A short while earlier...

This isn't an actual place the way that you can plot it out on one of your goggle maps…

…Poogle maps? Or was it Googie?

Atlas. You wouldn't find this place on any atlas or globe. It isn't a place of material beings, though that doesn't make something any less real. A dream doesn't exist in the real world, the room where I once presided over power doesn't actually have a fixed spot in the limited scope of things that humans refer to as 'reality'.

This place is a Dirac sea of consciousness. The energy that makes up the collective desires and longings of the universe swirl and mix here in what one might mistake for deep space if they were to see it, though that could just be the way that I visualize it. It could appear as a vast ocean. Or it could appear as a space filled with light stretching on to infinity.

Either way I can navigate this space and retain my material form. I can find my way well enough and I know where I am going. How, you might ask? Well, quite simply put—I'm amazing.

My target resides in the deepest reaches of desire. This is her domain, though she's hardly a real she. The "she" in question is an immense amorphous shadow made of the essence of finality. We've never met in person, but it could be said that she's profoundly affected my life. Through actions brought on by this being I came to abandon my post and seek out my own answer. My master didn't protest and I have yet to hear from his master, but I know that there will always be a need for me at my post should I want to return, but the event that changed my life taught me that this was something that I had to pursue.

Once I had passed into this section of the collective unconscious it became clear that there was great power near, but now there are palpable waves of energy washing over me. This is the edge of its true influence; I sense the dread of the end of all things and the joy of change.

All things are changed by Death and though it is the Arcana that was never meant to be, it is one of the most important.

Though it's impossible she hasn't sensed me here, probably at the moment that I entered this domain of unconscious thought. She will have thought the conversation that we are about to have. She has seen this possibility.

Her current form is that of a vast mucilaginous, black, void of writhing…stuff. A form is something that is necessary for when you intend to be seen and in here nothing can see—well except me.

"Ahoy there," I call out across the expanse in what is less of an actual shout and more of a mental one, a though directed loudly at my target.

"So, you are the tiny doll made of dreams? I've felt you before, albeit from a distance. You are one of Philemon's?" Her voice is a twisted mix of male and female and a sexless, dreadful scowl. Cowl?

Growl…whatever.

"I'm merely an elevator attendant who has neglected her duties," I answer. "My brother has accompanied me, but I needed him to move past the gate that guards this place."

A face appears in the blackness, a white smiling mask with black, emotionless eyes. This face is reminiscent of the avatar that was fought atop Tartarus. It knows I know this face and Nyx's smile deepens. "The gate made of the boy who became of the Universe? I seem to remember him, though memory and time aren't so…concrete in this place."

"It's only been a handful of years, I think you're remember much more than you want to let on," I say.

"Perhaps. But it does intrigue me that you would breach the gate to come out here with the risk that Erebus could have followed you here."

"Why do you think I needed my brother? He could hold that thing or destroy it if need be. Sure, he lacks my penchant for bloodshed, but he isn't one to be underestimated. Though we need Erebus alive. I hope he remembers that."

Nyx considers this for a moment, her face twisting slightly. "This intrigues me more. For what purpose?"

So she hasn't foreseen this? "A crass sibling of yours and my Master's master, Yaldabaot, has taken it upon himself to play a cruel game against the world with a stacked deck. Where you seek to bring about their desired end, he seeks to see them fall under his control and become hopeless puppets."

"Yaldabaot," Nyx says. "Yaldabaot has always lacked a certain respect for what we are and he has been forever in the shadow of those who could more easily gain their power through the desire of people. Sagari and Philemon and I are more…worried about the order of things."

"You play fair," I say.

"But in the past Nyarlathotep has overstepped the bounds expected by us and even broken contracts with Philemon. And you are interfering with the very world that you are sworn not to, are you not?" Asks Nyx.

"Yaldabaot has taken Igor and my sister hostage and he wields powers to grant the Wild Card, which means that to some degree he has ensnared Philemon too. If he is to gain further power he could come for you or Sagari or the others. I left my position for personal reasons, but even were I there I would not be able to turn a blind eye to this level of transgression."

Nyx smiles. "You attempt to talk me into an alliance with you, this is clear to me from the moment that you crossed the gate. I sense the desire inside you and there would be much of you to convince me if this were even to be considered as a possibility…"

"You think that the god of control wouldn't want to control the other gods? Then you are stupider than I had first thought," I say.

"Shit," Nxy catches me off guard with that.

"I know, drink it in. Elizabeth is right again."

Nyx sighs. "Though that may be, I cannot lend my strength to any cause, allow me to test your resolve so that I may know your worth." Nyx begins to glow through the darkness of the gelatinous blob and from that light emerges the form of the Avatar.

"Then so be it, your fate is in the cards…" my thick leather bound compendium appears at my side opening to that page with my Persona of choice, the only on that it could be, Thanatos. I open one gloved hand letting the Arcana cards of my tarot deck swirls out from my palm.

"The moment man devoured the fruit of knowledge, he sealed his fate…entrusting his future to the cards, the same way you do, he clings to hope. For your sake let us make sure that hope is not misplaced…"