“You look distressed sir, are you alright?”

“...What are you doing here?” Says the boy, shaken by the calmness of the man in front of him.

“I work here.”

“Have you seen outside?” He says, voice cracking as he chokes back his emotions.

“Yes.”

“Then why are you here so calm?”

“Hmm. That is a good question.”

“...”

“I suppose it is my faith.”

“...”

“You see, we revere a certain person. They are unwavering in their humility, for they will ascend from mortaldom to godhood and back again. I suppose that is why I may seem quite comfortable.”

“You believe that your faith will fix all of this?”

“It is in the perspective of what is broken.”

“What the hell does that even mean?” The boy mutters underneath his breath, the man continues.

“If ‘civilization as we know it’ is supposed to end anyhow, does it make a difference if we are scared of it?”

The boy ponders his words, trying to verify for himself if this man is just crazy or is somehow above everything that is happening.

The boy decides to speak up. “So you’re not scared of what is happening?”

“Not at all, and I would venture to say you are the type of person who wouldn’t be either.”

The boy looks at the man, puzzled, but he continues before he can think it through. The man in front of him begins to smirk, seemingly suppressing an ear to ear smile with force, his facial muscles twitching.

“I would like to tell you about something, would you let me?” He continues before the boy can answer, “There is a genus of birds called the Corvus ---this being ravens, crows and the like. Most animals, take a calf for example, can adventure out through the world from birth. Corvus’, however, are born as frail creatures. They develop slowly, but once they do mature, they are among the smartest and versatile of any animal. It is quite ironic in a way. It seems as though animals that are born ready for the world are much less adaptive than a creature that must develop for the world. An interesting phenomena.”

“...?”

“I am sure you will find out what this means in due time, I would encourage you to heed the words of people such as myself, I know what I know.”

The boy, starting to get annoyed by the smugness of the man, begins to look for a way out of this conversation, the man still smiling, the boy asks, “And you are going to stay here?”

“I will stay where I am needed, yes.”

And who needs you here? The boy nearly thinks aloud but suppresses it from his lips.

Having hinted at the end of their conversation, he walks out of the building and continues down his path, as if drawn by force. What a weird guy. He thinks to himself, but never too deeply. He won’t confront it but his anxieties bred by fear have not subsided. So what was that guy saying earlier? I am the type of person who wouldn't be afraid of this? Is that some kind of joke? You would have to be insane to look at your city fall to ruin, with no explanation, and not be afraid. Never in my life have I even thought of what I would do if my home was destroyed. God knows I won’t be able to live in my apartment any longer because of this.

After walking for a while the boy stops when he comes across a strange structure. In front of him is an assortment of broken ancient looking pillars, as if taken from Mount Olympus. They are almost in an intentional placement---a vertical beam, broken and chipped that’s perhaps 10 meters tall, followed by a shorter pillar laid up against it. There is a strange contrast in the area of white debris from the pillars that have been broken off and between the various greys of the buildings underfoot.

The boy continues, walking up to the structure directly in front of him, catching sight of a person sitting underneath the structure in a lotus position, eyes closed.