the sway of the energy and the view of the stars.

Everyone always said you needed to be one with yourself and one with the universe when he’d meditated in a group but nothing had ever felt like this.

This felt right, like home and family and a perfect calm.

He stopped being able to feel himself, no longer felt the floor under him, and for a time seemed to be able to feel the entire asteroid. The pain that was still fresh from the destruction that had been leveled across the asteroid’s surface bubbled up at first but the longer he sat the calmer it became.

Arsinoe had no idea how long he’d been up in the tower, no idea how long he’d lost himself but eventually he came back to himself. Frowning he looked around, knowing he’d heard a voice but not being able to remember what it had said or what it had wanted.

Groaning he pulled himself up and fell onto the bench as his legs complained about being in the same position for far too long. He pulled out the lantern and looked around. It had to have been hours. When he’d sat down it had been twilight but now night had fully settled over the city.

Prodding at his legs he wanted until the tingling stopped before standing. Something felt different but he couldn’t quite tell what just yet. He still felt the calm from his meditation so that was probably what was stopping him from being able to focus on what was off. “I’ll deal with it later. I should check on Sumi.”

Carefully making his way back down the tower he silently thanked whatever force it was that gave him his powers that he’d been allowed to feel the Vigil properly, or what he thought was properly, and pushed open the door back out into the main rotunda of the library.