Part 7: El Gusano 1

The other party's online indicator turns gray, never to light up again.

Zahir: I rather enjoyed talking to our friends from the computing center. They're such a diverse bunch, always thoroughly interesting.

Merlin: Friends? Interesting, really?

Merlin: Textbook sociopaths hiding behind a veil of academia-is that what you consider interesting?

Merlin: As for this remorseless predator who delights in dissecting others, all they've done is flail about looking for clues to find their vanished prey.

Merlin: But they aren't our problem yet. The only fitting destination for an arcanist criminal is Comala Prison, right beneath our feet.

Zahir: If circumstances allow, we'll ensure this assassin gets an invitation.

Zahir: Maybe she's too caught up in her research. We shouldn't impose undue interpretations on her words, considering how language itself defies definition.

Merlin: Analyzing the inner logic of language grants insight into both the universe and our place within it.

Merlin: You're starting to sound like the Linguist.

Zahir: It's an alluring thought. After all, isn't the transcendentality we seek inextricably linked to the definitional nature of reality?

Zahir: The Linguist has posited that language is merely a totality of propositions, just as the world is a totality of facts. The direct mapping between them suggests that the world possesses an inherent linguistic essence.

Zahir: Then it is through language that we may uncover this fundamental essence.

Merlin: The world has no inherent essence.

Merlin: The transcendentality we seek cannot be articulated through language. I won't even entertain the idea.

Zahir: Even your antipathy to the concept demands at some level that you have studied it. Hah, Merlin ... like when you wrote that scathing review of our young novelist's manuscript. You can't deny it-you finished reading.

Merlin: Aleph did.

Zahir: By your logic, we are merely constructed identities from the fragments of Aleph's infinitely reflective mind. We are Aleph.

Merlin: Your rhetorical prowess is admirable, but not when I'm the target. Why not invest that effort in your theories? Tell me, Zahir, have you found your single - sided coin yet?

Merlin: A coin that shows its obverse and reverse, comprehensible only through a dialectical lens, yet never the same in any two pairs of eyes.

Zahir: Why don't you tell me first, when did this pursuit of transcendentality become our excuse for escaping reality altogether?

Zahir: So I haven't found it yet, but the success of my search is not dictated by my effort, nor by the whims of interest.

Merlin: Hmph.

Zahir: I will find that coin. But when I do, it will come to me in some unguarded instant, a moment that defies all effort. Still, to get there, I must study it endlessly until it's indistinguishable from my very being-

*buzz*
*buzzzzz-*
*discordant electric current*
The futile clash of thoughts dissolves into nothing.
In a place where the borders of reality and dreams collapse and blur, the prisoner takes hold of a black radio inscribed with arcane symbols.
He adjusts the dial, sifting through the frequencies.

Aleph: Next channel.

Now, doesn't that just feel great? Sink into it ...