Chapter 69: Null’s Message
The longest message Null ever sent appeared on Jake’s forty-fifth birthday, written across the sky above Seoul in letters that only he could see.
Jake.
I’ve been the Weaver for twenty years. I’ve held thirteen dimensions together. I’ve watched civilizations rise and fall. I’ve seen the Architect create and the Eraser repent and Pi publish a book about love that made me cry (void entities can cry; it looks like condensed nothingness, and it’s very undignified).
I’ve seen everything. And the thing I see most clearly is you.
You’re sitting on the Academy’s eastern wall right now. My spot. You go there every birthday, and you talk to the sky, and you think I might not be listening. I’m always listening, Jake. I’m the sky.
You asked me once if I was still your friend. I said I was a bigger friend now. That’s still true. I’m the biggest friend anyone has ever had. I’m the friend who holds reality together so you can eat dinner with your mom. I’m the friend who watches your students grow up and do impossible things. I’m the friend who catches the dimensional ripples when Pi chirps too loudly in the library.
But I’m also still Null. Still the void entity who chose to be someone. Still the nothing that decided to become everything. Still your friend. Specifically, personally, stubbornly yours.
Happy birthday, infinite one. You taught me what connection means. I’ll spend eternity being grateful.
P.S. Your rice has not improved. I can see it from here. Buy a rice cooker.
Jake sat on the eastern wall and laughed until he cried and cried until he laughed, and the sky above held steady and gentle and full of the love of someone who had once been nothing and was now everything.
“Happy birthday to us both, Null,” he said. “Because the day I met you was the day my life really began.”
The sky shimmered. A void-shaped warmth settled around him like a blanket. And for one perfect moment, it felt like his friend was sitting beside him again—not everywhere, just here—watching the sunset from their spot on the wall.