John

And then we’re back outside, and we pan up, and up, and up. Past the sky, past space, beyond the boundaries of the Prime Material Plane in which this story takes place. And we see more planes now, the Astral Plane, the Plane of Thought, the Elemental Planes, all of them, all twelve planes that make up our planar system, moving in perfect orbit, perfect synchronicity, sustaining each other in a meticulous, demanding dance.

And then, we pan ų̷̡̢̱̻̼̹̥͕͔̠͓̝̜͎̽p̴̤͔̖͓͒͆͐̀̐̍̈̍̓̕͝. And we see a thirteenth plane descending. It is a disk of shimmering, living darkness, crossed with ribbons of blue, red, green, gold, it is larger than the other planes combined. And as it lowers slowly, bright white eyes begin to open all across the underside of this plane. Millions of them, burning with malice and… Hunger. All focused inward and down, back down, all the way back down to the floating headquarters of the Bureau of Balance.

And somewhere inside of that living plane, we see a smile flash across someone’s face.