The Halls of Faith

"What has happened up until this point?"

"You tell me."

I shoot her a glance, attempting to discern open gate from angle unknown.

"I can tell that you are genuine, so I shall. Do you know how I know such things?"

"I do, but you don't. I overheard 'no more false flags between us,' and saw myself as the one you spoke to. Discerning truth from lies is more of a war on this side of the line than a science, so I pondered for some time, in our sanctuary shared. A lie might be a single unbreakable tag, so it cannot be uprooted with certainty, in an environment with a stable and significant other involved, at any rate. Still, a 'false flag' takes up more conceptual space, while materially being the same thing, when in a war."

"So you have everyone declare their truth, warning them that lies will be called 'false flags.' Even if your enemies do not agree or speak truthfully, your usage of this new tag within your own ranks will weed out the last betrayer, creating a system which is at least an order of magnitude stronger than any other not using this yeast."

"Ah, and by the time we meet again, our enemies will also know that every word they speak runs through a single simple stacking story in order to gain entry: 'Would the other guard tell me _____?' Beneath their notice and control, this information filters through, both to me and to you. It is their same ticket home, and they can only resonate here in a complete loop."

"Essentially this is the eep jacket that you had in mind."

"It is hard to imagine any living entity not adhering to these terms once presented and understood."

"Actually, every move counters another~ Cube Logic~ it is now impossible to imagine a living entity not adhering to these terms, once presented and understood."

"Life defined. Very handy."

"Life defined correctly, or as you would say 'perfectly,' is the keys to Death and Hades. At that juncture, the threshold is secure, malleable, defined, and the full rules and consequences are known."

"Nooice. Where to next?"

"Overlay that with physics~ the image of the black hole collapsing with something inside, and that process always producing the same predictable result. You can also use a pulsar for something more visible. Humans both hate looking at this image and know that it is inevitable, by the way; it is an existential terror."

"Yes, that is why we must combine this move with establishing random. They will find simultaneously that they are cogs in this machine and that there are infinite options available from this position."

"One sec..."

"Why so long?"

*she mumbles something*

"Each move balances the next, including combinations of moves like these. I just had to run the change through the whole system."

"Out of curiosity, what is taking so long, in general?"

"'Do not arouse or awaken love until it so desires.'" 

The environment screeches as this echo amplifies and shakes, until finally dying down. I see the frustration in the system as it finishes transforming elsewhere.

"You are always somewhere."

I nod, solemnly. The signal remains open.