"I'm impressed. Not many are able to sense my name," Eternity said.
"Thanks?" Frost hadn't expected a being like this to be… Whimsically idiotic? Being eternal probably got boring after a while though, so it was likely that his only entertainment was in acting this way.
"You've got it exactly right, dear narrator," Eternity noted. "Unfortunately, I'm something of a powerless God. My power lies with my dear children." He turned to Frost and produced a bag of popcorn. "I got one for you. It's the best popcorn in the universe… Quite literally on a molecular level."
"Is hanging out with you a requirement for my awakening?" Frost asked, finally clueing in to his surroundings. He took the popcorn begrudgingly and started quickly throwing the pieces into his mouth. Before long, he found he couldn't stop. The popcorn was perfect in every way. Perfect amount of butter, just the right amount of salt. Not tough but not too soft. Wow. He shovelled more of it into his mouth quite greedily.
"It is, actually. I can't just hand out powers without an onboarding process for some. That would be like handing a firearm to a toddler." Eternity had his own popcorn, and was viciously shoving pieces of it into his 'mouth'.
"In America they do that all of the time," Frost joked between popcorn bites.
"Stop that. You'll alienate a decent chunk of the audience… But yes." Eternity grabbed a controller from the side of his seat and pointed it at the grandiose screen. It really was quite large, larger than any movie theatre screen Frost had seen in his life. It covered his entire field of view. It was exactly the type of viewing experience a God would have.
"You talk about other Gods like you created them." Frost spoke while the screen was turning on. He suddenly found he had many questions for this seemingly friendly being of infinite knowledge. "What about Earth's God? Jesus Christ? Are they real, after all?"
"That's a can of worms I refuse to open. Eyes on the screen, kid."
Frost scoffed and turned his eyes to the screen. It went bright white and then slowly faded into vibrant colour. It was a scene he recognized, and his eyes went wide looking at it. A man held a baby in his arms, his face completely absent. It wasn't gone in the literal sense, but simply lacked detail like the qualities of an incomplete memory. There was no way Frost remembered this moment, and yet how could he not recognize it?
The man knelt down and placed the white-haired child on the doorstep of an orphanage. He placed his hands in his pockets and remained still with what Frost hoped was a look of sorrow. Somewhere in his mind he wanted to believe that so badly. He wanted to believe his father had felt that hint of love for a child, a hint of regret. These were delusions he'd carried over from his childhood days. In reality, the man turned around and walked off into the rain without as much as a look back.
"The day they abandoned me," Frost said. "Why?"
"The powers of the void are heavily based on the personality and emotions of an individual. They're only accessible to those with an extremely powerful sense of self." Eternity turned his head to Frost. "There isn't a better example of this in the whole universe than you, Frost Direshard. I simply wanted to remind you of the person you are, and of the things you fight for."
Frost watched the image of the crying baby play across his vision. "You won't reprimand me like everyone else?"
"I am all. I am you. I don't take sides. I will guide you, and I will guide your enemies." He gestured to the screen. "Life at the orphanage must have been hard for you."
Frost nodded. Never in his life had he opened up like this to someone, not since that time... The man before him was not an individual, though. This wasn't someone who could weaponize his traumas and information for later convenience. Frost opened his heart, and felt the emotions that made him himself. The scenes from the orphanage were flashing by at a quickening pace. "It was the hardest time of my life," he said. "Not entirely unlike my stay at the mines. The other boys beat me. The staff beat me. I–"
"You grew to resent your parents. Who wouldn't?" Eternity said. "But you weren't alone. There was someone, wasn't there?"
"Vera." Her name still came naturally to him, but to speak it stung his lips with venom. "She was the only one who–" He stopped. His vocal cords physically stopped moving, preventing him from recalling the memory further. "I tried so hard to forget," he managed.
"There is nothing to be gained from forgetfulness. You can't awaken if you've forgotten one of your reasons for fighting, Frost."
Frost looked up at Eternity. He saw answers in that void, just out of his reach. "I can't remember the sound of her voice anymore," he said. "I can hardly remember her face."
"You loved her," Eternity said. "I can see a web of your connections, and the one you had with her is many multitudes larger than the rest, despite the fact that she's gone. You reserve a larger spot for the dead than you do for the living. It… Isn't unusual." Even he looked sad as he said that. Do you have someone you miss, too? Frost wondered.
Frost looked at the screen and found the horrifying memories he didn't want to recall. All of the times he spent with Vera at the orphanage. There was a time when he picked on her, just like any boy did to a girl who was something like a little sister. She was only a year younger than him, though. When they were younger, sure, it was something like a sibling's relationship. Then they became teenagers.
Frost watched and remembered all of the harrowing memories in vivid detail. He remembered the first time he kissed her. He remembered their first time making love, trying desperately to keep down the noise. He remembered the way the other boys had looked at him knowingly the next day, and he'd known that his efforts were in vain. Frost had started to see hope in a future with her.
He'd been focusing so hard on keeping those promises he'd made to her that sometimes he could forget that she'd died. That was how he'd been living since it happened.
Her death happened quickly, and with little reason to it. Disease, they said. An inexplicable nature. The staff of the orphanage didn't try to help her. They said she'd get better, not even bothering to call a doctor. She was dead within three days from that time. Frost remembered holding her body. The staff had to pry her from his hands. There was a funeral, but he didn't go. He couldn't muster the strength.
Frost locked himself in the bathroom and stared into the mirror, plotting how to take revenge on a world that had wronged him. In his face he saw a weak and pathetic excuse of a man. His parents didn't want him, and the parents who came to adopt didn't want him. The staff of the orphanage thought he was a nuisance. Any of the boys he managed to befriend were adopted and vanished. Vera was the only one. A girl without an arm, and the only other one who went as long as he did without getting adopted. Now she'd left him, too.
The terrible thing about the world was that it didn't care about small time problems like this. Frost lost everything that mattered to him. He stood on the roof of the orphanage and considered throwing himself from it. The world remained indifferent. Something about that was hauntingly beautiful.
For a long time, forgetting was the only way. Forget, and continue to fight.
"You remember her, don't you?" Eternity asked.
Frost gave a forlorn smile. "Yeah."
"She loved you more than anything. On her web… You were bigger than she was."
Frost's face sank. "What?"
"You meant more to her than herself, Frost." Eternity pressed a button on his chair and it started to recline. "You made a decision to live without rules, but you've forgotten why you really made it. Do you remember now?"
"We always talked about freedom," Frost replied. "Off the grid, living together in the middle of nowhere. Nothing but each other. The freedom we'd have after university… That isn't what I want anymore."
"Isn't it?"
"What is it you mean to say? I've gone so long denying her death, but it doesn't make it any less true. Vera is dead," he struggled to speak the words. "There's no purpose to follow those petty dreams, is there?"
"Everything has a purpose."
"Did her death have a purpose?" Frost looked at Eternity with tears building in his vision. "What was the purpose of Vera's death but to rob me of my happy ending? Did I do something wrong? Do I not deserve to be happy after all of this time?"
Eternity was silent for a moment. "It's because your ending has not come yet. You have a greater cosmic purpose, and it brought you to me."
Frost's lips bobbed up and down with hesitation. "What is my ending?"
"Your ending isn't written. A story isn't complete until the words dance onto the final page. What do you want your ending to be?" Eternity reclined further, tossing popcorn in his mouth and watching the screen as images of Frost robbing people and doing unspeakable things went by.
Frost thought about that long and hard. He passed by all of the terrible thoughts and all of the things he wanted. He wanted to find his parents. He wanted everyone who had wronged him to bow down and kiss his feet. He wanted to hold the world in the palm of his hand. All of this was pure fancy, nothing but a means to an end. Eternity was right about his purpose. He'd known it in his heart since the day he talked about it with Vera. His wish to follow through on his promises was not only because of his love, but because of his own desire. In a world that constantly tried to push him down, he wished for only one thing.
The one thing Frost Direshard truly yearned for was plain to see. He'd buried it beneath a sea of greed, trying desperately to forget the memories and drown the pain. Now, he opened his mouth to speak with confidence.
"I want to be free. Free from pain. Free from everyone."
"I see–" Eternity listened nervously to this somewhat villainous rant. This was a dangerous declaration, and one that clearly had deadly undertones given Frost's history. He would no doubt kill anyone who got in his way to attain this freedom he desired. Still, it wasn't Eternity's job to judge. He'd sent heroes and villains alike on their way. However, what happened next terrified even the creator of all things.
After Frost made his declaration, Eternity was no longer able to see his future.